Last weekend was the Chicagoland Vintage Clothing, Jewelry and Textile Show, an overwhelmingly large show about an hour away from Chicago in Elgin. Last year I had a great haul. This year I was a bit more restrained, even though this show, more than any others, often has the largest portion of things to my personal style and taste (though not always my budget, of course). Once we knew we were going to buy a house I ... Read more »
Sunday Pictorial Beret
I can't believe as I'm posting this, I've reached over 500 followers. Wow! I must say I'm incredibly humbled and flattered that there are that many of you who actually want to read about my mundane little life. :) I've been wanting to do a giveaway for this milestone, but being in the throws of moving, it's going to have to wait a little longer. Stay tuned!Today I'm sharing my latest knitting project, a beret from A ... Read more »
VKC: Planning colors for vintage stranded knitting
Hi everyone! Has it been long enough since I've been able to do a Vintage Knitting College post?? Good grief! I was expecting to have so much more time to devote to this, but with the condo selling/house buying, obviously life has gotten in the way. Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post, I can't wait until we've moved and everything calms back down so I can get back to regular blogging! :) So let's ... Read more »
Where have I been?
Hi everyone!!My goodness, it feels like it's been just about forever since I've been able to do anything related to my blog. Or reading any blogs, for that matter. Or knitting. Or sewing. Or anything. I feel like I've dropped off the planet...because I pretty much have!So what have I been up to? Mel and I are selling our condo and buying a house!I know, no reason for keeping that a secret, right?? Partially I didn't want ... Read more »
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a warm and merry Christmas. Thank you all for the joy you bring to my life. Many happy returns to you and yours! ... Read more »
Boy, have I been busy!
Hello, everyone!I confess I've been almost completely absent from blog-land for a little while. Some things have come up in our home life that have taken precedent over pretty much everything else, and sadly that includes blogging and catching up on all my favorite blogs... and you know that takes some time! :) Don't worry, there is nothing wrong—in fact, I hope it ends up being the beginning of something fantastic for us ... Read more »
VKC: Charts & vintage stranded knitting patterns
Hi everyone! Let's talk about stranded knitting and charts. A bit about charts and stranded knitting Modern stranded knitting pattern use charts to convey the colorwork part of the pattern. Sometimes they'll use multiple colors in a colored chart, sometimes just shades of gray, or different shapes to represent different colors, or some combination thereof. Here are a couple of examples. {Source: charts ... Read more »
Fake a good hair day with a beret (on a windy day)
Today I'm finally sharing a little tutorial I've thought about all autumn, as I've lazily enjoyed wearing berets quite frequently. I love berets (tams, tammys... call them what you will). They are my favorite hat to wear, and my favorite hat to knit, too. You can knit cabled ones, fair isle ones, slouchy ones, you name it. And finding vintage berets isn't usually too difficult, either. As an added bonus, felt berets ... Read more »
VKC: Tension, puckers & even stranded knitting
Today, let's talk about how to keep your stranded knitting nice and even looking! I'll cover a few things that tie together to make that happen, and give you my best advice for lovely looking stranded knitting. Tension You may or may not find that your tension changes from knitting with one color to knitting with two colors. Many people say your tension tightens up when you knit stranded (producing more stitches per ... Read more »
My lovely stranded cardigan!
Hi everyone, I'm back home! I have massive catching up to do on my feed reader. My, how everyone's been posting like a maniac! We had a lovely, albeit somewhat brief, trip to my mom's outside of Washington, D.C. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet up with any D.C. bloggers, however with Thanksgiving and a family party, and my best friend from college visiting too for part of the trip, time was very limited. Just before ... Read more »
Saturday evening outfit & haircut
We're off to my mom's tomorrow. So before we jet, I thought I'd post a quick outfit, mostly to show you all that I got a haircut last weekend! I'd been debating about chopping another few inches off for awhile, and went for it.Now you'll never see me wearing my hair down like this, but you can see the length. We went out with friends Saturday night and I didn't feel like doing anything to my hair after the cut that ... Read more »
Jitterbuggin 30% off sale through Sunday
Hi everyone! I have continued the trend of being head-spinningly busy lately! I was hoping to get not one but two Vintage Knitting College posts written up this week, and have come up with a big, fat zero! We're off to visit my mom and step-dad outside Washington, D.C. next week for Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping to have a bit of free time to work on at least one then.In the meantime, I thought I'd alert you to a sale I ... Read more »
Autumn day outfit #2
Goodness, where has this week gone? That's what happens when you have a cold. Suddenly it's Friday and you feel like you haven't accomplished anything.Since I haven't had the time to write up a blog post, you'll have to make do with another outfit post. Last weekend we went to the International Expo of Sculptural and Functional Art and Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art. My tastes definitely lean to the latter.This was ... Read more »
My guest post at Elegant Musings
Hi everyone! Ever wanted to sew a ribbon button band onto a cardigan? I'm excited to point you to my guest post today over at Casey's Elegant Musings, where you can read my tutorial! See, I told you that you'd hear more about the Campus Compliments cardigan pattern I posted. ;) ... Read more »
An autumn day outfit
I haven't done a real outfit post in awhile!Yes, that's my Halloween beret. While I had my jacket on for most of the pictures in that post, these photos were taken the same day, just sans jacket and scarf. Cheeky, no?This is what I was wearing for the outer portion of the outfit. I'm mainly showing you because I love this doorway. Isn't it amazing? I feel it looks like it's out Europe! It's down the block from our ... Read more »
VKC: Getting started with stranded (fair isle) knitting
This post is the first official lesson in the Vintage Knitting College! I'm starting off with a series of posts for Colorwork: 101. Bestway #82 pattern As you know, you'll be following along with a pullover I'll be knitting from a 1940s pattern, Bestway #82. It's available as a .pdf from the Vintage Knitting Lady here, and available for your Ravelry queue here. But since my goal for the VKC is to ... Read more »