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Jimmy Carter was president. The Susan B. Anthony coin was issued. President Carter declared a federal emergency for Love Canal in August of 1978. Star Trek: The Motion Picture started production in August 1978. Fashion started to go from the free moving, hippy styles of the early 70’s to the shoulder pads, pegged pants of the 80’s. Shoes from that year would fit right in to current styles; wedge boots, ballerina flats and lace up boots were in. Disco was still pretty hot so jumpsuits and other loose fitting styles that made it easy to dance were still in as well as stretch pants. July Top 40 that year included some classics like;
The New York Times bestseller list for the week of August 6th was Chesapeake by James Michener. The rest of August wasn’t published due to a newspaper strike. Scruples by Judith Krantz was #2 on the fiction list. Erma Bombeck had the #1 book on the non-fiction list that I remember my mother reading; If Life is a Bowl of Cherries – What Am I Doing in the Pits? The August 1978 Workbasket Magazine had five crochet patterns; a child’s striped vest and cap, a shell trimmed shawl, a drawstring pullover with embroidery, jiffy one piece slippers and a toy squirrel. Your two choices for August are:
Let me know which one you think I should make this month!
Next week I’ll let you know who won Barby Q by voting for the year on the blog and the winning pattern for August.
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This week you get to vote on the year and have a chance to win Barby Q. For August, I’ve narrowed down the choices to two different years. You get to vote on the year. If you vote with a comment on my blog with what year you think I should choose and why, I’ll put you in a drawing to win the July finished project. Chose either 1978  Or 1984  I’m off to the CGOA Chain Link conference in Portland this week. I’m taking a few roses and airplanes to give away at the airports. I'll post the winning year along with the pattern choices next week.  About the pattern: This looks like a pretty easy pattern and it was. It is missing some directions more modern crocheters would expect. About the materials: The pattern calls for:
How it went: This is one of those vintage patterns that assumes you know standards and don’t waste space writing them in. Most of the mitt is worked in double crochet but when you get to the end of a row it doesn’t say to chain 2 and turn. Even though this is a pretty easy pattern a beginner who didn’t have someone to teach them couldn’t pick this up and know how to read it. After I finished the mitt and before I added the embellishments, I decided I didn’t like the ragged look of the seaming so I turned it inside out. A friend mentioned that this pattern could also be a hand puppet so I promised I’d put eyes on it if it won. Once I turned it inside out it looked even more like a hand puppet so instead of the embroidered flowers it now has eyes.  And my husband suggested a tongue  How it turned out: As a hand puppet I’ll call this a win. I’m not so sure I’d count on it to protect my hands at a barbecue without some lining. I think I'll name her Barby Q! What I learned: Trust your friends and family to have great ideas! Bonus: You’ll notice a blue and white squarish thing in the photo below. I was really curious about how the striped placemats worked the angled stripes so even though they didn't win I worked up a small version in Bernat Home Dec. Home Dec is a lighter weight yarn than the pattern calls for. The pattern gets the stripes by starting in the corner and working out diagonally. It’s not quite a rectangle but it’s close enough for using as a hot pad.  Next week I'm going to give you a way to win Barby Q and then I'm off to Portland for the Crochet Guild of American conference! The barbecue mitt is almost done. All that’s left is the embellishment. I’ll post the final result next week. In the meantime, here are some fun excerpts from the July 1966 Workbasket Magazine. Workbasket Magazine has much more than just crochet patterns. It has knitting, tatting, embroidery, quilting, recipes, and garden advice. Each issue also has a section called “Women Who Make Cents”. The section usually has four ideas from readers who share how they make money from crafts.  Here are the two suggestions not in the photo: “Ming Centerpieces I make lovely ming tree center-pieces by selecting the most twisted and gnarled branches available. Trim, shellac and sprinkle glitter on trunk and main branches. Chop moss-green yarns very fine for foliage. Apply cement and using tweezers, place foliage where desired, a branch at a time. Mount in an inexpensive container, with a piece of florist’s clay, and cover bottom with pearl chips. These sell at $3.00 each or two for $5.00” “Water Sprinklers I make lovely little water sprinklers from half gallon or gallon bleach bottle with a handle on its side. Paint solid color or two tone. Cut a hole near top of bottle large enough for a small piece of hose. Insert hose in hole and glue in place. Decorate side with one big design or several small ones, such as flowers. I sell them for 50c to $1.00 depending on bottle size.” Workbasket Magazine also had a pattern service and they have many classic designs for dresses. Check these out:   There are always recipes. This issue has cheese and rice balls, pickled eggs, a liver spread and a sandwich spread made of peppers, green tomatoes, onion, vinegar, brown sugar, salad dressing and mustard. There’s also a flower and garden section with questions from readers. This issue has one from a reader in Minnesota. I can imagine that that these were treasured magazines for many women from the 1930s to the 1990s. |
AuthorI'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. I'm a member of Crochet Twin Cities, the local Crochet Guild. Archives
April 2019
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