A Trip To The Yard

This picture book is one of the best items I've ever scored in a thrift store. Published in 1952, its images are just as super-saturated as they appear here in this blog. (My ancient scanner finally went kaput, so pardon the wobbly pix.) Looking through it again inspired me to go try to find some bugs in my own yard. But aside from gnats, I didn't see many. The orange bud about to pop is Butterfly Weed, and this time two years ago it was covered by Monarch caterpillars, munching their happy heads off. But I didn't see any caterpillars on any of my Milkweeds this year. Maybe the hard winter killed the eggs? If you squint at the penstemon, you can see some ants.

Greenweeds

I am a bad blogger in this weather. I just don't feel like sifting through the mountains in The Junk Dungeon when the magic green lights are dancing outside. This is The Anti-Winter, and I'm basking....

Greenleaves

I knit this Greenleaves Shawl for my friend Annie, who has made both sides of the Mississippi a much better place for flora and fauna, through the Great RIvers Land Trust she founded back when. You'll never hear her bragging about how her car runs on French Fry grease, because it doesn't, but she's quietly done more real good than most people who (loudly) tout themselves as "Green." So she gets this. I love the yarn so much, once again from Kate of Elvincraft. I can't seem to knit with anything else these days, though I have some Dyeabolical I love as much waiting patiently in my stash for great things to happen.

Romantic Range

I found these in an Illinois junk store a while back, and couldn't resist the cheesy novelettes inside — which all have the tone of the line illustration shown — or the two thrilling columns featured every month: "The Lariat of Love" (romantic astrological advice for the 4-H set), and especially "Let's Play Checkers," a strategy piece written by Millard Hopper, who was at the time World Checker Champion. I really don't see how the game of checkers could ever be interesting enough to deserve its own column, but then I also think the same thing about more convoluted mind games like Chess and Bridge. (I'm sure Millard Hopper would never be able to understand why I buy entire magazines devoted to knitting.) I have quite a few issues of Romantic Range (they only cost 25¢ each), and the back cover is always a full color whiskey advertisement. For the hard-riding, hard-loving, hard-drinking Ranch Girl!

Radio 1948

Here's another classy image from my 1948 Wish Catalogue, Wards Midsummer Book. This is a good era for design, clean and bold with cool color combos. Radio was still king. I've just discovered books on tape, and listening to them is like listening to an old radio program, only without the annoying soap commercials. It's fun to knit and hear my favorite Agatha Christie stories. Though I've read each of her books three times at least, hearing them is much different than reading them, so they've become new again. Fun.

Sofa Fabric 1948

If my sofa looked as cheerful and vibrant as any of these upholstery fabric options from the Wards Midsummer Book of 1948 I would never, ever get off it.