Retro Knit Friday!

At last I have finished the lace portion of the body of the February Lady Sweater and am knitting the border. Hallelujah! The sleeves should be a breeze after the endless drudgery of the body. Should be a cute sweater for M when at last it is finished. I did make two more hats for the mission, bringing my total to a respectable dozen.


Today we are finishing up the 1940 BearBrand/Bucilla booklet. The first photo shows the back cover with an ad for Lux soap. Almost all sweaters were wool back then, so almost every soap ad had instructions on washing and blocking wool garments.

This cute little blouse/cardigan is made from a fine angora yarn at 8 1/2 sts/inch on size 2 needles. It has over a dozen buttons down the front. I can't quite make out the pattern on the front band and the collar, but it looks like it could be embossed leaves. The rest of the sweater is in garter stitch.

There seemed to be different sorts of dress categories back in the day, and this is an 'afternoon' dress. There were house dresses, cocktail dresses, formal dresses, evening dresses, etc. I guess an afternoon dress was for dressing up to go to town or a luncheon but not as formal as say, a cocktail dress. This is a one-piece dress with patterned bodice and sleeves, though the yoke and sleeve tops are plain. The skirt has pleats. The dress is knit of Angel Crepe dress yarn at 8 1/2 sts/inch.

'Sportster' is not only supposed to be worn for all outdoors, as the description says, but it is also knit of sport yarn at 7 sts/inch. It is another shorter, waist-hugging cardigan, but this one has fairisle bands on the pockets, sleeves, and collar band.



This dress in a crepe yarn is supposed to be for the career girl. The picture is so dark that I can't really see the design features of the dress except for the front pockets on the skirt and the peter pan collar edged in velvet ribbon.

This little pullover was meant to be worn under the plaid jacket we showed before. It has a high neckline and four faux pockets.

I hear that the fire season is going strong down south, but we have already burned up most of Northern California, so perhaps we will be spared this fall. We are having lovely warm weather though.