Good Ol' Days of Knitting Magazines

I was doing laundry today and rescuing socks from behind my dresser when I realized at one point I had knocked over some magazine behind my coffee table without realizing. That was an unnecessarily detailed sentence to introduce today's post: Vintage Knitting Pictures! Woo!

I have a lot of vogue magazines and booklets and the such from the 80s and 90s but I don't want to get into those too much. Not only are they not really 'vintage' but they are not nearly as interesting as the 60s. I mean, sure they have some good patterns....
and wonderfully hilarious photos of men.... (does anyone else think this photo is, um, you know, or is it just me?)
and I love finding layouts that could have been shot today...
and I mean, they are worth it just for the cigarette ads sure but... (I know! If smoking isn't pleasurable just quit! Surely there is nothing else keeping you smoking)
I just can't be okay with the 80s. AUGH!
The blue eyeshadow!
The feathered hair!
The creepsters!
The child abuse!
Yes, those are knit cabled pants. You can deny it all you want. There they are.

Other parts of my collection include a lot of authentic images put onto the most unflattering generic sweater patterns ever.
I've got a lot of Christmas knitting planned and I'm thinking this would be appropriate. Along with the scrunchie.
The disney stuff is the best by far. They have some lovely little sweaters...

but then they go so wrong. And so far into the wrong. They just can't come back from these things.

See this is what started the sweater curse! It's not 'when you knit your boyfriend a sweater he'll leave you' it's 'when you knit your partner a mickey mouse sweater that you expect her to wear with you at the same time they will leave you'.
And I love the edge-y 'I'm wearing Baloo' look. Nothing quite says bad ass like oversized disney sweaters.
And see! More child abuse!
Um, all that being said I do want this Cruella De'Ville sweater.
Regardless of the good though, and regardless of all the great badness, it's the 60s that I love. Sure, sure, yes of course, they had their bad.

The kicker with their bad is that these are all knit at 8 or 9 stitches per inch on tiny needles.

Nothing like an all knit outfit for that awkward first day of high school!

Or, you know, for the first day at work. In a knit chanel suit. Cause, you know, yeah.

The 60s had better men. They weren't creepsters. They did things like hang out with pipes.

These two were just a drop in the hat.

They were real men, or boys, and you could tell by the guns...
the awesome vest with threatening rolled up newspaper...
the corset...?
And unlike the 80s, these men had good hair. I mean, look at this 80s man!

It's all over the place!
Show some respect man!

I also wanted to put these patterns up because I know my friend Rachel is looking for a knit dress pattern. Look no further! The 60s were full of excellent dresses.
And you can knit the belt to match! Also, no bad hair! These hair styles DEMAND respect!
They also knew how to accessorize back then.
Lots of people say stockinette stitch helps them relax. This is the dress for all of you then.
High fashion indeed. Good job ladies.

As well, the patterns from the 60s seemed more diverse. Tonnes of great sock patterns, though yeah, could have gone without the dismembered feet, but hey.
Threw this one in to disprove that whole 'chunky knitting is new'. This 1961 number is three stitches an inch! Quite a few of these gauges throughout the magazines.
Again with the ability of people back then to accessorize! Interweave should take some pointers. The hats! The gloves! The brooch! The belt! The obviously very interesting thing just off of the set!

'Is that man wearing a corset?'

Some of the patterns were tricky with very unique construction.
And some I want to knit just because I want to enter the names into Ravelry. This one is called Gay and Charming. You'll queue it. Oh yes you will.
It's funny how these patterns are coming back in style. There are a lot of raglans, capped sleeves, and deep ribbing. I've earmarked (not literally, I hate that) quite a few that I want to knit. This one was a great neckline...
the boat neck seed stitch in this one is lovely...
capped sleeves and stripes! Why if she's that happy I know I will be too!
Classic!
Lovely!
Structured and detailed.
It's actually between two that I want to cast on. The first one is called 'Rhumba' and was published in the 196os by Patons & Baldwin in Toronto.
I would knit it with a longer rib but otherwise not change much!

My other pattern is the one that started my vintage buying frenzy. It's called 'With Sea Horses and Peacocks' (awesome) and was published by Patons & Baldwin around the same time as 'Rhumba'.
See? The 60s, while completely comical and fun, didn't have the cringe worthy painfulness of the 70s and 80s (and 90s). We can laugh at them and come away not feeling like never talking to our parents again. And they have trends that either never left or that are coming back! And unlike leggings, I welcome these trends.

And after this long post I think I need a glass of wine. Cheers!