Vintage Reads

Two lucky finds this past week. I own a lot of cookbooks but this is my first Margaret Fulton. Food styling and photography has come a long way since 1968 (though this, unbelievably, is a 1991 reprint). And as for the Mon Tricot special, "How to Improve Your Technique, Save Time and Create Your Own Designs," says the front cover, so of course I was going to buy it. I'm yet to find the chapter on saving time, but I bet it won't suggest avoiding dropping your knitting mid-row to squash a mosquito between your hands, then picking up your knitting and resuming things in the WRONG direction, and not noticing for a few rows, thus necessitating going backwards to the point of the mistake and finally going on in the correct direction, thus wasting about half an hour's knitting time. Which is what happened to me this evening. It seems to me that avoiding this scenario would be a fantastic way to save time when knitting, and perhaps when I master such techniques I'll look as serene as the woman below - though I can't imagine wearing my hair with those sweepy-over-the-top plaits like hers.