On the first day of the Campbell-Neumann sale, we would already be in line with dozens of like-minded shoppers, waiting for the doors to open. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Neumann liquidated estates about four times a year, and any sale included items from three or more families.
Campbell-Neumann was where I found Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns for the first time. And it was where I bought a bag of cream-colored vintage Bucilla crochet thread and an old receipt.
Mrs. W. H. Yarbrough bought two “cro cot” from Mayer & Schmidt (Tyler, Texas) for 70 cents on April 2, 1941. I can’t tell from the receipt if the cotton she bought was the cotton in the bag, because there were at least ten 800 yard hanks. Maybe she bought two more, because she was following instructions to “Purchase sufficient of this color at one time to complete your article, making sure that it is all of one dye lot number as the next dye lot of this color may differ slightly in shade.”
Some things don’t change.
Nearly 45 years after Mrs. Yarbrough bought the cotton, I used a double strand to knit a lampshade (pattern from Barbara Walker). Now, another 30 years later, we still use this lamp and lampshade in our house.
I also knitted a 3/4 sleeve, v-shaped neck in the back top, using the “Oriel” pattern from Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. My dad took this picture of me wearing it in 1985.
I’ve changed since then, but the sweater is as cute as ever, so my daughter Eva wears it.
