Photo Heavy Catch-Up!

Like to Win Stuff?***
Scroll down to the gorgeous blue yarn to find out details of a little contest I'm having! You could win!

***And if you've already entered the contest but I don't have your email addy, how can I contact you to tell you you've won?? How about emailing me offline to let me know, and then you can remain a bit more anonymous! My email contact is: keramoso@yahoo.com

The end of summer finds me back at meetings, getting ready to start a new school year, mourning a bit the end of luxurious stretches of free time, looking forward to the return to routine. But first, a summation, and a reminder to self of all the knitting that I will enjoy in the near future.

WIPs (or soon to be WIPs)
From the left, I'm working on a child's hat done in stockinette and doubled over, sewn so it's two layers, and quite warm and soft. It's about 2/3 knitted and is mindless repetition for times when that's what I need. The yarn is fuzzy though, so I can't knit it in any place that's warm. Next, the three skeins of grays I'm going to use for the bobble scarf. In the green and brown bag, my white mulberry silk, in a tank I started that I have set aside for a bit. Peeking out of the Pottery Barn bag is the ruffled edge of a scarf I started, hoping to finish up some Homespun I had. Never want to knit with that again! Then the two cones of Habu, one maroon, one navy, for the kushu scarf. Last, the double-knit slipper I started last week. I also have that brick red scarf I'm doing for the Orphan project that I've shown you enough pictures of!

New Obsession: Vintage Books on Knitting
Because of some threads on knitting novices and the knitlist, I have gotten on an antiques kick this summer, finding vintage knitting manuals and historical books online through eBay and other sources. While some of it is just the cool factor of having something I can read and through it imagine life in another era, I also think some of the patterns are ones I might use, particularly for vintage-minded* people I know and love. This one is from 1948.


Not this dress, though, no worries!
*by vintage-minded, I do not mean senile!!



















Here is a booklet from 1934. This was apparently like Lion Brand at the time--one of the biggies. It has all sorts of patterns in it, most of which make perfect sense to me!



These two booklets hail from 1944 and 1951 respectively, and have wonderful patterns in them.





























This is my especial favorite, Knitting and Sewing by Maud Churchill Nicoll. It's from 1918, as WWI was ending, and had all sorts of patterns for making soldiers warm clothing. That is what the one above was as well, just for WWII, but this one, with its great drawings and photographs. For the worst winter conditions, soldiers needed clothing like doddies, knee caps, trench stockings, puttee stockings, all sorts of things I think sound familiar, and which I should know, but don't. And for gunnery soldiers--wow. There are the fingerless gloves, the rifle mittens (no index finger or thumb), the thumb-less half-mittens, the hand protectors. And it turns out that doddies are those fingerless gloves with a mitten top one can pull down over the fingertips when needed.

I also find myself thinking about every second page, "Yeah, war is hell."

I am certain I'll make some of the men's caps in this book, and I'm thrilled I found it. It is in fabulous condition too, so I feel very smug.

Recent Acquisitions--Stash
















A handspun skein of delicious scarf-worthy yarn from YoYo Knits (on etsy). It's made of wool, alpaca, tencel, angora, and mohair. I also got four skeins of that cotton Berroco "Love It" from the destash blog to use for baby things. I am going to try the baby kimono in this next, since the yarn is the right weight for the pattern.

Now for the latest yarn acquisition and THE CONTEST

Back story: Here is enough Green Mountain Spinnery yarn to make someone a sweater. It will not be a next-to-the-skin type sweater, but it will rock!! The blue is what they call Yarn Over, and is supposed to get softer with each wash. The off-white is their Mountain Mohair, the same type out of which my MIL made my DD2 a sweater for her graduation gift, a sweater that is to die for. [Most certainly not to die FROM (at least not from hypothermia!) because it will keep her tres tres warm.] That girl had better keep a close eye on her closet when I'm there next week. ;^)

Contest: Now as for MY Green Mountain yarn, I need a woman's sweater pattern that is of about medium difficulty (Knitty would say "tangy"), and it could be top-down or seamed, either way I don't care. Not a cardigan, but any type of pullover would be in contention. I guess I'm thinking of the cream yarn as a contrast edge or stripe.

If you have a suggestion and you leave me a comment on this entry, with a link to a pattern or a reference to a specific book's pattern that I can easily find at the bookstore, I will put your email addy in the hopper, and on September 5, I will draw out a name for someone to win a PRIZE! Your pattern suggestion the one I choose? YOU win TOO!

Recent Acquisitions--Gew-Gaws and Tchotchkes (but better!)

I have found my knitting related paraphernalia mostly on cafepress.com. In the US, that's the best way, and these are artists and crafters who use cafepress to get their stuff out there. For example, these many buttons came from various sites. Couple bucks apiece, max.


Then there is this stationery (I don't think "exquisite" is too strong a word for it--great watercolor work always gets me) that I first found through Jejune's blog, but which, if you're in the US, is more easily purchased from her cafepress site. She has SIX images in this series (and another on the way), with different types of warming drinks and different types of knitting lying to the side just waiting to be picked up and worked on some more. I esp. like the cutwork lace tablecloth on this one with the coffee. Below is a blank book (sketching ideas? writing important info? keeping a "To-Do" list?) on the cover of which her designs can also be reproduced.

And, drumroll please, here is the last acquisition of Summer 2007


Got it from KnitPicks, and as a knitting bag, it is ideal! Not a huge suitcase of a messenger bag, not clunky. It has three zipper compartments, other zippers on interior sides etc., and a clear pouch for supplies. I am already in love with it.

If you read to this point, you should win a prize regardless, because this has been one flipping long blog entry!!

Now what sweater should I go for???????????????