Perhaps you’ve noticed a lack of posts recently. Perhaps you’ve been too enomoured of the changing seasons to even notice. Perhaps my ego’s puffed up enough to assume anyone actually notices anything about a particular website before immediately clicking on to the next series of animated GIFs (featuring kitties, of course). Of late time has become a more precious commodity, due to the slowly dwindling amount of daylight to burn, the toll of the daily grind, and what I’ll loosely refer to as ‘The Saturn Return’. Mark Twain said it best when he wrote, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” I’d hate to think of this site as work, and, for now at least, will limit Free Pattern Fridays to a vague schedule of every other week-ish, or whenever I find a genuinely exellent pattern to write about and share.

So much for the ‘bad news’; on to the good: this week’s patternsssssss(plural) include a most delightful removable Peter Pan collar, a dainty belt, wee rosebud jewelry, and a change purse. The change purse (or ‘compact cover’, to hide the shameful fact you powder your nose) I could live without, but who knows, perhaps someone on your holiday gift list has been dying for some way to keep their loose change just like the folks on ‘Mad Men’.

(Here’s what’s on the table this week.)

Speaking of directions, apparently I have to come right out and state the blindingly obvious: THESE PATTERNS ARE FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. DO NOT TAKE THE IMAGES AND SELL THEM, DO NOT PASS THEM OFF AS YOUR OWN. Linking to them is totally fine; printing a copy out for your own use is fine, but anything that involves you taking them and making money off of them, STOP. DO NOT PASS GO. Fellow free-pattern sharer Bex recently alerted me that an Ebay seller stole images from our websites and sold (is selling) them in her store. On the downside, this is extremely rude, lazy and annoying. We post these patterns FOR FREE, buying or digging through archives for the originals, spending time scanning and cleaning them up, not to mention maintaining a website where people can find them, all for the sheer love of vintage knitting goodness. So when someone comes along and snags the images to make a quick buck, it hurts.

On the upside, this is the first time it’s happened in my several years of sharing, and in a rare burst of good mood I shall take that as a general sign humanity, or the chunk of it that enjoys looking at vintage patterns, generally understands what theft is and avoids it. Now, onward to patriotic knitwear!

Note the strange, ‘New Yorker’-like cartoon in the upper left. This issue is filled with surreal ‘jokes’ about knitting and knitwear that never quite reach a normal level of funny. Why would someone knit in an operating room? Why would that specifically distract the surgeon? So few answers.

EDITED TO ADD:
A larger image of the chart.

Yes, no more pencils, no more books, except for the full set of Proust’s ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ (that’s how most kids spend their summer, right? That or deeply immersed in the Teapot Dome scandal?). It’s almost surprising to see ‘algebraic symbols’ used as decor in an age where the phrase ‘guys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses’ pointed out the social stigma of girlsmarts (clearly demonstrated by eyewear) and the horror of it possibly impinging your marriage potential (don’t worry about that any more, ladies.)

hi·a·tus [hahy-ey-tuhs]
–noun, plural -tus·es, -tus.

1. a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.
2. a missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript.
3. any gap or opening.

For the next season I’ll most likely keep ‘summer hours’; fewer posts while I attempt to make hay while the sun shines (sort of literally). In the meantime please enjoy this belated pattern in honor of Memorial Day and Fleet Week, the twice-yearly opportunity to scream ‘HEYYYYY SAIIILOOOR!’ on a crowded street without seeming like a complete nutjob.

Described as a ‘beach ensemble’, this 1934 outfit from Minerva manages to combine all the ridiculous fashions of the last few seasons: hats worn in inappropriate settings, rompers, ‘retro’-mania, too-short and too-long skirts, giant tassels, and to top it off, a giant pom-pom.

Actually the skirt’s not so bad, an appropriate tea-length nowhere near the silliness of this season’s ‘maxi’ length. Ladies, if you find a need to hold up the bottom of your outfit to avoid constantly tripping over it, it no longer meets the basic requirements of safety and has tipped over to the frippery of fashion. Then again, stripper heels (aka ‘platform heels’) are suddenly everywhere so we’ll probably see a lengthening of skirts and heightening of heels until we’re back in Italian Renaissance chopine territory. My, this section’s become an outlet for bitching cattily about fashion!

Honestly folks, wear whatever you want. If studying clothing throughout history has taught me anything it’s that every form of dangerous, ridiculous excess and exaggeration has been and will be tried, and this year’s model is no better or worse than what came 100 years before (except for maybe foot-binding, let’s not do that again).

I’ve taken the liberty of enlarging and coloring in the intarsia anchor pattern, also useful for cross-stitchery or over-embroidering onto an existing knit.

Speaking of which, this week’s pattern was designed specifically for the ultimate in zoned-out bliss, the floating hedonism that is a cruise. It hearkens to a distant era when the following were all absolutely normal: 1) You and your well-heeled friends would take a month off genteel parlor boozing to cruise to warmer climes. 2) You would have an outfit, nay, SEVERAL outfits specifically for use on the boat IN ADDITION to outfits specifically for eating/drinking both on and off the boat. 3) These outfits would be entirely knitted… 4) …by you, after imbibing a ladylike 2 gallons of rum. At least, that’s the general impression I get from Hemingway novels, 30s drink recipes and various etiquette manuals of the time. The cruise menu items are even boozed up! (check out the ‘soused mackerel’ and the exceedingly long ‘beverage’ list)

It seems appropriate then, that the pattern (the one on the right), incorporates ‘purposefully’ dropped stitches along with the cabling. It’s a simple yet interesting (and in summer, cooling) combination of heavy and airy.

The pattern includes a blouse, skirt, coat, scarf, and I’m surprised it didn’t include knitted heels. I recommend listening to the original ‘Anything Goes’ soundtrack on loop while working on it.

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The suggested color combination is baby blue with royal blue, but come on, we all know this should, nay, will, be white and navy.

(The first tip-off was the hard-lined hair.)

For sanity’s sake, work this pattern in the round up to the armholes. As the front and back are worked the same, there’s absolutely no reason not to, unless you have a sadistic love of mattress stitch.

There’s also none of the waist shaping hinted at in the photo, which would make it more closely resemble the coat on the right. If you’d like, either add a few more stitches to the bottom when casting on initially and decrease evenly to the arm, or just start with the amount given, decrease until you hit a length you like, then increase until you’re up at the arm with the number of stitches given. With instructions that vague I could get a job writing turn-of-the-century recipes.

The 1930s tunic pattern comes courtesy of Minerva Vol. 40. Its assembly involves points meeting at the neck and shaping comes courtesy of a belt. The sleeves, hem and belt stand out from the body using nubbly moss stitch. While it looks very classy in white, might I also suggest cardinal red, forest green, or perhaps a bright jewel blue?

(Seriously, just picture her with a feather in her cap.)

A black skirt pattern is included, but really, why put in all that effort when we’re moving towards a pantsless society? In about 5 years all anyone will wear bottomwise are tights, leggings, jeggings, and probably some new portmanteaus like sleggings and bleggings. I say beat the fashion industry to the punch, pop on some tights and prance around with your band of merry fellows (codpiece optional).

While they can be and often are made ridiculous, what with the fashion industry currently showcasing them with topknots and KISS boots, tunics are versatile, everyday wardrobe pieces that can be layered, dressed up, worn on their own or with some sort of soon-to-be-obsolete leg-covering called ‘pants’. The tiny gauge means it’ll take longer than the average sweater, but in a classic color it’s worth it. Or screaming orange, maybe that’ll work out too.

For anyone else gearing up for a visit, do not do what I did and watch the following movies:

‘Mamma Roma’ (Pier Paolo Passolini) – a bleak tale of a mother willing to sacrifice everything for love of her son in poor, postwar Rome. It does not go so well.

‘The Bicycle Theif’ (Vittorio DeSica) – a bleak tale of one man’s quest to get back the bicycle on which his and his family’s livelihood depends. It does not go so well.

‘La Strada’ (Frederico Fellini) – a naîve young girl joins a man in a traveling roadshow, bearing his many cruelties. It does not go so well.

“La Dolce Vida’ (Frederico Fellini) – a jaded newspaper writer hangs out with a bunch of nihilistic rich hedonists as they try not to stare too hard at the void in their lives. It does not go so well.

Each film painted a more harrowing picture than the next. So instead of a long, dark journey into night, I recommend watching ‘Roman Holiday’, starring the always-charming Audrey Hepburn.

It highlights the beauty of Rome without using it as a backdrop for humanity’s cruelties, though it is sort of bittersweet. This week’s pattern is the sort of dress she might wear if she had another day free to wander. Well, she doesn’t because she’s a princess and they have responsibilities, dammit. But you can whip this up and trot about to your heart’s content!

Something else I love is that the original owner of the pattern actually made it, and wrote down her start and end dates. It took her, a presumably skilled knitter, two years to complete. That’s probably accurate.

As usual, click for full-size images.