 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.
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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.
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