Baron VonCouch ([info]hardrockzombie) wrote,
@ 2007-07-17 11:53:00
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Entry tags:knitting, patterns, vintage

Rescued from the Ravages of Time
I dug these patterns with considerable difficulty from the belly of the New York Public Library. I'm quite sure they sat untouched for years on their shelves, and would have quietly crumbled to fragments and dust with no one the wiser had I not intervened. As it was, in handling and photocopying them I'm pretty sure I fast-forwarded that destruction by 10 years.

Perhaps someone who has greater familiarity with general library organization can clue me in to why they bind certain books together; each volume I sought was trapped amidst seemingly random texts. One was between a German book on what appeared to be house care and a Swedish knot-tying pamphlet, another was sandwiched with several Good Housekeeping excerpts from the 60's and practically disintegrated hand-typed minutes from some meeting of the Italian Electrician's Guild.

On a slightly random tangent- what lies beneath the New York Public Library? If their ridiculously hi-tech screening room, with its clear glass floors and design straight out of 'Diabolik', is any indication, at least 5 floors of medieval stonemasonry housing a bulk of books (the majority of their collection is stored 'off-site'-ie in a warehouse in Newark). Some delightful Goldbergian mechanism conveys them from their shelves to the survace via a series of conveyer belts and pulleys, to arrive in the hands of the bored teenagers populating the main desk. Or perhaps a race of Morlock-creatures drags them from their proper place and puts them on the conveyor belts, to be borne up to worlds they will never see.



Just a heads-up, the specific numbered patterns for the sweaters are located at the bottom.


















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[info]prynnesneedle
2007-07-17 05:09 pm UTC (link)
Excellent stuff! I'm not really sure about NYPL's binding decisions. Sometimes they come to a library that way, sometimes they just want to condense everything.

I crashed a party at the Library of Congress a little while back (yes seriously).At the party, one of the librarians was taking people on a tour of the collection that's beneath the reading room. I imagine NYPL and LoC have similar undergrounds, each rich with National Treasures and booby traps worthy of Nick Cage. I didn't take these, but here are some pictures of the LoC underground:

Tube System
Book lift
Conveyor belt

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[info]hardrockzombie
2007-07-17 08:56 pm UTC (link)
I like that menacing little sign 'Caution: Conveyer may start without Warning'. Not quite the interconnected cave system with troikas running hither and yon, but still interesting.

Ah yes, National Treasure, the movie where Nick Cage saves our country with Ben Franklin's 4-D glasses. I assume you'll be catching the sequel? They'll figure out who really assassinated Lincoln.

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[info]pinkfroginachai
2009-02-18 02:45 am UTC (link)
Just came across this post via Ravelry, and I am so utterly confused by the crochet instructions... I could swear up and down that the instructions make things totally different than the pictures...

Would it be alright if I link to this post on crochetcrochet, an LJ community, for tips on this old-timey crochet talk?

Thanks so much for posting this! Must've been quite an adventure.

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[info]hardrockzombie
2009-02-19 03:18 am UTC (link)
Hello there. Please feel free to share the patterns with whoever you'd like. I also found the crochet patterns suspiciously skimpy, particularly for the shawls with hoods. The best way to solve it would surely be for a group of avid crocheters to puzzle it out.

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[info]pinkfroginachai
2009-02-19 05:24 am UTC (link)
Thanks so much! I'll let you know if there are any significant findings. In the meantime, here is the link to the post:

http://community.livejournal.com/crochetcrochet/876835.html

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Vintage Crochet Tips
(Anonymous)
2009-03-31 02:43 am UTC (link)
The directions in reality do create an entirely different object than pictured when using modern techniques and tools. The Crochet hook has changed a lot since the 1800's. Susan Bates changed the crochet hook line 3 times. Vintage crochet stitches are also different (in the same way Europe stitches differ from USA ones with the same names).

Do a quick search for chart conversions and you will be able to find translations and replicate the tools you need to do vintage crochet.

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[info]jaodn
2009-05-13 05:33 pm UTC (link)
Old time patterns are like this, you get very little in the way of directions, you're expected to look at the picture and copy it from there. Literacy wasn't quite so common as it is now and people could do that, just look at the picture and figure it out and do a pretty good job at the figuring.

Good luck with your project =)

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[info]ninglorithiel
2009-03-23 10:32 pm UTC (link)
Love one of the shoulder capes. I had a spittake moment though - What on earth is a Crazy Stitch?

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[info]hardrockzombie
2009-03-24 04:18 am UTC (link)
Go into a fugue and see what comes out?

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