An American Lady - 1848

One of my main sources for vintage patterns is the Antique Pattern Library and I found a few options there to supplement the Weldon’s series. One is a pdf of a booklet called “An American Lady, Winter Gifts for Ladies” from 1848. It’s 65 pages and includes knitting, “crotchet” and netting patterns. There are no photos of any of the patterns. I had to laugh when I read this interesting introduction,

                “To the Ladies of America. It is customary amongst the German ladies to have at hand some light piece of work, with which they can at any time be employed. When passing the evening in one another’s society, even when passing a morning visit, or after dinner at a dinner party, or while sipping coffee, or taking ices at the public gardents (sic), the consider their knitting or netting needles an indispensable accompaniment. And there appears to be a charm in the occupation that promotes rather than impedes conversation.
                Our American ladies will doubtless find the custom worthy of imitation. Many an hour which would pass tediously if they were forced to find topics of conversation, may be whiled pleasantly and profitably away, by the assistance of some agreeable employment, which interests without engrossing the attention. The facility of carrying about almost all species of knitting and netting render them peculiarly well adapted to this purpose.
                In the following little work, all the different species of knitting, netting and crotchet, are so carefully explained, that a person totally unacquainted with their mysteries, may become proficient wit very slight pains. The most useful kinds of knitting, as well as the more fanciful, have been carefully inserted, and many new stithes (sic) are now offered to the ladies of America, with which we flatter ourselves, they have never before been acquainted. ”

Here are my thoughts on that introduction:

• The writer says that taking a project with you was a way to have something to talk about that wasn’t as tedious as forcing a conversation. I think this is still true today though I think we aren’t forced to socialize as much as the generation and class of women that wrote this.
• They think that the instructions in this book will only be mildly painful because they explain everything very clearly. I'll definitely be testing that with a pattern.
• They also think American women don’t know any of these stitches even though most of who they probably think of as “American” women came from a place that had knitting and/or crocheting. By the year this was published (1848), the USA had been a country for over 70 years. I'm sure people in America had been knitting since before 1776, particularly people who didn't have the resources to pay someone else to do it. To say that they think they have something new to share is absolutely flattering themselves. 

 
On to the actual patterns. The booklet has 65 pages. The knitting and netting patterns start on page 12 and there are about 60 of them. Many of them are edgings and bags. Crocheting patterns and directions start on page 54  of the booklet and there are four patterns. After these four patterns they go back to knitting patterns for the rest of the booklet. The four crochet patterns are:

• Muffatee
• Plain Double Crotchet Stitch Purse (dbl = us single)
• Open Crochet Purse (lined with silk)
• Gentleman’s Cap

Aside from the hat, none of them list a yarn or a hook. The cap suggests a German lambs’-wool or 3-ply fleecy and a coarse ivory needle. For next week, I’m going to try the hat with a worsted weight yarn and a I hook. Tune in then to find out if there were only “slight pains” to make this.