2024 - The year of Victorian crochet patterns

My original plan for 2024 was to do vintage patterns by the decade starting with the earliest ones I had in my collection. I planned to start with a book called, “Crochet Designs, Fashion & Accessories, reprinted from Victorian and Edwardian Sources”. It was compiled by Gertrude Kuehl for the Knitting and Crochet Guild of London in 1990. It has patterns that run from 1830s to 1919. After that I would move on to the 1940s and see how far we got with the decades in order. Then, my friend, Julie shared a book with me called “Weldon’s Practical Crochet” that has their first 19 series of newsletters with 30-50 patterns in each! Weldon’s patterns were published mainly in the Victorian era and now I had a lot of them. A new plan was formed; 2024 will be mostly Victorian age (1837-1901). I can’t promise I won’t veer into more modern patterns but the Victorian era will be the initial focus.

This should be an interesting process. Yarns were different, stitches had different names and directions were often vague, some don't even have photos. It should be fun!

Next week I'm starting with a booklet I found on the Antique Pattern Library website from 1848.​ Then I'll move on to these two physical books I have: