CRAFT ACROSS TIME
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog

March 1974 - The Alligator in Crochet

2/29/2020

0 Comments

 
The alligator won with 78% of the vote.  Taking advice from comments; we will name him Abner and hopefully he’ll hang from the ceiling of a mad scientist’s work room.
Alligator in Crochet from Workbasket Magazine March 1974
The Materials:

The pattern suggests that you use:

  • 8 oz of pink Coats and Clark’s Red Heart Knitting Worsted.   I have some Red Heart Super Saver in Frosted Green and that seems like a better color for an alligator. 
  • Rickrack for his teeth
  • Felt pieces for his eyes, tongue and claws are
  • Embroidery floss in violet to embroider the scales – I won’t use violet but I’m not sure yet what color I’ll use.
  • A size H hook
  • A ribbon for his neck

The Pattern:

Abner should be 21.5 inches long when he’s done.  The head and body are one long piece then the four legs are done and sewn on and then the rest of the details are added. 
The embroidery is done with a “fly stitch” and we’re given these instructions:
​

Fly stitch - embroidery instructions for Alligator scales

​That should be interesting (she says in the most Minnesota way possible).

Next Week:  Questionable Crafts from March 1974 – what were those crazy crafters making besides alligators?
0 Comments

March 1974

2/22/2020

8 Comments

 
Workbasket Magazine March 1974 Cover
Richard Nixon was the president (for a few more months).  The Watergate Seven were indicted on March 1st.

Top 40 hits included:
  • "Hooked on a Feeling" – Blue Swede
  • "Seasons in the Sun" - Terry Jacks
  • "Let Me Be There" – Olivia Newton-John
  • "Mockingbird" - Carly Simon and James Taylor
  • "I Love" – Tom T. Hall
  • "Sunshine On My Shoulders" – John Denver
  • "Jet"  - Paul McCartney and Wings
  • "Come and Get Your Love"  - Redbone
  • "Bennie and the Jets" – Elton John
  • "The Joker" – The Steve Miller Band
 
NYTimes bestselling fiction top 10 includes no books that I’ve read.  Number one is Burr by Gore Vidal.  Jaws by Peter Benchley shows up mid-month at #3 and climbs to #2 by the end of the month.

On TV, people were watching; Hawaii Five-O, Maude, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son, All in the Family and Kojack. Here’s Lucy, The Partridge Family and The Dean Martin Show were all cancelled that month and Nova started. 

The March 1974 issue of Workbasket Magazine had five crochet patterns; a Boy’s Vest, a Granny Sack, a Girl’s Jacket with Loopstitch Hood and the two you’ll be voting on:

The Pan Holder:


Workbasket Magazine March 1974 Pan Holder
This uses “bedspread crochet cotton” and a size 7 steel hook.

​The Alligator Stuffed Toy

March 1974 Workbasket Magazine Alligator
The alligator uses worsted weight yarn and is supposed to be 21.5 inches long when done.
​
Which one should I do for March?  Voting is open until Friday and I'll post the winning project next weekend.

The March issue also has a few interesting pictures, some fun ads and two questionable crafts that I'll share later in the month.



8 Comments

Bonus Booties #2

2/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Yesterday I pointed to another more recent source for baby booties that had a cowboy boot pattern.  It was available through Hoopla and my library so I checked it out and made these yesterday:
Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Boots in pink from Sweet Shoes for Wee Ones
Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Boots from Sweet Shoes for Wee Ones
This booklet was published in 2015 and was a lot easier to understand than the previous ones.  There was no extra heel to work out so these came together very quickly.   They turned out to be about 3 inches long and 3 1/2 inches high.   Here's a comparison shot with the other two sets:
Picture
The biggest pair has a sole that's 6 inches long.  The little tennis shoe soles are 3 1/2 inches.  (Looks like I need to glue those gold stars on a little more.)    I love these little boots and would definitely recommend Sweet Shoes for Wee Ones if you want to make some Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Boots.


0 Comments

Bonus Booties for February

2/16/2020

0 Comments

 
It turned out the be the perfect month to have a baby project.   My brother and his wife just had a baby girl - my 13th niece/nephew!

Because those cowboy booties in the February 1980 Workbasket Magazine were so cute, I tried to find a version of them online. I found Big Foot Boutique by the same company that did the original (Annie's Attic).   The pattern sizes in this book don’t include infant, instead it has versions for child’s size small to an adult extra large.   All patterns are done with two strands of worsted weight yarn held together so I think you could do an infant size with just one strand and smaller hook size.  I chose to do the child’s size small for these.

Materials:
I used Red Heart Super Saver in Gold and Café Latte and an H hook.

The Pattern:
I had a couple of problems with the pattern – one was resolved by finding an errata page later.  
The sole in the pattern is done in gold but the one on the cover is done in brown.  I followed the pattern so the bottoms of the boots are gold instead of brown.  This has a correction that I found on Annie’s Attic website.  This book has five pages of corrections so keep that in mind if you buy it.
​
The directions for the heel are odd and I still don’t know if I have it right but it looks ok.   It would probably look better if I’d done the sole in brown.  People on Ravelry for the old version of the pattern also mentioned that this was an issue for them so at least I wasn’t alone in that.
The last problem I had with this was the loopy chain decoration.  It’s cute but not easy to get on evenly.   At least for me - other people didn't seem to have a problem with that part.
Annie's Attic Cowboy slippers from Big Foot Boutique
Again, Ravelry and my Cricut to the rescue.  There were a few versions of finished projects on Ravelry for the original baby version that used stars so I cut out some gold stars and use those instead.  Cricut makes cutting out perfect felt shapes so easy!
​
Annie's Attic Cowboy Slippers Big Foot Boutique with a star
There is another Annie’s pattern that has a cowboy boot pattern for babies that is still in print called Sweet Shoes for Wee Ones.  If I’d seen this one first I probably would have bought this one instead.  In addition to the cowboy boots it has loafers, snow boots and mock crocs; a total of 15 baby shoe patterns.    It is available through my library and Hoopla so I might look at it at least and see if anything looks fast and easy.

Next week I'll have voting for March ready!



0 Comments

February 1980 Booties finished

2/9/2020

0 Comments

 
These booties were pretty easy and came out very cute. 

The pattern asked for red and white 4-ply yarn/ DK weight yarn and I used worsted weight yarn hoping the gauge would be close.  Even if it was off a little bit I didn't think it would make much difference.  The sole measurement they give for the small size is 3 1/2 inches and here is the sole with the worsted weight yarn.
​
Picture
No problems with changing the yarn weight slightly!  

The pattern makes the sole first, then the red tongue of the shoe and then the sides.    It's finished with the stockings and little edging on the soles and the shoestrings.


​
Tennis Shoe booties from Workbasket Magazine February 1980
photo of tennis shoe booties from Workbasket Magazine February 1980

Since those cowboy booties were so cute I looked for a pattern for them.   I found an Annie's Attic book called "Big Foot Boutique: Kick Up Your Heels in 8 Pairs of Crochet Slippers"  that looked like it had similar patterns.   Next week I'll have a toddler's version of the cowboy boot ready to show you!
0 Comments

February 1980 Winner

2/1/2020

0 Comments

 
​Despite a last minute surge in voting for the elephant, the booties won with 74% of the votes.
Picture

The Pattern:
These have multiple sections for each part of the bootie and seem pretty detailed.   I don’t have any immediate concerns with the pattern.

The Materials – the pattern suggests that you use:
  • A size F hook for the small size.   A G for medium and large
  • 50 yds of white and 20 yds of red 4-ply acrylic yarn
  • 3-ply baby yarn for shoestrings
 
I think 4-ply yarn is the equivalent of DK or #3 yarn and 3-ply baby yarn is #2 weight/fingering.   I’m going to use acrylic worsted weight yarn instead of DK and DK instead of fingering.   After reading through the pattern I’ve discovered that I’ll also need a size D hook to make the shoestrings.

There is a gauge so I’ll see if what I make matches it but since these aren’t being made for a specific baby I’m not too worried about being exact.  

The gauge is 4 sc =  1-inch and the small sole measurement is 3.5 inches.

Next Week:

These adorable booties are going to be pretty quick to make so I’ll have the finished ones up next weekend.   The following weekend you get a bonus bootie.   I found a similar set of patterns by Annie’s Attic that includes the cowboy boots and I’ll make those for the February 15th weekend.  They're in a booklet called Big Foot Boutique.  These are more children and adult sizes instead of baby sizes so the boots will be a little bigger than the tennis shoes. 


0 Comments

      Sign up here to get an email when I post something new!

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Author

    I'm from Minnesota and have been crocheting since 2003.  I inherited a box full of Workbasket Magazines from my mother-in-law and became obsessed with the vintage patterns.  

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018


    Member of:
    CGOA
    Ravelry: aronningen
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog