Fabulous Day At The Booksale

I went to the fundraiser booksale this last Friday, and I hit the jackpot for retro knitting and crochet books. They had a bin full of them in the main sales area, and then, when I went to the back room they use for better books, I spotted a magazine holder full of them stuffed sideways into an empty shelf on a book cart in the corner. I fished it out and asked the saleslady if it was sold as one item or many, and she told me that if I would just take it, I could have them all for free!! Most were old crochet pamphlets, one dating to 1917, but there were some knitting gems in there too. The condition was not the best, but I take them home and clean them up and iron them out, and presto, they are great. My daughter was impressed with my booklet score and said that I can spot a hidden knitting booklet from half a mile away. The picture only shows the few I have cleaned up, and there is a big stack of them waiting off camera.

In honor of this wonderful find, the booklet I'm going to show today is a full-color Star booklet from 1951. The ladies on the cover look so elegant with their hairpin lace stoles, and although the hairpin lace is rather plain in these designs, it does give the stole a fluffy, feminine appeal.
The introduction says that stoles and shawls are 'comfortable wool fashion accessories to wear to the movies, church suppers, Grange meetings, the theater, and the senior prom.' The stole on the left below is crocheted of sock yarn in straight panels of hairpin lace. The right side shows a crocheted stole in knitting worsted. 'Nob Hill' and 'Park Avenue' shown below are knitted stoles. I would never have thought of wearing a stole with a daytime suit, but the model looks very nice. Her stole is knit in a feather and fan stitch in rows of Buttercup, Sand, and Wood Brown. The stole she is holding is knit entirely in garter stitch in rows of Jockey Green, National Blue, Scarlet, White, and Maize and is finished up with a row of sc all around the edge.

The lacy white stole is crocheted of crochet cotton in the knot stitch. Not much warmth to be had there (the model looks cold), but it certainly is very pretty. The shrug is knit as a rectangle for about 51 inches in sport yarn, then changes to ribbing after a decrease row. The ends are then seamed up for about 6 inches and the ribbed collar/edge is picked up and knit around, I guess, but the instructions forgot to put in the part about the collar.
The yellow stole below is knit in baby yarn in blackberry stitch, and the red stole is crocheted in knitting worsted. The yellow stole is about 64 inches long.
I love this next photo. Look at the fabulous dress the model is wearing with a skirt that took yards and yards and yards of fabric. The shawl is called 'La Louisian' and is crocheted in 'crimp-set nylon' which seems to have been a sport weight.

Today I am going to finish up another husband sock and start the next one.