Thrift, thrift...

January 2012 hasn't exactly been an outstanding beginning to the year, but the last day is giving me hope.

After my second bout with a cold that DH & I have been passing back and forth I finally got out of the house today. I headed straight to the closest thrift shop. It's not always the best one, but it has its days.

Today was one of them. For a grand total of $4.01 I got a brand new edition of a Georgette Heyer Regency (her first, originally published in 1926), a pair of argyle socks for DH, and seven Limoges bread and butter plates!

They're perfect, and though I don't know the pattern they'll go nicely with the china I already have. At a guess, they're ca. 1900: white, with gold and misty green rims. According to the mark they were made especially for a store in Pennsylvania. I am very pleased; it's been a long time since I've found Limoges in a thrift shop.

Taken From Books

I imagine those of you who read this are also "readers". By that I mean you buy a book when you know you'll re-read it. You have a shelf of favorites-from-childhood, the books outnumber everything else, and somehow, there are never enough bookshelves.

This means that there are things in those books that you've always promised yourself you'll try someday. This past Christmas I made that Christmas Cake. I've been promising myself that since reading Betsy and the Great World, by Maud Hart Lovelace.

One of my favorite plays is "The Lady's Not for Burning", by Christopher Fry. I learned about that not in school, but in Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean.

Those are only two examples; I have more. Now, there are also the ones you can't understand: in spite of repeated readings of Little Women, I have never learned to love Milton or even The Pickwick Papers (the only Dickens I love is A Christmas Carol.

This gift within a gift of books suggested by favorite books is only one of the reasons I've been a lifelong reader, but it's a potent one.

Christmas Knitting 2011

Please excuse my abysmal photographic record keeping! This scarf and beret were gifts to my MiL this year. The beret (same alpaca silk blend as in the scarf, photo not withstanding) was for her birthday, and the scarf Christmas, but I made two other berets in very different yarns (but the same pattern) for dear friends.

One was in a burgundy homespun, to match a lace neck cowl I designed for her last year; the other in a Schiparelli pink with turquoise flecks (it was for a birthday); I designed a 30s style muffler with a narrowed neck to match as a Christmas gift.

The pattern information for the purchased patterns isn't to hand, but they're both modern.

January 1936 Golf Sweater

Not a whole lot is going on around here, though we finally got some snow. Mind, tomorrow it's supposed to be rainy and in the 50s, so it probably won't last. Welcome to New England in 2012!

The Long Gray Socks are coming along--I'm well into the leg on #2, past the calf shaping. Stocking tops, if I add them, still haven't been designed.

I've also begun a 1936 golf sweater, from the January 1936 issue of Home Arts Needlecraft. It's simply called "sweater with buttoned front". It's 4 sts = 1 inch, and I'm using a double strand of orchid colored Shetland. The back is finished and I am working on the first side of the front.

I hope your 2012 has begun on a good note!