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Can you guess what year this magazine is from based on the ad on the back of the magazine?  This Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine is full of fun patterns that fit right into the era it's from. It has patterns for knitting, crochet, embroidery, quilting, sewing and more. I'm going to highlight some of the knitting and crochet patterns. I couldn't resist these two knitted sweaters. The first one is called The Windowpane Pullover and the description says the one "dot" is functional because it serves as a button. The second one is The Bold Patterned Coat and it looks super cozy.
Next up is the Gilded Pullover (also knitted) This entire outfit looks like it could be worn today and there is one tiny detail on it that's easy to miss. There's a little pocket at the waist! The Glitter & Glow outfits are both crocheted. The suit is done in a velour yarn and the shawl has a silver metallic yarn mixed with the blue yarn.
The Laced Camisole (below, left side) is described as "crocheted in an exciting color combination." I think it might be better in something other than pink. Maybe some rainbow stripes? The Victorian Shawl (same photo), "is trimmed all around with a deep, glorious fringe". The Multistriped Tabard on the left is kind of fun for the 70s but looks a little messy.
The sweaters, the scarf and the eye-glass case (in blue on the right) below are knitted. The tiny purses are crocheted. I thought about doing one of the purses since they have them hanging around the neck but they're both completely open at the top which seems like it would be less useful for a purse.
These kids sweaters are all knit except the gold one with crewel embroidered flowers.
The vest in the photo on the left below is crocheted and then embroidered with cross-stitches. The tweed coverup on the right is also crocheted and it gives instructions on how to get the look they have below.
These bags and other decorative items are also very 1970s. The purses on the left side are all crocheted. The wall hanging that crosses the two photos is macramé and then gold chains are added. Most of the items on the right were sewn or glued. The one crocheted item on that page is the silver lighter holder in the lower right corner.
And last are these two pages. The photo on the left is showing a bunch of things they have patterns for including sewn potholders and cross-stitched canning lids. There are only three crocheted items in the photo. One is the pickled watermelon rind. The others are the motifs/doilies on the apron that say "Biscuit" and "Bread". When I first looked at that I assumed the word on the apron was her name and was a little surprised it was Biscuit. (Should I make that doily for the Horn family dog?) The picture on the right also has some motifs and edging to add to tops that you sew. They give the Simplicity pattern name for the tops but you could add these to ready made tops too.
Did you figure out what year(s) this magazine is from? 
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This week I'm sharing my attempt at the Princess Loretta Scarf. The flyer has a colorized photo in addition to the black and white one and that helped make the stitches easier to see. The materials needed for this pattern are:
 The instructions say that the scarf should turn out to be 52 inches long and gave these instructions; "A chain of 79 stitches will make a scarf about 9 inches wide. This is a good width." That's a gauge of 8.6 stitches per inch. I went up a hook size but I don't think that the fingering weight yarn is much bigger than pearl cotton so I wasn't too worried and just assumed that it would be close. It was not close. I ended up with a chain of 53 to get a width of just over 9 inches. That's more like 6 stitches per inch. Still, this is a scarf so it shouldn't matter that much and I really didn't want to find a lace weight yarn to do a 52 x 9 inch scarf. Rows 1 -19 are just single crochet stitches across. Row 20 is a star stitch and they give very specific instructions on how to make the stitch. Row 21 is single crochet again and you repeat those rows once. Then you do a bunch more single crochet and then repeat the star stitch part again until the scarf measures 28 inches. Here's what that looks like:  Not long after this I realized the my stitches were much shorter gauge than what the picture looked like and this was going to take longer than I anticipated. I wasn't enjoying doing this stitch pattern with this particular yarn and decided it just wasn't worth the yarn and time to finish it.  Here's the scoring: Is the pattern easy to understand? Yes 1.0 If there is a gauge, could I match it? No 0 Does it look like photo? For the part I finished, I think it was close 0.5 Would someone wear it? Because this was a DNF I'm giving it a 0 Did I enjoy making it? No 0 Total score is 1.5 Next week I have fun photos from a magazine I picked up at a sale. Based on the ad on the back cover can you guess the year it's from?   This week I'm sharing photos from Corticelli Lessons in Crochet, Book 1. It was published in 1916 and is available to download at the Antique Pattern Library. This booklet has about 35 patterns for everything from baskets to bags, and slippers to scarves along with stitch instructions and, of course, advertisements for their silk and cotton threads. Four of the patterns were knitted but everything else was crocheted. There are at least 14 edgings and a couple of motifs, four different baskets and curtains. Most of the rest of the patterns are for wearables like these two slipper patterns.
There are five hat patterns. Several are more decorative like the Princess Dorothea Picture Hat but at least two were more practical like the Russian Skating Cap.
The sweaters and jackets look warm and cozy.
There are a few more unusual patterns for things like a girdle (available in both a knitted and crocheted version) and a spencer.
There are only two scarf patterns. One is titled Princess Loretta Crocheted Scarf and the other is called Gentleman's Crocheted Scarf or Muffler. After reading both patterns they use the same two stitches in a pattern that is very similar. The men's version is a little wider and the women's version has a fringe. I'm going to give the women's version a try and give you an update next week. I'll leave you with the last page of the booklet because who can resist a kitten?  This week's pattern is from the Crochet Designs reprinted from Victorian and Edwardian sources that I featured last week. It is reprinted from "Needlecraft Practical Journal, Vol 6, No. 79, published in 1909.  Ladies Ribbed Tie The pattern says it's intended to be worked in Briggs' crochet silk or Silver Shield crochet thread. A quick check of their yarn comparison chart tells me that they consider that a "fine weight" and give us these examples for "modern yarns and threads":
The entire project is worked in back loop only to get that ribbed look and it's done entirely in chains and what they call double crochet (aka single crochet US terminology). This is made in two pieces that are, "neatly joined at centre of neckband". This wasn't a difficult project until I got to the fringe. Here are the instructions for the fringe, "The fringe should be crocheted on over a piece of card about 2 inches deep. Cut the edges and divide the strands at the top by clustering into groups, and knotting with a needle and thread as for drawn thread work." I ended up just making the fringe over a 4 inch card and just attaching them every few stitches and then doing the clustering part. I don't think it's quite what they had in mind but it worked. Since my last dyeing experiment went pretty well I thought I'd give it another try and just make this one a solid green since the off-white was kind of boring. This time it didn't go quite as well. There's some variation in the final dyed fabric that you can see below.
Overall this went pretty well. Let's add up the score:
That gives it a score of 3.75 Next week I'll be showing you some patterns from a 1916 Corticelli Silk Mills booklet and the week after that I'll have the results of one of the patterns from the booklet. |
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