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The Columbia Minerva Manual for Knitting and Crochet was published in 1958. It has 81 pages, just over 50 patterns, and another 16 stitch patterns. It starts out with an introduction explaining that this is intended "to act as a style guide for the experts and to teach the ABC's of knitting and crocheting to the novice." It starts out with fundamental knitting and crochet stitches, including two ways to cast on in knitting, basic increases and decreases for knitting and crochet, and the basic crochet stitches.  There is a whole page on how and where to take measurements for clothing sizes, along with the sizes that correspond to the measurements for the booklet. They go over interchanging yarn, how to make a swatch, and what different abbreviations mean for crocheting and knitting. It mentions making knots at the end of rows instead of weaving in. Finishing advice covers how to block, join, handle edges, wash, and dry. I'm not going to put pictures of everything in this post, but here are a few of my favorites. Crochet patterns: These two sets are adorable. In most of the pictures that had a photo in the background, the baby is wearing the item made from the pattern. This was one of the few that just had a random photo.
There are two crochet blankets. One is afghan stitch/tunisian, the other is a variation on square motifs.
There is so much to choose from for the knitting patterns. I liked the first one because it was called a Jaunty Sweater and the model is doing her best to look jaunty. There are several patterns with argyle color work, including this child's vest.
There were a lot of sets like the "Father Son" one below and this cute dress with a doll outfit.
Since most of the crochet projects are pretty big, I thought I'd give some of the stitch patterns a try. Next week, I'll have a knitting stitch pattern and an afghan stitch to share.
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The May 1955 Workbasket Magazine has four crochet patterns, one knit, and one tatting pattern. I decided to try the Round Star Doily pattern in this issue. but first, let's take a quick look at the other things in this issue. The Needle Pointers column gives us a few tips, including:
If you know me, you know I like to bring gelatin salads with fruit or fun layers to work for events. This issue has an entire section called "Mold It!" with three recipes. They list some of the benefits of serving molded meals as: you can take advantage of cooler morning hours to cook and pop it in the fridge for later, gelatin is nutritious, and it's eye-appealing. Two of the recipes they share are sweet and one is...not. Orange Delight is a basic creamy gelatin dessert with lemon juice, orange rind, sugar, and cream. It's whipped and sound pretty normal. The Pineapple Layer Ring starts with strawberry gelatin and adds pineapple juice, strawberries, pineapple, sieved cottage cheese, whipping cream and walnuts. The bottom layer has the cottage cheese, cream and walnuts and the top layer is the strawberry and pineapple layer. That doesn't sound terrible.  Pineapple Layer Ring It's not 1955 without a savory gelatin salad, and they offer up a Silver Salad. Described as "A meal in itself" and "glistening pink", this salad uses the economical sardine along with tomato soup, grated onion, cream cheese, and mayonnaise. I'm not sure if the photo below does it justice since we can't see the glistening pink gelatin or if we should be thankful it's in black and white.  Silver Salad I could have done any of the crochet projects in this issue. They were all thread and even though some used a smaller thread than I would choose, using a bigger thread would only have made a bigger placemat or table scarf. I was still looking for a smaller doily (under 14 inches) for the fair, so I thought I'd try this one. The directions say that using size 10 or 20 thread should give you a doily 9 1/2 inches across. The pattern doesn't give you a hook size since that's dependent on the thread size.  The directions are fairly straightforward. There is a section of four rows that are not listed individually, but they're rounds that have a specific pattern, so it wasn't hard to figure it out. I usually write those out anyway, so I know where I am when I'm working on the project. The project went quickly since it's only 16 rounds, and then I had to block it. I don't know how they got those nice, rounded loops in the photo, so I just blocked it my way and tried not to stretch it too much. My version ended up being 12 1/2 inches after being blocked. If I'd done rounded loops, it might have been 12 inches. Just like the last doily I did, my blocking isn't very even, but in this case, I didn't try that hard once I realized I'd made two mistakes in the last round. Both are on the right side in the photo below. I'm definitely not taking this one to the fair, but a friend liked it and took it home.  Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? 1.0 Yes. If there is a gauge, could I match it? 0.5 There wasn't really a gauge given except in the final size. I was skeptical that both sizes of thread would give the same size doily so getting one that was bigger wasn't that big of a surprise. Still, it would have been nice to know which one was the 9 1/2 inches size. Does it look like the photo? 1.0 Yes or it would have if I'd blocked it differently and only photographed the lower left side. Would someone use this? 1.0 Yes. Did I enjoy making it? 0.75 Mostly. I'm not sure if it was the thread (Scheepjes Maxi Sweet Treat), the design, or the user but I kept dropping the thread off the hook and it was getting tangled up a little bit. Total 4.25 This week, I thought I'd share a few of the projects I've made that are Pride-themed. Only one is vintage, but I love them all. In 2022 (the year of vintage hats), I took a break from hats and made a pair of earrings from the 1990s. The pattern used pastel colors because it was the 90s. I decided to make them rainbow colors. Like most of my finished projects, they were given away. This time to someone I work with. You can see that post here.  I made this cute top for my niece in 2023, and she wore it to Pride that year. It's called the Marigold Top. Again, the model was in more pastel colors, so I changed the colors. I ended up buying a bunch of different skeins of yarn that seemed like they fit the right color scheme for this, and had my niece choose the ones she wanted.  That left me with some unused yarn. One skein was from Big Twist in the colorway Spirit. Big Twist had several colorways that had pride colors. Usually not in quite the right order, but close enough. I made this cowl with that leftover skein. The pattern is by one of my favorite designers; CJ Brady. This pattern is Ombre Blossom Cowl.  In 2024, I made this tablecloth to use up some of my thread. I did end up buying more purple to finish it. It got a first-place ribbon at the 2025 county fair. It was also the only entry for that category.  Last on today's list, I made this snail back in 2021. The pattern is no longer available, but when it was, it came in 10 different pride flag color schemes.  It's been two years since I've made something Pride-themed, so I should make something for next year. Does anyone have any suggestions?
This April 1955 Workbasket issue has three crochet patterns and one knitting pattern. The crochet patterns are the placemat on the front cover, a Water Lily Motif, and a rug. I'm a very novice knitter, so I thought I'd try the Presto Knit Pan Holder. After all, it has "Presto" in the name, so it must be pretty fast and easy, right?  The illustration looks like it has a few different textures, but I didn't let that stop me.  The pattern calls for a pair of number 5, eleven-inch, standard steel knitting needles and a skein of rug yarn. I only have circular needles, but that isn't really an issue. I started out with some cotton worsted-weight yarn and number 5 needles (3.5mm) and, within the first couple of rows, decided I needed to go up a size in needles, so I ripped it out and started over. Then, the yarn was giving me problems, so I ripped it out again and started over. This time, I decided to use Bernat Handicrafter yarn, a tubular yarn that should make the stitches easier. That yarn is a size 5 bulky weight yarn, so I bumped up the needles to a size 8 (5mm). The suggested needle size for this yarn is a size 11 (8mm) needle, so it's still a pretty tight knit. That helped, and I made it through row seven, but I had too many stitches. I just couldn't figure out how this pattern worked. I gave up. Here's the pattern up to Row 7. Cast on 20 stitches Row 1 - P 1, sl 1, repeat across row. (In this pattern, you should sl the sts as if to p.) Row 2 - P each stitch Row 3 - Sl 1, p 1, repeat across row Row 4 - P each stitch Row 5 - (P 1, sl 1) twice, k 12, (p 1, sl 1) twice Row 6 - P 4, (O, sl 1, p 1) six times, p 4. To make the O: since yarn is at the front of needles to P, pass it between needles to back and bring it over the top of right needle to the front as you make the next p stitch. (This was hard to figure out, but I found a video, but now you've yarned over 6 times and increased the number of stitches. I assumed you'd reduce them in the next row, but you don't.) Row 7 - (S 1, p 1) twice, sl 1, O, p2 tog) six times, (sl 1, p 1 twice). The 2 sts together will be a st and an O. Row 8 - P 5, (Sl the O, p 2) five times, sl 1, p 5 I gave up after Row 7. So what do you think? Is Row 6 missing something, or is it me? Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? 0 Not for me since I gave up at row 7 If there was a gauge, could I match it? No gauge Does it look like the drawing? .... I'm going to stop here and just give this a zero because I didn't finish it.  partially ripped out pan holder I have five Workbasket Magazines from 1955: January, February, March, April, and May. I'm going to attempt something out of the April and May issues. The January issue didn't have anything we haven't already seen in other versions, but I did find some interesting things in the February issue. The table of contents page now has the tips they used to intersperse throughout the magazine. This one says you can reuse your old shoulder pads as pin cushions, use salt and lemon to help remove rust and mildew from linens, and use an empty ballpoint pen to transfer patterns with carbon paper. There's also an interesting tip on dyeing cotton garments: add some dye to the starch to give it a more permanent finish.
The recipe section is on how to "Make Winter Meals Interesting". The photo is for Pot Roast Valentine and features a molded rice heart. The heart contains rice, cream of mushroom soup, and olives.  Other things that sounded relatively tasty were: Western Carrot Burgers that were fried mashed carrots with cornflakes, eggs, green onion, and celery, and Hamburg Mushroom Gumbo with caraway seed biscuits. I was less interested in this recipe for Spaghetti with Liver Sauce even if they describe it as "a bit different, and very good."  The section on flowers had several new flower varieties including; McKana's Giant Columbine, Scarlet Pyramid Aster and Ruffled Red Single Fresh Marigold. They only have black and white photos of the flowers but I found one photo of the Columbine online.  McKana's Giant Columbine Photo from American Meadows And just a reminder for anyone who thought the 50s were a wonderful time for women, this is a picture of someone that was considered "Stout" and should have "slenderizing fashions".  I'm starting to see sandals with soles that are kind of broken up like this (like these Sorels), but they aren't wood with actual hinges like these Flexiclogs. I wonder how hard it was to clean the hinges when leaves, dirt, etc. got into them. The hinges are also directly under your foot, so I can picture nylon stockings getting caught in them, too. If you're really curious about these, the blog Casci Ritchie has a post about them, including the history of why they were wood (war restrictions on certain materials for civilian use), the patent illustrations, how they were sold, and an excellent photo of a pair. There are even a couple of comments by people who own a pair.  While I'm not making anything from the March 1955 issue this time, I made something from it back in 2019. It was a very small visor hat for children.  Next week, I'm attempting a knitted potholder from the April 1955 issue.
The Famous Puritan Crochet booklet was published in 1955 or 1956 and featured patterns made with their Star Spangled Mercerized Cotton. This thread seems to be similar in size to No. 10 thread.
There are two tops in the booklet; a green knitted blouse, and a pink crocheted blouse. I couldn't pass this photo up because of the expressions on their faces.  I'm pretty sure I have these doll dress patterns in a slightly different format. They must have been popular.  There are several doilies in the booklet. The one below is one of two ruffled versions. There are also several chair sets like the green and white one.
The hat and bag sets were very pretty, but I'm never sure how they kept those hats on their heads. A lot of pins? I love the hairpin lace shawl below. It looks very glamorous in the spangled thread.
Collar and belt sets were pretty common in booklets. I was a little disappointed that the one below wasn't in color.   There is one shoe pattern. I wonder if the thread with its metallic pieces woven through would be comfortable.
This is only a small portion of the 25 patterns in the booklet. There were also gloves, a knitted doily, several shade pulls, luncheon mats, a bedspread, a tablecloth, and a stole. I decided not to do any of the patterns in this booklet. I considered whipping up one of the shade pulls because they looked fast to make, but decided they weren't that interesting. Next week I'll have Workbasket Magazines from 1955. For this week, I made the Rose Necklace. The model uses size 30 thread and a size 12 (1mm) crochet hook. I had size 30 thread, so I decided to give this pattern a chance. The pattern says that you could use anything in place of the rose, and you could even make earrings by making two roses and adding an earring back. They suggest stiffening the necklace with clear nail polish or liquid plastic starch.
The rose was easy to crochet. I've done other similar flowers, so the size of the thread didn't give me any trouble. It's about 1 3/4 inches in diameter in the size 30 thread. The chain, which would normally be the easiest part, was harder. Finding the tiny little stitch to make two double crochets into was difficult, and when it was done, it didn't twist quite right like it does in the illustration. I think there were areas where I stitched in a slightly different part of the chain that caused the problem. Blocking solved some of that problem. I soaked the two pieces, and after pinning the rose down, I put a pin in one end of the twisted chain and slowly kept twisting it until it looked like the photo.  That seemed to work pretty well. The flower piece has it's own loop that you thread the chain through. The directions wanted snap fasteners sewn to the ends of the chain. I haven't done that yet and may not, depending on what I decide to do with the necklace. I also didn't stiffen the flower or the chain as they suggested. I don't know why you would stiffen the chain. The flower is soft but not floppy so I don't think it needs it at this point. If you were going to wear it often and didn't want to keep blocking it, it probably could benefit from something to keep it in shape longer.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 If there was a gauge, could I match it? There was no gauge and no indication of how big it would be aside from the illustration. 0.5 Does it look like the illustration? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? I think so. I don't love the chain part but the flower as a pendant is pretty. 0.5 Did I enjoy making it? Yes, even though the thread was tiny. 1.0 Total Score: 3.5 I have five Workbasket Magazines from 1954. Way back in July 2019, I made some leaf mats out of the July 1954 issue. I still have these and use them under random objects. The large one sits under a plant.
August 1954 had five crochet patterns, two knitting patterns, one tatting pattern, and some interesting advertisements. The two below are for insects.
Sanitrol is New! Sanitary! and has "no objectionable handling". The insect cones burn like incense and release a vapor that destroys all insects; moths, flies, ants, mosquitoes, gnats, and roaches. I'm sure it's totally safe though. My September issue is missing pages, but there was this interesting way to make some extra cash. A reader writes in about how she makes wreaths for cemeteries with weeds by gathering seed pods, foliage, and cones from weeds and wild flowers, dries them, and then fastens them to wreath frames. Here's where I thought, "I bet the cemetery caretaker loves the extra seeds from the weeds," but don't worry, she sprays them with enamel and sells them to flower shops. Her favorite weeds to use are peppergrass and teasel. For next week, I'll be making a rose necklace out of the October 1954 issue. The October issue has six crochet patterns, one knitting pattern, and one tatting pattern. There was also a full-page ad for Spencer Gifts in this issue that had a burro for sale.  "You'll be the talk of the town! Everyone will want to pet your Burro." I wondered how this would arrive, and the ad spelled that out. "Burro will arrive about 5 weeks from the time we receive your order. Comes uncrated, with food and water for the journey, by Railway Express, collect." And don't worry, the Mexican and US duties are paid, but you definitely can't exchange them.
There was, sadly, no pattern for crocheting a burro to go with it. This booklet starts out with this little blurb, "Today 'Do It Yourself' is the watchword with American homemakers. Furniture is assembled, sanded and stained; walls are coated with pre-pasted paper, or painted with a roller; floors and walls are covered with specially prepared tile. Every room in the house benefits by the spare-time effort of the owners. Keeping pace with this trend, crochet has expanded from the purely decorative class into the more basic aspects of home furnishing. Thousands of American women, who formerly enjoyed this delightful art only as a hobby, now find that their leisure hours with hook and thread can result in attractive, inexpensive decorator fabrics." Many of the designs in the booklet are displayed in rooms like the one on the cover. The cover has one of the lampshades, some placemats, and chair cushions. Those chair backs look very uncomfortable. They should have made a cushion for those.  It's filled with stitch patterns to make crochet fabrics like these, along with ideas on what to use the patterns for.  They even tell you where some of the items in the room came from. In the photo below, the Aristo-Bilt storage unit is by Salmanson & Co, New York. The cushion foam is Koylon Foam by United States Rubber Company. The lamp and accessories are by Richards Morgenthau & Co, New York. The lamp shade and cushion cover are patterns in the booklet along with the chair cover, the rug, the bedspread, the placemat on the table and the one she's crocheting.  This room doesn't have the furniture makers listed but it does have a very vintage feel with the blue crocheted bedspread, more lampshades, another cushion cover and a rug. I'm not sure about the very shiny curtains and pink walls but the rest is cute.  We've had a dining room and two bedrooms; now we're moving on to the bathroom. The wallpaper is by Pageant, New York, but making the towel edging, lampshade, rug, wastebasket cover, toilet seat cover, and cushion cover are all up to the crocheter.  Don't forget the living room featuring wood paneling! The booklet has the patterns for the lampshade, pillows, blanket, doily, and rug shown here.  They've included many motifs, stitch patterns, edgings, and even fringes that you can use to decorate your midcentury home. I chose not to make anything in this booklet, though I did consider the Sparking Jewel Doily in the photo above. Here's a close-up of the pattern. It uses metallic Knit-Cro-Sheen. I may eventually use one of the edgings for a chair slip-cover that doesn't quite make it to the bottom of a chair. If I do, I'll share it.  Next week I'll be back to some mid 1950s Workbasket Magazines.
This week's pattern is from the Lily Design Book #75 Modern Crochet with Lily Double Quick. I made the "Spiral" Place Mat in the lower right corner of the photo.  This pattern uses Lily Double Quick Mercerized Crochet Cotton and a No 3 steel crochet hook. I'm assuming that it's similar to Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread Fashion 3. I used the Aunt Lydia version in cream and green. A No 3 (2.10mm) steel crochet hook seemed to work pretty well with that size. There was no gauge, just a final size of 18 inches for the finished and blocked project. I've only made a few projects that use this technique, and I forgot how much fun it was. You start out with one color and work until you get around the circle, take your hook out, put a stitch marker in, and then go back to the start of the round and attach the next color and work that until you get towards the end of the first color. You drop that color, put the marker in, and go back to the first color and work that over the one you just did. This means you never have to change colors in the spiral. The pattern wasn't without its issues. There were "Rnds" that weren't entire rounds, and I wasn't sure if that was a typo or if they really wanted you to stop after a certain number of repeats. There was one point where I ran out of room for the last repeat, so I must have missed something along the way. Their blocking directions were, "Stretch and pin Mat right-side-down. Steam and press thru a cloth." I soaked it, pinned it, and let it dry. To take it to the fair, I'll have to re-block it. Some parts seem slightly uneven, and I think I can block it a little more evenly.  Mine came out to 18.5 inches, slightly bigger than their final size.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Mostly. The last round runs a lot of text together, and it's a little hard to read. The "Rnds" aren't really rounds, and they could just call them sections. 0.75 If there is a gauge, could I match it? It blocked out a little bit bigger than their final gauge, but it was pretty close. 1.0 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone use this? Yes, but I think it's pretty open for a placemat. 1.0 Did I enjoy making this? Yes. It worked up pretty quickly. I think it would be prettier in a smaller thread. 1.0 Total Score 4.75 out of 5 Modern Crochet with Lily Double Quick is a booklet meant to promote what I think is size 3 thread, but the thread doesn't come in the typical ball you would expect. It also claims that you don't need starch. That probably depends on the pattern.  The patterns include clothing, accessories, household items, and appliques. Even though it's called "Modern Crochet", the booklet has two knitting patterns plus one that uses the hairpin lace crochet technique. The cover below has a knitted cardigan, a glitter collar, a belt and bag set, some TV slippers (also made with the glitter thread), and daffodil appliques for a skirt. The bag and the slippers were on my list of possible items to make from this booklet.  The shrug below is the second knitted project but the embellished hat, collar and bag set is crochet.  This page has a simple yellow doily, a hairpin lace place mat, a tiny motif style placemat and the pattern that I'll complete for next week; the spiral doily that I'm hoping will be a county fair entry too.  This lovely set of items includes another hairpin lace project; this time curtains and some place mats and chair pad covers.  You can't have a 1950s booklet without a pillow pattern and this one has three along with a rug that's made with two strands held together.  The back cover has another rug made with three strands held together, a fruit bowl that uses "clear plastic paint in a pressure can" instead of starch, some classic lantern potholders, a clock house potholder, and a simple square potholder with round motifs added to the top.  Next week I'll share how the spiral doily worked up.
For this week, I made the crocheted baby set. Workbasket says this is for a six-month to one-year youngster and uses 5 balls of American Thread Company Baby yarn in the main color and 3 balls of angora or contrasting color. It uses a size 2 bone hook. I used a size B hook, which is close to the same thing, and, like the baby sacque I made earlier this year, I used Loops and Threads Woolike, this time in gray and purple.  This pattern is on six different pages in the magazine and was a little hard to follow. I ended up ripping parts out several times because I had a hard time going back and forth between the pages and keeping track of where I was. At one point, I decided to just write out the main part with the stitch pattern and color-code the contrasting lines, and that made all the difference. There is a part for the second shoulder that sends you back to the first shoulder directions. I picked it up where it says "Left Shoulder" when I should have started on row 55, where it says "Begin Shoulder".  Eventually, I finished the jacket and it is very cute.   On to the bonnet and booties. The bonnet was fairly easy, but there are no finishing instructions for folding over the contrast edging. I ended up sewing it down. I think they might run the ribbon through the casing made by sewing it down. I might just sew it to the edge though. In the photo below, I just have it sitting inside the edge pocket.  The booties were slightly more difficult. This is one where I would have loved to have some row counts. I ended up ripping one bootie out because it turned out to be a different size when I got the base of the shoe done. I figured out which one was right, re-wrote the directions with row counts, and finished up the second one.
The set will go to the county fair and then to a co-worker who just had a baby, which will be about five months after the fair is over. Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? I think that if this was written out in its own publication, it probably would have been better, but it was edited down to fit into the magazine, and key things were left out. 0.5 If there was a gauge, could I match it? There was no gauge. 0.5 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? I hope so. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Mostly. The directions were a little frustrating, and I don't really like making booties that much. 0.5 Total Score 3.5 Next week's pattern will be coming from the October 1952 issue of The Workbasket. This issue has six crochet patterns, one knit (the cover pattern below), one tatting project along with two "Special Articles".
There's also a section called "Have You Heard About These Items Suggested to Aunt Ellen". It doesn't say who suggested them, but I'm going to guess it's the advertisers. This month has the typical foot form support, address stamps, some stencils and pattern books, and a covered cake pan. I know we had one similar to it. There was also the "Greatest Invention since the Needle!", the Magic Stitcher.
Then I saw this bell-case and knew we had one that has Joel's family time pieces in it.
The article about invisible stitches is about how to graft knitted sections together so that the seam is invisible. Below is some of the instructions for stockinette. There was also a section on grafting the garter stitch.  I'm planning on making the baby set with jacket, bonnet and bootees. The pattern starts on the page opposite this lovely advertisement.  As always, there are lots of ads for ways to make extra money including this one to learn how to be a practical nurse. By becoming a nurse, you can also make friends! Training at home for women and girls, no age limit!  I'll leave you with some of the random tips they include as fillers.
Next week, I'll share how the baby set came together. I decided to try the bag from the front cover of Fashions in Quick Crochet for this week's project. The pattern says you need 3 balls of Canary Yellow and 2 balls of Fudge Brown to make the set. I had some vintage Aqua Speed-Cro-Sheen for the main color, but probably not enough of it to do the entire bag according to their color plan. I decided I'd use the brown for the base and add another color in for the contrast color if necessary. It also says you need a No. 8 knitting pin and a 3.5mm crochet hook.   The pattern starts with the base. This was supposed to be in yellow but I decided to try to use brown here to make sure I'd have enough blue (that I'm subbing for yellow) for the rest of the bag. The last round of the base has you crochet in the back loop of the previous row over 10 strands of thread. I used some other blue scrap thread for the 10 strands knowing they'd be mostly hidden. The photo below shows what the base looks like after this part. The directions say to just cut off the remaining strands. I tried to knot them and/or weave them in. It wasn't pretty but it's the inside of the bag. If I did it again, I'd just weave them into the other side of the blue strands or, if I used the same color it could get woven into the base.  The main body of the bag (they call it the "sidepiece") has you crochet over the knitting pin every third round, increasing 6 single crochets for every 1.5 inches you work until the bag measures 8.5 inches. I ended up increasing every 6ish rounds, which was less often than every 1.5 inches, but I was still worried I wouldn't have enough blue. Even wit that, I still ran out of blue and ended up doing the last few rows in brown and cream. The stripes are done by making a chain 38 inches long, slip stitching back along it, and then weaving the strips between the bars on the rounds done over the knitting pin. While you're doing that, you also need to make knots evenly staggered, like the photo. The strips were often way too long, and you can see in the photo below that there are long sections that are sewn in on the inside.  The handles gave me much more trouble than they should have. I though I'd saved just enough brown to make the handles but after taking a two week break on the project and coming back to it I realized I'd cut the strands for the handles half the length they should have been and that was all of the size 3 brown thread I had. I didn't have enough of any other size 3 thread to cut 24 strands of thread 2 yards long so I used size 10 instead. I could have used more strands but I knew I'd have to figure out how to deal with them on the inside of the bag so I just left it at 12 strands each. The handles are twisted one way, then doubled over and twisted the other way to get a rope. There are no directions on how to attach them. I have one side looped over a stitch and the other side tied off inside (shown in the photo above). The finishing instructions say to cut a piece of cardboard the same size as the bottom of the bag and then line with felt. It doesn't say if you're lining the cardboard or the entire bag so I just skipped that part for now. If the full bag was lined with felt it would give it a lot more structure. Here's my finished bag with a cat for size comparison.
The scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? There were key things that were skipped over, and a lack of finishing detail for some pieces. 0.5 If there is a gauge, could I match it? There was a gauge of 5.5 single crochets to an inch that I did match. 1.0 Does it look like the photo? Mostly 0.75 Would someone use this? Maybe with a little extra work. Adding a lining and adding a clasp of some kind at the top would make a big difference. 0.75 Did I enjoy making this? Not really. This took me about 6 weeks on and off, mostly because I didn't really want to work on it. I ended up making a bunch of red hats instead of working on this project. I'm not sure what it was that I didn't like aside from the lack of specifics on some things. Working around the knitting pin on a circular project was awkward. 0.25 Total score 3.25 It now hangs over a door-knob and holds extra feather cat toys. Fashions in Quick Crochet was published by Coats & Clark in 1953 to promote their new "Speed-Cro-Sheen" line. The closest version available now is Aunt Lydia's Fashion3 Crochet Thread. I have some vintage Speed-Cro-Sheen that I'll use for the project from this booklet.
The cotton I'll be using for this project. After the pattern from the cover, they break out the projects with cute little titles. The ones below are "Tops in Fashion...A wardrobe of hats to take you from a country weekend to an afternoon of shopping in town; from a feminine tea-party to a dinner date with the The Man in your life!" (Yes, The Man is capitalized in the text.)
 Hat, Bag and Collar Set The next section is" Crochet Trim, Fashion's Newest Favor!"  The Leisure Treasures Section features a knitted blouse and a couple of bags. The striped bag and purse use rug yarn as the base and crochet over it with cotton thread to get the wide stripes.  The back cover features an embroidered bolero and a crocheted jacket. I'm not sure about the fringe on the arms of the bolero, but otherwise I think they're adorable.  I'll be making the bag on the front cover. I have blue Speed-Cro-Sheen for the body but I'll have to use more current crochet thread for the rest of it.
This week's project is the Red and White Potholder from Coats and Clark Quick Crochet. I chose this because I thought the stripes made an interesting pattern. The pattern uses one ball each of white and red size 3 thread, a No. 2/0 hook (3.5mm), and a bone ring. There is a gauge given of 5 single crochets and 5 rounds to one inch. I didn't have white, so I went with the best contrasting colors I had: light blue and dark blue.  The pattern is good at describing how to change colors at the end of the row to make sure you keep the striping consistent. The one spot I had difficulty with was getting the hook into the chain two spaces two rows below, beyond the first round that had puff stitches. The puff stitches obscure that little space, and I had to pull them apart a little and make sure I was getting between the puff stitches and not into one of them. My gauge was a little tighter; I had 6 stitches per inch instead of 5, and that might have contributed to the problem. The pattern has you do a front and a back the same way and then join with a row of single crochets through both pieces. I didn't have enough of the blues to do a second side, so I just have one side to show you.  I love how this turned out and if I don't come across a better pattern before the county fair I might get enough thread to do two potholders and submit them.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 If there is a gauge, could I match it? No. I could have tried harder and switches to a bigger hook but I didn't think the gauge was that important. 0.5 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes but this was a hard on my hands and finding that spot for the puff stitches was a little annoying. 0.75 Total 4.25 This booklet by Coats & Clark was published in 1953 to promote their Speed-Cro-Sheen thread. Speed-Cro-Sheen is roughly the same weight as Aunt Lydia's Fashion 3 Crochet Thread. In the balls that I have, the older Speed-Cro-Sheen is stiffer than the newer versions. The booklet has a variety of patterns, including hats, rugs, pot holders, and more. One of the rugs is featured on the cover.  They describe the hats as "light, travel-wise and washable" and say that there is no starching or sizing required. I attempted the Jeweled Pillbox hat in 2019 to wear to a 50s event and the hat process didn't go well. The brim seemed small, so I added rows, but I just couldn't get it to look like the photo, so I ripped it out.
I thought about making one of the bags, but I wasn't sure I had enough thread. The Carry-All was my favorite.
I also thought about the slippers, but wasn't sure I really liked these. The Hairpin Lace Belt is cute, though.
The next section comes with a little preamble, "Nowadays our homes sparkle with bold, clear colors, and we tend toward interesting textures in our choice of fabrics. To fit crochet to present-day preferences, we have created these striking new designs for you to make in Speed-Cro-Sheen." I'm not sure I'd call those colors bold, but maybe for 1953 they were.
The back cover had two casserole jackets and two different pot holders. For next week, I'll be making the red and white pot holders.  I decided to make this specific sacque because it was one of the few that wasn't done in thread. Let's dive right in.  The pattern suggests Chadwick's Red Heart Baby Wool, 3 ply, Shrink and Stretch Resist Finish, and a size D hook. To complete the entire set, you need 3.75 ounces of the main color and 0.75 ounces of the contrast color. You also need ribbon for the bow. I used Loops and Threads Woolike Fingering Weight yarn (now discontinued, which makes me a little sad) and a D hook. Woolike yarn is an acrylic fingering weight yarn, and I don't often see that. It was an easy substitute for wool yarn for baby items and was available in my local Michaels store. I bought some when they were phasing it out, but I've started to cut into my supply this year. It's now on my watch list for estate sales. They gave a gauge, and my swatch was a little bigger than their gauge. What this pattern and most of the other patterns in this booklet leave out of the descriptions is the finished size of the project. I didn't know if this would be newborn size or if it would fit a nine-month-old, so I wasn't concerned about being a little loose on the gauge. Even though the pattern is written in columns of text, it was easy to follow and fairly simple to make. The body is done in one piece, then the sleeves are added. There is a contrasting color border that they call "beading" around the neck, even though there are no beads involved. They have you make a bunch of the little flowers to go around the neck, but I decided to skip those. That seems like a thing a baby could tear off, and it involved a French knot in the middle. The ribbon is threaded through, and it's done. I used acrylic yarn, so I didn't block it.  The finished item is cute but very small. Under the arms, it's about 8.5 inches across, and the length is the same. The Craft Yarn Council says this should fit a 3-6 month old. This might be a county fair entry. We'll see what else I make before then. Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 If there is a gauge, could I match it? Mostly 0.75 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? Yes, but for a very short time frame. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes, but I wish I'd known what size it would be. 0.75 Total Score: 4.5  Coats and Clark's Baby Book was published in 1951 and has 33 patterns, including edging and inserts. Twenty-two of the patterns are crochet. They range from baby sets to blankets to bottle covers to a few toys, including one very odd clown. The first photo below includes a fringed shawl, an interesting cat, a sacque, and baby slippers. The blanket in that photo is knitted, and the others are crocheted. The second picture has two knitted sweaters, two crocheted hats, slippers, and booties.
The dresses in the first photo below are adorable. The green one is crocheted, and the pink one is knitted. The blue set is crocheted, and one I almost chose for next week. The second photo has a carriage cover and a baby set. I'll make the little sacque in that photo for next week.
Here's the strange clown. I think it's the legs that are creeping me out a little. The bottle cover and bib are adorable, though. I love how they used satin to edge the pink crocheted blanket. The second photo has some lovely knitted tops along with a little bonnet, slippers and mitten set.
I also considered making the blue and white sacque in the photo below on the left or the orchid one on the back cover (below right). There are just so many cute baby jackets in this booklet. The green set is knitted, as is the yellow pullover.
Next week, I'll share the baby sacque I made from this booklet.
 Doreen Dolls was written by Nell Armstrong and published in 1951 by Doreen Knitting Books in Lowell, Massachusetts. Many other fiber publications from that era use a woman's name but are written by a man, but that isn't the case here. The only other biographical information I could find lists her birth year as 1915 (Nellie Cislo - she married Stanley Armstrong Sr.) and her year of death as 1994. She has a 1946 patent listed for knitting socks on two needles, and one of the books she wrote, called Two Needle Mittens, used the that method. I've found at least 18 knitting and crochet books listed with Nell Armstrong as the author. The booklet I have is Vol 102, so I might be missing a few in that count. The doll patterns in this book are for 8-inch plastic or character dolls, and the yarn used ranges from size 30 thread to sport weight yarn. I'm not planning on making any of these since I don't have an 8-inch doll to try it on.
The patterns above are made with bedspread cotton or all-purpose cotton. The hook used for the all-purpose cotton is bigger than the bedspread cotton so it's probably a bit heavier.
The three shown above are all made with size 30 thread and the rest are made with baby/sport weight yarn.
 Bridesmaids
Next week I have a book with all baby patterns and some interesting stuffed toys.
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