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Pyewacket Books is a bookseller based in Oakland, California, specializing in rare and antiquarian books, photographs, tarot cards, and assorted oddities in a variety of areas including the occult, queer history, and history of sexuality.
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Jeffs, Angela ed. New York: A&W Publishers, Inc., 1979. ISBN: 0-89479-054-4. Light blue boards. 144pp. Wavy pages. Light stains on top of last page. Very good in very good dust-jacket.
Absolutely fucking stunning 1970s knitwear patterns. Yes, I am biased and I've got two words for you:
Armadillo.
Wrap. (174)
Harrell, Betsy. Istanbul: Redhouse Press, 1981. Pictorial wraps. 134pp. Illustrated with patterns and diagrams throughout, including 8 pages of colour photographs. 2 page colour fold-out map tipped in to back. Some stains and scuffs to wraps. Pictorial wraps.
Spectacular book of Anatolian knitting patterns, as well as histories of where they come from - shantytowns erected by squatters, where knitting traditional stockings was one of the only ways women could earn their own money. (182)
Espinoza, Carmen G.; New Mexico Division of Vocational Education. Santa Fe, NM: New Mexico Department of Vocational Education, 1943. Revised Edition. Staplebound pamphlet. 67pp. With illustrations by Carmen G. Espinoza and Dolores Perrault. Missing back cover but all pages intact. Last page loose. Poor. Staplebound.
Drawings of embroidery from colchas (bedspreads), altar cloths and table covers from the collections of Carmen G. Espinoza and Leonora Curtin. (185)
Miller, Heather S. Somersworth: New Hampshire Publishing Company, 1978. ISBN: 0912274816. 102 pp. Yellow cloth. In dust jacket. Some chips and tears and substantial shelf wear to dust jacket, interior bright and clean. Overall very good.
A selection of botanical art from the collection of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, expressly aimed at needleworkers and craftspeople. Not a pattern book, but intended to inspire and inform needleworkers by presenting art and ideas that would otherwise be inaccessible in a special collections vault. (292)
Weir, Harrison. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1889. First American Edition. viii, 248 pp. Green pictorial cloth, stamped in gilt. Heavily illustrated. Head and tail of spine bumped, some leaves uncut, overall very good.
The first book about cat pedigree, by the "Father of the Cat Fancy" and organizer of the first ever cat show - which basically makes him the father of the internet, too.
Includes sections on cat care, feeding, annoying habits, folklore, superstition and witchcraft, as well as art about cats. This book is cat nerdery at its finest. (293)
Gray, Arthur. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1903. ix, 99 pp + [1] advert. Illustrated by George W. Hood. Pictorial brown cloth stamped in gilt, white, black, and brown. Some wear to spine, corners lightly bumped, back cover scuffed slightly, overall very good.
"Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid! Thou innocent pretence for bringing the wicked of both sexes together in the morning! Thou female tongue-running, smile-soothing, heart-opening, wink-tipping cordial to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moments of my life." - Colley Cibber
An absolutely adorable volume on tea, a beverage responsible for multiple wars, colonization, and untold suffering in the parts of the world that grow it. As a drink, it also has the distinction of being a major cultural touchstone the world over. This book, however, stays on the lighter side of history and is so charming it almost makes one forget the devastation the quest for a light caffeine buzz has wrought. Truly, hot beverages power some of the most harmful engines the world over. They're also delicious. (294)