|
There were a few things I could have made from the Good Housekeeping magazine I shared last week, but the lighter holder was something I'd never seen a pattern for before and I had some unknown gold metallic yarn that seemed like it would work for this. How could I resist?  According to the pattern, the materials needed for this are Bucilla Brocade yarn and a Boye crochet hook size 3 (and a lighter). The pattern gives a gauge of 6 single crochet stitches to 1 inch and that's what the unknown gold yarn gave me with the size 3 hook.  Honestly, this is just a tube with a fancy strap and tassel. This yarn wasn't easy to work with but once I got a few rounds started it went ok. The yarn is stiff in some places and didn't bend around the hook very easily. This went quickly though and I had a lighter holder in a little over an hour. I don't really have a need for a lighter holder but it was still fun to make. I'm sure you could use this for other things like a vape pen which I also don't need. Joel and I were trying to decide why you would just carry a lighter around your neck without anything else. A party where you plan on just lighting everyone's cigarettes but don't need your own?  Criteria:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes. 1.0 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? Maybe? You could use this for other things but what do you really need to have hanging around your neck that wouldn't go into a purse or a pocket? I'm marking it down a little for that. 0.25 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. 1.0 That gives it 4.25!
0 Comments
Can you guess what year this magazine is from based on the ad on the back of the magazine?  This Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine is full of fun patterns that fit right into the era it's from. It has patterns for knitting, crochet, embroidery, quilting, sewing and more. I'm going to highlight some of the knitting and crochet patterns. I couldn't resist these two knitted sweaters. The first one is called The Windowpane Pullover and the description says the one "dot" is functional because it serves as a button. The second one is The Bold Patterned Coat and it looks super cozy.
Next up is the Gilded Pullover (also knitted) This entire outfit looks like it could be worn today and there is one tiny detail on it that's easy to miss. There's a little pocket at the waist! The Glitter & Glow outfits are both crocheted. The suit is done in a velour yarn and the shawl has a silver metallic yarn mixed with the blue yarn.
The Laced Camisole (below, left side) is described as "crocheted in an exciting color combination." I think it might be better in something other than pink. Maybe some rainbow stripes? The Victorian Shawl (same photo), "is trimmed all around with a deep, glorious fringe". The Multistriped Tabard on the left is kind of fun for the 70s but looks a little messy.
The sweaters, the scarf and the eye-glass case (in blue on the right) below are knitted. The tiny purses are crocheted. I thought about doing one of the purses since they have them hanging around the neck but they're both completely open at the top which seems like it would be less useful for a purse.
These kids sweaters are all knit except the gold one with crewel embroidered flowers.
The vest in the photo on the left below is crocheted and then embroidered with cross-stitches. The tweed coverup on the right is also crocheted and it gives instructions on how to get the look they have below.
These bags and other decorative items are also very 1970s. The purses on the left side are all crocheted. The wall hanging that crosses the two photos is macramé and then gold chains are added. Most of the items on the right were sewn or glued. The one crocheted item on that page is the silver lighter holder in the lower right corner.
And last are these two pages. The photo on the left is showing a bunch of things they have patterns for including sewn potholders and cross-stitched canning lids. There are only three crocheted items in the photo. One is the pickled watermelon rind. The others are the motifs/doilies on the apron that say "Biscuit" and "Bread". When I first looked at that I assumed the word on the apron was her name and was a little surprised it was Biscuit. (Should I make that doily for the Horn family dog?) The picture on the right also has some motifs and edging to add to tops that you sew. They give the Simplicity pattern name for the tops but you could add these to ready made tops too.
Did you figure out what year(s) this magazine is from?  This week I'm sharing my attempt at the Princess Loretta Scarf. The flyer has a colorized photo in addition to the black and white one and that helped make the stitches easier to see. The materials needed for this pattern are:
 The instructions say that the scarf should turn out to be 52 inches long and gave these instructions; "A chain of 79 stitches will make a scarf about 9 inches wide. This is a good width." That's a gauge of 8.6 stitches per inch. I went up a hook size but I don't think that the fingering weight yarn is much bigger than pearl cotton so I wasn't too worried and just assumed that it would be close. It was not close. I ended up with a chain of 53 to get a width of just over 9 inches. That's more like 6 stitches per inch. Still, this is a scarf so it shouldn't matter that much and I really didn't want to find a lace weight yarn to do a 52 x 9 inch scarf. Rows 1 -19 are just single crochet stitches across. Row 20 is a star stitch and they give very specific instructions on how to make the stitch. Row 21 is single crochet again and you repeat those rows once. Then you do a bunch more single crochet and then repeat the star stitch part again until the scarf measures 28 inches. Here's what that looks like:  Not long after this I realized the my stitches were much shorter gauge than what the picture looked like and this was going to take longer than I anticipated. I wasn't enjoying doing this stitch pattern with this particular yarn and decided it just wasn't worth the yarn and time to finish it.  Here's the scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes 1.0 If there is a gauge, could I match it? No 0 Does it look like photo? For the part I finished, I think it was close 0.5 Would someone wear it? Because this was a DNF I'm giving it a 0 Did I enjoy making it? No 0 Total score is 1.5 Next week I have fun photos from a magazine I picked up at a sale. Based on the ad on the back cover can you guess the year it's from?   This week I'm sharing photos from Corticelli Lessons in Crochet, Book 1. It was published in 1916 and is available to download at the Antique Pattern Library. This booklet has about 35 patterns for everything from baskets to bags, and slippers to scarves along with stitch instructions and, of course, advertisements for their silk and cotton threads. Four of the patterns were knitted but everything else was crocheted. There are at least 14 edgings and a couple of motifs, four different baskets and curtains. Most of the rest of the patterns are for wearables like these two slipper patterns.
There are five hat patterns. Several are more decorative like the Princess Dorothea Picture Hat but at least two were more practical like the Russian Skating Cap.
The sweaters and jackets look warm and cozy.
There are a few more unusual patterns for things like a girdle (available in both a knitted and crocheted version) and a spencer.
There are only two scarf patterns. One is titled Princess Loretta Crocheted Scarf and the other is called Gentleman's Crocheted Scarf or Muffler. After reading both patterns they use the same two stitches in a pattern that is very similar. The men's version is a little wider and the women's version has a fringe. I'm going to give the women's version a try and give you an update next week. I'll leave you with the last page of the booklet because who can resist a kitten?  This week's pattern is from the Crochet Designs reprinted from Victorian and Edwardian sources that I featured last week. It is reprinted from "Needlecraft Practical Journal, Vol 6, No. 79, published in 1909.  Ladies Ribbed Tie The pattern says it's intended to be worked in Briggs' crochet silk or Silver Shield crochet thread. A quick check of their yarn comparison chart tells me that they consider that a "fine weight" and give us these examples for "modern yarns and threads":
The entire project is worked in back loop only to get that ribbed look and it's done entirely in chains and what they call double crochet (aka single crochet US terminology). This is made in two pieces that are, "neatly joined at centre of neckband". This wasn't a difficult project until I got to the fringe. Here are the instructions for the fringe, "The fringe should be crocheted on over a piece of card about 2 inches deep. Cut the edges and divide the strands at the top by clustering into groups, and knotting with a needle and thread as for drawn thread work." I ended up just making the fringe over a 4 inch card and just attaching them every few stitches and then doing the clustering part. I don't think it's quite what they had in mind but it worked. Since my last dyeing experiment went pretty well I thought I'd give it another try and just make this one a solid green since the off-white was kind of boring. This time it didn't go quite as well. There's some variation in the final dyed fabric that you can see below.
Overall this went pretty well. Let's add up the score:
That gives it a score of 3.75 Next week I'll be showing you some patterns from a 1916 Corticelli Silk Mills booklet and the week after that I'll have the results of one of the patterns from the booklet.  I've had this booklet for years and while I haven't made anything from it yet, it has been a good resource for how to think through the older patterns. The booklet was printed in 1990 by the Knitting and Crochet Guild of London and compiled by Gertrude Kuehl. Not only does it have patterns from 1855 to 1917 it also has a two page introduction written by Gertrude on past terminology and pattern writing styles. More specific terminology started to be used in the mid-19th century when patterns were beginning to be published and that led the way for more standardized terminology in crochet. It's still far from being completely standardized and one of the things I had to figure out when reading patterns in this booklet was whether the instructions were in UK or US terminology. Gertrude says that patterns from that era were either very detailed or just gave you a stitch pattern and let you figure out how to do the rest. She goes on to remind us that the patterns that we would consider lacking in details were more "open-ended" to the Victorian crocheters since they were probably used to making their own sewing patterns. The use of what they called "tension square" (what we would call a swatch) were used to help provide calculations for figuring out measurements, how much yarn they would need as well as whether the yarn was suitable for the project. She says, "For those of us who have been spoon-fed on detailed printed instructions, this may seem like a giant leap into the unknown, but in fact it holds the potential for greater adaptability of design to an individual's needs and opens up each pattern to the use of a wide range of yarns and threads." Let's leap into the unknown! This booklet has a two very helpful charts; one for hook comparisons to guide you through to modern US hook sizes and another for yarn comparisons for the fibers that are used in the booklet's patterns.   I'm going to share a selection of the patterns instead of all of them just to give you an idea of what's included in this booklet. The first pattern in the booklet is this "Wrap for Lady, With Hood". This has very detailed instructions and they are written without row breaks so it's a little difficult to read. It also gives you the yardage of fabric you need to line the wrap.  There were several patterns for tops including this Wool Jacket. The directions seemed pretty detailed but there is no information on how big this would turn out. Going with the idea of using this as a guide would work pretty well though. You could easily add or subtract rows with their construction method.  There were three collar patterns in the booklet. This is the first. The others include a Rose one that looks like Irish crochet and one done with metallic thread. This pattern, like many others, give a close up of the stitch pattern. That's almost as good as a chart.  There were several flowers intended to be decorative but this was the only one that was a sachet. The sachet packet goes in the base of the flower.  This bag is one of two in the booklet. They recommend using macramé twine and lining it with silk.  There were also hats, gloves, belts, slippers and a few smaller projects like these buttons and a narcissus flower.  The last two I'm sharing this week are a single Dahlia and the Crochet Yoke for a Lady's Nightdress. The yoke seems to have pretty detailed directions but it's also one that would allow you to make that leap. You could easily continue the pattern down for a longer top. It's worked in strips so it can be worked to fit and the thread changed up.  Next week I'll have a finished project from this booklet to share with you. Another leap into the unknown! We're back to the 80s this week with a Workbasket Magazine pattern. I was intrigued by the reversible part of this pattern. The photo the magazine chose for the pattern did not show enough contrast though so I didn't really have a good idea of what this was going to look like when it was done.  This pattern gives you a specific yarn for this without telling you the weight. They suggest Lion Brand Molaine which comes in 1.4 ounce balls. It says you need two balls of two colors. I looked up the yarn and it appears to be worsted weight so I pulled two skeins of yarn that had 3 ounces each left in them. One was Lion Brand Basic Stitch and the other was Knit Picks Brava Worsted. The pattern had a gauge which I matched pretty closely. It took me a few tries to get "the trick" of the back and forth. You end up dropping an open loop one one side and using the other color for two rows and then dropping that loop and going back to the first color. Once I got it, I didn't really need the pattern any more since it was a simple repeat. The pattern had you repeat the row pattern until you got to 59 inches or your desired length. I did not make it to 59 inches. The photo below shows the point where I realized this wasn't going to make it to 59 inches. It's a little over 36 inches at this point and I have enough for maybe one more row.  So now what? I don't want to rip it all out and I can't get more of the yarn in time to get it posted. It's long enough for a cowl! Instead of finishing it their way I seamed the ends together and turned it into a cowl. It is reversible with one side being more blue and the other side more yellow. It was really hard to tell from the photo that this is what I was going to end up with. I thought it might be just one color on one side and the other color on the other side. I like it though and it makes a nice, thick and cozy cowl.
Based on the criteria this gets a 3.75 out of 5:
Next week I have a booklet to share that has patterns form the early 1900s. I know this isn't technically vintage but it fits the neck theme. I started this project in September 2022 as my 2023 county fair entry for "Holiday-Not Christmas". It seemed appropriate for a pre-Valentine's day post. I present to you the Valentine Tie!  The pattern uses #10 cotton thread in silver and red and a steel crochet hook size 3 (equivalent to a 2.1mm hook). I used cream and dark red because that's what I had and I didn't love the way the silver looked in the photo. I happened to have a size 3 steel hook in my collection of randomly gathered steel hooks. This a pretty easy pattern to follow since it's all single crochet. You get a graph for the colors and a gauge. They even tell you how to change color and tell you to carry the color not being used and work over it. Even though this was easy, it was a little tedious because there are 437 rows! At least the graph was a mirror image so I didn't have to worry about the direction of the row I was on as I went. Once the crocheting was done I thought it looked pretty good. The cream allowed the red thread that was being carried along to show a little bit but that wasn't a deal breaker for me. Since this is cotton thread, it really needed to be wet blocked. I've had problems with thread colors bleeding even when soaking in cold water so this time I put some vinegar in and that worked. Yay! I pinned it on the blocking mat and pulled the pins the next day and discovered I'd made a mistake. The pins must have had some rust on them and now I had rust spots in the cream thread. I tried using some OxyClean spot remover on the spots and then let it soak in the spot remover...and that was the next mistake. When I pulled it out of it's stain bath there were red spots all over it where the red thread bled (say that three times fast). And, the rust spots were still there too. Ugh! After a brief mental reset, I decided I would dye the finished project with the hope that the dye would cover up the spots. As long as I was going to dye it why not try something fancier? Could I make it a gradient? I bought a box of Rit Dye in Fuschia and some Rit ColorStay and made my attempt. Once I had the dye all mixed up I dipped the bottom of the tie in the dye and held in there for a few minutes and then dipped a little lower and held it. I kept doing this through most of the length of the tie and then just dropped the part of the tie that was just cream in and out quickly. I did a quick rinse, applied the color stay and let that soak and then rinsed again. It's not perfect but the dye did a pretty good job of covering up the rust and red dye spots without losing the pattern. I thought it was interesting that this 1991 magazine had very obvious brands in their photo; Kisses and Snoopy. I used Dove chocolate because it's better than Hershey Kisses and I found a cute cat Valentine picture to use instead of the dog Valentine.
And now for it's rating:
Total is 4 out of 5! This week's pattern is from a February Workbasket pattern. They have directions for a scarf, cap, gloves and legwarmers in some variation of the stitch pattern they give you. Of course, the amounts of yarn given are for the entire set so if you want to make just one of these you'll be guessing at the amounts. Materials include: Columbia Minerva John Kloss Heather yarn; 12 ounces of Gray (MC), 4 ounces of each of the other colors they give as Rice (R), Brown (B), Silver Gray (G), Red Onion (O). An I hook for the scarf (other items use different sizes). A tapestry needle and 12 inches of 1/2 inch elastic (they don't say in this part what the elastic is for but I was reasonably sure it wasn't the scarf). The yarn they specify seems to be a sport weight yarn. I ended up going up to a DK weight and used leftover Bernat Softee Baby for the main part of the scarf. The other colors were mostly scraps of DK weight yarn I had. There is a gauge and I was fairly close to it with the DK weight yarn.  I wasn't impressed by the use of yarn that has unusual color names and that they used a black and white photo for this project. In particular, they used Rice as a color name and gave it the abbreviation R but also had Red Onion which was an O. I ended up using my own colors and had to write out my own color plan for the different rows. Their choice of "O" for Red was even worse when I realized that they were also using "O" as an abbreviation for yarn over. Row 3 reads, "Sc in first ch 1 sp, ch 1, O, draw up a lp in next ch 1 sp, (O, draw up a lp in the same sp 4 times, O and through 11 lps on hook, O draw through lp on hook (popcorn made)..." I used white for Rice, green for the Main Color/gray, blue and black for Brown, gray for Red Onion. Once you get through the confusing color and yarn over abbreviations this turns out to be linen stitch with a row of popcorn stitches. It wasn't complicated just not written out very well.  My handwritten color order. I also guessed wrong on how much blue yarn I would need so I ended up making one end of the scarf blue and the other black. Here are the final photos:
I think the edges are a little messy and it could really use a border but it's fine the way it is too.
Criteria: Is the pattern easy to understand? No. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes. Does it look like the photo? Sort of. I think they used two colors for the bobbles and I didn't see how they did that with the color order in the pattern. Would someone wear this? Yes. Did I enjoy making it? Eh. Once I got over the annoyance at their confusing abbreviations it went ok. I didn't hate making it but I wouldn't make this again. That looks like two yeses and two half yeses so that makes this a 3 out of 5. Next week it's not a scarf and it's a special Valentine patern! I know it's early in the year but so far this is my favorite. It took me a while to figure it out and I still got one part wrong but I still love it. I found this scarf on Ravelry by searching for scarves that were originally published before 1970. The entry sent me to an Australian newspaper archive. You can see the pattern in that archive here. The article had the text written out so I didn't have to try to decipher the tiny print even if I did have to decipher the terms they use.  This pattern asks for:
Row two was hard to read and difficult for me to understand. "2nd row: Work first pattern in loop following the part of pattern, then work a pattern into each loop after each pattern, finishing first st of pattern into loop of last pattern." They use loop a lot to mean different things and I knew after the first section was done that it wouldn't give me that scalloped look when I got to the alternating color section. Fortunately for me, someone else on Ravelry made this scarf and I took a very close look at their version and figured out where I went I wrong. I was just doing the stitch pattern across all of the stitches and not doing the pattern in just one stitch or loop. Once I figured that out this went pretty quickly. Here's the my version. I ran out of the light blue yarn so I finished it off with a last row in gray.  Can you tell what my other mistake was? The two openings were supposed to be next to each other but again, the text was confusing. If I'd looked at the photo again I think I would have done it right but it still works the way it was intended to. Even though this was wool I decided not to block it. It's pretty evenly stitched already and I didn't want to stretch it out. The dense fabric makes it a little warmer.  Criteria:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Not really. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes. Does it look like the photo (or illustration in this case)? Yes. Would someone wear this? Yes. Did I enjoy making it? Yes. That gives this one a 4 out of 5. Next week we'll head to 1980! |
