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The rib stitches look “uneven” close up, but I think that is due to the yarn itself - very soft, and not really great for stitch definition. But I don’t mind it - I think the sweater overall is going to look v. pretty. Here’s the back, about an inch away from being finished. There is short-row shaping for the shoulders that will be fun, and then I’ll start the front.

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I got my pattern books (they are digitally restored and spiral-bound - cute!) from Iva Rose. And I can already see they are going to cause problems. As in, I want to make a *lot* of clothing items. A lot of clothing items with tiny tiny gauges.

Women must have been weird speed-knitters back in the 30’s, because contained within the Minerva Style Book… well, we’re talking entire 3-piece suits - that’s a jacket, (long) coat and (long) skirt - made with a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch!! Are there people out there today who can knit fast enough to make that sort of project worthwhile?! If so, I salute you. Wholeheartedly. That’s totally koo-koo. Oh, and did I mention that one of those suits is all done in stockinette stitch?! I think I would find factory assembly work more fascinating. Can I put enough exclamation points in this paragraph?!

Not to say that the clothing articles aren’t awesome and beautiful, because many of them are. There is much detail and care in the design of these items.

…So here’s why I’m a freak:

I really want to make that coat. Minus the sharp shoulders, of course. I think I could modify those to make them somewhat square, instead of scarily-pointy. It has a very neat stitch pattern with lots of texture, and a cute little collar - oh! And before you tell me how loco I am to even think of starting another project, the gauge is only 4 1/2 stitches to the inch! Easy as pie. And look - don’t you want to be that model? With that hat? And that attitude? And perfect curls you have to set every night? (um…)

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Hey! I joined the Vintage Knit-Along! They’re making some great high stockings over there, you should check it out.

And I know you’re waiting with breath abated: I put up the two vintage patterns I want to make in future on my sidebar. Hooray. Oh, and by the way the sweater with the sash has a wonderful construction I’ll tell you about later. And those little intarsia objects are actually flowers (but I may be changing them to something else). And the gauge for that particular item is, ahem, 10 stitches to the inch. Yep.

Progress on the Ursula Bag is, in fact, creeping along. Just a little hand-sewing left to go. And then I’m off to town with my new little tote.

I had a little brain fart trying to figure out the best way to fashion the lining. I was gonna make it all complicated and awesome, but then I decided I didn’t want to use my brain on the weekend so I made it simple and awesome. Eat your heart out, Kate Spade. Or don’t.

From Wikipedia:

The geographical location some 350 km north of the Arctic circle means that Tromsø has both midnight sun and polar night.

The Midnight sun is above the northern horizon from about May 18 to July 26, although the mountains in the north block the view to the Midnight sun a few days, meaning that you can optically see the sun from about May 21 to July 21. Due to the position on top of the globe, the twilight is longer, meaning there is no real darkness between late April and mid August.

The sun remains below the horizon from about November 26 to January 15, but due to the mountains the sun is absent from the centre from November 21 to January 21. The return of the sun is an occasion for celebration. Due to the twilight, there is some daylight for a couple of hours even around mid winter, often with beautiful bluish light. The days lengthen quickly, and by February 21 the sun is above the horizon from 07:45 to 16:10, and April 1 from 05:50 to 19:50 (summertime).

I’m sure there are better, more lyrical descriptions of the season of darkness and winter light (which I assume refers to the polar night in these areas). A quick, cursory search online didn’t reveal any, and I sure have never been north of the Arctic circle myself to witness it. Once when I was in northern Minnesota I experienced Aurora Borealis (another phenomenon that occurs in Tromsø), and it was amazing and spectacular. Kind of hard to imagine that sort of thing being commonplace in your hometown.

This is my “night” - wonder if there’s a name for the midnight lights that make it impossible for New York to ever get dark enough to see stars.

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So after consideration of color schemes and yarn properties, I decided to go ahead and order the yarn kit for the Season of Darkness and Winter Light. For one thing, I think the yarn I originally picked out will be too soft and “drapey,” and this jacket really needs a firm structure. For another thing, although at first I wasn’t crazy about the original colors of the pattern, they have since grown on me, and now I really like them a lot. Plus it will be in better keeping with the theme and thought behind the design of the pattern (and its name). I do still love the alpaca yarn that I got originally (red and browns), and I’ll put my thinking cap on soon to come up with a suitable project for it.

The best news, however, is that someone else actually wants to knit this jacket! I have to credit Sharon with goading me into starting this bad boy. So now we will have our own little knitalong, and what a relief to have another soul to share this experience with. It will be crazy, I’m sure. Check out the colors she chose - very different from the original but I think it’ll look gorgeous.

Inspired by the vintage lace pattern in the Loop-d-Loop sweater, I ordered some vintage knitting patterns to lovingly look at and hopefully utilize at some point in the future. It’s amazing how modern some of these sweaters look, even from the 20’s and before. Here is a selection of the patterns that I will be getting in the mail - they are from a Bear Brand pattern book and a Minerva pattern book.

I plan on making two of these sweaters for definite sure, can you guess which ones?

By the way, I ordered these from Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions. She has an amazingly large collection of vintage patterns - it’s actually a little overwhelming. You can also check out Yesterknits (it’s based in Scotland) for another crazily-large collection of patterns, although I haven’t ordered anything from them as of yet.

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As beautiful as much of the knit clothing was (I especially like the styles from the 20’s - sporty! and the 30’s - v. feminine), apparently women of the past had also to deal with their own brand of fugly.

Hm. What would have been the pre-world-war saying for “WTF”?

I’ve never knit lace before - it’s quite entertaining. Sure better than all of the stockinette I have to do for the stuffed toys. No problems so far with this pattern: I have stitch gauge and am actually close to achieving row gauge in the lace part. Not too bad for me, but I’m sure I’ll have to make little adjustments later. I don’t think I’m going to alter anything about the pattern - I like the shape of it and think it’ll probably fit me well (famous last words). Really, though, how great is this sweater? It’s purty.

My grandfather, John B., passed away last weekend at the age of 89. I spent last week with my family in my hometown in Nebraska - this picture was taken at the garage he owned and operated for most of his life. John went to work (or gossip) there every day of the week except Sundays, right up until the last few weeks before he died. He was a unique man, and will be remembered fondly by many.

Love you, grandpa.

I’m usually not that impulsive about buying yarn anymore. I don’t have a really crazy “stash,” and I always have something in mind when I get yarn nowadays (mostly online since it’s cheaper). But recent sad events prompted me to treat myself a little, and I went out and bought some sweet pink alpaca fingering weight yarn to make the lace blouse. I guess it won’t be the most summery blouse, seeing that’s it’ll be made out of ALPACA WOOL(!), but it will sure be pretty and feminine.

The Ursula Bag is still in the works but will be on hold for a while as I’m going out of town for a few days.