|
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.
0 Comments
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.
This Sultana booklet was published in 1951 and has patterns to make with their Beauty-Glo mercerized cotton yarn. Here's their description, "Exciting Sultana Beauty-Glo is a highly mercerized cotton yarn combined with non-tarnishing gold thread made by an exclusive process so that it can't unravel."  The booklet has a mix of crochet and knitting patterns: six lovely sweaters, a stole, two pairs of shoes, and two bags. The sizing on the inside page goes from size 12-20. Size 12 is listed as a 30-inch bust and size 20 is a 38-inch bust. Many of the sweaters have a more limited size range in the pattern. The cover is the only color photo of their projects. This one is called "Sparkle" and is crocheted with size options 12, 16, and 20.  The other two crocheted tops are Jewel and Sunbeam. Jewel has instructions for sizes 12-14. Sunbeam has sizes 14-18.
The three knitted tops are Gleam (14-16), Twinkle (16-18) and Glint (12-16).
I thought about making the crocheted bags or shoes, but they need bag forms or slipper soles.
This stole is also crocheted and with a fairly large hook to give it the lacy look.  I think these are beautiful projects, but I just couldn't pull off a sweater for the blog. If I ever decide to do one, it will be Sparkle (the one on the cover).
No post next week. I'll have the next post ready on February 28th. I've never really liked any of the crocheted slippers I've made. Even if I'm wearing socks, it feels like I'm walking on knots. I didn't expect more from these, but I decided to give them a try anyway. The materials given are four 1-ounce skeins of black Red Heart Knitting Worsted and 2 skeins of pink, along with a No. 5 (size F) plastic crochet hook. It also lists sequins and beads in the material list, but not the cardboard they want you to insert in the layers. There are instructions for three different sizes: small, medium, and large, with no clear notes on what those sizes correspond to. I went with medium. I used some Red Heart Super Saver in dark gray and light tan for the sole and Loops and Threads Impeccable for the upper part of the slipper. There is a gauge for both the sole and the upper that I was able to match.  The soles are done with two strands held together with a size F hook. This made a tight fabric but holding two strands together with a small hook can be frustrating and hard on my hands. There are four crocheted pieces for each sole. The top sole, bottom sole and two heel pieces.  The assembly for the soles has you sew the heel pieces together, then, "Cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the Bottom Sole. Sew joined heel pieces in place on Bottom Sole, having cardboard between. Sew Top Sole in place." I had a hard time understanding this but Joel helped. In my head, the heels go on the bottom under the soles. In this case, the "heels" are between the two sole pieces. I also didn't want to use cardboard. I looked at some lightweight plastic sheets I had, thought about cork and ultimately pulled out some insoles that I wasn't using. I'm assuming the cardboard was meant to give it more structure and the insoles weren't really going to help much with that, but I didn't think the cardboard would help much either.  Making the soles was the most time consuming part of this project. The upper part was easier but there are some things I would change. The upper part is done in two pieces. First the part that goes over the toe that they call the "Instep" and then the "Back Piece" that goes around the back and overlaps the toe piece. I think I would make the toe piece a little longer, the back piece overlap a little less and have the back piece a little higher. The back piece is done to measure 1.75 inches but it seems short and there isn't a lot of structure in the side piece either so it's a little floppy.  Those heels are half an inch higher than the front of the slipper soles. This was probably elegant in 1951 but I'm not sure they needed to be higher.  I wear a size 7.5 in women's shoes, and these were a little too small and too narrow. It felt like my feet were spilling out over the sides. My guess is the medium would be 6.5 - 7 narrow. The large adds another inch to the length but no more to the width. Overall, I like the idea of these, and with some changes, it could work. I didn't try to wear them long enough to see if it felt like I was walking on knots, and there isn't enough space for an insert to soften that issue either.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Aside from the assembly, yes. 0.75 If there is a gauge, could I match it? Yes. 1.0 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? Maybe. Does anyone wear a size 7 narrow want to try? 0.75 Did I enjoy making it? Sort of. I liked the idea, but it was hard on my hands. 0.5 Total score = 4 out of 5 Coats & Clark's Quick Tricks in Crochet was published in October 1952. It has 31 patterns, including small accessories, household items, and toys. Several full-color pages showed photos of all of the patterns. The cover image below features a rolling pin cover, potholders, a heart napkin holder, and a set of blue-and-white hot plate mats, along with a matching napkin holder. I thought about making the pot holders, but ultimately, there was something else in the booklet that caught my eye.  The first photo page inside the book shows the finished items for the curtain edging (on both the curtains and the towels), a grape doily, and a blue chair set. The grape doily is a classic pattern, but at this point, I'm wondering what they mean by "quick".  The second photo page has three different versions of slippers (I'll be attempting the pink ones for next week), two soap holders (oval and plaid), and a "deep cloche". It also has a nice photo of the yarn and thread used in the patterns.  The third page has two moth disk holders (the red and yellow round projects), two bibs with edging, three covers for hangers and some sachets (the yellow sunbonnet and blue picture hat). These all look like they would be very quick projects.  Here's another instance of me questioning what they mean by quick. The ballerina, cowboy and, Josephine dolls are cute but there are a lot of parts including the adorable cowboy hat.  The back cover has several different glass covers (definitely quick) and a cute apron (probably not so quick). I thought about making a few of the glass covers, but I really wanted to try at least one pair of slippers or shoes this year.  Next week I'll share how the slipper project went!
Gay and Gifty Crochet Ideas was published in 1951 by the American Thread Company, and I'm pretty sure every pattern in this booklet is done with thread. I thought about making something from this booklet, but everything that wasn't done with very fine tatting thread seemed more complicated than I could do in a short period of time.  The pansy handkerchiefs are done in tatting thread, and the doll clothes are done in size 30 thread. The classic Rose Doily is worked with Pearl Cotton size 5 and the pattern for the carnations uses No 10 size thread along with flower wire.
I thought about trying some of the flowers. There are three corsages below: apple blossom, chrysanthemum, and daisy, plus a few carnations. The apple blossom corsage is made with tatting cotton, the daisy corsage is made with size 30, and the chrysanthemum is made with size 10 thread.  The tea cozy below might be the only thing that isn't made in thread. That uses worsted weight yarn. They snuck a knitting pattern in; the corn pot holder below on the right.
The laundry bag is made from a washcloth edged in thread. The top of it is an embroidery hoop covered with ribbon. I'm not sure how many people would use a hosiery hanger these days, but this could be used for other lightweight things you want to hang dry or just store this way, unless you have a cat. Or maybe this is the perfect cat toy!  For this week, I have the Violet Ensemble. This is intended to fit an 11 1/4" fashion doll. They suggest using fingering or nylon yarn, 3-ply in violet, and a small amount of purple for the trim, along with a steel crochet hook size No. 1. They provide a gauge of 5 single crochets and 6 rows equal to 1 inch.  I tried fingering weight yarn but couldn't get the right gauge with a 2.75mm hook. I went up to a sport weight yarn that seemed a little heavier than most sport weight yarn and managed to get closer to the gauge. I used Dive Washed-Out Jeans for the jacket with some Unger Fluffy for the trim. I made the dress out of some scrap yarn I had that was on the lighter side of sport weight. This is what the main pieces looked like before they were sewn up and the trim added. It's easier to see their sleeve method on the lighter colored dress. You fold it over and sew the tops of the tabs that are next to each other together. The V in the middle is the neckline and you run the seam up the back.
Here's the finished look. 
This particular Barbie's hair made it difficult to work with the hat, and I think the trim was supposed to go all the way around the hat, but it sort of works. The dress was pretty tight, even though I added an extra stitch to it. The fit of the jacket came out ok though.
Here's the scoring: 1. Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes 1.0 2. If there is a gauge, could I match it? Not with their suggested yarn, but I did find one that came close. 0.5 3. Does it look like the photo? Aside from color and appliques, yes. 1.0 4. Would Barbie wear this? Yes 1.0 5. Did I enjoy making this? Yes. It was pretty simple once I was able to get the gauge right. Their method for the arms was a little different from what I'd seen before, but it worked. 1.0 Final score 4.5 |
Proudly powered by Weebly