Right now, as we speak, one of my patterns is featured on the front page of Etsy!

That's it!  Right there, second row down, first on the left.  A vintage crochet pattern for an adorable babydoll dress.  Squee!  So excited.  :)
(Screenshot courtesy of craftcult.com)

More than you probably want to know about knitting needles

I've been absent for awhile because my laptop was in the shop.  I've never brought a computer in for servicing before, I was a bit wary, but it was well worth it.  The crazy loud noises that it was making before are now gone, and I upgraded my hard drive while it was under the knife, so I've got all this extra space now!  Whohoo!

So now I'm back to scanning and posting patterns every day.  Have a look over at Etsy for the newest ones.

Now to the topic at hand... knitting needles.

There are heaps of different types of needles, a few of them shown in the photo above.  I'm fortunate to have received as a birthday gift from my husband a few years ago a set of the Options Interchangeable Needles from Knit Picks.  That's what you see in the upper left and right with the knitting in white yarn on it.  This is a wonderful set, and basically covers the needles you would need for most knitting projects.  I had started knitting life with the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle Kit, which I also love and still use, but I've lent it out to a friend right now.

I'm so used to knitting on circular now (because interchangeable needles are circular) that even when I have straight needles of the correct size I'll use circular if I can.  When I happen to use straight needles, like when I'm teaching someone on their needles or showing my daughter on her kid needles, I embarrass myself  at the end of each row by dropping the right hand needle on the floor.

If you didn't already know, knitting needles are defined by their diameter.  And because it's fun to confuse people, different countries use different sizes to describe their knitting needles.  In the US, sizes go from size 0 (small) up to 15 or higher (large).  The numbers seem to be fairly arbitrary.  I started and learned on the American system, so these numbers kind of make sense to me (especially the part where the smaller the number, the smaller the needle).

But now I'm in New Zealand, and most of the patterns I have for sale were published in New Zealand.  The ones that aren't originally from New Zealand are British patterns.  New Zealand used the British (UK) numbering for their needles in the old (vintage) days.  Now they all tend to use metric sizing.  The most confusing part for me of UK numbering is that the bigger the number, the smaller the needle.  That just doesn't make sense.  But it is what it is, and I am constantly checking needle conversion charts like this one over at Yarn Forward.

I also use the handy needle gauge at the back of my Knitter's Companion.

You slip the needle through for a good guesstimate as to the size of the needle.  And can I just comment how funny it is that my browser's automatic spell checker, you know, that puts the dotted red line under misspelled words, it doesn't have a problem with the word "guesstimate" which is so not a real word.  Anyways, one side of the gauge has the American sizes (seen above) and the other side has the metric and English (British, UK, Canadian, New Zealand, etc.) sizes (see below).

 

This needle gauge is nice to have, but as every single pattern in the history of knitting will tell you, don't count on it, or any knitting needle size or number to give you the right tension.  To be sure of your results, knit a gauge swatch.

My Favourite Vintage Pattern Ever

Last post I showed you Twiggy modeling for a vintage knitting pattern.  Another famous model graces the cover of my all time favourite vintage pattern, and this time it's a crochet pattern.

This absolutely gorgeous woman photographed wearing these absolutely fantastic hot pants is none other than Shakira Caine. ...

Okay, I had never heard of her either until I did some Googling for my previous Twiggy post and came across this blog post.  I instantly recognized my hot pants beauty on the featured vintage crochet pattern.  That blogger identified the model as "Shakira Kahn" but further internet research provided the name Shakira Caine, and it turns out she's also married to the actor Michael Caine.  According to her official website, Michael Caine saw her on a TV ad for Maxwell House coffee and decided he must meet her.  How cool is that!

And even cooler...  tonight I sold my third and fourth patterns on Etsy, and this favourite of mine was one of them!  I really hope the buyer makes a pair of these hot pants.  And then I hope she frames the pattern and hangs it on her wall.  Thank goodness I have a double of this one, so I have my own copy to keep for ever and ever.

Supermodels for hand knitting

This post over on my tumblr has been getting a fair bit of attention, obviously because of who's modeling the ultra hip skirt suit on the pattern.

In case you don't recognize her, it's Twiggy.  She was a very popular model in the late 1960s. If you weren't alive back then, you may have seen her more recently on America's Next Top Model a few seasons (oh sorry, I mean cycles) ago.

Who knew that knitting pattern leaflets could nab such big names?

My first actual vintage knitting project...

As I mentioned in my introduction, my first vintage patterns were copies made from my mother-in-law's pattern stash.  The first actual item I knit from one of these vintage patterns was Kaiapoi No. 706 - this "Angel Top", being a lacy A-line baby sweater.

Kaiapoi was a New Zealand wool company, but it no longer exists.  You may have heard the name Kaiapoi in the news recently because it's a town north of Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand that was badly damaged by the earthquake on September 4, 2010.  This pattern dates back to the 1970s, but really, baby knits never go out of style.

I made the one in the front, and not being as experienced knitting then as I am now, I had a lot of problems with it.  I detail these issues all here and here on my general knitting blog I've kept for several years now.  But then you can read about my successful completion here and here!  How gorgeous is this?

As an introduction to vintage knitting, baby patterns are great!  Obviously, because of the size, they're generally quicker to knit so you get that satisfaction that much quicker.  But as I mentioned above, the styles are less likely to look dated.  And what baby is going to complain that you knit them a fashion from last century?

Where did they all come from?

My first foray into vintage patterns came from flipping through the box my mother-in-law had accumulated over her decades of knitting.  She had so many, such a wonderful collection, that I took my 50 or so favourites to a copy shop.  Shhh.  Don't tell the Copyright Council.

Since then, I slowly started accumulating them by browsing through the patterns available at the many op shops (charity organization thrift stores for you Americans) in Napier.  Most available are pretty beat up, or scribbled on, or not all that vintage, but occasionally I have a great find.

But then I hit the mother load.  Next door to my office building (yes, I have a day job) is the Maidens & Foster Auction House.  They do estate sale auctions once a week, so each week I go and have a poke around.  One visit I came across four huge boxes of loose leaflet vintage knitting patterns!  Not organized in any way, not even stacked nicely, just a jumble in these boxes.  I didn't have enough time on my lunch break to have a proper look through them, but I knew I had to have them, even if only a few of them were in decent condition.  So I placed an absentee bid (not being able to leave work for long enough to attend the auction in person), and I won!

When I picked them up and brought the boxes up to my office, my workmates and I had great fun looking through them.  It quickly became apparent that there were many duplicates, which would have been strange obviously if they had been part of someone's personal collection.  They also seemed in most cases to be unused (no writing on them, few folds or tears, no other signs of wear from use).  Almost all of them were stamped with the name of the same old Napier wool shop (yarn store for you Americans, New Zealanders call all yarn 'wool' never mind the actual content).  Woolcraft Wool Shop on Emerson Street (the centre of town) closed many many years ago, according to my locally-living mother-in-law.  My best guess is that when the shop originally closed someone acquired all these patterns, and then left them in their attic untouched for years, and then finally either died or decided they didn't need them after all and put them up for auction.

And that's where the bulk of my literally thousands of vintage knitting pattern came from!  I had one more major acquisition recently at the auction house when a local knitter died and her huge personal collection was offered, along with her entire yarn stash.  There was too much competition for her wool, so I didn't get any of that, but no one else wanted her patterns.  How crazy is that?!  Perhaps as crazy as I am...

Being the place where I will discuss my obsession with vintage knitting and crochet patterns

I have a problem.  An obsession.  An addiction.

I can't get enough of vintage knitting and crochet patterns.  Well, I love all patterns, even the newest kid on the block.  But there's something about the old ones...

There is so much good about vintage patterns:  The classic/retro/timeless/outdated designs.  The musty old smell.  The anxious feeling I get when I open one for the first time, hoping that it won't fall apart in my hands.  The inspiration they provide.  And finally, the connection I feel to knitters across the decades as I hold their original patterns in my hands.

I've acquired so many vintage patterns that my spare room is no longer spare...  it is now The Pattern Room.  My husband jokes that if I don't get my problem under control, soon we'll have a whole Pattern Wing as the patterns overflow into our bedroom!  Okay, maybe it's not a joke.

To combat this seepage, I've started selling some of my vast pattern collection on Etsy.  If you have a problem like mine, I'm sure you'll enjoy browsing there, and you can always see some of my featured patterns here on the left side of my blog.  And stay tuned to this blog for details of all the highs and lows I experience while I battle my addiction.  :)