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This week's hat is from a flyer I bought at Vintage Knits; "Bucilla's easy-to-crochet Bonnets and Bags". When I got it I realized all of the patterns except one use a specific type of fiber to make them. It was something I'd never heard of called StrawTex. StrawTex is 100% viscose rayon, a fiber made from wood pulp. I managed to find some StrawTex and HiStraw (I'll use that for next week's hat) on eBay at about $1 per skein and it included the perfect color to make the purple sun hat on the bottom right of the cover. While some of the other hats would have used less Strawtex, I wasn't sure that some of those beanie type hats would be more than just decorative.  The pattern asked for eight skeins of StrawTex and each skein is only 24 yards. I had six of the lighter purple and added a darker purple and navy skein to get up to eight. It said to use an H hook or the hook to get the specified gauge. I used a G hook. This starts out by using a plastic ring at the top and while I was skeptical at first it was much easier to do that than try other methods with this type of fiber. The rest of the pattern was very simple and I was surprised that this fiber wasn't that hard to work with. I've used polypropylene fiber from Spinnerin before and that was sticky and hard to work with but this wasn't that sticky. My hands did get tired faster than if it was yarn though. I used the navy where the cord trim would go and used the darker purple on the very last rows to give it an ombre effect. I did not have enough StrawTex to do the cord trim so I did that in cotton instead. It's hard to see in the photos because it's much smaller than their version but it works to make the hat a little tighter. The finished hat had a very ruffly brim that I didn't love and since this was a natural fiber I thought it might block. The fiber label said it was washable in lukewarm water so it shouldn't damage it at least. I wet just the brim and the StrawTex got very soft and I was able to pin it in the brim width I wanted. This is not a hat you should wear in the rain though. You would have a soggy mess on your hands...or head. I'm giving this a 5 out of 5 stars. The pattern was simple and I used a fiber that was new to me. Next week I'll have another hat using the same type of fiber from a different leaflet.
I tried to take a photo with Tayla for the hat. This is how that went:
While I enjoy making vintage patterns I definitely don't want our country to go back to the 60s or 70s. I've been donating to Just the Pill for a few years and I believe in their mission to provide reproductive health care to to people who live in rural areas and to areas that are on the borders of the states it operates in. They use mobile clinics to reach these areas and provide the services. If you would like to learn more about them go to justthepill.com.
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This week's hat was such a failure that I rewound the yarn after the second attempt and gave up. The hat is a vintage pattern for a Yellow Picture Hat and Bag and can be found here along with many other vintage patterns. This pattern asks for rug yarn and size F hook. Rug yarn can be anything from worsted weight to super bulky. Since this used an F hook I thought it would be on the lighter side but after trying with two different weights and even a different hook I realized it must be something on the heavy side and I didn't have yarn that work. Plus I have a lot of really fun patterns waiting so I didn't want to try a third time. My photo shows the heavier worsted weight yarn using a G hook.
Instead of dwelling on that failed hat lets look at some fun crochet fashion from the summer of 1973. These are from a magazine that I hadn't even heard of but found at Vintage Knits. The magazine has knitting, crochet and one tapestry pattern.  Let's start out with what they say is a wedding dress and hat. They describe this as, "a "trad/mod" dress in a super openwork pattern; just the thing for a summer bride and can be sued as an afternoon dress later on." The shoes are definitely 1970s!  Next we have some sun dresses and swimsuit cover ups. These are all things I wouldn't be surprised to see at the beach now.
I love the chevron pattern of the first swimsuit here and am amused by the strategic flower placement on the second suit.  I love this maxi dress and it comes with a pattern for a shell stitch bottom. The description says, "Long dresses are becoming more and more popular; this one with it's open-work pattern and striped borders can be worn as a hostess dress or for an evening out."  And last, we have two vests that look like they'd fit right in today.
Do you have a favorite from this magazine? Next week I'm working with Strawtex for a hat!  This is the only Workbasket hat pattern I have for June. I was surprised there weren't some sun hats or other options but there turned out to not be that many hats in June magazines. This was one of the few I found in my pattern stash and it's a baby hat.  This pattern uses 2 ounces of 3-ply baby yarn and a size F hook. I used Bernat Softee Baby yarn which is one of my least favorite baby yarns. It has a shine that I don't love and feels a little plasticky before you wash it. It's ok after washing but it doesn't feel nice on my hands as I use it. There was no gauge given so I hoped it would come out relatively baby sized. It starts with making a medallion for the back of the head and then goes to rows for the sides and top. Add a tie and it's done. Seems pretty simple. The pattern had a portion that was written in a way I haven't seen before. "Rnd 7: Dc around. Rnd 8; 10: Sc around. Rnd 9: Sl st in first 6 sts, ch 2, dc around to within 6 sts from end, ch 1, turn." A little unusual to have 8 and 10 together but I understand it right up until we get to the end of round 10. I think there's a mistake in the editing and round 9 shouldn't have the "turn". The pattern hasn't had turns until the rows so it seems odd to do it after round 9. Round 10 has no instructions to turn but that seems like the logical place to turn your work since we're changing to rows. Row 1 of the top starts out saying "2 dc in same st as chain 2", yet there was no chain 2 at the end of round 10. This probably should have read: Round 7: Dc around, join to first dc, ch 1 Round 8: Sc around, join to first sc, ch 2 Round 9: Sl st in first 6 sts, ch 2, dc around to within 6 sts from end, ch 1 Round 10: Sc around, join to first sc, ch 2, turn That's what I did and I think it worked out ok. Here's the finished hat and it looks like it would fit a small baby. I don't like doing poms so I skipped that part.  Next week it's a pattern from the Columbia Minerva "Teach Yourself to Crochet" again. I bought a bunch of patterns from Vintage Knits so I'll have some really fun stuff to share for the last week in June and the first weeks in July. Vintage Knits is closing down and having an awesome sale so if you like to have the original vintage patterns, magazines or books now is the time to head over there and get some. Here's a photo of about a fourth of the patterns and magazines I bought!  There aren't a lot of hat patterns in the magazines for June so I'm breaking some of my self-imposed rules, This week's pattern is earrings (technically worn on your head) from the 1990 (a few years past the year I was considering "vintage") issue of Crochet World Winter Special. Specifically, the rainbow earrings.
The pattern is rated as "easy" in the magazine. It asks for Knit-Cro-Sheen (a size 10 crochet thread), a size 10 steel crochet hook and a set of earring wires, posts or clip ons. I still have some jewelry making supplies and plenty of earring hooks. I also have a lot of thread and it turned out that I had the perfect color combo for these. I used a 1.25mm hook for these and there was no gauge given. That shouldn't be an issue since they're earrings and fit is a personal choice. These were a little fiddly with the thread and the tiny hook so I don't think it's super easy to do. I only did 8 rows of the pattern because I wanted to use 7 colors. The rows have stitch counts after them which is nice except when they're wrong and one row was wrong. Both row 3 and 4 had the same stitch count. Row 4 had increases and no decreases so that would be impossible. Aside from that issue this was fairly easy and the results are adorable. I'll give this pattern a 4 out 5. Here are my 1990 Rainbow earrings:  This week's hat comes from Columbia Minerva's "Teach Yourself to Crochet", published in 1972. The booklet has a lot of adorable patterns that look fun to make. Before we get to the bucket hat here are a few of the pattern photos from the booklet. First the ones that have dog sweaters in the pictures:
Cardigans and Blazers:
A Shawl, Poncho and Shrink:
There aren't a lot of hats in the June magazines so I might make these in June:
And here's the bucket hat that I made for this week's hat pattern:  This hat uses worsted weight yarn in two colors and an H hook for the hat. It does give a gauge for a G hook that you use for the mittens but not the H hook. I had yellow and orange yarn that matches this photo pretty closely. The yellow is Impeccable and the orange is Lion Brand Basic Stitch.  The hat is worked from the bottom to the top. Then the brim is crocheted on using the other side of the starting chain at the bottom of the hat. This was pretty easy to follow and the only quibble I have with the pattern is that it tells you, "work in pat, dec'ing 4 hdc groups evenly spaced around" which means the crocheter has to do that math for that. Since this is a beginner book I was a little surprised by those instructions. This turned out to be almost exactly like the photo and is a super cute hat. I'm giving this hat 5 stars. It was easy to follow the pattern. It's cute and functional. Above all, it fits!
This week we have the classic granny square hat. This particular pattern is from 1971 and is in a booklet with vests aka shrinks, a scarf and a Hipster hat.  One of the problems with vintage patterns is figuring out the right hook size and this booklet is a good example of that. Many patterns give a gauge to help solve the hook size issue, though we seen that doesn't always produce a hat that fits. The Hippy Dippy hat (the yellow one in the photo) does give a hook size but it doesn't follow the letter or millimeter sizes most current patterns use. It says that the hat should use a "No. 9 Crochet Hook for the Adult size". This isn't completely outdated. Most of my older hooks still have a letter and a number on the hook. A No. 9 hook is typically the same as an I hook so that's what I used for this pattern. The child size uses a No. 8 or H hook. The pattern uses worsted weight yarn and I managed to find some in my stash that is pretty close in color to the photo. I'm using Impeccable Yarn by Loops & Threads for the yellow and maroon and the gray is Big Twist yarn.  There was no gauge given for the pattern or any pattern in this booklet but the directions were pretty easy to follow. This has you make 5 granny squares and join them with one square as the top of the hat. Then you add three rounds of single crochet at the bottom to finish it off.  This looks like a classic granny square hat and I think I did a pretty good job of recreating the hat in the photo. Now the real question, does it fit me?
Nope. It's a little too big. If I made this again, I'd drop a hook size. I don't really love their way of joining the squares either. I think I'd use a join that doesn't give the ridge.
I'm giving this a 3.5. It's cute, the pattern is fairly easy to follow but a gauge would have been really helpful. Next week I'll have a vintage pattern for a bucket hat! My sister-in-law, Julia, tells me that they're "in" and I have started seeing a lot of patterns popping up for them. The pattern I have doesn't use the term bucket hat but it looks a lot like some of the other patterns I've been seeing. This time I have a baby hat to review so I can't answer the question, "Does it fit?". This pattern is from the May 1974, Workbasket Magazine  This pattern says it's for a "six-month-old size" with changes for a one-year-old. I made the smaller version. I'm sure if fits a six-month old child somewhere out in the world. Materials required are an ounce of baby yarn, a size C hook, some ribbon and a button. Baby yarn is a little vague. I have yarn that calls itself baby yarn in fingering weight, sport weight and DK. Fortunately, this pattern gives a gauge in both rows and stitches. I tried some DK weight first and that was way over the gauge so I dropped down to this Panda Cotton I've had in my stash forever. I believe that this is closer to a fingering weight and the gauge came out perfectly. This is a very simple pattern. I ran out of the first color of Panda Cotton but had more in a different color to finish it off. I couldn't find any ribbon that was the right size in my jar of ribbons so I made the ties in crochet instead.  I'm going to give this pattern 4.5 stars out of 5. I'm only marking it down for the use of baby yarn instead of being a little more specific about the actual yarn weight.
Next week: The Granny Square Hat! This week I'm reviewing a hat pattern from the May 1982 Workbasket Magazine. This is the second pattern I've made from this particular issue. Back in 2018, when you voted on the pattern I would make, I had this hat as one of the options to choose from. The pattern that won that year was this capelet. Here's the magazine photo of the hat I did this time.
The pattern says that directions are given for a small head with the medium sized changes in parentheses. I chose to make the small size. Materials listed are; an acrylic blend 4-ply yarn in three colors and an H hook. This pattern also gives a gauge but I didn't check my gauge even though it said in large all caps, "TO SAVE TIME, TAKE TIME TO CHECK GAUGE." This pattern was pretty easy to follow and I have no complaints about the directions. The pattern is done in the cuff part and then you fold the cuff up twice. I used three colors of Big Twist yarn that I had in my stash and it came out ok.  Getting it folded up to match the photo wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and it makes that cuff part pretty thick. I also wish I had planned the colors a little better. There isn't enough contrast between the light and medium blue to show off the stitch pattern. Overall though, this was a fast and easy pattern and it fits! I'll give this a 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Last week I showed you the finished Daisy hat but couldn't find the magazine to show you the way they thought it should look and all of the other Daisy patterns they had. I didn't find the magazine but I did find a photo took of that page in the magazine.  I don't have the pattern to reference but if I remember right there was an issue with the increases that made the hat look like this:   I'm going to lower my rating to a 2 out of 5 because something is wrong with the directions. The May patterns will include a geometric patterned hat from 1982, a baby hat from May 1974 and one of the hats from this pamphlet: This week's hat is one I really looked forward to making because the photos in Workbasket Magazine were pretty awesome. The good news is that the hat is done. The bad news is that I can't find the Workbasket Magazine with the pattern so I can't show you the rest of the Daisy patterns. This hat used worsted weight yarn and it came along with a set of patterns based around this daisy pattern.  The patterns included; the hat, an afghan, a sweater and leg warmers. The hat is made as a regular hat and then the daisy pieces are sewn on. It's hard to tell but they have you put a little stuffing under the center piece. There's a shell stitch border on the hat too. It's...a little big. It's very loose on my head and feels like a mushroom out of Mario Bros. The applique is thick and I'm not sure what the purpose of stuffing the daisy center on the hat is.  I left the ends unfinished so I could take it out and turn it into a bag or something a little more useful than a giant mushroom hat.  I can't really rate this one since I don't have the instructions anymore but based on fit I guess I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Next week I'll have the May patterns! If I find that missing magazine I'll share those photos too. |
