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I started the coat, only halfway into winter. If I keep working on it consistently, though, I don’t think it’ll take too long. I have no idea what a “Size 16″ means in 1938 terms, but it seems a little big for me, so I’m just resizing the whole thing as I go along. The sleeves, for instance, are going to be about two inches narrower. That’s what you’re looking at, by the way - the beginning of a sleeve. Ain’t it pretty?!

Still have no internet. Apparently my apartment doesn’t exist in anyone’s records. By “anyone,” I mean the phone and cable companies. They are supposed to come later this week but I don’t want to get my hopes too high…

I spent the holidays in California, and while it didn’t exactly afford me a white wonderland Christmas morning, I got plenty of “tangelos” (or whatever those things were). It was fun and sunny. I also got to meet my mom’s new dogs: a standard poodle and a poodle/golden retriever mix. “Cute” is a poor word to describe these girls.

Like a little lamb, she is.

And this one has the most ginormous paws I’ve ever seen in real life on an animal.

Oh, and did you want to know about knitting? Really, now. Well, what with moving, and being out of town I obviously have not been what you might call “productive.” But I *did* receive in the mail this lovely yarn I will be using to make the 30’s coat.

I don’t feel too bad about not starting this sucker yet, because apparently it is supposed to be 70 degrees F. in New York tomorrow?! So no rush. Maybe I’ll just go to the beach, instead, or something.

I still don’t have internet access (blah), so thanks to David Fineburg for letting me use his interweb computer. Oh yeah, and my new year’s resolution is to get internet set up in my house. But not really. I’ll tell you what it is later, maybe…

Ah, yes. I’ve been taking a little breather from the knitting (and blogging) life for a while. But it’s been rejuvinating, and lately I’ve caught myself eyeing the yarn again. I’m sure it won’t be too long before I’ll actually have some finished projects to show off. Or at least some new ones started, ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry, got a little hysterical there. Anyway, I also got a new computer. Since I haven’t owned a desktop for years, I forgot how nice it is to use a big screen and regular keyboard. It sure beats the bad posture and neck strain I had sitting with a computer literally on my lap for hours on end.

So here’s a mini addition to my stash. As always, I don’t really buy yarn without at least an idea of what I want to do with it. My plans for this lovely yarn are a *little* nebulous, granted, but I think the finished product will be fabulous. I think. I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to show you my favorite kind of yarn, and this is it. Tweed. I love all kinds of tweed. That’s not exactly revolutionary, I realize, but anyway there it is. One day soon I will be buying some tweed yarn for the 1930’s coat I pictured here once upon a time.

But clearly I’m getting ahead of myself. First I gotta, you know, finish something I’ve already started.

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.

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”?