There is a circle of elastic to hold the "book" closed along with velcro on the flap and at the lower righthand corner. The flap is to keep the sock needles from falling out. The case opens up to show two rows of pockets on the right, and a knitted surface on the left that used to be a gauge swatch to keep the yarn needles, safety pins for row counting, cable needles and a few pins stuck through the knitting.
You can see how much I have improved over the prototype that I made for myself:
Right now I am trying to finish up the husband socks that didn't make the finish line for Christmas. My younger daughter was wearing a really cute sweater this week so she let me take it and take the measurements off of it to reproduce at a later date, so I need to write up a pattern for that. A whole new year of knitting is about to start!
This magazine sometimes had up to four or five fashions on a single page, and it is not a large magazine. The first photo below shows two pullovers and a cardigan. The cardigan is knit of a fuzzy yarn with the yarn held double so that the gauge is about 4 1/2 sts/inch. It is a classic man's collared cardigan with cable trim up the fronts and at the raglan seams. The bulky weight boat-neck pullover is knit in turquoise for the background color and 'oxford' (maybe a dark grey?) for the contrast color. It has dropped sleeves and is knit at 3 sts/inch. The 3/4-length sleeve pullover is knit of knitting worsted at 4 sts/inch. It has a ribbed yoke and sleeves and a cabled body.
The cardigan on the left in the next picture below is a raglan-sleeved crocheted cardigan. The texture pattern is created by crocheting one row of sc and the next row of slip stitch. The sweater is made from the top down. The sweater on the right, a roll-collar pullover in knitting-worsted-weight yarn, was a style considered to be popular for college girls and campus life. The argyle plaid pullover has kimono sleeves and a boat neck and is knit in stockinette stitch.
I walked around a bit, investigating several antique shops, then I went into the (free!) natural history museum. While there, I went into the museum shop and bought small gifts for the girls and began a conversation with the nice lady behind the counter. She told me that this is the time of year that the monarchs come back to the area. Somehow I always thought that would be in the spring, not at Christmastime. She told me where the butterfly sanctuary was so I decided to try to find it. I promptly got lost, well, as lost as you can get in a small town, and turned in at the municipal golf course. I asked the cute guy at the golf shop where the butterfly sanctuary was, and he gave me excellent directions. I had only overdriven by about two blocks. I found the location and parked next to the adult school. Monarchs were flying around over my head and hovering over the ivy wall.
My goodness, what a beautiful day it was. It is a little sad that butterflies are so hard to photograph unless you are a professional like these two guys with the biggest cameras I have ever seen (not only as big as their head, but as big as their head and an arm too). The following picture shows a flock of butterflies feeding on the grass.
The first sweater is a jacket trimmed with wide ribbon. The ribbon is threaded through gaps in the knitting and trims the sleeves and neckline. The gaps are formed by tying on new balls of yarn for every separate section of knitting, then joining all the sections together. All of these sweaters are made with the yarn called 'Firenze' which knit up at about 3 sts/inch.
The suit has a short jacket and a straight skirt. The sleeves of the jacket are cast onto the body, and all the edges are finished with knitted facings. The jacket closes with applied leather tabs.
This is a nice classic little jacket with cable-trimmed front edges and 3/4 set-in sleeves. It looks great over a sheath dress. The pattern is written in four sizes, from 12 to 18. The size 18 was for a body bust measurement of around 39 inches.
Boy, this pullover has Super Texture - a ridged pattern in the bulky yarn. You would really have to be slim to escape the weight-adding properties of this sporty sweater.
My husband is reporting to me that he loves the Woolease socks that he got for Christmas last year. It hasn't been cold enough to wear them before this fall. He says they are very warm and comfortable and are wearing well so far.
