Last week I took the afternoon off for my birthday and went antiquing with my dear friend Meda. We have been antiquing buddies for years, and always have fun hunting for treasures. She is the one who got me into cloche-ing. The bottom two photos in that post are from her house.

One of the things I picked up last week – a stash of old McCall’s Needlework magazines from the early 1950′s. I thought I might make some more mannequins for the shop with some of the color print ads and articles in these magazines. I had fun going through them and seeing that, although the names and styles change, you can always count on certain things with knitting:

Knitters still want their yarn to match well for each project:

People are still knitting socks:

and using sock blockers:

Colorwork is still popular:

There are always “new” techinques which will “revolutionize your knitting”:

People are still wearing needle bracelets (although back then it was a symbol of achievement on a sales person or a knitting instructor):

There are patterns and projects that still make us ask, “What were they thinking?” Like this petal hat:

Or the broken eggshell hat (not to mention those scary stuffed poodles):

Or these attractive belts:

Or these “at-home” shoes:

But the most important thing remains exactly the same, from 1952 to 2012 – always check your gauge:

It makes me wonder which 2012 patterns, techniques and accessories will cause laughter to the knitters in 2072?

Sheri lovingthecostofyarn&patternsbackthen,though