Vintage yarn and pattern books

Mrs. T has been exploring her attic. She didn't only trace back her grandmothers (vintage) yarn but also a lot of vintage knitting pattern books.

This one (above) is great. It's a mail order leaflet for 3 suisess from 1959. (As grandmother lived on an island, she mostly ordered yarn by mail). The funny thing is, Mrs'T has got some of the yarns which are mentioned in this book!

Like these ball's of Cosy yarn. Not really a left over, cause there are 12 balls of it! "I think my grandmother must have been shocked by the bright yellow color. That must be the reason she never used it." say Mrs. T.

This packet was never even opened!

This page features the baby yarn mrs. T has dyed yesterday. No more baby yellow.

Not only sweet little babies show of in this leaflet, but elderly people too! It's mr. Sipkes from Eindhoven and his wife. Not the kind of 'young looking happy rich senior' that you see in modern advertisments. Mr. Sipkes has been a waiter for 45 years, and it shows. But fortunately his wife knits his socks with Suizanyl yarn - wool with a bit of nylon and therefor indistructable.

In one of the pictures we see mrs. Sipkes reading a magazine in front of the radio. The text tell's us she has lots of extra spare time now she doesn't have to darn mr. Sipkes socks anymore!

That's must have encouraged mrs. T's grandmother to buy a bunch of Suisanyl balls. Indeed, it still looks indistructable...even after 50 years on the attic!

Fifty years ago it was common to knit ones own underwear. This bont-jaeger was especially meant for it.

Classic sweaters were supposed to be knit from this fine Prestige yarn. Maybe mr. Sipkes would have liked it too...

"I love this Solaria yarn. My grandmother left me a few of these yellow balls. There are also some red ones, which look the same but have no wraps anymore. I don't know what to knit of it. The two colours don't combine very well." says mrs. T.

Knitters in the fifties and sixties must have loved Solaria too, because 3Suisses had this yarn for a long time. The wraps and the colours have changes a bit through the years:

Some more vintage knitting books and magazines:

Some very old knitting books and one crochet book (up).

"I love looking into these books. They must be from the thirties of forties. It's lovely to look at the clothes people wore in those days, but also at their hairdo, toys and furniture." says mrs. T about the books below.

"This magazine is a lot more modern. I guess it's from the sixties. Some patterns in it I like very much. One sweater for sure is on my To Do List. Some other are really hilarious!" says mrs. T.

This magazine (up) for sure is from the seventies. But like most others there is no exact year printed on it.

"Maandblad voor handwerken" and "Ariadne"

Very exciting too are these very old handicraft magazines. There are lots and lots of them in the attic. The oldest ones date from the fourties, the oldest are from the ninties. The magazine still excists in the Netherlands, but changed its name several times. From 'maandblad voor handwerken' to 'Ariadne' (195something) to "At Home" in the nineties. Unfortunatly it's not a real handicraft magazine anymore, but mostly about interior decorating.