Patterns

Current Location: Dad's house, Rio Linda

  A few weeks back, in the process of cleaning out the chicken house for our upcoming Halloween party, we found a box of sewing patterns.

Note: this is the box after I removed what I wanted to keep.

  Today I finally got the chance to look through them.  They were mostly the kind of retro fashions I don't much like, being as they were originally from that era, but I still ended up with a pretty good pile of keepers.
  There was even one that included a tailcoat!  I also snagged all the vest patterns, including one in a sealed letter envelope with a handwritten label reading "weskit" and a sketch.  My dad thinks it was probably a pattern made by one of his sisters for a 4H project.

"New" additions to my stash.

Another interesting tidbit of family history (Mary Lou and Rae are my aunts, my father's aforementioned sisters).

My dad says his mom made him a clown costume for Halloween as a boy, probably using this very pattern. 

Design by Edith Head.

Also in the box were The Sweater Book, instructions for crocheting lace with which to trim your handkerchief (pictured center bottom with the patterns I kept), and down in the bottom, circular knitting needles!

  I know enough about knitting to know that circular needles are used for knitting socks, and since I have lately been wanting some socks but been unable to find just the right ones (see Labor Day weekend post), I thought I would look into making my own.  Whereupon I rediscovered something I had previously noticed in passing: knitting instructions are complicated.  I have never yet attempted to use one - I barely know how to knit - but I'm not sure I'm ready for socks yet.  Nevertheless, the ones on this site look fascinating.  Maybe I can commission some from somebody who already knows what they're doing?