At the Market

[callmemadam]

It was a miserable morning yesterday but the market was heaving. I’ve never seen so many sellers there; everyone trying to make a bob or two for Christmas, I expect. My first purchase was these SG GB albums with pre-printed pages.




Hideous, aren’t they? I still haven’t decided whether to keep them or pass them on. This sort of album has a very limited use IMO. Next I looked through a lot of stamp albums but wouldn’t pay what the seller was asking for them. Book finds followed: four 1940s children’s books for 50p each (bargain!) and some less bargainous books for a present for someone. Phew, with all that trekking round and rummaging I was pretty tired and almost didn’t make it into the last hall. Just as well I did because there I snaffled




A bag full of lovely old vintage knitting patterns and magazines. I had a great time looking through these later. 1950s copies of Home Chat and Woman’s Weekly: what more could I ask? Incidentally, Woman’s Weekly is celebrating its centenary. I’ve written about it before, here. There’s a lot of wartime stuff in this bundle; ‘If you can knit, you can do your bit!’ by making ‘service woollies’. I’ll pass on the balaclavas but how about knitting myself a silk vest? Maybe not.

Comments

[aellia.livejournal.com]

You got a Woman's Weekly in there! Lovey.
I was looking through a box of old patterns in the charity shop. Most were for "outsize" ladies.
We don't hear that word much these days
Have a good Sunday
x

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Almost all the patterns in my haul are for size 34. In one of the PB knitting books there's an article by James Norbury, 'TV's knitting man' (!) and chief designer for P & B, explaining that he has to design in a special way for 'larger ladies' so as to flatter them. No outsize! I've noticed that charity shops have started to charge quite a lot for patterns, even quite recent ones, so I was extra pleased to get these.

Thanks, you too.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I ended up resizing a Norbury pattern. The jumpers for women my size (40in bust) are always so unflattering.

I have serious pattern envy over that haul.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

James Norbury's name was familiar when I saw it but I'd completely forgotten about him until then. I'd be quite incapable of resizing anything so it's as well I'm what designers thought of as a standard size.

It was a lucky find and the person I bought them from so pleased that I was going to love them.

[trixiebacon.livejournal.com]

Cor, a lovely haul. I love the picture on that top pattern; as well as the actual pullover.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

That's my favourite, too. The DIY radio!

[pinkhebe.livejournal.com]

The chap on the top looks like Rupert Penry-Jones - and the sweater is very Cambridge Spies.

I'll just go off and swoon gently..

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Hee, I never thought of that. I do love the sweater.

[ramblingfancy.livejournal.com]

Fabulous! So glad you got such a great haul and know I would love that vintage Woman's Weekly too!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Woman's Weekly seems to be everyone's favourite old mag!

[gghost.livejournal.com]

I love these old patterns and magazines because they remind me of the many beautiful things that my mother knitted when I was growing up. Because of arthritis in her hands, she is no longer able to knit, so we treasure the things that we have from when she still could.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

How lovely that you still have things your mother made.

[lethe1]

I was rather bemused as to why you would have bought those albums if you thought they were hideous, but then it dawned on me they were probably filled with stamps? :-)

They look rather nostalgic to me. When I was a budding collector (late 'sixties), Esso or Shell had this promotion where you would get free stamps if you tanked there. They also sold a small album to stick them in, which looked about as ugly as these SG albums do.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I bought them because although they're the cheapest of their kind they are still very expensive to buy new. No stamps in them but I've started to fill one so I can see clearly what I have and which stamps are spares. I'm not so keen on these stamps as on definitives. I'll probably try to sell the other one. I'm planning to write something about how I collect; just need the time.

I don't remember the Shell stamps but still have an album full of their postcards showing important historical figures.

[lethe1]

I'm planning to write something about how I collect; just need the time.

Please do! I'd like that.