Retrosexual

Occasionally, on the way home from work I stop by my local thrift store—usually I get a feeling that I’ll find something good. I was not disappointed today, since I found a cute dress, two skirts, and the motherlode of vintage men’s knitwear patterns.

The first book was Columbia-Minerva’s “A Man’s Handmades,” which features the following:

Sorry ladies, he’s MY boyfriend, and you can’t have him.

Knitwear is incredibly practical for sports activities, in case you didn’t know. Please note that the socks are part of the set. There’s also a lovely tennis racket cover (not pictured).

And who wouldn’t love to go hiking in this awesome alpine set, complete with man-bag, hat, and kneesocks?

Next up are selections from Bernat’s “For All Men” collection, circa 1960.

Apparently it was at one point acceptable for men to wear boatneck-ish sweaters.

Again, activewear is a big theme. I love the matching headband for this sweater (again, apparently not questionable circa 1960?)

Finally, what vintage knitwear book is complete without his ‘n her sweaters? This set has kind of a mod feel, no?

On Ugly Sweaters

Jordynn and I are talking over knitting at the moment and we have come to a conundrum.

Let me approach the conundrum via simile.

You know how your friend with the ugly kids thinks her kids are just gorgeous, simply because they are her kids? As though her act of creation has blinded her to the irrefutable fact that her kids are ugly?

I'm having a funny feeling that the sweaters I knit are actually ugly, and that I would never wear them if I didn't knit them. Then, I start getting this horrible feeling that I'm walking around in ugly sweaters and that I can't tell that they are ugly.

I usually have fabulous fashion sense. I can look at a fashion trend that blinds other people because of its trendiness and simply say, "Wow, is that ugly."

E.g. Uggs boots with mini-skirts or on anyone that isn't an Australian surfer; wool short-shorts with tights in winter, especially the kind with the stupid buttons on the front like a Bavarian child would wear and make you ask "what's with the lederhosen"?; the resurgences of leggings a la Lindsay Lohan.

Wow. Hideous.

But then, what's with me presuming that my hand-knits are cool just because they're my handknits? That's just a logical fallacy. Hand-knit does not yield coolness.

In fact, most often it's just the opposite.

What else would explain this?