Field Trip

The husband was going to be away all day today at a work-related function, so I decided to go to San Jose to visit Kinokuniya. M wanted to go, too, so we looked up the addresses of several yarn shops to visit while we were in the area. I have mentioned Kinokuniya several times but thought it would be nice to show what it actually looks like inside. The store is on Saratoga Avenue right off the freeway and is next to the Mitsuwa Marketplace (also an interesting stop). The store is bright, cheerful, and clean, and has those wonderful Japanese publications and also lovely gift items and stationery items. If you are lucky, like we were today, the store will be full of families with beautiful and chattering babies and toddlers to admire. My Japanese is very minimal, so I am forced to pull out all the volumes to see what they are, but that is part of the fun.

Here is a picture of the magazines in the craft section. There are magazines on knitting, crochet, sewing, beading, toymaking, and lots more.











After we made our purchases, we went to Commuknity on the Alameda where M bought some yarn and I did not, and then on to yarndogs in Los Gatos, where M bought some yarn and I did not. I did, however, find two old vintage knitting pamphlets in a bin by the front door. The sign on the bin said that you could pay whatever you wanted for the items (there were balls of yarn and lots of magazines) and put the money in a jar on the counter to be donated to some cause.
Now it is back to the February Lady Sweater and its very slowly growing sleeves.

Design in Progress

The sleeve of the February Lady Sweater seems to grow ever so slowly. I was hoping that it would just speed along, but I guess I haven't been knitting on it very diligently. I have been thinking about the next knitting machine project using the completed blue ribbings. I need to decide on a panel to go up the fronts of the cardigan and I decided to pick something out of the beautiful Japanese book.

Here are some of my preliminary choices:

I love this leafy almost cable-like design.

This one is peculiar and a little spooky with the almost face peering out of the diamond.

This one is different and pretty.

I am going to try something I haven't done on a cardigan before, though I did use this technique on the grey pullover with the viking design cable up the front. I can knit the sweater pieces but leave the stitches for the panel on a holder, then go back and knit the panel up by hand. This is a fun technique because all the boring stockinette is done by the machine and all that is left is the fun and interesting part for hand knitting.

And, of course, it wouldn't hurt to knit up a few more hats for the mission.

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.

Retro Knit Tuesday!

The hat count is now up to ten, and I would like to make at least two more for an even dozen. I tried out my idea of knitting them off in a string with scrap yarn in between, but it turned out to take longer to get the free stitches back on the needles for the end decreases than it would if I just cast them on singly. I am hoping to get them to the mission by the end of October.

We had a family birthday party for my brother this weekend, and since I didn't get around to Retro Knit Friday, here is the first ever Retro Knit Tuesday. These sweaters are from the 1940 Bear Brand/Bucilla Volume 314. The first garment, a fitted cardigan with quadruple pocket flaps, is called 'Fore and Aft'. It is hard to tell what weight the yarn used is because they only give the gauge for the pattern stitches, but it looks to be about sport weight. The body of the sweater has a cabled pattern and the sleeves are knit in rib stitch. The borders are crocheted.

This thicker-yarn short-sleeved cardigan is knit in a diagonal rib pattern which looks nice in the textured yarn. The sweater is meant to be worn with shoulder pads.

This classic cardigan has a knit/purl diamond pattern, stockinette button bands, and large pockets on the front described as 'super-pockets'. It is knit in a very fine yarn at 8 1/2 sts/inch out of a poetically-named yarn called Caledonian Zephyr.

This poor model in the knitted 'duotone' dress is about to be attacked by a giant squid or octopus whose tentacle can be seen behind her. At least she is stylishly dressed for the approaching nautical battle in a close-fitting dress with contrast yokes and front panel which closes up the front with a 'slide fastener'.

Obviously, the fashion emphasis was moving to the shoulders during this phase of fashion evolution. This boxy jacket in a thicker gauge has saddle shoulders. The sleeves are knitted in angora which means that the fuzz continues across the shoulders. It's hard to tell if the sweater is supposed to be dressy or sporty.

'Suburban' is knit in a sport-weight yarn at 6 1/2 sts/inch on size 3 needles. It has cable trim on the bodice and a double-breasted front closure. The pattern description says, 'cable stitched detail on the ageless, dateless tailored dress of TWEEDMOOR.'

Today I am going to try to knit up two more hats and work on the never-ending February Lady Sweater.

Retro Knit Sunday and Air Show!

The spouse got tickets to the air show in Salinas through the office so off we went. The only other time we have been to an air show was in Virginia many years ago, and we left that one right after we arrived because it was too hot and muggy. This air show in Salinas was terrific, and I think I am now a fan of air shows. It was exciting, loud, scary, and I got an autograph. I was sitting in a tent next to an empty table, and the table then filled up with pilot types surrounded by their adoring fans. I got a calendar for my nephew and the famous pilot signed it for me. I had never heard of him before, but apparently he is a big deal in aviation land. That's him flying the red plane in the photo. My nephew should be thrilled.
I took a sock to knit on, but you spend most of time with your head looking upwards, so not much knitting was done.

Now, back to Bear Brand/Bucilla Volume 314 from 1940. The first photo shows a slipover in fine-gauge knitting. They call this texture pattern a 'herringbone' pattern, and it gets the herringbone look from slipped stitches and lifted loops. There is a small collar and a small front placket buttoned with round, silver buttons. The sleeves have the fullness gathered in at the top.

The tweed suit is called 'Campus-Love'. The contrast plaid is both knit in and embroidered. The horizontal lines are knit, and the vertical lines are woven in later, over and under a certain number of rows. The suit jacket has a bit of the era's mannish look with squared off shoulders and the neckline has V shaping. It is knit on size 3 needles at 6 1/2 sts/inch. What is that thing she is holding? Is it one of those portable seats you stick in the ground and then sit upon?

'Cadet' is a two-piece suit. The close-fitting jacket is trimmed with braids that match the skirt. It is knit of dress yarn on size 2 needles at 7 1/2 sts/inch.

This little cardigan with the shawl collar has 10 buttons down the front, and an interesting texture pattern with a woven look. The front bands are single crochet. The description says, 'Choose this semi-tailored cardigan for active or spectator sports'.

This sweater, a fine-gauge pullover, has 14 buttons! At least you wouldn't have to make that many buttonholes because they are decorative only. The high-necked sweater has a zipper at the center back neck opening. Zippers were not called 'zippers' at this time, they are referred to as 'slide fasteners'.

Now I am off to knit a little on the February Lady Sweater and to cook Sunday dinner. Though not at the same time.

Knitting and Inventing

Here's where I'm at with the February Lady Sweater. It's been a long time since I knit a sweater by hand from the top down, and I can't say that I am really enjoying the long long rows around the whole body. It will, however, make the sleeves seem easy. I like this lace pattern, the only lace pattern I have ever been able to memorize since it only has two pattern rows.

The book I am going to show today is an old book for the Brother knitting machine user, from the 60's I think, that I picked up in an antique store in Martinez. The store owner was astounded that someone actually wanted the book, and it only cost me a few dollars. The reason I show this is to point out what a treasure trove of stitch patterns these books are. Sure, they are for the machine, but every pattern has a chart next to it that is totally useful for hand knitting. This particular version of the Brother book has a chapter towards the back with motifs and lace edgings, too.

Here is a page showing some of the patterns and the charts. The lefthand chart is for the punchcard system on these old machines, but the long skinny chart next to it shows the pattern with handknitting symbols. These use the Japanese symbol system but there is a chart in the book telling you what they mean, and they are very similar to ours anyway. There are also nice full-color sections near the front of the book.

So if you see an old knitting machine book at a thrift store or antique store, don't assume that it is not for you just because you are a hand knitter. They contain all kinds of stitch patterns that don't appear in regular books. There are texture patterns, lace patterns, slipped stitches patterns, etc, etc.

I had a somewhat brilliant idea for churning out hats for the rescue mission on the machine. Instead of knitting them one at a time, I can cast on once and knit the hat bodies one after another in a long string with waste yarn between the sections (or ravel cord). Think of the casting on time this would save. I am going to get started on that today or tomorrow. Winter is approaching fast.

Retro Knit Saturday!

The February Lady Sweater is coming along very nicely. I am ready to start the lace portion. I like the way the buttonholes are finished at the very beginning of the sweater. There is a row of many increases at the end of the garter section and the instructions are pretty vague, telling you to increase 38 sts evenly across the 280 or so stitches. I tried it once and goofed it up, ending up with 5 too many stitches, so I cut some scrap yarn into 38 pieces and looped it along the row, trying to space it evenly. Then, when I came to a piece of yarn, I made an increase. This was so easy that I will have to try this method again, its main benefit being no math involved.


Today I am making tortillas using the recipe in Rancho Cooking. Right now the dough is resting but soon I will be shaping the many little balls of future tortilla dough. My daughter is coming for the weekend and she will help me roll them out and fry them up.

While I wait for the dough to rest, we will look at this 1940 volume of Bear Brand/Bucilla Smart Styles. The cover garment is a shorty jacket called "Fair and Square". The description says it is 'a distinctive windbreaker style with a smart roll collar knitted of the new CURLICUE.' That is a great name for a yarn with lots of loops and texture. As the shadow of the coming war loomed on the horizon, many sweater patterns had a larger gauge than before. The wartime knitter had less time for very fine gauge knitting since she was usually in the service or had war work, commercial or volunteer. England was already at war when this was published. The gauge of this jacket is 4 1/2 sts/inch on size 6 needles.

'Fieldster' is another larger gauge jacket knit at 3 1/2 sts/inch. The texture pattern uses wrapped stitches to give a woven look. Edges are finished with single crochet, and shoulder pads are used to give the jacket its shape. The booklet contains a page of instructions for making your own shoulder pads.

'Tuck-In' was to be used as a blouse. The description says that it can be worn with a suit tucked in or out. The back has extended shoulders that are buttoned over the bound-off stitches on the front bodice, and the front is decorated with purl ridges, which also decorate the top of the sleeves. It is knit of a dress yarn at 6 sts/inch.

'Smart Note' has "new fitted feminine lines in suave TRICOLAINE". It is knit at about 6 1/2 sts/inch and has a lovely cable pattern. The puffed sleeves give a hint of the big 40's shoulders that were only a few years away.

This week was my FIL's 86th birthday. We had a nice dinner out at a restaurant, then went back to their place to eat the birthday cake I made for him. I made a chiffon cake, and a layer of meringue. I filled the cake with a raspberry whipped cream and frosted it with lots of plain, sweetened whipped cream. The cake barely fit in the cake-taker container. I had to wedge the top down, and I told myself I would patch up the sides when I opened it up. When I did take the top off, the top half of the cake came with it. I held the top over the poor beheaded cake, gave it a shake, and the top half of the cake fell onto the bottom with perfect accuracy. I smoothed the cream around the sides, and you would never know anything had happened to it. It was delicious.