Shoelace Mania!

I was looking for info on boots laces when I stumbled upon Ian's Shoelace Site. Pictured above is the ladder lacing method (not my boots, though I wish they were). An almost infinite number of ways to lace shoes.

WWI Austro-Hungarian Canteens

Yes, plural - it's a genre. Uniform wasn't so uniform in World War I, so you get a lot of ad hoc design. This manifests itself quite interestingly in Austro-Hungarian canteen design.

Check out this site for more information on Austro-Hungarian canteens, seen below.

Mappery

Incredible archive of maps from around the world.  

Mappery.com

A Fisherman Knits

In working on my gansey project, I did a lot of research and became a dilettante in the area of gansey knitting.  Then I stumbled on this guy and realized I know nothing about ganseys.  So much information on a lost art.

A Fisherman Knits

French Chef's Jacket

I found this vintage double breasted chef's jacket from France circa 1950's while in Los Angeles for the weekend.  The fabric is very stiff and starchy - it appears to be a heavy weight houndstooth oxford broadcloth that has been garment dyed in indigo.  The high neck drop and the number of buttons reminded me of the peacoats worn by a Scottish herring boat crew that I had referenced for my gansey knitting project, and the starchy indigo fabric and patch pockets had a similar feel to a Haversack tunic.

A Little Dab'll Do Ya

Stern's Hungarian Moustache Wax.

It's all about having the right tools.

Fog

Fog
Originally uploaded by optar

Cables, Diamonds, and Herringbones

It may not seem like the best season to talk about British fisherman's ganseys, but I just finished my first sweater.

Here's a close up:

I consulted Gladys Thompson's Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans, and Sabine Domnick's Cables, Diamonds, Herringbone for this project - both books feature great archival photos of these amazing, traditional British fishermen sweaters.  I knitted in the round - a method that is not only the traditional way of knitting these sweaters, but also much easier than expected; and made my own pattern by first knitting a gauge swatch from the yarn I intended to use, calculating how many stitches around my sweater would need to be, then doing a lot of math to figure out a pattern that would have a well-balanced and aesthetically pleasing combination of cables, diamonds and herringbones.  Big thanks to the fine folks at The Yarn Tree in W'burg, where I was living when I started this project, for all their help and free advise.