I know I’ve been such a bad blogger lately. My sincerest apologies. I hope I can make up for it with a free pattern for you all! This is something I wish I was knitting now. It is a lovely stripped sweater with a pretty lace panel in the front to give a little touch of vintage femininity. I hope someone knits it up and lets me know how it goes!

People have been asking how to easily print my free patterns. I’m not to much of a help with that. My only suggestion is to save the image onto your comptuer and cut it up into pieces to print on pages. I cut it up into 4 pieces this time so if you save, make sure to get all the pieces.

Yes, I am still lost to the dolly world. I started a little at home business of selling their knit and crocheted clothes called Dolluxe! It’s 10x less money than I was making at a “real” job but completely forfiling. I keep busy, use my creativity and get to play with dolls all day! What a lucky little girl I am!

I have to admit, my two vintage projects still remain unfinished. I believe it is all about fear! The lavender sweater has me perplexed. I finished the back and did decreases for the arm holes. I’m not sure if it did it right though as the pattern was very vague about how to do it. I did it along the edge but the lace pattern makes waves on seam ends. I just can’t see this seaming up as nicely as I’d wish it too so I stopped at the decreases on the front. Honestly, I bet if I sat with it for a week it would be done since I stay at home these days.

My husbands sweater is also unfinished mainly because I worry it won’t fit him. The body with out the arms is seamed up. I think with a nice thick zipper it will fit perfectly and snug. Each of those seams took me a few hours though so I’m not looking forward to arm seams. Again, I think this is a daunting task of vintage knitting, new patterns are written to give you really easy to work seam areas and bigger stitches so you can see what your doing. I hate to turn anyone off to vintage knitting because I admit this though. It just takes patience and forethought.

Anyways, on to the pattern!

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My excuse for having a US Weekly subscription is that my friend works for the magazine. It’s all her fault I read this junk food for the brain. I guess it’s handy to be “in the know” sometimes, especially when on page 80 of this weeks issue I see Selma Blair wearing something knit in the same color and lace pattern I am knitting! It turns out to be Marc Jacobs. Hey Marc Jacobs, did you come across my blog for fashion inspiration? I’m one of the few sites that comes up when googling “vintage knitting” so the idea is not to far fetched! It’s hard to deny that Marc is all about retro. I’m only disappointed because I don’t even have my sweater done yet! I guess this is good motiviation. Marc, in the mean time can I get the designer version sent to me since I was the inspiration?

Who knew I would become inducted into the secret society of Blythe. One day I started looking at images on Flickr telling my husband “I love looking at them but doubt I will ever buy one”. Three days later I am completely convinced I need one and am emailing sellers over seas and picking out doll names.

Well, my first and most beloved girl is named Lulu after Louise Brooks. I cut her hair into a bob (which actually makes her look more starlingly like me as well).

She was the inspiration to get me to pick up that crochet hook again. Lucky me found a perfect 1960’s doll dress pattern and with a little trial and error had all the kinks fixed from this pattern. The result is this beautiful little form fitting doll dress that has a perfect dolly poof to the skirt. I think it has really helped my crochet skills making me anxious to try more!

For anyone who might be interested, I listed some of the loveliest patterns of vintage stuffed animals on eBay. Purchaser will receive scanned emailed PDF of 8 different patterns including a teddy bear, panda bear, duck, two different rabbits, cat, and penguin. I just love the delicate innocent look to these fellows. Knit them in a soft yarn and baby and adult will both love them! Most patterns are fingering or worsted weight yarn. Patterns are easy to resize by just changing yarn and needle size. Take a look Item #: 250026842747

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of action here sometimes. Knitting doesn’t happen over night! I am about half way up my latest sweater. I have taken a hiatus on it and have picked up my crochet hook again. I crocheted a perfect little doll dress! Stay tuned and I’ll post images of that soon.

There is lots of exciting news comming my way regarding mentions of this blog in magazines. Knit It Magazine is making a debut and mentions me! I should be getting my issue in the mail shortly. Also, now pending is possible vintage pattern submission into another very interesting sounding magazine in the UK called Mag Knits. I’ll keep you updated on any developments!

What knitter doesn’t stash? It is expected and I really have no idea why it occurs. Sometimes I buy just for the color, making sure I buy enough for a full project. Stashes grow when you have big remainers of yarn left but still keep buying for new projects. I’ve already knit from the rose color and derby grey but still have enough left for baby items or maybe softies. Here I was given a whole cone sample of the white 1ply cashmere. The red also came free since it was accidententally wound with another red color. Stashes form from the folly of imagination. That 1ply white would make a beautiful lace scarf. That brown yarn has a teddy bear formed already in my head. I already see his face with embroidered nose and felt eyes. Black cashmere will get me a very sleek deco sweater, long sleeved and hopefully a cardigan for winter.

Last week I ordered all these great pattern books from Ivarose.com. For those of you who do not know about this great site you really should! Peggy at Ivarose.com has made it her dedicated passion to reprint antique & vintage needle arts pattern books. I find this work very admirable since she is preserving these old titles. Old paper tends to deteriorate with age. Also many people threw out these old knitting pattern magazines just as we throw out magazines we’ve already read and no longer use today. This makes some titles very rare. It is very possible we’d never get our hands on certain titles. Peggy digitally touches up the images with perfection then prints the copies into a spiral bound binding. This makes for very easy reading when your using the books. You don’t have to worry about bending the spine of an old title back, possibly breaking it.

Her selection of titles is vast. If you can’t find what you want in your own collection or on eBay, you’ll be sure to find endless patterns to lust over. Her collection has inspired me to learn not only knitting but crochet and possibly tatting and embroidery in the future.

Which leads me to tell you I still am completely fickle and undecided about what to knit next. These two IvaRose.com patterns are at the top of my list to do in this cotton/cashmere mixed yarn in color “Lilac Moon”. I guess I’m feeling very girly this spring. Ruffles and lilac seem to go well. I hope everyone doesn’t abandon me before I ever finally decide what to knit!

It’s been a good 80 degrees out lately which puts me in no mood to touch cashmere, none the less knit it up. I knit and my hands get clammy. For a change I picked up some J.P. Coats & Clark size 3. cotton along side a set of vintage steel hooks I finally scored on eBay. (Size 2 pictured) I started teaching myself crochet with more patience these last few days. I finally have the hang of holding the yarn and doing all the stitches. I think the practise needs to lie in getting those ends of rows accurate. Here is the third swatch I’ve ever done,going for accuracy in stitch count. I did swell with sc, dc & tr but when I went to do some half double crochet I think I scooted the work over somehow one stitch so it’s a little off kilter. I’m hopeful though. I’m anxious to hook up cloche hats, frilly purses lined with silk & ofcoarse those lacey blouses I’ve shown everyone here.

 
This may not be knitting, but it is knitting related! This is my attempt at being crafty and thrifty at the same time. I took an old 1960’s knitting basket and refurbished it. I didn’t like the thick smelly ugly pattern fabric so I took it off and sewed a new basket. The contruction of the old some how was sewn around the frame. I couldn’t do this so with the help of my husband, we added chain to make the legs not collapse. We painted the wood a matte black to better match my craft room. The fabric was from Sis Boom’s by Jennifer Paganelli’s “Girlfriends” collection. I love this updated elegant brocade in cotton. For now it houses my vintage knitting magazine collection as opposed to yarn. I have a feeling the naughty little kitty who is pictured might find it too edible.

Ode to Lana Turner, the babe with notorious sexual prowess who’s beauty stuns us all. Ode to the original “Sweater Girl”, dubbed so after her apearance in the 1937 movie “They Won’t Forget” where her busoms bounced with great temptation to the movie-goers of the era. Ode to her knowing how to catch a good man, seven in fact. Ode to her unfortunately not knowing how to keep one though, or two, or three, or four. Ode to her highly regarded performance in film noir “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

To learn more about this one of a kind lady visit Lana Turner Online website. For a few more “sweater girl” photos of Lana, click (more…)