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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.
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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. The August 1948 Workbasket has 6 crochet patterns, 2 knitting and one tatting. They also have a section on weaving and of course, the Club Notes and random tips.  The crochet patterns include the flowers on the cover, the Wild Iris doily, some edging, a turtle applique, an oval medallion (not pictured) and the vanity set medallion that I did.
The knitting patterns were for this cute baby sweater and bonnet and something they called the Smart Stitch.
Here are the two images of the Vanity Set medallion. These are meant to be sewn into fabric and they suggest using size 30 thread and a 1mm crochet hook. I just made one medallion using size 3 thread and a 2mm hook.
The medallion is 6 rounds and started out with very clear instructions until we got to round 5. Round 5 is the one circled below. Starting with the corner it's; dc, ch 2, dc in the corner space, ch 2, dc in second tr of previous round, make 8 more spaces. It doesn't say where those double crochets should go so I had to go back to the image and make sure I was getting them in the right spots. Round 6 is basically a single crochet border with 8 single crochets in the corners, two in each of the other chain 2 spaces and one in each of the double crochets. Getting 8 single crochets into a chain 2 space is a little tight. You can see in the photo below on the left upper corner how stretched out that chain stitch is. Because the first corner (upper right in the photo below) is actually a chain 8 and a double crochet it looks a little different than the other corners. It might look a little better if it was a chain 3 in the corners or even starting round 5 in a different spot to avoid the chain 8, dc corner.  This was a quick motif to make and with the size 3 thread it turned out to be about 4.5 inches square. I didn't block it because this one is was frogged and wound back into the ball of thread.  Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? .75 One row could be better written. Does it look like the photo or illustration? .75 Mostly. If I'd blocked it it might have been closer. Would someone use this? .75 Maybe. Did I enjoy making it? .75 It was fast and easy even with the issue. I didn't really like the finished motif though and just ripped it back out. Total 3 I have seven of the 1948 issues. I'll be making something out of the August issue and sharing the other six in two posts. This one is for the April, May and June issues. Issues are now 24 pages, no table of contents and include patterns, tips and Club Notes and of course, advertisements.
April has 11 crochet patterns, two tatting patterns and one knitting pattern for edging. My favorite pattern is this cat. I almost made this but I wanted to try something that didn't have any projects in Ravelry and this one did.  The April Club Notes have block printing as their topic of the month. White cake with caramel icing and spice tea are the suggested refreshments. Tips include these two:
The May issue has 9 crochet, two tatting and one knitting pattern. Most were table runners, doilies and edgings but there was a pattern for the rose pan holder and some baby sandals that were interesting. The Club Notes offer up a discussion on heirloom pottery for the monthly program. You could serve sugar cookies and a fruit salad made of gelatin, fruit juice, sugar, lemon juice, salt and 1.5 cups of canned or fresh fruit. My favorite pattern from this issue is this set of Irish Lace. They use it as on the corner of a handkerchief, and as a pin and earrings.  June had only 6 crochet patterns, 2 tatting and one knitting pattern for a two piece bathing suit. They cover metalcraft and etching in a special section and the Club Notes suggest spot and stain removal for the program. They have suggestions for removing many stains including; candle wax (scrape off excess and then use turpentine or cold lard), mildew (soap and water and if that doesn't work soak in sour milk overnight or sprinkle with lemon juice and let it sit in the sun), iodine (soap and water using the swabbing or sponging method or hold it in steam from a kettle). Interesting tips scattered throughout the issue include:
Here's the fun knitted swimsuit. They suggest Germantown yarn and size 2 needles for a size 16. The edging is done in seed stitch.  Next month I'll share the August issue along with the medallion from it that I made.
Here are the projects I entered that were published after 2000. The baby sweater that got first place (and only place) is from a 2008 booklet called Crochet Made Easy and the beret is from Crochet Ever After that was published in 2014 by Brenda K.B. Anderson. There were five entries in the headwear category.
The third place scarf (out of seven) is by one of my favorite designers CJ Brady. This scarf is done in hair pin lace and it's hard to tell but the yarn has a bit of a sparkle. The Brainy Coaster set was entered in the "Holiday, Other than Christmas" and got third place. It had little brown spots on it when it was judged. I didn't see them in the photo I took before so I don't know where they came from. They might be rust from bad pins.
The granny square tablecloth got first (and only) place. There isn't a pattern for it. I had a bunch of small amounts of thread so I put it in rainbow order and used it up. The seal is from Aquatic Amigurumi published in 2022 and has tons of cute patterns. I made a pirate last year that got a ribbon.
The tractor and mouse were the pattern I was most excited about and it received a Reserve Champion Ribbon in the Not Otherwise listed category.  Next week we're back to the1948 Workbasket Magazines.
Last week there was no post because I was in Fergus Falls. The woman who gave me the tools to start this whole vintage blog project died on August 21st. Alma was always one of my biggest fans and the first to comment on a post (through Facebook). She was also often the recipient of items I've made like the vintage Chicken. She was an amazing woman and we adored her. You can read her obituary here. Dakota County Fair results For the 2025 county fair I entered 14 items. Half were pre-2000. Here are the vintage items plus a bonus display that was at the fair. I shared the pinafore on the blog in March. It's from 1942 and got a blue ribbon in the "Garment, Child-Other than listed" category. The Little Mother dress was from 1943. It was awarded a blue ribbon in the "Garment, Infant-Other than listed" category. Both of these were also the only entry in their categories.
The green doily above was third in the "Thread Doily-under 14 inch" category. There were four entries in this category and they were all beautiful. A few years ago there was a tiny coaster that was the only entry and I think people took that as a challenge. The doily category is pretty competitive. I shared this 1946 doily pattern on the blog in July The tiny soft shoes from 1943 were the only entries in the footwear category and I shared them in April. There is another doily from the over 14 inch category that got a ribbon. I'll share that on the blog in November.
These last two aren't from the 40s but are still pre-2000 patterns. The baby set is from a 1970 Columbia Minerva booklet with baby patterns. It received a second place ribbon (out of two entries). The first place entry was very well done and adorable. The Great Big Swing Cape is from the Easy Art of Ripple Crochet published in 1973. It received a second place in the "Garment, Adult-Other than listed". There were two entries in that category. The other one was a very pretty dress (you can see the edge of it in the photo) and definitely deserved the first place ribbon. Below you'll see the display that they had this year in the Needlework building. It was a collection of lovely vintage tiny sewing machines. There's a jar behind the one on the right and a spool of thread to give you a sense of scale.  Next week I'll share the seven post-2000 projects that I entered.
This week's potholder is the geometric design called #9491 in the booklet. If you want to give it a try you can find a copy of this pattern on Free Vintage Crochet. They call it Kaleidoscope Potholder.  The pattern says to use double thread throughout the pattern and it should be Pearl Cotton size 5 in blue and white. Number 10 crochet cotton is roughly the same as Pearl Cotton 5 so I used two strands of white and two strands of blue Curio thread from Knit Picks along with the recommended steel crochet hook No. 3 (2.1mm). There was no gauge and no finished size given. Overall, the pattern was fine. It gives instructions on how to change colors and tells you to work over the color you aren't using to conceal it. I was reminded that I'd much rather use a thicker thread than two held together especially when working something tighter like this. With the small hook, it's easy to lose a thread. Using doubled thread gives the potholder a little more structure though a heavy thread probably would have done the same thing with the hook size. There are some areas that could use a stitch count instead "sc to within center sc of next sc group". That would have made it easier to make sure the pattern didn't slide to one side or the other and keep it centered. I'd hoped that this could be a county fair entry but aside from not wanting to make another one using two strands held together this potholder turned out a little smaller than I expected. The potholder is about 4.5 inches square so it's a good size for a coaster. Here's the front and the back. It also didn't seem entirely square and it's possible that I miscounted some stitches on the parts that said to crochet "to within" a stitch. Here's the finished coaster - front and back.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand: 0.5 Mostly. On something this geometric I'd like it to be a bit more clear in some spots. Does it look like the photo? 1.0 Yes Would someone use this? 0.75 - Yes but I don't think you could hold a pot with it. It's now a coaster for my morning coffee Did I enjoy making it? 0.50 - I like the pattern but the instructions were vague in areas that could have been clearer. It's a fairly simple pattern and having a few stitch counts would have made it better. And again, I don't like using two strands of thread held together. Total 2.5  |
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