Knitting Books

The photos in this post are shoddy. I had candles lit, I took the photos, they looked fine on the camera, they were not fine. By the time I saw how bad they were I’d uploaded them and couldn’t be bothered to start again.

Obviously the photos in the books that I was taking photos of were beautiful so that was a good start. 

As mentioned, I had a little splurge on knitting books...

The first book, Tricots intemporels pour bebes by Astrid Le Provost, is full of classic, beautiful, chic designs. However, it is in French, so some translation required before I can knit anything from it.

These super-cute designs are from the book.

The second book, Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren, is full of vintage patterns from the 1920’s to the late 1950’s, and also contains a lot of interesting information on the history of knitting during this period. A lot of the negative reviews on Amazon said that there weren’t many/any patterns in the book they would knit for a modern baby. Personally, I found just as many in this book, if not more, than I have in books of modern patterns. I love the palette of greys, blues and mustard yellow.

A snippet of information I thought was really interesting was on the use of blue and pink for baby boys and girls. Obviously nowadays most people associate blue with boys and pink with girls but up until around 1920 it was the other way around. This was because pink was seen as close to red and being a ‘stronger’ colour, and blue was associated with the Virgin Mary and gentleness. Once blue began to be used in military uniforms it gradually switched around.

I didn’t put in a picture of it because the one in the book doesn’t do it justice, but Alicia Paulson knitted one of the cardigans in this book and modified it a little. It’s here on her ravelry page. 

I'm going to have to get knitting. 

xxx