My goodness, how time gets away from one! It's been over a month since my last post. I must apologize to my readers for neglecting the blog. Because, by golly, I do have readers-between 1500 and 2000 a week! I never expected so many people to take an interest in my little website. Since I started this blog in January of 2005 there have been over 100,000 visitors, can you imagine? Boggles the mind, I tell ya.
Every now and then I get an email from a reader asking where they might find one of the pattern books I have used and mentioned on the blog. Several of these pattern books are out of print and no longer available at the local yarn shop (unless the shopowner really stocks up on their favorite brand of books). There are places where one can find these items. Ebay is probably the most well-known place to go to find almost anything you might be looking for. An internet search will reveal many other places to look, depending on what specific item you're looking for. There are businesses that specialize in used knitting and crochet patterns; some of them advertise in magazines and others may be found in the link sections of knitting websites, such as About.com or Knitting Pattern Central. I have spent time looking at the vintage pattern books at some of these sites and been pleasantly surprised to discover several of my mother's really old books listed.
If you aren't looking for a specific book, you can usually find a lot of great patterns at thrift shops, garage sales, library sales and Salvation Army/Goodwill/St Vincent de Paul stores. If you are looking for a particular item, however, you will need to Google it. Many used pattern merchants can be emailed with your wish list and they will do their best to find the items you want-sometimes these merchants are well-connected and know where to find items quickly.
If you're looking for out-of-print Bouton d'Or books, you may find more success if you can speak French and seek out French websites.
The new Bouton d'Or layette book is due to come out this month. I can't wait to see it. I hope it will offer more patterns for boys than the last 2 books did. You can browse the current layette books at the official Bouton d'Or and Anny Blatt websites.
