Slow progress is still progress, right?

Well, it's slow-going here on the 1910s sweater. I've finished the skirt portion and started on the body.

The body is done in one large piece; I've completed the back and cast on the stitches for the sleeves, which means that my rows are now very long indeed (hence the need for the circular needle, which is never my implement of first choice). There's a little ways to go yet on the sleeves before I cast off for the neck and proceed with the fronts. The knitting is easy, but boring. Not a great combination for a knitting blog, eh?

In related news, did you hear that there is a huge cache of newly-digitized knitting booklets available through the University of Southampton? These works range in date from the 1830s through the 1980s and cover the full range of knit fashions with plenty of additional materials on dressmaking, cotton production, household management, and related subjects to flesh out the full social context of the knitting books. It's fascinating browsing.

Interestingly, it seems that the bulk of 20th century patterns in the collection are menswear booklets from the '50s through the '70s. I do love the Mary Maxim picture knitting patterns, like this one for a football sweater. Once, I saw someone in the grocery store wearing a gorgeous handknitted Mary Maxim picture sweater with an antique auto on it. I wasn't totally comfortable with the idea of stopping him so that I could gush over his sweater, so I just nonchalantly followed him around for a bit and admired it from afar. Does anyone else do this with handknits?