Good morning goatlings! How many of ya’ll are in love with goats? I’ve been harboring a goat avarice that is surpassing my wistfulness for chickens that lay blue eggs and Bengal kittens.

In any case… Here’s the post I MEANT to do the other day! I got so caught up in catching up that I neglected to show ya’ll what I’d intended to show you! Some sweet little vintage sewing treasures that came in a pretty red gift bag with pink tissue paper a few weeks ago… February 14th to be exact.

I’ll skip the sappiness… but seriously, girls (and the one or two stray guys)… you know all those Ryan Gosling hey girl, uh, things (wait, this is a meme, right?) Anyway – foresterman has some serious gosling going on.

So a super thoughtful and fun Valentines gift was RIGHT up his ally!

Here’s the haul.

First up… all you knitters out there… I have a TON of my grandmother’s knitting needles. You know the aluminum ones circa 1972? I love them. Wood needs are WAY too slippery for my taste and even the expensive German metal circulars are more slippery than I like. Both kinds have points that are too dull as well. The older aluminum ones are nice and sharp and have the right amount of grab. But they aren’t made any more! Foresterman cruised the antique and thrift scene and got me a NICE haul to add to my collection. About half of the ones he got were new to my size inventory!

PS – have any of you used the Ravelry needle tracking piece? It’s really nice. I log everything on my laptop and have the Wooly app for when I’m shopping. No more accidental duplicate needle buying with those pesky no return policies.

You can see a bit of the rest of the present in the needle picture… a super awesome jar of buttons. Not only are they in an actual usable colors and sizes, but the jar looks great in my china cabinet with all the neutral colors! The jar is an unusual design, with a mold I’ve not seen before.

And a cute little thimble. Foresterman said the shopkeeper he got it from thought it was from the 30’s. Doesn’t really matter, though, since it fits and I am a thimble user. And loser. I’ve found more thimbles in my freezer than is really reasonable. I wear them around and take them off absentmindedly (that is SO totally a word, right?)

But my little goatlets, the REAL star of this Valentine’s Day was the beginning of a vintage needle book collection! I’d never seen anything like this before, which was a super-surprise to me! I LOVE antique shops and (like all of ya’ll who like to snoop through vintage and thrift shops) I make a beeline to the sewing gear, but these were new to me.

I looked up the history a bit. Country Living has a nice, easy to swallow, four slide overview.

Here’s what I have…

Aren’t they lovely?? A couple of mine have different designs on the outside, but the insides are similar.

The three above all have a nice needle selection with a threader. I was impressed that the needles were so… complete. But I read somewhere (maybe the Country Living link?) that a lot of these books were used, but the needles were guarded a bit better than I guard my own needle stash. In other words… unlike a lot of vintage finds, having the ‘stuff’ all there doesn’t necessarily mean that the books weren’t used.

I want to be more mindful. Less disposable mindframe. More reuse and make do.

Here’s the inside – the three above all were the same, more or less.

I think my favorite is the Esso Oil company needle book. I think it’s a bit older. The outside is a bit plain….

But I just love the artwork on the inside!

The little spiderwebs on the needle foil just kill me!

The Lipton Tea one is also super interesting… the outside is pretty basic Lipton Tea. I forgot to take a single picture of the outside, but you can see it above in the lower left hand corner. What I like about the Lipton needle book are the needles!

Just LOOK at that giant darning needle! And it’s super sharp, ya’ll!

There was also a few pin-papers (?) in the collection.

There’s five in all, and they are all identical. It’s sort of killing me, because you can see in the upper left corner that the back of the paper has HALF the artwork – but they’re all the same, so I don’t know what the other half looks like!

What a gift, amiright? I’m super excited about the sewing needle books. I am not a huge collector (well, OK. I hoard fabric and yarn like there’s a creative class bird flu on the horizon…) and it’s fun to have something to hunt for. I also look for really unusual all-wood or green handled kitchen implements… but a girl can only have so many carved fish pie-fluting implements… right?

My prized fish-wood-pie-thingie. You’re jealous goatlings, aren’t you

If any of ya’ll are so inclined, let’s bring back the Gosling thing. Just for a post. Link to your favorite ‘hey girl’ in the comments? They all crack me up.

Hey Girl….

PS… Oh. Hey. I just revamped the actual blog’s look and feel. I know most of ya’ll probably are seeing this in a reader, but if anyone would like to jump over to www.pattythesnugbug.com and let me know your feedback, drop me an email, ‘K? pattythesnugbug [at] gmail [dot] com…