A little while ago, I was lamenting the absence of a couple of pages from a vintage knitting book. Ali kindly pointed me in the direction of the National Library of Australia, which had a listing for the book. Alas, when I had a look for those missing pages, I found it wasn’t the same book! It was by the same authors, but with even more lovely patterns and without a section on how to modify garments. Armed with the knowledge that there was another knitting book by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster out there, I trawled eBay and won an auction for it… so I thought.

It arrived today, and is every bit as charming as the book I picked up last month. The cover looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember exactly if it was the same as the one I saw at NLA. Then I opened the book and looked inside the front cover.

The NLA copy has a fabulous repeated graphic featuring the words ‘knit one, purl one’, whereas my copy has just as sweet drawings of garments, yarn and knitting needles. I flicked through the pages, and found lovely illustrations, and hilarious patterns. Never mind, I thought, it might just be a different print run.

However, it contained none of the patterns I remember from the NLA copy! So now I have two pattern books that I love, but am still looking for two missing pages, and a copy of ‘Knitting illustrated : easy-to-follow instructions for knitting practical garments to suit all members of the family’. I’m not really sure what made me think that ‘Complete home knitting illustrated’ was the same as ‘Knitting illustrated…’, but I don’t mind at all. I’m starting to build a nice collection (two Murray/Koster books makes a collection, right?), and I know there’s at least one more book out there for me to hunt for.

In other news, it’s almost agricultural show time round here, and I know a few people who have entered some lovely projects. I’m really looking forward to seeing them on display, and hopefully with some ribbons beside them!