Get Right Down to the Knitty Gritty

The other day, Allison was kind enough to give me a few McCall's Needlework & Craft magazines dating from 1969-1972. I finally paged through them (my, the owl motif was certainly popular back them!) and found, to my delight, a gaggle of models-turned actresses. Some were in ads, although most were in editorial. Here we have Cybill Shepherd:


Then I found Susan Blakeley in an advertisement. I didn't know she was a model first.


Then I came across the unmistakable mug of Veronica Hamel. No one could replicate that hairline and those cheekbones.


Then there's this lady, who appears in all the Knitking ads. I'm thinking she had to be an owner of the company or something. My photos of the photos do not show just how bright and heavy her eye makeup is (although if you click on them you can see a bigger image and the makeup pops more). I'd think she was a drag queen, but she's not pretty enough.


There are lots of ads for different knitting machines in these magazines. So many that I was wondering why it was I had never come across one at a thrift store or an estate or rummage sale. I'm sure I had seen several of the completed projects at sales before; in fact, I found the directions for a cute knitted owl potholder that looked familiar. Then I realized that I had found a completed one at an estate sale and had given it to Dana. I must say that whomever made it did a fine job as it looked exactly like the photo (complete with googly eyes!). So, we're at a half-price garage sale today and what do we stumble upon? Yes, you guessed it, a knitting machine. For $6.25. Is there any question that it became mine?


I must be living right as my thrifting karma is treating me so well.

UPDATE: I think I hate the knitting machine. I managed to get a piece of fabric about 20 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick knitted before the carriage jammed. I'm not sure I have the patience it might require.

Three Schools and a Church

Even though the dreadful cold and rainy weather was not very inviting, it was full speed ahead to three schools and one church for their rummage sales. All my money today would be going to support religious endeavors. Hmmm...Unfortunately the one secular sale (at Pattonville High School) was cancelled which we did not know until we got there. Long distance for nothing. Bleh! And some mom at Nerinx Hall forgot to put an awesome little vintage cat pin in my bag. Waaah! However, at that same NH sale I purchased this original oil painting for $1. Please please please let it be worth something!


This next photo shows the Velveeta keeper ( complete with little cheese guillotine! Love it!), metal hang-y thing for ye olde crafte boothe jewelry, two delightful cookbooks (oh how I love luridly colored photographs of meat!), a tiny lidded pan, and a beautiful little bone-handled fork.


Here's a sweet book I found at the church sale (yes, boobies! at the church!). Inside page shown purely for juvenile reasons.


Here's the jewelry I did get at Nerinx. I figure if a Catholic can give medals to a rummage sale, then I can use said medals in my jewelry without worrying about it. And I figure I can take apart the necklace and use the chain bits for other stuff. But, oh, how I pine for that little cat pin...


OK, I was advised to NOT buy this purse. My inner gaudy old lady would not let me pass it by, particularly for $1. It *is* leather and, yeah, it is kind of gaudy, but it's really soft and I like the shape. Get rid of the admittedly icky fake gemstones and it would be way better.

Check this out. The cutest/scariest lion bank. I love this thing. Love it.


At Principia, I relieved them of about 30 pounds of children's books. Hopefully I can get some good images out of them. You can't really tell from the picture, but the book at the upper left is all about primates! Monkeys monkeys monkeys!


And finally, the rest of the haul, all of this from my Principia everything-that-fits-in-a-bag-is-$1 sale. As you can see, Lydia was enjoying marching on the mohair plaid scarf from Scotland. She is now curled up, sound asleep on said scarf. Along with the scarf, a thick cotton cardigan, a homemade sundress (which I bought for the teensy flowered cotton fabric), a mysterious hanging thing which is backed with the fabulous animal print fabric, a vintage wool embroidered Russ sweater, a burgundy leather clutch, a funny little brown leather zippered case and one of those expandable peg hanger things. A good day!

If it's Wednesday, It Must Be a Church Rummage Sale

Yep, it's a Wednesay and Thursday rummage sale at St. Lucas church on Morganford. Not a whole lot of stuff overall, but some nice finds. The question remains: do I go back tomorrow to fill a bag for $1?

Inventory: black leather clutch with chain handle, kitten heel black leather Mary Jane pumps, clown costume pattern, sewing craft book from 1078, children's book from 1966, two silk scarves, and six skinny silk ties. And the shoes fit, always a big bonus.

Because I Love Battlestar Galactica

Olive the Enforcer

Olive has been, well, terrorizing me lately. In Olive terms this means she sits and stares at me (in a vaguely threatening way) until I break under her will and let her do whatever it is she's wanting at that moment. Recently that has meant either me making my entire torso available to her as her kitty bed, or offering my head for her to lick product out of my hair (if I don't offer it willingly, she uses claws to get her way). Anyway, since she's insisting on being literally in my face, I thought I'd take some photos of her.

Estate Sale Loot 4-7-07

Some good stuff today, all from one St. Louis Hills sale. An apartment, even.

1. Three-tiered metal corner shelf. Probably intended for the powder room, but will now be serving time in thee crafte boothe.
2. Pantry carousel thingy. In a delightfully 70s avocado green. This will also be doing duty in thee boothe.
3. Multi-drawered thing, usually meant for nails and stuff, but will now be used for beads and other jewelry components.

4. Four knitting publications, the Vogue ones from 1956 and 1965 (both with some FABULOUS patterns and photos), a Coats & Clark's "Sweaters" from 1955, and a Bear Brand sock pattern collection from 1950.

5. A couple dozen each of paper daisies and some black and white flowers, made in Japan and purchased originally at Pier 1.














6. Two packs of cocktail napkins. This lady had many, many unopened packages of novelty napkins.




















7. Jewelry inventory: 18", thick silver chain necklace; very long multi-strand silver necklace; gold flower clip-on earrings; gold clip-on dangly chain chandelier earrings; gold pierced circles and balls chandeliers; and gold and white enamel multi-dot post earrings.










































8. Assorted books, some old, some new.














9. And, oh yeah, I forgot to take a photo of the Connee Boswell record that could be worth quite a bit more than we paid for it.

10. One more thing, thrown in for free, what I think might be a Lara Croft action figure.

Ugh

Three or four days of cold weather and I'm already back to feeling like gloomy crap. I should have at least gone out in the sunshine today, I guess.

And, oh yeah, I meant to mention last week that I love Lou Diamond Phillips. Not *that* way, dirty pants.

Fire is the Devil's Only Friend

I like fire. I like fire so much that I know if I had a house with a fireplace, I'd soon be, well, homeless because I'd burn it down messing around with the fireplace. Anyway, next best thing is that I have a chiminea in the back yard. It gets hot, really really hot. Flames shoot out the top. It's so cool. We also have three trees in our yard which results in many, many sticks lying about. I collect those sticks in a pile for the times I can sit in front of the chiminea and burn them all up. Today was that day. First I mowed the front yard with the manual push mower I got from my mom and that was surprisingly easy, even though the grass was still quite wet with dew. Steve mowed the back with the power mower and then I commenced to burning. I'm not sure it's legal, though it's not much different than if I barbecued with wood, right? I mean, it's fairly contained and I don't leave it unattended. And today I only got one minor burn, though it is black with burnt in ash. Whee!

So, after the fire making, we took Foxy Brown for a walk, checking out some alleys in our neighborhood we don't regularly get to. In one of them a very large pit bull mix CLIMBED over his 4 foot fence and charged Foxy Brown and started growling and attacking and jumping on her. I was yelling and pulling and trying to keep him off, Steve was kicking and yelling, Foxy was SCREAMING and totally freaked out. Finally, the dog's big ass hoosier owner finally came out and grabbed his dog and said NOTHING to us. NOTHING. No apology, not anything. All I could manage in my adrenaline rush was a lame "you might want to get a taller fence." Son of a bitch. I love animals, but I was ready to pound that dog in the head with a big frakkin' stick if I could have gotten my hands on one. Yeah, we'll be staying out of that alley.

What else is there to do after your dog gets attacked by a pit bull than to bake a pie? So, full of Granny Smith apples, there you go.