Monday Vintage Craft Book Feature: The Sweater Book (Great Britain, 1982)

Another of my many needlework hobbies is the collection of vintage craft books.  Found in dusty corners of second hand shops, in pride of place in used book stores, these old tomes often contain beautiful nuggets of crafting wisdom, and a heaping helping of vintage charm.  Reviving the techniques, tips and retro projects is just one more way for us to bring back the wonders of the handmade.

The Sweater Book - Great Britain, 1982

I almost left this book behind, just based on the cover image.  I couldn't imagine finding anything I wanted to knit in it.  Fortunately I took a closer look, since this book does hide a few treasures behind the cringe-worthy retro designs.

Unless you really want to go authentic for an 80's themed party, the sweater designs are not very appealing.  It was actually difficult to pick which pages to show in this post, since they were all so humorously bad, but here are the best (worst?) of the bunch:

           

So if the sweater designs aren't good for more than just a laugh, why was this book worth getting?  Well, while the sweaters themselves are pretty terrible, some of the color and stitch patterns are actually quite neat.  Re-imagined into different shapes and styles of garments, many of the patterns would be very stylish.  That alone is what tempted me to keep the book, but the sheer volume of instructional information in the book is what sealed the deal.

This book is nearly 150 pages long, and most of that is dedicated to the 50 sweaters.  But fully 50 pages are given to instructional information.  It is a veritable how to manual for knitting.  It is restricted to techniques used in the sweater patterns, but that is still quite an extensive list.  Each technique has clear descriptions and multiple helpful illustrations.  On top of this is added sections on yarn types and styles, caring for knitted garments, multiple conversion charts and even a bit on how to alter the patterns to your fit.

For anyone who doesn't already have a dedicated how-to reference for knitting, scan the vintage knitting books at the local thrift store.  You may just find a treasure like this with all the info you need to tackle that new challenge.  And the sweater pictures are always good for a laugh.