Back in fashion or... not

This week I got out of town to see a friend, who presented me with this gem from her local thrift shop:

She knows me so well. And she was even willing to pay the cover price...

...which made the actual checkout price of 44 cents a lovely surprise!

Seriously, though these old 1970s knitting brochures are usually good for a laugh and not much else, this one has some intriguing designs.

Here's the centre spread. See anything you like?

The scarf on the right, perhaps? or the mittens along the bottom?

This helmet and mitten combo was super common in the 1940s but I kinda love seeing it on a 1970s kid who's cool enough to carry it off. (ish.)

That gathering at the wrist is super practical for snow festings, too.

Okay... let's be honest. This looks like a boy who's loved by his gramma, and is willing to humour her all the way out of her sight, till her gifts are lodged in a hedge for later pickup. Still like these pieces though.

 

Also, colour me intrigued with these gloves, which are knit on two needles and have a fetching wrist strap: 

 

In case you're wondering, as I did, how this magic is worked... there's a handy illustration:

Start from the pinkie, work your way across to the thumb, stay there long enough to cover the other side of the thumb, and work back to the pinkie. Now I'm wondering if they're comfortable and I can think of a good way to find out!

 

Okay let's get to my top faves: a turtleneck sweater, and the bootie slippers from the back cover:

Here's a closeup of the sweater that shows what struck me most: the garter stitch upper bodice and matching turtleneck!

That'd be kind comfy in soft yarn, don't you think? And warm, like having a shawl already wrapped around your sweater. I'm not sure how it would look on, but I'm really tempted to give it a go.

The bootie slippers, however, speak for themselves. I love the coarse stitch on them.

 

On the flip side, I'm bewildered by the idea of a tassel on the back of a shawl, just low enough to be a lump to sit on (or maybe it's meant to draw attention?) and alternative bootie slippers that lace up like a hot girl girdle. Seems deliberate, since the slip in element of slippers are the whole point of them, though when they're shown in colour, in bright yellow and orange, I guess they're meant to evoke high cut sneakers?

 

These cushions on the other hand are right in style. Everybody likes a nice textured pillow nearby when curling up for a nice long binge-watch.

That's it for me today - gotta get outside and pitch in on garden duty! Hope your weekend's lovely, either super peaceful or super fun according to your needs. Thanks for spending this bit of it with me and I'll see you next Saturday!

 

(oh... and I did do some in-car knitting around that visit with my friend, and made a lil progress with my summer stripe socks!)