Interesting Stuff today! Knitting next week.

That was an interesting day and it was followed by a really really interesting morning.  My brother stopped over for the night. He has done this a few times during the pandemic and while it does go outside the strict rules, we have been very careful and so far so good.  He is on the way to move his son and his girlfriend home after the winter working in BC. While he was driving, he stopped overnight and dropped off a new TV,  and a box from my sister Kathy.

My old TV died last weekend.  One of the boys gave it to Brian as a Christmas gift in 2012, and it has done the mammoth work of providing TV ever since.  This past year, everyone, Lionel, my dad, and all three of my sons have been nagging me to get a new TV.  But the old one still worked, I said.  Why replace what is still working just fine, says I.  And then, last Saturday morning, it died.  Keith brought up a tv to use till the new one arrived.  He and Lionel had been agitating to get a replacement behind my back so they could watch F1 in sharper clearer TV than last year.  They had measured, and arranged between themselves.  I would accuse them of conspiring to kill the old TV but I was there when it died.  It was a natural TV death.  So, now I have a new TV and things are pretty fancy shmancy.

My sister sent up a box with an old Tupperware thing she thought I might like, and some old magazines.  At first I though there was just one but there were three Mcall's Needlework magazines, Fall and Winter 1951-52, Fall and Winter 1956-57 and Spring and Summer 1956.  They are very worn, with some things cut out and most likely passed on to others, and edges curled and stained and the occasional tear, but there is a lot of good stuff in them, things that would still work today.  Like this sweater, knit from cuff to cuff, with sections of stockinette in one colour and sections in another colour in reverse stockinette.    

With its funnel neckline it still is a pattern you could take and work today and not feel vintage.

Or this one.   This one almost has a familiar feel.  At a glance, the lace pattern looks very similar to the lace in Donna Druchanas Myliu Lino from Knitty Spring and Summer 2015.  The feel of the design is very different, but I do think this pattern too, is timeless. 

There are so many things.

Pages of sweaters, dresses for all occasions, skirts, vests, kids things, mens things.  No socks but then I wasn't really paying that close attention.  I bet if I searched closely I would find one. 

There was this, which looks like a lot of the modular kind of knitting many are doing now to create all sorts of things.  

And afghans, pages and pages of them, with adds featuring the Ripple Afghan, knit or crocheted and where to get kits for them.

And doilies, mostly crocheted but a couple knitted.  To be truthful I thought there would be more of them.

There was all sort of sewing for kids, families, household projects and more.

There was a Canadian supplement, 12 pages with Canada specific ads and where to get supplies like this ad for Standfield's yarn, a company with a really interesting history.  and one that still remains a strong and vibrant operation, though no longer in the wool yarn industry.  

There were ads of the times.  Look carefull at the before and after of the first lady.

I am not sure you can read it but the lower blurb beside the picture reads 'which lets her wear youthful, summer style clothes and go places with her husband.' Yah.  I can laugh at this and make fun of it (the points!) but mostly I am glad that we are a long way from that and not just from the points.

I was thrilled to see this handwritten note in one of them.  It is the only place there are notes but if you take this and look at the patterns cut out, you get a sense of who they were and what they enjoyed doing.  These notes may have been part of an Department of Home Economics assignment of some sort.  See the notation U of S?  That is University of Saskatchewan and Home Ecs was a big department there. Contrary to what many believe, there were many careers available to grads of Home Ec in all sorts of industires if they chose to do that.   

But only one lone cover between the three.  One interesting thing to note that in the last two magazines, the ones, 56-57, there had been the introduction of colour.  Most of it was advertising appearing in colour but each magazine had a few pages with colour project photos.

It was a real treat to get my hands on these, a real delight, thanks to my sister!  These will be available at my house for visiting and tea, once this darn pandemic is over.