Vintage

I've been avoiding buying yarn lately (well, not much point doing a stashdown otherwise) so instead my attention has turned to books and patterns. I picked up a vintage copy of Paton's First Steps in Crochet on Ebay:

That's actually the back cover, which is far more colourful than the front cover, which just has a large piece of blue crochet on it. This was my mother's go-to book for crochet, and I borrowed it countless times - I think her copy is probably quite scruffy now, so it was nice to find a fairly pristine copy online. It's mostly black and white inside, alas. My sister and I had single-bed versions of this afghan, made from lots of oddments. I felt mine was more balanced, having a spectrum of colours - my sister's was more red, white and blue.

I also picked up another vintage crochet leaflet:

Not least because I was inspired by a lovely edging (originally a handkerchief edging) that HilaryGermany put around a plain shawl. I even went as far as working it out from the photograph.

I've also lusted after the Piecework reprints of Weldon's Practical Needlework for some time:

Not enough to want to collect every single volume, mind - especially for the silly money some of the early volumes go for. But hey, now I have a knitting pattern for ladie's cycling shorts and men's swimming trunks! :) Plus a baby's crocheted bonnet which has ruffles, pompoms and pretty much every kind of embellishment it's possible to add. I pity the child forced to wear it, it would scar them for life.

Still trying to resist buying 400g of Kauni EQ, though - and Ravelry keeps advertising it to me, as if it somehow knows! Argh!

Knitting machines are theoretically down to 9 - one is to be picked up today, and one is promised to a fellow Raveller. The Toyota will go back on Ebay after the May MKKI event I think.
Current mood: inspired