Yarn Along: Vintage Cardigan & Home Ec.

Day 3 of 7 Days of Posting--I'm finding this little exercise to be immensely satisfying!  I don't think I could keep it up though.  Today I'm joining Ginny and the knitting-reading minions for Yarn Along.  I've been documenting this sweater over at Urban Simplicity, but since this is a week of making (and posting) for me, I thought it would be better to post it here this week. 

It is a little bit cooler today, praises be, and supposed to drop down a bit more tomorrow (lows in the low 60s, finally!), so I'm hoping we can get our house below the toasty degree of 83.

Today I have progress to show on my vintage cardigan!  I admit, I let the cardi lapse this spring.  Part of it was the untimely arrival of Ms. Ponchik, but some of it was that I was intimidated by the instructions to add a ball of yarn near the neckline.  After doing it, however, now I feel sort of foolish--it was actually very easy and what she was asking made complete sense once I got there (you have to bind off the neck and work with the shoulders separately, hence the need for two balls of yarn).  

Since I'm using Caron's One-Pounder and the ball is so big, I just used the two ends of the ball, especially since the amount of yarn and the time spent knitting the shoulders was pretty short.  I bound off the back on Monday night and started on the front right side yesterday.  I got the bottom rib knit done and am now starting on the bottom stockinette portion.  I'm leaving all my ends unwoven because I like to use them to sew the pieces together at the end--I think it makes for a neater finished product.

And my reading.  I'm actually cycling between several books right now: Red Plenty, Perelandra, and Home Economics.  The first is a hybrid novel/history book on the propaganda of the Soviet machine from the 1930s-1950s.  It is unique in that it is fiction, but also not fiction.  Sort of like novelized history-telling.  

Perelandra is, of course, the second in C.S. Lewis' Space Triology, which I'm re-reading.  I'm finding this one a slower go this time round.  Out of the Silent Planet went by pretty quickly, but I'm finding myself less engaged with Perelandra.  Hopefully things will pick up soon.

Finally, a new book: Home Economics.  This is a complication of home ec books from 1900-1940s, beautifully bound and illustrated using original vintage illustrations.  I learned book binding several years ago, and I especially appreciate good binding.  I also like the size of this book--it is almost pocket size and just has a nice feel in the hands.  I have an actual vintage home ec book from the 1930s that is a beast.  

And lest you start to think I'm one of those home makers extraordinaire, let me just set the record straight.  I'm not.  I have four children five and under, three of whom have some special challenges, and frankly, I'm just looking for some ways of doing that give me a rhythm and routine to my days.  But what I'd like to say about the book is that home ec used to be something women majored in while in school, and there is definitely a science to many of the tenets of the profession.  Efficiency is one of the cornerstones of home ec, and I'm always looking for more efficient ways to do things.  

(As a random aside, in the book Cheaper by the Dozen, the father and mother of the family are efficiency experts, and the children detail the many and often hilarious ways they tried to make the children be more efficient in the home; it is also a delightful read).

  

But the Home Ec book.  I just started leafing through it last night and I'm fascinated.  It is right up this social historian's alley.  I also ordered Edith Schaeffer's book on homemaking (similar topic), but it has yet to arrive as I ordered a used copy.  

Yarn Along with Ginny