Book: "Vintage Details" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka

My photo isn't terribly great, but this is what it looks like

I have bought and am giving myself a fantastic book as a present. Yay me!

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook"  is just wonderful. It is also pretty heavy, a real coffee table book and I would buy it as a paperback again for easier storage. But this book deserves to be so heavy: there is just such a lot in it. And what gorgeousness!

It is chockful of photographs, initially as smaller index card style photos ('Visual Index') so you can quickly leaf through this section to visually identify what you are looking for.  This index tells you what page the larger photographs are on. So useful!

Often one of the pictures later on in the book will show a close-up of a detail, a cuff turned inside out, sleeves laid so you can see the most interesting part, a pocket flap turned back, the inside of a garment, etc.

Just look at this beautiful gusset, courtesy of the sleeve being folded out of the way:

The folded back tab shows an otherwise hidden seam and where the button is relative to the pocket flap:

The book is divided into several chapters: necklines; collars; sleeves; cuffs; pockets; fastenings & buttonholes; hems, darts, stitching & fitting devices; pleats, frills & flounces; embellishment; surface; and construction.

Going through the book feels like you've been to a fabulous vintage clothing exhibition but you didn't have to take your own photos hoping they'll come out well and show the details that caught your eye - instead it is all in here, in a very well presented way.

I love the shaped seam under the inverted pleat

This is in the Construction chapter, showing the inside of the dress

I know I will go through this book again and again: to look for inspiration, to remind myself of something I half remember and just for the sheer pleasure of indulging in this visual delight of what makes vintage clothing so fascinating and absorbing.

I give this book five out of five stars. I can only recommend it warmly: go find it, buy it.

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2016

Socks, socks, socks!

Finishing my beautiful dark red cable panel socks made me very happy.  I was very, very pleased with them!  Such a nice thing to experience this glow and sense of achievment when a project turns out well.  It pushes you onwards...

I was so enthused that I started my next project straight away.  More socks!  (The blog post title has to refer to something!)

I am calling them my Frosted Spires socks.  Skein Queen in colourway Jack Frost (isn't that such a cool name?) - 2.5mm needles.

I am very pleased with my progress:

To this:

From this:

I love knitting both socks at the same time: a little on one, then over to the other - in turn and turn around.  Disadvantage: if you make a mistake on one, you're likely to do the same thing on the other.  But that's where the advantage lies: you get to remember what the different manoeuvres are (heel, gusset, toe decreases, that sort of thing) and any difficulties with the pattern itself too.  I wouldn't want to read the same tricky chart a second time once I finally get round to the second effort.

And that's my biggest problem: I start out all enthusiastic on the first sock, I probably get it done quite quickly and I feel dead chuffed at what I achieved... and then with that sinking heart feeling... I realise that I've got to do it all over again!  And it's just not as exciting the second time round, oh no it ain't.

When knitting a bit on one and the same bit on the other, you don't really notice how much work goes into it - it's all still part of the journey of discovery about a new pattern: all fresh and exciting and new!

The best thing: when you complete one, the second one is not far behind at all!  It just seems to all go so very quickly!  I love doing socks this way.

It's just a bit hard on your wallet coz you need two sets of needles.


I saw a gorgeous pattern called Rosebud Socks on the blog by Ignorant Bliss.  They are out of this world gorgeous!  The more often I looked at her wonderful photo the more I envied her the pattern.

I gave in and ordered the book (I just hope it's the right one!) - Socks from the Top Up.

While I was at it I had a look at my saved wishlist and also ordered the Traditional Fair Isle Knitting book.  I reckon it's worth it just for the pattern on the cover!

Loop in Camden Passage, London, have Jamieson's in lots of different colours (could even be a round 100? Must check) - I quite fancy trying some of them out soon!

Hannelore plans

I saw a lovely lace pattern called Hannelore that Lacefreak blogged about. I fell in love!
I wanted, no: 'needed', to get this pattern and knit it just as soon as possible.
NB: there are also lovely pictures at Ars Una, Species Mille's blog.

I looked online, then at ebay, set up a search reminder for 'Burda Spezial E418', googled it again - but no joy. Then I found this project on Ravelry and realised that the pattern had also been published in 'Band 408' (that's volume 408 to you and me) by a company called Beyer Verlag. So back to googling and ebay and any other place I could think of.

Then Amazon posted the item: 'Kunststricken. Decken, Garnituren, Spitzen: Bände 408 und 760', saying: 'Not yet available but can be pre-ordered'. Hah!
Guess what? I did. (Big surprise)

It was supposed to arrive some time in late April if memory serves. It took a little longer - I got it some time in May. I don't mind: this is a treasure!

The two volumes are not bound books, they are more like brochures or folded booklets and come in a wallet that also contains the two sets of charts. And a loose leaf sheet of either errata or supplementing information.

Band 408 has more complicated, highly lacey looking doilies, the items in Band 760 are a little more robust looking, if that makes any sense. These patterns do not seem quite as complex with more stockinette stitch in them. The items in both are really lovely!

My Hannelore pattern that I was so desperate for turns out to be quite small. I must check Lacefreak's blog entry again to see how big you can get this if you use larger needles - I was rather hoping to be able to wear this as a shawl! The size in the book is that of a cushion cover, not quite what I had in mind!

I am playing around with yarn choices and have not yet decided what to use (my Silkbloom Extra Fino from BC Garn would be quite nice?) - I have this in undyed as well as my usual choice of strong pinks.
There are so many projects in these volumes I want to make that I started a medium sized one first: Image 20 on page 12 (I didn't find a name for this). I will post about this soon.

In the meantime, here's what the Silkbloom yarn looks like:

PS: I just realised that I didn't mention that these patterns are by a gentleman called Herbert Niebling. I think he was a genius! I've even found a picture* of him again (plus mini bio. He's not on Wikipedia!), though it took some doing - searching Google Images for his name brings up millions of doilies!

*: I just love that pot of Alpenveilchen on his table (on a balcony?) that he is apparently using to weigh the chart down! How endearing is that...

And very dapper he is too: the glasses and clothes are very 1950s/60s Germany.