Long weekend, no post!

I had a crazy busy weekend (3 masses, a recital, and a trip to Cincinnati) and no time to post.  I did get a little knitting done though!

This is a terrible picture of Britannia.    I didn’t add waist shaping because I wanted it to be a bit loose… I hope that’s a good decision!  I did block the back, and I’m happy to report that the ribbing blocked out just fine.  Today I also sat down and reworked part of my Rusted Root sweater, and I’m happy to report that it is now wearable, only 9 months after I originally knit the sweater.  I redid the bind-off and did a better job of weaving in all my ends.  I still wish it were smaller, but it’s now something I can wear in public!  This blurry picture is all you get.  I totally lack that whole “taking pictures of yourself” talent that some people seem to have.

Onto my pattern obsessions of the week.  Have I mentioned that I love vintage patterns?  Because I do… I totally adore them.  I especially love the patterns of the 40s and 50s.  I can’t say that I’ve actually made any, but I have big plans!  I have some vintage pattern books from that era (and it’s possible that I just bought a whole boatload more… I will take photos when they arrive!) but I can’t seem to find them (we have a storage problem, which I have attempted to solve by using the closets all the way up to their 12 foot height… not so great for finding things.)  I did find these on a bookshelf though.

The book on the left is from the 60s, the others are from the eighties.  And yes, that rabbit sweater includes little pompom tails on the back.  I want to make this pattern, from the book on the left.

Well, I want to make the earwarmers on the left of that picture.  I’m a sucker for embroidery on knitting.   The mittens are cute, but I don’t wear mittens.  Would people look at me funny?  Ah, I don’t care… they do anyway. 90% of my wardrobe comes from thrift/vintage stores, so I’m always wearing clothes of varying eras.
And would you all judge me if I want to make a 1980s sweater?

But I look good in drop waists – and the 80s are back, right?  And they still make the yarn it calls for!  This is easily the most restrained sweater in any of the books.  I would take pictures, but really… making fun of tacky 80s sweaters is just too easy.   I will, however, make fun of the baby photos from the 60s book.   Scattered throughout the book are pictures of babies being utterly not cute with captions above them saying things like “Not another gauge swatch!” Like this one…

And now some links.  Since the copyright is expired on many vintage patterns, you can sometimes find them reproduced on the web.

There are a few cute cardigan patterns here.

There are quite a few pattens here.  I want to make this bolero very badly!

There are a few patterns from the 60s here.

And some great 1940s patterns here, including some WWII era.

There’s a good chart here to give you some idea about the yardage of discontinued yarns.  I’m finding it very helpful in planning the bolero pattern above!

And don’t miss the vintage kal!

So there you have my pattern obsession of the week.  Will I actually attempt one?  Probably… I have a whole lot of excess fingering/dk weight yarns lying about.