First a waa…

I need some sleep! My neighbors have been practicing some electronic music in the very wee hours. Monday night’s sleep was disrupted from about 2:30 to 4, Tuesday’s about the same… and there was a drum set involved in this one, and last night’s at just before 4 am… Since I get up around 5:30, I never got back to sleep. I can do this on occasion (which has been the issue in the past), but not night after night after night.

I would have gone over and banged on their door… but… the young men are unpredictable, and one has a history of violence, and DH is out of town (coming home tomorrow evening… yay!). I don’t fear so much for my safety, but for retribution to my property when I’m not home, that my dogs could find some tasty poisoned treat in the yard, and worst of all is the worry that kiddo (who is nearly 13) is here alone now for an hour or so in the afternoon.

When I came home for lunch today, I stayed, and crashed on the couch for a bit… When I picked up some food at the store (within a mile of us), I realized that if I had to drive any distance, I would be putting myself and others on the road in some serious danger because I was so tired.

I did talk to their mother this evening. I think she’s heavily medicated, either professionally or on her own… not much going on behind her eyes these days. She may be afraid of her boys, I don’t know.

And the other waaa…

This morning when I walked kiddo the 5 blocks to his bus stop (an excuse to go for a quick walk with the girls before work), I saw two men with funny backpacks.

They were herbiciding my street!

I thought we could walk the sidewalk, but they herbicided that too. I should have left the girls home, but I didn’t.

I did call public works and complain, and sent an email to the director of public works and to the mayor. WTF were they thinking, doing a spray application at the hour that young people are out and about walking to their bus stops???? Shouldn’t they notify the residents? What if somebody had a serious chemical sensitivity? Even though I changed my shoes and washed my hands, I smelled herbicide on my hands for an hour or two. Maybe it’s just because I was pissed.

little waa…

Missing knit night this week… too much going on in the ‘hood here.

But I am lucky

I got to have a 10 week old puppy in my office for a half hour or so this morning… and on my lap much of the time. The rest of the time he was chewing my shirt, my toes, my phone cord, the window cords…. He’s a border collie lab mix named Trip. His “dad” blogs here, Turnorama, where he has just posted pics of Trip! Check out those little piranha teeth! Bill’s got some amazing photos there of places he’s been… most recently Labrador.

and other luckiness

I joined freecycle some time ago, and just this morning responded to a notice… and came home with these,

Mini waaa… can’t find the scanner cord, so I took some pics from Modern Needlecraft, No. 53, dated 1963 I think. It’s the green one with the butt ugly crocheted sweater on the front.

The green sweater on the right reminds me a bit of the cobblestone pullover… all mixed up.

and what about those shoes???

Here’s a version with big buttons, or bobbles, or I don’t know what

and you know what I think of bobbles…

The ribbed guy sweater is good though…

And do you think the little ornament inset is telling us we should be wearing this at holiday parties???

I know leggings are coming back into fashion (::shudder::), but let’s hope it is never again like this,

Here’s hoping for a good night’s sleep! I’ll be running the fan for some white noise.

As in Gentlemen Prefer

What do gentlemen prefer? From the pics in this pattern book, I’d say each other. Or the fruit (notice the placement of those bananas).

I saw this in the book from SIL, and thought I must have it. Found it on ebay, and it was here very quickly and for under $3.50. Cheap entertainment!

Do all they guy sweater books have men with rods?

“I see what I desire”

…and it isn’t this lady on my arm….

1967, a time when vermouth on the table was part of a knitting book,

and check out the high tech radio!

Hands off our meat, lady…

This is the only picture where the male model looks somewhat interested in the female model,

Or maybe he’s just coveting her cool shiny jacket?

(use your Arnold voice here)
We are men, men with equipment, men with

big

equipment

They couldn’t have cameras with regular lenses…. no. no. no.

Um….

(love the coy bend in his knee)

The rest of the pictures from this booklet are at the bottom of this flickr set. Were men’s trousers tighter back in the day? Were they like the Hotel Syracuse (no ballroom)? Or is it to whet our appetites that these model’s drawers are a tad snug in certain areas?

Even though this is the fall/winter issue, the green seems appropriate for March…

Again, most of what’s in here is not so bad. Some I like quite a lot…

This needle case reminds me of scientific boxes for things like microscopes (different shape…)

ok, so who’s going to make these and market them? would we want something in such a hard case anymore?

Another ad, what’s with the aviator caps from this era?

Enter high fashion…

This looks to me like something that should be worn in an old futuristic sci-fi flick that takes place on the moon or something. This one too,

They were still wearing gloves!

I love the dark suit. The houndstooth? It says it was knit in magenta and mustard! (I’d probably like it better in color…)

More suits

I also love the suit here on the left. Not that I’m any kind of suit kind of gal… but I like a short-ish and comfy skirt, and the sweater jacket sure looks nicer than a flannel shirt! (which I probably have worn with a skirt, paired with hiking socks and boots-though not lately, even so, I am still a bit of a fashion criminal).

This dress made it into a then and now picture in one of the 1980’s issues (couldn’t find it, but I saw it within the last couple of weeks).

Some good sweaters…
 love the neck on the one on the right…

there were a couple of other good ribbed sweaters…

one of several good tweedy things, don’t ya love the stockings?

They were still putting out patterns for coats.

WHAT is the deal with the head there? Are they supposed to be taking in a museum or something? They look totally frightened.

I have said before how I feel about bobbles, so you know this one does not appeal to me,

And then, as you might imagine from the cover, there were the paillettes

the one on the right is in turquoise and silver!  With matching after-dark cap (what the heck is that???)

And the back page ad? Maybe I should wear one of these headdresses to the next interagency meeting?

What knitters were excited about back when…
(I need some filler since I have only some secret knitting going on, and no, it’s not dh’s sweater, which just sits in its bag…)

The model on the right reminds me of Penny Marshall as Laverne.

The ads were a little scary…

Whoever wrote the Coneheads skits must’ve seen this ad as a child. (I can only find links to pictures from the movie…)

Look like anybody we know who will soon be leaving public office (him not her) in 317 days 8 hours and 40-some minutes? (thanks Julie!)

There was nothing totally hideous in here, well, except for a couple of nasty ponchos. The shells, dresses, sweaters, suits (!), and coats were mostly OK, some I even liked. Things were still fitted, but you can catch glimpses of the whole hippy oops, hippie thing starting.

Someting about this appealed to me, not sure if it is the shape of the top, the buttons down the side, or the crazy scarf around her hair (which is funny with the gold pearls),

Flower power?

Her face must’ve been ripped off by some reader’s thumb at some point. The flower is awful, but the sweater is good. I like the hemmed edge.

This coat (part of a suit!) might transform into an interesting sweater…

And I like this one too,

Well…. those patterns do look a little like hearts, so maybe not so much…

Fall/Winter 1967 was more fun… that’ll be another post…

Woman’s Day, January 1972! This has been entertaining me perhaps a bit more than the typical old knitting pattern booklets. Because of the advertisements. And the articles.

They give a pretty mixed message about hair,

Notice, in the first, she looks so much healthier as a brunette in the inset picture. And, notice that it is the brunette in the second ad that is actually getting any action. But I wonder about that action… it’s the tightest lipped pucker I’ve ever seen.

Not sure what color your hair should be? Well, maybe you should be smoking and playing cards…

Her skin is very wrinkly! And her teeth must be hidden because they are stained? This was before photoshop, but the picture looks touched so that the tip of the cigarette is blue-ish, and there’s a steady stream of smoke.

Oh, and there are at least four ads that would have you think that you need to smell better, especially in certain areas. The very first article? Open Marriage, the Happy Solution, adapted from the book on the subject by Nena O’Neill and George O’Neill.

Why yes, there is some knitting in this edition…

Scary red stuff (though that vest shape on the right seems to be making a bit of a comeback, thankfully without hearts and flowers).

Need knit pants?

Something about these both appeal to me. But something is also disturbing, so they are not on my to do list!

What I remember from 1972… Sixth grade science class.  It was an election year. We talked about the election (I have no idea why we did this in science class…). Who would I have voted for? I said Nixon, because he said he’d bring our people home from Vietnam, and because I was (was?) gullible and naive and I believed him. I had no idea about political parties. After Watergate, everybody had bumper stickers that said Don’t Blame Me, I’m from Massachusetts, because the ‘real’ voters where I lived made Mass the only state that voted for Nixon’s opponent, McGovern.  What else I remember about sixth grade science… the teacher (a man) had a Dawn Doll (a naked Dawn Doll) in his desk drawer.

The birthday sweater? I have come up to the neckline on the front (the back section is done) at least three times and have taken it back. By the end of the day during the week, I am just done with problem solving, so I haven’t the energy to do this. It’s not hard, just a matter of starting the neckline cast off low enough so I can finish it before I get to the same height as the back. grumble grumble grumble

Doggy news…
Sid visited again this weekend. We think he already has more use of his hurt foot than the vet had cautiously predicted, and he continues to improve, so he may regain full use. He runs fairly gracefully in the snow, but gimps about on the hard floor, though he is actually putting weight on it. Sadly I did not get a good pic.

I trimmed the girls’ faces. DH is now calling Zuzu baboon face. Hmmmphphhphphph….

gracie and zuzu