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This Sultana booklet was published in 1951 and has patterns to make with their Beauty-Glo mercerized cotton yarn. Here's their description, "Exciting Sultana Beauty-Glo is a highly mercerized cotton yarn combined with non-tarnishing gold thread made by an exclusive process so that it can't unravel."  The booklet has a mix of crochet and knitting patterns: six lovely sweaters, a stole, two pairs of shoes, and two bags. The sizing on the inside page goes from size 12-20. Size 12 is listed as a 30-inch bust and size 20 is a 38-inch bust. Many of the sweaters have a more limited size range in the pattern. The cover is the only color photo of their projects. This one is called "Sparkle" and is crocheted with size options 12, 16, and 20.  The other two crocheted tops are Jewel and Sunbeam. Jewel has instructions for sizes 12-14. Sunbeam has sizes 14-18.
The three knitted tops are Gleam (14-16), Twinkle (16-18) and Glint (12-16).
I thought about making the crocheted bags or shoes, but they need bag forms or slipper soles.
This stole is also crocheted and with a fairly large hook to give it the lacy look.  I think these are beautiful projects, but I just couldn't pull off a sweater for the blog. If I ever decide to do one, it will be Sparkle (the one on the cover).
No post next week. I'll have the next post ready on February 28th.
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I've never really liked any of the crocheted slippers I've made. Even if I'm wearing socks, it feels like I'm walking on knots. I didn't expect more from these, but I decided to give them a try anyway. The materials given are four 1-ounce skeins of black Red Heart Knitting Worsted and 2 skeins of pink, along with a No. 5 (size F) plastic crochet hook. It also lists sequins and beads in the material list, but not the cardboard they want you to insert in the layers. There are instructions for three different sizes: small, medium, and large, with no clear notes on what those sizes correspond to. I went with medium. I used some Red Heart Super Saver in dark gray and light tan for the sole and Loops and Threads Impeccable for the upper part of the slipper. There is a gauge for both the sole and the upper that I was able to match.  The soles are done with two strands held together with a size F hook. This made a tight fabric but holding two strands together with a small hook can be frustrating and hard on my hands. There are four crocheted pieces for each sole. The top sole, bottom sole and two heel pieces.  The assembly for the soles has you sew the heel pieces together, then, "Cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the Bottom Sole. Sew joined heel pieces in place on Bottom Sole, having cardboard between. Sew Top Sole in place." I had a hard time understanding this but Joel helped. In my head, the heels go on the bottom under the soles. In this case, the "heels" are between the two sole pieces. I also didn't want to use cardboard. I looked at some lightweight plastic sheets I had, thought about cork and ultimately pulled out some insoles that I wasn't using. I'm assuming the cardboard was meant to give it more structure and the insoles weren't really going to help much with that, but I didn't think the cardboard would help much either.  Making the soles was the most time consuming part of this project. The upper part was easier but there are some things I would change. The upper part is done in two pieces. First the part that goes over the toe that they call the "Instep" and then the "Back Piece" that goes around the back and overlaps the toe piece. I think I would make the toe piece a little longer, the back piece overlap a little less and have the back piece a little higher. The back piece is done to measure 1.75 inches but it seems short and there isn't a lot of structure in the side piece either so it's a little floppy.  Those heels are half an inch higher than the front of the slipper soles. This was probably elegant in 1951 but I'm not sure they needed to be higher.  I wear a size 7.5 in women's shoes, and these were a little too small and too narrow. It felt like my feet were spilling out over the sides. My guess is the medium would be 6.5 - 7 narrow. The large adds another inch to the length but no more to the width. Overall, I like the idea of these, and with some changes, it could work. I didn't try to wear them long enough to see if it felt like I was walking on knots, and there isn't enough space for an insert to soften that issue either.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Aside from the assembly, yes. 0.75 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. Does anyone wear a size 7 narrow want to try? 0.75 Did I enjoy making it? Sort of. I liked the idea, but it was hard on my hands. 0.5 Total score = 4 out of 5 Coats & Clark's Quick Tricks in Crochet was published in October 1952. It has 31 patterns, including small accessories, household items, and toys. Several full-color pages showed photos of all of the patterns. The cover image below features a rolling pin cover, potholders, a heart napkin holder, and a set of blue-and-white hot plate mats, along with a matching napkin holder. I thought about making the pot holders, but ultimately, there was something else in the booklet that caught my eye.  The first photo page inside the book shows the finished items for the curtain edging (on both the curtains and the towels), a grape doily, and a blue chair set. The grape doily is a classic pattern, but at this point, I'm wondering what they mean by "quick".  The second photo page has three different versions of slippers (I'll be attempting the pink ones for next week), two soap holders (oval and plaid), and a "deep cloche". It also has a nice photo of the yarn and thread used in the patterns.  The third page has two moth disk holders (the red and yellow round projects), two bibs with edging, three covers for hangers and some sachets (the yellow sunbonnet and blue picture hat). These all look like they would be very quick projects.  Here's another instance of me questioning what they mean by quick. The ballerina, cowboy and, Josephine dolls are cute but there are a lot of parts including the adorable cowboy hat.  The back cover has several different glass covers (definitely quick) and a cute apron (probably not so quick). I thought about making a few of the glass covers, but I really wanted to try at least one pair of slippers or shoes this year.  Next week I'll share how the slipper project went!
Gay and Gifty Crochet Ideas was published in 1951 by the American Thread Company, and I'm pretty sure every pattern in this booklet is done with thread. I thought about making something from this booklet, but everything that wasn't done with very fine tatting thread seemed more complicated than I could do in a short period of time.  The pansy handkerchiefs are done in tatting thread, and the doll clothes are done in size 30 thread. The classic Rose Doily is worked with Pearl Cotton size 5 and the pattern for the carnations uses No 10 size thread along with flower wire.
I thought about trying some of the flowers. There are three corsages below: apple blossom, chrysanthemum, and daisy, plus a few carnations. The apple blossom corsage is made with tatting cotton, the daisy corsage is made with size 30, and the chrysanthemum is made with size 10 thread.  The tea cozy below might be the only thing that isn't made in thread. That uses worsted weight yarn. They snuck a knitting pattern in; the corn pot holder below on the right.
The laundry bag is made from a washcloth edged in thread. The top of it is an embroidery hoop covered with ribbon. I'm not sure how many people would use a hosiery hanger these days, but this could be used for other lightweight things you want to hang dry or just store this way, unless you have a cat. Or maybe this is the perfect cat toy!  For this week, I have the Violet Ensemble. This is intended to fit an 11 1/4" fashion doll. They suggest using fingering or nylon yarn, 3-ply in violet, and a small amount of purple for the trim, along with a steel crochet hook size No. 1. They provide a gauge of 5 single crochets and 6 rows equal to 1 inch.  I tried fingering weight yarn but couldn't get the right gauge with a 2.75mm hook. I went up to a sport weight yarn that seemed a little heavier than most sport weight yarn and managed to get closer to the gauge. I used Dive Washed-Out Jeans for the jacket with some Unger Fluffy for the trim. I made the dress out of some scrap yarn I had that was on the lighter side of sport weight. This is what the main pieces looked like before they were sewn up and the trim added. It's easier to see their sleeve method on the lighter colored dress. You fold it over and sew the tops of the tabs that are next to each other together. The V in the middle is the neckline and you run the seam up the back.
Here's the finished look. 
This particular Barbie's hair made it difficult to work with the hat, and I think the trim was supposed to go all the way around the hat, but it sort of works. The dress was pretty tight, even though I added an extra stitch to it. The fit of the jacket came out ok though.
Here's the scoring: 1. Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes 1.0 2. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Not with their suggested yarn, but I did find one that came close. 0.5 3. Does it look like the photo? Aside from color and appliques, yes. 1.0 4. Would Barbie wear this? Yes 1.0 5. Did I enjoy making this? Yes. It was pretty simple once I was able to get the gauge right. Their method for the arms was a little different from what I'd seen before, but it worked. 1.0 Final score 4.5 McCall's Fashion Crochet was published in 1965; however, it has patterns that were published between 1951 and 1965, so I'm including it in the 1950s group. This booklet includes patterns compiled from other McCall's sources in what I believe is supposed to be a progression of increasingly difficult patterns.  The booklet starts out with basic instructions on how to crochet and then begins with doll patterns. They show that the outfits are made from basic shapes that are sewn up in ways to make them clothing or bags. This seems like an excellent place to start.
Once you move past the doll clothes, the next project is a cardigan. Still working with some basic shapes, but on a human-sized level. Here, they show what a difference in the type of yarn can make. The one in front is crocheted with mohair and a fingering weight yarn held together and the back one is made in wool.  The next few projects are also sweaters, but they've added detail, like collars and pockets.
After the sweaters, the projects get a little more complicated and require sewing skills since many of them have a lining sewn in. The pink jacket uses 3000 sequins and 3000 crystal seed beads. The beads and sequins are added after the jacket is assembled. The white Shell Stitch Ensemble is beautiful and uses nylon net on the inside of the pieces probably to keep it from losing it's shape along with an additional lining. The instructions for the lining are, "Assemble lining. Insert lining in coat."
There are similar directions for the lining of the Pink Ribbon Dress and the Lace-Panel Dress, but the Striped Sailor Dress skips the lining.
This gorgeous evening coat uses a brocade lining, and while the crochet part might be good for beginner crocheters, I think you'll need some advanced sewing skills for the lining.  Shell Evening Coat These pullovers don't have a lining and seem like they'd be a little easier than the coat to make.
Now that we've made our way through the clothing, they toss in a few blankets and a little clutch to finish things off.
 Sequin Eyeglass Case and Bag For next week, I'm making one of the doll outfits.
The 1950s. Silly Putty goes on sale; we have the Baby Boom, the Red Scare, and the Civil Rights Movement. Rock and Roll was the new sound, and the Golden Age of Television started. I have somewhere around 550 patterns from the 1950s in my library. Of those 550 patterns, 52 are potholders, 87 are doilies, and another 60 are runners, placemats, or tablecloths, most of which are made with thread. Because so many patterns are for items we have seen a lot of or are too large or complicated to make in a week or two, I may move to the 1960s about halfway through the year. I have roughly the same number of patterns from the 60s, but they get more interesting as we move into the 60s and 70s. For our first pattern book of the 1950s, I have "Butterflies in Crochet". This was published by the Spool Cotton Company in January 1951. The cover is below. There is a chart inside to identify the specific butterflies on the cover and the back cover. They say the big one is Myscelia Orsis from Paraguay.  There are eleven patterns in the book that incorporate butterflies into them. I won't be making any of these. The hat and gloves below are made with size 30 thread, and the butterflies appliqued to the blouse are done in size 70 thread. Many of the patterns are a variation of the blouse where butterflies are appliqued to a handkerchief, tablecloth or a bedspread.
These shade pulls were kind of cute but they're also made with size 70 tatting thread.  Even the doily and the luncheon set below are done with size 30 thread. I know I could have tried them with a heavier thread, but there are more patterns out there that I would enjoy more, so I passed on these.
Next week, I have a book on "Fashion Crochet" to share, and I'll make something from that book. Happy New Year!
These are the ten patterns that scored 3.25 out of 4.0 or lower, starting with the highest scores and moving to the one I rated as 2.25 out of 4. Most of the potholders are in this half. They just weren't turning out that well for me this year. 10. Hit or Miss Potholders - 3.25 This was a set of potholders - some of them were hits and some misses. 9. Shooting Star - 3.25 This was the baby toy that looked like a medieval weapon. 8. Potholder Nov 1948 Workbasket - 3.25 The lack of stitch counts on this one dropped the score, and mine was pretty wavy. I'd really hoped this could be a fair entry, but it does make a nice pot holder anyway. 7. Chicken from Victory Barnyard - 3.00 Even though this is in the bottom half of the list, it is my favorite project. The directions were written in an unusual way that made them a little more difficult to understand. It's my favorite because it went to my mother-in-law when she was in the hospital as an emotional support chicken. It's back home with me now and is a lovely reminder of how much she loved and supported my crochet hobby. 6. Potholder 9436 - 3.00 This was frustrating to make, and the chains didn't quite line up like the picture. We do use it, so that's something. 5. Medallion from August 1948 Workbasket - 3.00 The pattern wasn't written well, and I didn't like what I ended up with. 4. Rosie Apple Potholder - 3.00 I marked this down a little in all categories. 3. Turnip Potholder - 2.50 This is almost completely useless as a potholder, and it didn't look that much like the illustration. 2. Potholder 9491 - 2.5 Even though I scored this so low, it's one that I use every day for my coffee. Probably because I don't care if I stain it. It was much smaller than I expected, the directions could have used some stitch counts, and the pattern wasn't very clear. 1. Filmy Charm - 2.25 I started the year with two patterns that scored 4.0 and ended with the one that I rated the worst.
It's time for the best and worst projects of the year. Over this last year I made 21 patterns from 1911 to 1950. Here are the projects that I rated at 3.5 out of 4 or better in ascending order. 11. Black-Eyed-Susan Doily - this was rated at 3.5. I marked it down a little because the instructions for joining the motifs weren't as clear as they could have been and it's a lot of threads to weave in for each motif. 10. Indian Circle Pot Holder - this 1947 pot holder had some issues with instructions and it didn't quite look like the photo but it turned out to be a useful pot holder. I rated this as a 3.5. 9. Curtain Tie-Back - I rated it at 3.5. There was no photo and the gauge for a chain was a little odd. 8. Petal Star Doily - I had to use the photo as a follow up to the instructions. This went to the county fair and won third place. I rated it at 3.75 7. Small Doily - 1946 rated at 3.75. I marked it down only because it was hard to read. This also went to the county fair and won third place. 6. Little Mother Dress - rated at 3.75. This won first place in Infant Garments. It got marked down a little because there was no gauge. 5. Tiny Soft Shoes - rated at 3.75. Won first place in Footwear and only got marked down because I don't love making the second shoe/sock/etc. 4. Petite Pinafore - rated at 3.75. Won first place in the Child Garment category. The gauge was odd for this one so it was marked down. 3. Button - The first project of the year. It was pretty simple though hard to see for a tiny button. I rated it at 4.0. 2. Baby Sachet - This was the second project of the year and I rated it at 4.0. They did a good job of describing a star stitch and it was an excellent use of some scrap yarn. 1. Fawn - From a 1947 Workbasket Magazine, I rated this one at 4.0 too. It really required me to have faith in the pattern because it didn't seem like much at first but turned our very cute.
Next week - the lower half of the patterns and my personal favorite.
 The potholders in this booklet all have options for two different weights of yarn; Star Cotton Yarn using a size E hook and Heavy Rug yarn using a G hook along with six strand embroidery thread (that they don't give you a hook size for). I used worsted weight acrylic for the apple part. For my first attempt at the leaf, I tried some cotton thread and ended up with a leaf that was a little too big.  My second attempt at the leaf with the embroidery thread was better, I also dropped the hook size down to a size C. Crocheting with embroidery thread is a little bit challenging because it's very loosely plied and easy to split. The front of the potholder was pretty easy to do. It's worked bottom up with increases and decrease to achieve the apple shape. The yarn is cut half-way across the top and restarted on the other side leaving the middle stitches unworked to get the little divot by the stem. What they called the "undersection" was little more challenging and seemed to be missing something.  Finished front of Rosie Apple The back or "undersection" starts out the same as the front starting from the bottom for the first 19 rows, then you do two rows that skip a section to set you up to do the thumb following the directions on the page with the illustration of some version of one of their potholders. You finish it by crocheting the two sides together.  Thumb directions This is all pretty straightforward but I ended up with a potholder that doesn't look like the one above.  I knew I could fix this by crocheting a few more rows after the set up for the thumb hole but I wanted to do it as I thought it was written. I swear I re-read that section a number of times because I didn't understand how I could be missing half of a potholder and didn't notice until I started writing this post that after row 21 (the set up row for the thumb opening) it says "Work remaining rows same as the front section." That would give you a much safer potholder than what I show above. Here's my un-safe finished version:
Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? 0.75 A hook size would have been nice for the embroidery thread and having to go to a completely different section for the very short thumb directions is a little annoying. Does it look like the photo? 0.75 Yes but only because it only shows the front. If they had shown the back better on any of the potholders (the illustration wasn't very helpful) maybe I wouldn't have missed the rest of the back. Would someone use this? 0.75 Not as I made it but maybe if it had a full back. Did I enjoy making it? 0.75 Mostly. Total Score: 3.00 When I first looked at this leaflet the "pocket" part didn't really register with me since it isn't very visible in the cover photo. In theory, you could easily make these without the pockets. I sort of assumed the pocket was where you put your hand and I was mostly right.  The cover photo has many of the potholders; the strawberry right up front is a classic and the perky pig in the upper right is kind of cute. I thought about making the pansy under the word "Pocket" or maybe the cute duck at the bottom right. Some of them are a little odd looking though. The gingerbread boy by the duck looks more like the ghost of a small child and Freddy frog looks like he lost at Frogger. There were three that weren't on the cover. These two are called American Modern and Rice Puddin' 'n Raisins.  The American Modern looks like a good way to use up scraps. The Rice Puddin' version just looks like a mess to me. I decided on the Rosie Apple for next week. At this point you may be wondering where the pocket is. The directions for the thumb has the only illustration that shows the pocket. Find out next week what the pockets really look like.
Last week I said I was going to try one of the pineapple squares for this week's pattern. Somewhere in the first few rows the directions stopped making sense and I gave up and tried a different pattern. That one also had issues that I couldn't get through so I moved on to a third pattern. I already had the size 30 thread out and wanted to try using it so I ended up attempting the coaster from this set.  The pattern asked for size 30 thread and a size 13 hook. I didn't have a size 13 (0.85mm hook) but I did have one that said it was a size 12 and 0.75mm. The chart I have has a size 12 hook at 1mm so obviously there is some variation. I could have used the tool I have to measure but I thought 0.75 was close enough. I struggled with the "filmy" nature of the thread paired with a very lacy pattern and if I really wanted to try this again I might block it after the middle section to make it easier to handle and find the loops. At about round nine I noticed that I had too many chain sections on one side and had no idea how it happened. There was no way I was starting over so I bridged the gap with some chains and moved on. Much like the other patterns in this book, the directions weren't terrible but they weren't great. Here are some examples;
I think this could be pretty but filmy is a very good description of this. This is so light and delicate that it has no ability to perform any protective duties a coaster would normally handle.
Is the pattern easy to understand? 0.50 I don't think I'll ever try anything from this book again and will probably get rid of it. Does it look like the photo? 0.75 Mostly. My blocking wasn't great plus the mistake means it doesn't quite match. Would someone use this? 0.50 Maybe? I don't think it's a good coaster for something that might sweat. You could put a decorative item on it though. Maybe you put on top an actual coaster to make it prettier. Did I enjoy making it? 0.50 When I started I was enjoying it but by the end of it, I was over the tiny yarn, hook and floppy mess of thread I was dealing with. Filmy = yes. Charm = not so much. Total score 2.25. The lowest rating of the year. Next week we're back to potholders and done with thread for a bit!  Just like last week's booklet, the projects from Crochet County Fair have been favorited multiple times on Ravelry. There are thirteen designs in the booklet and all of them are done with thread. Most with size 30 thread. There aren't many of these that I would do for my county fair but there were a few that looked like they would be interesting. The Breakfast Table set (first row - right side) is done in two colors. It's the one that I wish was on the cover in color. The rug looked interesting until I realized it was done in thread with 3 strand held together. It might be a possibility if I can adjust to a different cotton yarn. The potholders way at the bottom of the photos are the ones I'm mostly like to make for a fair entry.
 Hot Plate Mats - Thread size 10 For next week I thought I'd try one of the pineapple squares from the Vanity Set from the first row of photos. They suggest size 30 thread but I will be using something a little bigger. This booklet has eight doily patterns with two different center patterns for the four that add motifs around the outside like the butterfly and violet doilies on the cover. The directions for the doilies give multiple options for thread sizes along with a suggested hook and the approximate size the doily will be with those choices. Many of the doilies in this booklet appear in multiple other booklets so it's safe to say these were and still are pretty popular.  On Ravelry, the patterns have been favorited a minimum of 60 times. The Flower Bouquet Doily on the upper right has been favorited 863 times and has 12 projects. The Butterfly Doily on the top left has been favorited fewer times but it has 22 projects. The Spider Web doily below has 68 projects on Ravelry and has been favorited 1662 times!
The Grape Doily is probably the least favorited and completed one on Ravelry but it's still pretty. The Cameo Girl Doily only has one project
If you want to try any of these you can find the patterns at Free Vintage Crochet.
As beautiful as all of these are I'm a little burned out on doilies at the moment and I have one more thread project for the year coming up in late November. That will be an attempt at using size 30 thread! I decided to make the classic Black Eyed Susan Doily from Coats and Clark Floral Doilies booklet for this week's blog.  The pattern suggest Best Six Cord Mercerized Crochet Cotton size 30 for the white and dark yellow and Pearl Cotton Size 5 for the black centers along with a size 10 (1.3mm hook). This should produce a doily about 12 inches in diameter. I chose to use Knit Picks Curio size 10 thread in Turmeric and Cream for the main part of the doily and some size 10 brown thread for the center. I was hoping to get a bigger version that could go to the fair in the over 14" category. I started this off by making the flower motifs. This included the center flower and 12 outside flower motifs in turmeric through the 4th rounds. Once those were done, I started from the center flower with cream to make the main part of the doily. The directions were pretty good for this and it's only seven more rounds beyond the center flower so it went fairly quickly. That was the easy part. Once that was done it was time to work on the outside flower motifs and get those attached. You start with the fourth round in cream and join it to the center piece as you go and cut the thread once that one is finished. Then you start the second flower motif. The directions for attaching the second one weren't quite as clear as the first. After an attempt at following their directions I gave up on them and joined them my way. My way involved a lot of stitch markers to make sure I didn't miss any attachment points on the center section. Finishing and adding the motifs took longer to do than the center even if I ignore the amount of time where I ripped out the second motif a few times. Once i had all of the flowers attached to the outside and did the border, it was time to do the flower centers and here's where I think I made a mistake. I chose a thread that was the same size as the thread I made the rest of the doily. The pattern says to use size 30 thread for the doily and size 5 Pearl Cotton for the flower centers. Size 5 Pearl Cotton is closer to size 10 thread so I should have gone up a size in thread or added a few rounds to the centers. It would have made it a little easier to get them centered. Here's the finished doily. It was a little windy when I took the photo and it kept picking up the edges a little. You can see one kind of folded under in the photo and a leaf that photo-bombed the picture. The doily is about 18 inches across and my little brown "eyes' are kind of all over the place. If I don't get something better by August 2026 I might take out the centers and redo them for a fair entry.  Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? 0.75 Yes, except for the motif joins. Does it look like the photo? 1.0 Yes Would someone use this? 1.0 Yes Did I enjoy making it? 0.75 Mostly, by the time I was attaching the last few motifs I was kind of over them. That probably affected the attachment of the centers since I just wanted to be done with it. Total 3.5 Floral Doilies was published in 1948 by Coats and Clark. It has eleven patterns ranging from fairly simple to some that have much more detail. Some of the patterns appear in more than one booklet. The front cover has a Daffodil Doily and the back cover has Blue Bell Doily.
They also have floral patterns added to placemats. The Apple Blossom is added to a pink placemat. Daisies surround a yellow placemat to make a luncheon set and in the last photo the White Daisy Doily has daisies on a placemat with a crocheted filet border.
 All of the doilies are also in the Dover Needlework Series, Floral Doilies for Crocheting (1980). The Pansy Doily, Pink Clover Doily each appear in a different third booklet and the Wild Rose Doily appears in four booklets. The Wild Rose Doily has some beautiful finished projects on Ravelry.
I'm going to try to make the Black Eyed Susan doily with size 10 thread instead of the size 30 they suggest. I'm hoping it will be a 2026 Dakota County Fair entry.
The May 1949 issue of Workbasket Magazine is 31 pages with 11 patterns; 8 crochet, 1 knitting, 1 tatting, and 1 quilting. It includes the Club Notes, an article on ceramics and pottery and lots of ads.  The Club Notes have instructions on how to give a book review with six points they think should be covered:
The only knitting pattern is for the bonnet. Crochet patterns include an apron with cross-stitching, a carnation, edging for a petticoat, pan holders and a pin cushion in addition to the tablecloth on the cover.
I decided to do the Petal Star Doily. (I made it in June so I could get it into the county fair.) They say to use about 200 yards of number 20 thread and a size 10 (1.3mm) crochet hook to get a 10 inch doily. I wanted this to be my entry in the 2025 fair for the "over 14-inch" category so I used size 10 thread from Knit Picks and a size 7 (1.65mm) hook.  There are instructions for every single round and they were easy to follow right up to round 5. After this point I had to refer to the illustration a few times to be sure I was making the single crochets in the right spots to get that lattice between the petals right. The same thing happened once I was past the petal portion but a glance at the illustration set me on the right track each time. This took me about a week to make and I blocked it pretty aggressively to make sure it was the right size for the fair. It got third place and I have it pinned up on my cube wall at work.  Here's the rating:
Is the pattern easy to understand? I'm glad I could look at the illustration. I probably could have figured it out without that but I might have had to pull out a row. 0.75 Does it look like the illustration? Yes. 1.0 Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making this? Yes. 1.0 Total 3.75
These issues are all 32 pages and have a mix of knitting, crochet and tatting patterns. The February issue has nine patterns, a section on brass and copper craft, lots of ads and the Club Notes. None of the patterns in these seemed like anything we haven't seen but I thought some of the advertisements were interesting. This ad for a "Complete Hand Weaving Outfit" was on the back of all three of the issues. "For Pleasure, for Profit, for Therapy"  There are always lots of ads for making money with different crafts but here's one that was a little different. I think they send you 40 packs of seeds that they want you to sell for 10 cents each, when you send back the money they'll send you the Ukulele and instructions.  This was an unusual ad for exercise. Its a free trial sent in a plain wrapper (exercise is so embarrassing?) and you have to be over 18 to order it. There is no information on how much it costs after the free trial is up.  Every issue also has ads for government surplus parachute fabric.  They all had ads for getting amazing curls but this one in the April issue was the biggest. Dissolve a capsule in water, comb it through your hair, set hair and allow it to dry and you have curls! It's basically a setting solution but fancy because it's in a capsule. This is actually a good way to save on shipping costs and many more products, particularly laundry soap and cleaners, come this way now.  Next week I'll share the May issue and the doily I made from it.
 The November 1948 issue has eleven patterns; seven crochet, two knitting, one tatting and one to make yarn dolls. Crochet patterns include the four below (child's mittens, flower motif, bell edging, shell dish) plus a wild rose insert, shell edging and the project I made for today.
There were only two knitting projects; one is the vest and hat on the cover and the other is this "Open Work Babushka". I attempted this but the lacy open work was difficult for me to get a consistent stitch so I moved on to a crochet project.  I hoped that this pan holder pattern might be able to go to the Dakota County Fair next year but I ran out of yarn and the second one is a little patchwork-y.  The pattern materials include; string weight thread and a size 8 crochet hook. I wanted to use up the rest of the Hobbii Twister yarn in my stash. It's a sport weight yarn so I decided to use a size B hook knowing that the finished project would be bigger than theirs. They say you need about 125 yards of the main color and 20 yards of the contrast color for one potholder. If you decided to do the optional back it should take another 85 yards. If I'd used their size thread I would have used 450 yards for two pan holders. I used 585 yards overall for the two with a back. The front of this went fine though having some stitch counts would have been nice. The rows are either double crochets or popcorn stitches. The directions for the back insinuate that these should lie flat. They definitely do not lie flat. I could block them into submission but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that and thought I could just describe them as a ripple potholder.  The backs were a little more difficult. The directions for the back: "work first rnd as for front section and continue making circle of dc until same size as front section, increasing when necessary to make it lie flat. Hold the two sections together, crochet the edging around". To make the back, I counted the stitches in the rounds that had double crochets and aimed to increase enough to get to those counts for the equivalent rounds. To crochet them together easily, I wanted to have the same stitch count on the last row. I mapped out the increases on paper to get to the final counts and that took a little longer to do because the counts weren't increasing evenly on the rounds. I also knew I wouldn't have enough of the pinks to do both backs so I added in some white stripes and hoped I'd have enough. I did technically have enough but the colors are distributed in a different way on the second one.  Finished front of potholders  Finished back of potholders I decided I liked the ripples because it was extra fabric while grabbing hot things so I didn't block these. I don't think these are fair quality mostly because of the section of dark pink edging on the right one in the top photo. I think I could have pulled off the multi-color row on the back without that added issue on the border.
Oh well, these are still very useful potholders. They're about 9-inches across and the ripples give you lots of area to hold hot pans. Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? They give a good description of how to make a popcorn stitch but could use some stitch counts, definitely could use some stitch counts on the back. 0.50 Does it look like the illustration? Mostly. Theirs looks very flat. 0.75 Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes except for the yarn chicken and that isn't the pattern's fault. 1.0 Total score 3.25 The September and October issues are 24 pages and the December issue jumps to 32 pages. Back in 2019 I made one motif from the rug pattern in the September issue. That issue also had some cute knitted mittens and a kids hat, a crocheted filet doily, edgings, pan holders and a headband. It also included part two of an article on weaving. The October issue has a very cute knitted bunny sweater on the cover that uses duplicate stitch to create the bunny. They pick up the weaving information again with part three.
The December issue starts previewing what you'll see in future issues along with tatting, crochet and knitting patterns. This is one of the few times I've seen a tatting pattern on the cover.  Sometimes I come across patterns that are like current popular patterns. I've seen lots of crocheted flowers on social media and this 1948 issue has a pattern for daffodils and geraniums.
This issue also has an article on how to make money with doll houses using small cardboard boxes and covering them with fabric to make chairs and flat trays to make beds. There is a fairly long article on metalcraft and the Club Notes have a little quiz on Christmas facts and legends. I'd quibble with the quiz language a bit and what they consider facts but here's part of their quiz with the answers at the end.
For next week, I'm going to make the Circle Panholder from November 1948 issue. I considered making a knitted head scarf but decided on something a little easier for me. |
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