As reported in my last post, on our trip to Nundle I bought a few old knitting pattern books. I was very restrained – there were far more there that I didn’t buy! But these ones I couldn’t resist:

Patons ‘Fair Isles’ book, no. 262 In the 1970s, my older sister used an old pattern of my mother’s to knit a fair-isle jumper quite a lot like this, excpet in yellows and oranges – it was gorgeous! Most of the patterns in this book are the same sort of slim-fitting shape, so I’m not planning on knitting any of them just now – but it’s fun looking at the pictures 🙂 Incidentally, my mother told me that she used to knit while listening to 78rpm records. When she was knitting a fair-isle like this, (fine yarns, fine needles) she always aimed to get a row done in the time it took to play one side of a 78 – which, for those young enough not to know, is about 3 minutes!

Patons Knitting Book, No. 204

There are some cute glove patterns in here that I can see myself adapting:

Holiday gloves, from Patons Knitting Book No. 204 (oops! Sorry about it being sidewise!)

Springtime gloves, from Patons Knitting Book No. 204

Voyager gloves, from Patons Knitting Book No. 204

Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 236 (Jackets). I’ve been on the lookout for jacket patterns, and there are some gorgeous ones in this book! (We won’t mention the fact that some of them are sized for women somewhat smaller than me  – because I should be able to upsize patterns and downsize me, right?)

‘City Bound’ from Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 236

‘Knocker’ from Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 236 (Jackets)

‘Patio’ from Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 236 (Jackets)

‘Roamer’ from Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 236 (Jackets)

Patons vintage knitting pattern book – no 6 – socks and gloves. This has a range of basic sock and glove patterns in it.

Australian Womens Weekly vintage knitting pattern book. This has a range of patterns, including jumpers, cardigans, accessories, and also an elegant, long woman’s dressing gown!

I’ve had such fun looking through these that I can see that I’m going to have to resist the urge to begin a large collection of vintage knitting patterns 🙂