|
For this week I made one of the potholders that used rug yarn instead of thread. This group of patterns says that to make all of them you need 1 skein each green, yellow and white American Thread Company Star Cotton Yarn to make all three along with a steel crochet hook No. 0 (Size D/3.25mm). Per Ravelry, this is mostly likely a worsted weight yarn and came in 100 yard skeins. I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease 60/40 in Bay Leaf, Goldenrod and Alabaster. I skipped the hanging ring.  This pattern is done in a spiral and the unused yarn is worked over in the back. That gave this a little more heft than just a one color version. There was a mistake in the second round. They missed the last color change and there weren't enough stitches to get all the way around. That was easy enough to fix but I ended up drawing a little circle with marks for the stitches to be sure I was reading it right. Once I made it past that point this was pretty easy. They use the increases to make the spiral lean but because of where they put them you end up with something a little more square.  This is about 8 1/2 to 8 3/4 inches across. There was no gauge and nothing saying what their finished size would be but I think it's a pretty good size and it's thick enough to be useful.
Scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? 0.75 The first part was wrong and the language it used was a little wordy. Does it look like the photo or drawing? 0.75 The early parts of the spiral look a little different. Mine look more like stitches and theirs look like dots. Maybe they changed color in a different place. I did follow the directions on how they did the color changes so I'm not sure what the difference is. I often do yarn under for single crochet without realizing it because it's faster and that might be what happened here. Would someone use this? 1.0 Yes Did I enjoy making it? 1.0 Yes. It went fast and it was a nice break from thread. Total score 3.5
0 Comments
Star Potholders Book No 55 was published in 1947 as a follow up to Book No 32. The introduction says, "So many handicrafters loved our Pot Holder Book No 32 - with recipes - that we decided to design another book with the same idea."  There are 28 potholders that are grouped with 11 recipes. I thought about making one of the recipes but there weren't any that sound that good to me. I do like the line drawings that go with each of the recipes though. We start with Crab Meat Au Gratin. The recipe has 4 ingredients; white sauce, crab meat, buttered bread crumbs and grated processed American Cheese. They pair that with a fish and a crab potholder. The honey date sticks sounded ok. I think the bee and butterfly pot holders are purely decorative though.
They paired a fruit compote consisting of canned peach halves, canned pear haves, canned green-gage plums, lemon juice, honey and a cinnamon stick with the fruit appliqued potholders below. The recipes starts out by saying "drain liquor from the fruits". That's either a typo or they canned things a little differently in 1947. I hesitate to call the Maple Sugar Graham Crackers a recipe. They blend butter with maple sugar and spread it on graham crackers. The maple leaf potholder has the back side done in a solid mesh to make it a little more useful. There's also an evergreen tree to go with the maple leaf and acorn.
For the cheese cake recipe they give us potholders shaped like panties, a slip and a dress. I get the pun but I don't quite get the line drawing where the guy is watching the girl churn butter. The other page that I don't have shown here has a man sort of hugging a woman from behind as she holds an actual cheesecake on a plate. Minted Tea Cooler is paired with a cookie jar, a tea pot and a plate. The cooler is lemon juice, orange juice, tea, mint leaves, grape juice and powdered sugar or corn syrup if you'd prefer that.
There are three flower potholders to go with the candied rose petals. (Just two shown below). The flower potholders are pretty and I considered those for next week. Next we have a pocket book and Scotch plaid hat paired with small plum pudding.
The pinwheel potholders were a possibility for next week but I needed a break from thread. Of course they're paired with pinwheel sandwiches that are made with crustless bread spread with butter or cream cheese tinted with food coloring and some kind of filling that are rolled up, chilled and sliced. What color would you tint cream cheese that wouldn't make you wonder if it was spoiled? Banana waffles go with the plaid and checked potholders that sort of look waffle-like.
Last we have a Navajo design potholder, a log cabin potholder and an Indian Circle potholder with some pudding consisting of milk, water, corn meal, molasses, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. I don't know what makes this recipe Indian but I guess the 40s was also the era that assumed if you added water chestnuts to something that made it Chinese. I'll be making the Indian Circle potholder (aka 5526 below) for next week.  There was no photo or illustration for the tie back, only charts for flowers and lettering to embroider on them. The materials listed are Lily Skytone Mercerized Crochet Cotton and Lily Six Strand Floss and a size 5 crochet hook. The base of the tie back is made with two strands held together. I decided to do this with scraps of #10 thread. It does give a gauge of 7 chain stitches to an inch but I think using chains for a gauge isn't a very good way of measuring. If you make loose chain stitches but do single crochet stitches tighter you could end up with something shorter than you intended. This is a curtain tie back so the size probably isn't as important as long as it will hold your curtain. The pattern starts out with 15 inches of chain stitches and then 10 rows of single crochets. This was very simple and quick to do. Because I used scrap thread, the colors changed as a ran out of one color and added another. I liked the striping that caused and it was a good use of smaller amounts of thread. The final length before the border was 1.75 inches by 16.5 inches. The border is a double crochets and picot stitches. It made a pretty border. My corners are a little off but it's not that noticeable. The embroidery flower chart was easy to follow though it was tiny. They said you should line it with fabric on the back (maybe to cover up the back side of the embroidery) but I decided not to. I wondered how it worked since there was no button and Joel reminded be that there were probably hooks in the wall to grab the border.  Scoring:
Is this pattern easy to understand? Yes, I still don't understand why gauge is given with chains since they can change their size depending on the stitch that goes into them. In this case, it's doesn't need to be a specific size and you can make it whatever size you want. 1.0 Does it look like the photo or illustration? There wasn't one so it gets a 0.5 Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. It was a fast and easy project that used up some scraps and I skipped the point I wouldn't enjoy (lining it) 1.0 Total 3.5 This issue of Workbasket Magazine has 8 pages, no table of contents, no advertisements and no staples.  It has patterns for:
 Bandeau, Brooch and Earrings  Snowflakes I thought about making the brooch but there was a lot of starch involved so I decided to try the Curtain Tie Backs and pull out some embroidery thread for it.
I chose to make the pot holder on the right in the photo below mostly because I was curious on how that would work with the lines across it and many of the others were pretty plain crochet stitches with fancy appliques like the grape one below.  No 9436 suggested materials included; J&P Coats Crochet Cord, 1 ball each of Ecru and Hunter Green and a steel crochet hook No 7 (1.65mm). I decided to use Aunt Lydia's Silver/Gray and Purple #10 crochet thread. I assumed that it would be close to the same as crochet cord since it uses a 1.65mm hook and most of the patterns with #10 thread also use that size. The closest the pattern comes to giving a gauge is the starting chain, "Ch 60 (to measure 6 1/2 inches". The gray/background was pretty easy to work. It's single crochets with a triple thrown every 8th stitch and offset each row in a four row repeat. Those triples make the loops that you thread a string of single crochets through. They give you measurements for the strings but those didn't match up with the actual lengths I needed and they had you make just seven which is only enough to do them in one direction. I read the directions multiple times to be sure I didn't miss them saying something like, "and do the same for the other direction" but it wasn't there. For the second direction, I ended up using single crochet foundation stitches so I could measure it as I went to fit better. That also gave me the bonus of having a thread to sew down the ends on both ends instead of two on one end. Getting these threaded through and then making them lay flat was harder than I thought and I just gave up on the flat part at some point. They wanted you to tack the ends in place on the wrong side and I ended up using the ends to sew the purple pieces down throughout the potholder a little more. Here's what it looked like after all of the single crochet pieces were threaded through and before I tacked everything down with the ends.  The next step says to add padding. Their directions for padding say, "Cut flannel or cotton battings lightly smaller and lining material slightly larger than the crocheted piece. Place padding between crocheted piece and lining. Turn under edges of lining and sew to edges of crocheted piece with neat over-and-under stitches." After that they want you to make an edging by crocheting a chain with 4 strands held together and then sew it on. That seemed like more work than was necessary for the edging so before I did the padding I just crocheted a border of single crochet/chain repeated on it and then added the padding. I had padding and fabric that would work but my sewing was not neat. 
I did one extra thing with this. The padding seemed like it was kind of floating in the middle so I sewed along the purple lines to make it sort of quilted and hold everything together.
It's definitely usable but absolutely not county fair material and not something I would make again. Rating: Is the pattern easy to understand? It's easy to understand but there were ways to do the purple parts in easier ways so I'll give it 0.75 Does it look like the photo or illustration? Yes. 1.0 Would someone use this? Yes, and in this case it's one that will probably get used more because it isn't as pretty as some of the others I've made. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? I don't like to hand sew things so this sat for about a week until I pulled out the fabric and batting. I start out stitching ok but get impatient and my stitches get bigger. Getting the strands through the loops was also frustrating. 0.25 Total 3.0  This booklet has 31 patterns for potholders plus a few other things. The patterns use Pearl Cotton, Crochet Cord, Knit-Cro-Sheen and Cotton Rug Yarn. Some of these are potholders on their own with just the yarn and some have padding added. I'll be making one that has you add padding. In the meantime here are some of the more unique patterns. A lot of these are basically make a square and put felt pieces on it to make it cute. These apples and the flower are good examples of that. I'm not sure why they chose to show the flower one upside down.
When I first looked at the second one I thought it was dinosaurs. Maybe because of the teethy edges. It's just ducks with very long necks.
The teapot is cute but the second one is a crocheted rectangle with bias tape sewn on.
This set is kind of fun. It has a case for the potholders.  Here's some of the more standard ones   I'll be making #9436 from the photo below. I'm not sure if I'll be following the padding instructions but we'll find out next week. While I've wanted to make something out of this since I found it, I just haven't found the right material and had the time to commit to one project to get that upscale look that these have. The instructions for assembly are somewhat limited and say "To insure a proper form, insert buckram between heavy satin linings and sew into bags". This booklet has very stylish 1940s photos so I thought I'd share it even if I didn't make something out of it.  Most of these are clutch style handbags and many of them have beautiful handles or zipper pulls. They don't say anything about where these could be sourced. The first six below have beautiful possibly Lucite handles.
The next three have very 1940s hardware.
A few classic clutches. They don't really say how these are closed and don't mention any additional materials like zippers or clasps.
The next four have softer handles and might be an easier version to make.
I'd love to see these in color but the black and white photos do an excellent job of showing the classic look. Next week we're back to the potholders. This is an instance where the naming of vintage patterns irks me a little. We may come across more as we go through the 50s and beyond where the pattern names range from getting a little side-eye from me to actually being considered offensive. In this case, it's a throw back to not only the parentification of children but also the idea that little girls should aspire to be mothers and nothing else. Maybe if they'd called this the Little President Dress we'd have had a female president. On to the list of materials. This pattern says you need 3 balls of Knit-Cro-Sheen, a steel hook size 6 and 4 buttons. I used Knit Picks Curio size 10 thread in the color Bahama, a size 6 hook and four buttons I found in my button box. Curio thread comes in balls of 721 yards. Knit-Cro-Sheen comes in balls that are 175 yds each so I thought I would only need 525 yards but I needed every yard of the Curio ball.  This pattern gives a gauge and finished measurements. Getting the gauge was fairly easy but I did check often. They start out with a measurement for a chain and a stitch count and after the struggle on the pinafore I wanted to make sure I didn't have to pull out a lot of stitches. Once you get through the yoke and start working on the dress it's a very simple stitch pattern that was easy to remember. There is an extra button band crocheted on along with some edging on the sleeves. This was a fairly easy thing to make but it seemed like it took forever. It actually took me about three weeks working on it off and on. I had to switch to something else occasionally because the combination of the thread and the triple crochet stitches made my hand hurt.  Here's the finished dress. It measures pretty close to the finished measurements they gave. Length from shoulder to bottom of skirt is 13.5 inches and they wanted 14 inches. I could have blocked it a little more to eke out that last half inch. The width at the hem should be 42 inches and mine is 40 inches. Again, I could have blocked it more aggressively but it's pretty cute the way it is.
How did this one rate:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Mostly, there was a part that just said "Band" with no other indication of what it was for. I assumed it was for the sleeves - it wanted you to work 3 rounds of single crochet holding the work in to measure 6.5 inches. That seemed like a sleeve measurement. I'll give it a 1.0 anyway. Does it look like the photo or drawing? There wasn't one but there was a gauge so I'll give this a 0.75 instead of the 0.50 patterns with no photos get. Would someone wear this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes 1.0 Total is 3.75 Crochet For Small Fry was published in 1944 by The Spool Cotton Company. These are mostly done in thread of varying sizes. The cover pattern is called Daddy's Pal. This one of the few done in size 30 thread with a size 10 hook (1.3mm).  Below we have Mischievous Miss who appears to have gotten into the cookies. The toddler wearing Traveling Light is considering what to pack in while wearing a cute dress and hat. Both of these are done is size 10 thread.
Even though the title says "Crochet" they threw in a couple of knitted items. These two pages come with the title "Prepared for a Shower". Knitted soakers are on the left and an infant's shawl on the right. These are both made with American Thread "Dawn" Baby Yarn.
The child on the swing is Flying High in a cardigan made in baby yarn. I'm missing a page but based on the Ravelry entry I think the one on the right is called Precious Pet and is made in size 10 thread.
The pattern on the left is called Glamour Girl. Did they mean to leave the vacuum in the background? That doesn't seem very glamorous but maybe they're cleaning up after the cookie snacking above. On the right we have Dandy Duck. The duck is made with a light weight yarn and stuffed.
I'm going to make a pattern called "Little Mother". As far as I can tell, there isn't a picture of it in the booklet so it will be a surprise on how it turns out.
I chose to make the Tiny Soft Shoes from Crochet Your Gifts. The materials listed are: 3 balls of J&P Coats or Clark's O.N.T Pearl Cotton size 5, a steel crochet hook no. 5, and 1 1/2 yards of narrow ribbon. I used DMC size 5 thread that I picked up a Joann's in January. I had no idea if 3 balls was enough but I assumed I could get more if I ran out since Michaels also carries it. I used the same hook size they suggested.  This pattern has a gauge for both the sole and the upper. The sole is crocheted with two strands held together while the upper is just one strand. This was pretty fast and easy to make. Using the hook with two strands gave me a little trouble but aside from that it was a quick project. When I finished them they really needed some shaping so I made an attempt at blocking them. I stuffed them with some small socks to keep the shape.  Here's the finished version. They are tiny. They're also adorable and they'll be going to the county fair in the footwear category.  How do they rate:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 Does it look like the photo? Yes. 1.0 Would someone wear this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Mostly. I never like making the second one of any pair for some reason but these were pretty fast. 0.75  Crochet Your Gifts is another book by The Spool Thread Company. The cover definitely dates this to the mid 1940s. Again, most of the patterns are made from thread of varying sizes. There are about 30 patterns in this booklet. I did a bib pattern from this booklet in August 2023 and shared some of the photos from the booklet then too. This time I'll share the very frilly pincushions and lampshades done in size 30 and 50 thread.
The doily is pretty and isn't made from super fine thread so it was a possibility for next week. Glass jackets come up a lot in this decade and the next few decades. I've made one and I use it to cover a jelly jar that holds hooks. It keeps sliding off though so I'm not sure how useful these are.
The Hot Plate Set is made from cotton Rug Yarn and the Luncheon set is made with Pearl Cotton size 5.
Both the filet pillow and the chair set are made from size 30 thread.
The first apron is crocheted in size 20 thread. The second in size 10. I'm assuming these are meant to be "good" aprons you'd wear for hosting or serving and not for cooking.
I won't leave out Smiling Pete this time. He's 18 inches tall and done in Pearl Cotton size 5 except for the hair that's made from rug yarn. They use double crochets so it not super tightly crocheted. There's no pattern for the clothing; it just says "dress as desired".  For next week, I'll be making the tiny shoes. If they turn out ok they'll go to the county fair as footwear.  I've wanted to make something out of this booklet for a while but hesitated because I had very little idea what the projects would look like when they were done. The chicken seemed like a good choice.  The pattern says to use J & P Coats Knit-Cro-Sheen; three balls of cream, two of dark yellow and one each of salmon and beige to make the chicken, basket and three chicks. The thread is "held double" throughout the pattern. To go with that thread held double, they suggest a size 4 steel hook (2 mm). You will also need cotton batting and black beads for eyes. I decided to use sport weight yarn and a 2.25 mm hook instead. They do give a gauge and I was pretty close to it with my yarn and hook choice. I used Red Heart Luster Sheen for the chicken, Knit Picks Brava Sport for the basket and scraps of pinkish and yellow-orange yarn for the wattle and the bill. I had the perfect shank buttons for the eyes so I didn't use beads. The directions for the chicken are not easy to read. It's done in three pieces, one for each side and then a gusset in the middle. The pieces give the directions for the head side of the piece you're working on and then say, "at the same time" make these increases and decreases on the tail side. I had to write it out by row. Here's my chicken-scratch:  It also uses a lot of measurements - things like "work until piece measures 5 inches from starting chain". That's great unless your gauge is different. You can see I have some estimates of how many rows I need based on my gauge. When you get all of the pieces done you have two chicken sides, a gusset, two pieces for the comb, two pieces for the wattle and a beak.  The assembly instructions say, "Place Gusset on under side between Body pieces, sew in place. Sew up Body, leaving an opening. Stuff, sew up opening." I decided to place the center of the gusset on the center of the starting chain at the bottom of the chicken. I think that worked pretty well. It also wants you to satin stitch with the beige thread on the chicken like the illustration to give it the little feather lines. I skipped that. The basket came together pretty easily but it says to stuff the basket and it's an open basket. I didn't think I'd like the look of white stuffing so I made some different choices for the hay/stuffing part of the basket. I considered using cut up paper like you would use for an easter basket but didn't want to pay for it when I had other things I could use at home (in the spirit of WW2). I used some fuzzy yarn to give it a hay like color and then used scrap yarn and fiber fill inside. Here's the finished chicken.  Now for the scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Enough so I didn't give up but it wasn't written in a way that made sense from end to end. 0.50 Does it look like the photo or illustration? 0.75 It sort of does considering that the illustration doesn't show a crocheted end product. Would someone wear or use this? Yes. It's a cute chicken. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Mostly. 0.75 Total score = 3 Even though this only got a 3 it turned out to be one of my favorite projects. Emotional support chicken patterns in crochet and knitting have been super popular and while this one looks nothing like those it still found a home as a support chicken with someone who loves her for her unique style.  Victory Barnyard was printed by The Spool Cotton Company in 1943 in the USA. WWII was still going on and rations were in effect. Victory gardens were a way to supplement rations so The Spool Cotton Company put out a little crochet booklet for a Victory Barnyard. There's a rooster, a cow, a hired man, Susan (the boss), a duck, a chicken and chicks, a goat, two sheep (black and white), a horse and a pig. Each project has a little poem to go with it. All projects are done with crochet thread, usually two strands held together.
It seems the rooster's job is to wake everyone up. It takes a special cow to add a chocolate ice-cream cone on top of butter. Must save a lot of churning for the hired man.
I don't know why "awful" is in quotes in the poem. Are they saying he isn't bright? It's war time so women had to be the boss.
The duck is the first one that doesn't have a specific job or purpose. She's just busy. The sheep gives wool for for mittens and clothing.
The chicken is hatching babies. Seems like the eggs might be more useful. The goat had to give up his cans for the salvage board. Everyone has to give up something.
The pig poem is my favorite because it is so dark. "When Hyacinth was born in May No one could tell or even say That all her little curves and joints Would one day be redeemed with points They only knew she'd give to man Those luscious sandwiches of ham." The chicken and goat could also be "redeemed with points" but they single out the pig.
I'm going to attempt the chicken in the basket but not the little chicks that go with it. You can see that these cute illustrations are probably not going to be super helpful. There are no photos or illustrations of the finished crochet versions. The Petite Pinafore's actual title says, "Daddy's Pin-Up Girl in this Petite Pinafore" which is a little weird but it was the 40s. It has directions for "Toddler Sizes 2 and 3" and uses Royal Society Baby Pearl. Because this used a size 7 aka 1.65mm steel hook I assumed that size 10 thread would work too. I used some Knit Picks Curio thread that was on clearance in the color tangerine to make this. It took me about a month, working off and on while I started to learn to knit.  They give a gauge of 2 shells and 4 rows equals 3/4 inch; 11 1/2 single crochets equal 1 inch. To start they tell you to make a chain about 24 inches saying that 11 chains stitches should make an inch. Then single crochet in the second chain from the hook and work across until there are 248 stitches, cut off the remaining chain. This absolutely did not work for me. The thread I used gave me a gauge of 8 stitches per inch. If I have a chain of 24 inches then I need somewhere around 192 single crochets before I get to the end of the row. The shell gauge was right on though so I'm not sure if this is an error in the pattern or if I just make big single crochets. Once I got going this was pretty simple but because it was thread it wasn't very fast to make. The photo makes it look more gathered than it really was. There were no increases beyond the first row of shells that you worked into the single crochet stitches. I looked a little closer to the photo and I think they just arranged it with some folds. I separated the straps in the front a little more than they did and I used the button cover pattern that I shared in January to cover the back button to make it match. Overall this went fine even if I couldn't match the gauge (which isn't included in the scoring anymore). I think this will go to the county fair in a child-other garment category.
Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? The first part about making a chain a measured length and then giving a number of single crochets was odd. Shouldn't it be one or the other? I'm fine with working to a measurement. The length of this is done until you get to 9 inches for the smaller size. Since the gauge was a critical piece of the pattern it's getting marked down for the confusion. 0.75 Does it look like the photo? Yes, or it would if I'd put the straps closer together. 1.0 Would someone wear this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making this? Yes. Some thread stitches start to wear on my hands (like triple crochets for some reason). This was done in single and double crochets and the stitch pattern was easy to remember and didn't hurt my hands. 1.0 Total score = 3.75
I've had this booklet for a while and it has a lot of beautiful projects for babies. Twenty-eight are crochet projects and many of them are sets. Most of these use thread smaller than size 10 though so I haven't made anything out of it yet. Nine patterns use size 10 thread and there's one rug that uses rug yarn. There are also a few knitting patterns tossed in even though the title is "Hand Crochet". Let's look at some of these delicate baby items. This Irish Crochet dress is one of the two patterns done in size 50 thread. The other is a bassinet ruffle.  This Dream Dress and the little jacket are both made in size 30 thread. There is a third pattern with the same size thread; a carriage blanket.
These are made in Perle Cotton which runs in a slightly different sizing structure. The Perle Cotton 8 is smaller than size 10 thread and Perle Cotton 5 is close to the same as size 10 thread. I thought the little romper below was adorable.
Here are some of the projects in size 10 thread that I didn't pick to make next week.
 The adorable rug pattern with a fairy driving a snail has a terrifying Humpty-Dumpty doll in the photo. The doll is made with thread. The rug is made with worsted weight yarn.  For next week, I've made the Petite Pinafore in size 10 thread. Full disclosure; this isn't something I can make in a week so I started it in December and finished in mid-January.  I attempted to make all four of the potholders from Scatter Rugs. This booklet specifies Clark's ONT Cotton Rug Yarn for use in their patterns which is a cotton yarn and with a little more research I think it's likely to be a worsted weight yarn. They suggest a size G hook to go with it. I had some vintage rug yarn; Aunt Lydia's cotton/nylon blend. Not only was it too heavy for a G hook, it started shedding a lot. It was pretty old so I had to throw that out and try with some worsted weight cotton. I used Big Twist "Cotton" which is 85% cotton and 15% polyester and 24/7 Cotton and that worked a lot better. Some were bigger "Hits" than others.  Let's start with the "Hits" 9142-A is a waffle stitch. I used a G hook for this with the Big Twist Cotton in Pastel Blue. This went really quickly. It's a pretty simple stitch and they explained it well. The border is one row of single crochet with three stitches in the corners.  9142-A 9142-B is the third one from the top. The pattern says to chain 20 to measure 5.5 inches, maybe to give you a gauge? Then it gives you the instructions for the first shell row, telling you that should have three shells. I did this one with a 4.5mm hook instead of the G Hook (4mm) because the shells were bunching up a lot with the smaller hook. It has three rounds of single crochet to finish it off.  9142-B 9142-E is the fourth one from the top. This is just a square done in single crochet with a two color border. It's very simple but the starting chain directions were a little different. They say, "Starting at one end, with main color make a chain to measure 10 inches. 1st row: sc in 2nd chain from hook and each ch across until row measures 7 inches. Cut off remaining chain." The rest is making single crochet rows until it gets to 7 inches and then doing a single crochet edging in two other colors. That seems a bit exact for a pot holder. You can just make a row of single crochets and then work rows until it's roughly square. Let's not overthink a single crochet pot holder!  9142-E 9142-D is the second one from the top and the only one that was a complete miss for me. This one starts out with the same type of starting row where you do a bunch of stitches then single crochet back until you get the actual length you want and cut off the rest. This pot holder is made in a type of star stitch but the star stitch is done so that it doesn't take up as many stitches going across and the star stitches are kind of bulky. This was giving me a curve that I didn't like so I stopped. I could have gone back and done a really loose chain row or foundation stitch and that would have helped.  9142-D Scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Mostly. I was confused by the varying instructions for cutting off the chain. 0.75 Does it look like the photo or illustration? Yes for the three out of four I finished. 0.75 Would someone use this? These are pretty flimsy for a pot holder. Maybe the rug yarn would have been a little thicker but it was bunching up with the hook size they recommended. They make good washcloths or something to set a pan on to protect a table. I don't think I would use them to pull a pan out of the oven. 0.75 Did I enjoy making them? Yes once I got rid of the vintage Aunt Lydia's yarn that felt super icky. 1.0 Total score = 3.25 We're up to the 1940s. Most patterns I have from that year are either thread or rug yarn. Scatter Rugs is one of the rug yarn booklets. This booklet has three different methods of making a rug; crochet, shaggy and pompon. The shaggy and pompon are made by tying bundles of yarn to a rug base.
This booklet specifies Clark's ONT Cotton Rug Yarn which is probably somewhere between a worsted and super bulky yarn. They suggest a size G hook to go with it which seems a bit small for super bulky. Here are some of the crochet rugs. The first ones are intended to match maple floors. The second is tells you how to make a footstool cover to match.
I'm not sure why the oval one is called a kitten's paw. There's another version of that same pattern with a stripe around the outside. I thought the elephant was kind of cute. The gold one is called Glamour Girl and is made with a lot of puff stitches. Making those stitches with a heavy yarn and a G hook sounds like a recipe for sore hands.
Here are versions of the Shaggy and Pompon rugs. They're cute but sound kind of tedious. First you make the bundles or pompons. Then you tie them to the rug base you can buy. It could be a way to use up scraps though.
There was one set of patterns in the booklet that was not a rug. They suggested that you can use the leftover rug yarn for pot holders. They're titled Hit-and-Miss Potholders. Find out next week if they'll be a hit or a miss.
 By 1936 the issues are down to just seven pages. This issue has 7 patterns; a crocheted tie, an ascot scarf crocheted in knot stitch, a three piece knit suit (cover image) and turnip and carrot crocheted pan holders. I decided to try the pan holders. I think that almost every booklet I have from this era has a crocheted pot or pan holder in it. I could easily do one every week from the 1930s and 1940s and never run out of patterns. Here is the illustration for the potholders. I'm not sure what's going on in the tiny illustration between the two pan holders though. Is the food on fire?  The pattern says to use a mercerized cotton thread such as Lily's Frost-Tone. You need 20 yds of lavender, 90 yds of white and 5 yards of green and a number 3 (2.1mm) steel hook. The pattern starts out at the bottom of the turnip and works in rounds with double crochet stitches. It switches to white and single crochet in rounds for a while and then asks you to start turning the row and leave an opening on the side. The green top is just loops of chains.  This pattern was pretty easy to make but I was a little confused about it's use. The photo below is the finished pan holder. It's 5.5 inches tall (not including the green) and about 4.5 inches across at the widest spot.  I slid it on to the handle through the open side to use it. I'm not sure how effective this is. Using it like this means the fabric is only one layer and using a 2.1 mm hook meant that the stitches aren't super tight. I don't think this would protect from the heat and it doesn't give any extra grip on the pan either. I'd reach for this as a pan holder as a last resort and expect my hand to get a little toasted.
Here's the scoring:
Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. 1.0 Does it look like the photo or illustration? Sort of. My version seems a bit fatter and if it was done in all purple it could easily pass for an eggplant. 0.5 Would someone use this? I think it's pretty unlikely to be used as a pan holder. Should I sew it up and stuff it to make a weird stuffed vegetable? 0.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. It went pretty fast and it had enough different stitches that it wasn't completely boring. 1.0 Total Score = 2.5  The first Aunt Martha's Workbasket was published in October 1935. The first issue was 16 pages and has two crochet projects and two other projects. It was intended to be for "pleasure and profit" so people could make things to sell. There is a lot of text in this first issue explaining what they plan to do with the magazine and why. You can see the whole thing at the Antique Pattern Library. Here's a quick overview of the contents. On page three she says for future issues, "Right now, crochet is the thing, so I'm going to give you directions for a purse, also a beret and scarf". She said someone was selling the purse for $1.50 each. Page 4-5 is text telling where to buy the other collections. Page 6 gives us our first pattern and it's a crocheted pajama bag or pillow and there is no illustration or photo. The following pages are "How and Why to Sell", "Gift and Shower Suggestions", what to crochet for a booth at a Bazaar (coat hangers, collars, cuffs, scarves, berets) and more ads for their own patterns. Page 11 gives us our next actual pattern. This time it's the cover illustration.  The next project is a transfer under the title of "Parade of Nations" intended to be used as embroidery or an applique quilt and illustrates a Hawaiian person picking flowers.
The last project is coasters cut from cardboard. They say you can cover them in paper with paste or rubber cement and then shellacked. She says, "If you wish to make your coasters really "snitzy" you can cut a base just a bit smaller from an old felt hat and glue it to the bottom". I did not make any of the projects from this issue but I did find one to make in the October 1936 issue and I'll share that next week. I made the Baby Sachet out of the Crochet Designs of Anne Orr booklet. I used some scrap fingering weight wool and a size 8 steel hook (1.50 mm) which is a little smaller than I usually use for thread.
This is done in a fairly simple version of a star stitch where you cut the yarn at the end of the row and start over on the same side. That means there were a lot ends. Instead of sewing them in I just tied them together and tucked them inside with the stuffing (which was also yarn). You make two star stitch triangles and sew them together before adding the edging. The edging was supposed to be a triple crochet but I used a double instead and I used a flower I had instead for the ribbon they used. I didn't use any sachet powder. You could add some essentials oils to the stuffing if you really wanted to use it as a sachet.  This was pretty easy to do but I don't know what makes this specifically for a baby.
Here's the scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes. They did a pretty good job of describing a star stitch. 1.0 Does it look like the photo or illustration? Yes 1.0 Would someone use this? Yes. 1.0 Did I enjoy making it? Yes. It was a fast and easy scrap project. 1.0 Total = 4.0 Another perfect score! |
Proudly powered by Weebly