Four issues of the Get Knitting partwork, each held in its own stiff card wallet with a thumb-cut at the top. The wallets are numbered 1 (red), 2 (teal), 3 (pink) and 5 (blue), and each carries the flowing white "Get Knitting" script over a cover photograph of an eighties knitted garment. Front covers read "PATTERN COLLECTION AND KNITTING GUIDE" with the cover prices "UK £1.95 Australia $4.25 New Zealand $4.95 Republic of Ireland £2.45 Malta £M1.65". Issue 1 promises "12 SUPER PATTERN LEAFLETS", "EXCITING UP-TO-DATE FASHIONS", a "24-PAGE INSTRUCTION BOOK" and "KNITTING BASICS FOR BEGINNERS"; issue 2 adds "FREE PLASTIC WALLET INSIDE" and a 34-page instruction book; issue 3 offers "QUICK SLIP STITCHES" and a "STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL KNITTING"; issue 5 offers "ALL THE TECHNIQUES FOR SUCCESSFUL KNITTING" and "12 MORE FASHION LEAFLETS". The reverse of every wallet is a photo montage of finished knits with a corner flash reading "12 LEAFLETS INSIDE", and the small print " Marshall Cavendish 1986".

Each wallet has been photographed with its contents fanned out so you can read the coloured spine tabs. The leaflets are card-stock pattern sheets colour-coded by series - Traditional Favourites, Kids' Knits, Chunky Knits, Spring And Summer, Men's Knits, Fun Fashions, Quick Knits, Babies And Toddlers, Winter Warmers and Designer And Evening - each with the garment name printed alongside, such as "Classic styled sweater", "Fair Isle pullover", "Mohair geometric sweater", "Peach and cream sweater", "Angora halterneck sweater" and "Double breasted jacket". One leaflet is shown opened flat, revealing materials, tension, abbreviations, a stitch-pattern chart, full written method and a scaled schematic diagram in centimetres.

Also present are the extras that came with the parts: issue 1 has its "Introducing Get Knitting" folder, its Knitting Guide magazine, a "EVERY READER CAN ENTER... FREE PRIZE DRAW" insert and a "3-IN-1 KNIT-KIT" order card; issue 2 has its Knitting Guide 2 magazine, a pink "DON'T FORGET! Place a regular order for Get Knitting TODAY!" card and the clear plastic leaflet wallet; issues 3 and 5 each have a "3-IN-1 KNIT-KIT SPECIAL HALF PRICE OFFER" booklet and a printed "Where to buy your Get Knitting yarns" stockist sheet listing suppliers such as Argyll Wools, Avocet, Emu, Hayfield, Jaeger, Sirdar and Twilleys with their addresses and telephone numbers.

Background
Get Knitting was a fortnightly partwork published by Marshall Cavendish, the London house that made its name in the 1970s and 1980s with collect-in-parts series on cookery, crafts and needlework. The series launched in 1986, and the copyright line printed on the back of every wallet in this lot confirms that first year of publication. The idea was simple and very much of its time: buy a part every fortnight, and over the run you would build a complete reference library of knitting.

Each part came as a card wallet containing a Knitting Guide magazine - the technique half of the series, covering casting on, tension, stitch patterns and finishing - together with twelve loose card pattern leaflets. The leaflets were designed to be filed rather than bound, colour-coded and numbered by series so that collectors could sort them into categories in the striped storage boxes Marshall Cavendish sold alongside the partwork. Across the full run the series ran to several hundred patterns covering women's, men's, children's and baby knits. Because the leaflets were meant to be pulled out and used at the needles, complete early parts still sitting in their original wallets with the guide magazine and the promotional inserts intact are markedly harder to find than loose leaflets on their own - most were split up decades ago.

The garments themselves are a snapshot of mid-eighties British knitwear: dropped shoulders, batwing and dolman sleeves, mohair, angora, bold geometrics, Fair Isle yokes and slouchy oversized silhouettes. That look has come back round, which is exactly why these patterns are being knitted again rather than simply shelved.

Condition
Pre-owned in Good condition for its age. The four card wallets show the shelf wear you would expect after nearly forty years. All have rubbing and softening to the edges and corners, light surface scuffing and some creasing to the card. Issue 3 is the worst of the four: the lower front corner has lost its printed surface layer over an area of roughly 4-5cm, tearing away to expose the pale board underneath, and this is shown close up in the photographs. Issue 5's wallet has small splits and rubbing at the bottom corners, and issue 1's wallet has a scuffed lower edge. None of the wallets is torn through the body of the card and all still hold their contents.

The pattern leaflets themselves are in noticeably better order - clean, bright, flat and unmarked, with crisp printing and no tears, tape, pen marks or cut-outs that we can see. The Knitting Guide magazines and the promotional inserts are likewise clean, with only light handling wear.

Please treat the photographs as the definitive inventory of what is included, as the leaflets have been fanned out beside each wallet so every spine tab can be read. The wallets are printed "12 leaflets inside"; issues 1, 2 and 5 each show twelve leaflets, while the photographs of issue 3 show eleven, so that part may be one leaflet short. This is a used, previously owned lot and has not been collated against a publisher's checklist.

Supplied loose exactly as photographed: four card wallets with their leaflets, two Knitting Guide magazines (issues 1 and 2), the "Introducing Get Knitting" folder, the clear plastic leaflet wallet, the Knit-Kit and prize draw inserts and the yarn stockist sheets. Please note this is issues 1, 2, 3 and 5 - issue 4 is not included. Please review all of the photographs closely, as they show the actual item you will receive and form part of this description.

Who it's for
A ready-made starter bundle for hand knitters who want authentic eighties patterns rather than modern reinterpretations - dropped shoulders, mohair, batwing sleeves and Fair Isle yokes, all with full written instructions and schematics. It will also appeal to collectors of Marshall Cavendish partworks trying to complete an early run, to vintage knitting pattern collectors and dealers, to costume and wardrobe departments researching mid-1980s British knitwear, and to anyone who simply remembers picking these up fortnightly from the newsagent and wants a nostalgic set back on the shelf.

Estimated Date
1986. The line " Marshall Cavendish 1986" is printed on the reverse of all four wallets, and the UK cover price of £1.95 with Republic of Ireland £2.45 and Malta £M1.65 is consistent with the series launch year. These are parts 1, 2, 3 and 5, so they date from the opening months of the run.

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