I have been thinking for a long time about knitting a vest or waistcoat for Doug.  This is for two reasons.  First, Doug keeps asking me to knit him a vest or waistcoat.  Second, and this should be obvious – no sleeves.  (I once wrote a post called “Do you love your husband enough to knit the sleeves?”) As a result, I have been keeping a close eye on men’s knitting patterns and specifically on vests.  I will write more about this in a future post.

Today, however, the subject of men’s vests came to mind (for all of the wrong reasons) while I was perusing through some of my rather large collection of knitting pattern books.  I stumbled upon this:

It is vol. 713 of brunswick mostly male.  I cannot believe that these pamphlets were released without dates, but I would guess this one was produced sometime around 1972. In it, one can find some wonders, like this knitted 2-piece pantsuit:

Or this amazing purple ribbed pullover (paired with spectacular swim trunks!):

The photos often include drinking (anyone venture to guess what this manly drink is?):

And smoking:

And smoking and drinking at the same time:

And yes, there are also vests.  I love this blue one.  The pose just cracks me up: look at that hair!  The scarf!  The pine tree he is mysteriously hovering over!

Then there is this tiger-striped vest with the belt loops.  How suave!

My favorite is this one:

“What,” I asked Doug, “is that belt made of?”  “Those are bullet casings,” Doug replies “with one bullet pointing at his d*ick.”  Hmm…..perhaps my long search for a pattern to knit for Doug is over.