ultra-smart

'Ten ultra-smart garments' - oh how I love these old knitting pattern books, if only for the wonderful presentation. I recently received a whole package of them to add to my collection of, hmm, many many dozens.

I'm not sure where to start, with the fetching Maberley there on the left (although I may give the pom-poms a miss) or the very glamorous Judith on the right. Actually, I wouldn't know where to start because so many of these old patterns seem to be written exclusively for a 34 inch bust. I don't need to even convert that to centimetres to know that there's not a chance in Holofernes that this would fit me.

What were you supposed to do back in 1936 if you were in a similar situation? Were all knitters simply expected (required) to know how to size something up or down? I suppose that these days something like Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns would indeed come in handy for working out how many stitches to cast on or increase for larger sizes and I guess that you would just follow some of the design elements or stitch patterns along the way.

Maybe this is why books like Rowan's Vintage Knits are so appealing - half a dozen sizes, contemporary yarns and ssk instead of slkpsso (even if you don't speak knitting, you can see that the former is simpler than the latter). Now that is smart. Which brings me around to Jarrett, Tim's great garment of 2011 (TGG11): it is almost finished, although I have taken no photographs to prove this. I have one elbow patch, button and buttonhole bands and collar to go. Oh, and all the seaming but never mind that.