It was the month Richard Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford was inaugurated as president. Inflation was rising, nuclear tests were happening in Nevada, the USSR and France. Eight of the top 10 TV shows were on CBS; Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H, Good Times, Maude, Rhoda, The Waltons, All in the Family, and The Jeffersons. NBC had the other two; Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man. Missing the games shows from 1974? Here’s an episode of Match Game from August 12, 1974 with Orson Bean, Betty White, Brett Sommers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, and Dr. Joyce Brothers. Hosted by Gene Rayburn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLIcVCQrHP0 July Top 40 that year included;
The New York Times bestseller list for the week of August 6th was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré. Watership Down by Richard Adams was #2 on the fiction list. It’s not too surprising to see that All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward is #1 on the non-fiction list. The August 1978 Workbasket Magazine had five crochet patterns;
Your two choices for August are:
Travel Slippers. These call for Phentex Polypropylene 3-Ply Knitting Yarn in two colors, a size J hook and 2 round buttons. Tote Bag. This uses knitting worsted yarn in two colors and an F hook. Let me know which one you think I should make this month!
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I finished the leaf mats while traveling this month. It was an easy pattern to follow and memorize. It's done mostly in the back loop to get the ridged look of the leaves. Here is the description Workbasket Magazine had for the leaf mats; “This set consist of four leaves approximately 11 ½ inches, 9 ½ inches and 7 ½ inches from point to end. Three skeins of Bucilla Wonder-Knit and a steel crochet hook size 0 was used to make the set.” I did one in worsted weight and an E hook and a set in #10 thread with a 1.75mm hook. The worsted weight version started out as the large leaf but I realized I was going to run out of thread so I started decreasing faster. It’s 8 ¼ inches tall. Here’s the final version of that one with the medium thread one on top of it. The thread versions turned out well. The large one is 5 ½ inches, the medium one is 4 ½ inches and the small ones are 3 ¾ inches. The medium one is a good coaster size but I’m not sure what I’ll use the rest of them for. Any ideas? 1950’s era Workbasket Magazines had the subtitle “Home and Needlecraft for Pleasure and Profit”. The July issue focuses on the profit part with ads, the "Women Who Make Cents" section and a special article titled “Putting Profit in Your Handwork” by Kathleen Warren. I counted eighteen ads for info on how to sell cards to make money. July must be the time to gear up for Christmas. Here’s a list of the ads:
And if selling cards wasn't your thing, you could sell children's clothes or fabric Need something a little more interesting to sell? How about raising parakeets for money or selling religious mottos: There were also ads for making and selling costume jewelry, pocket sized water heaters and hosiery. Home based businesses have been around for a long time! Would you sell any of these things from home? Remember the losing pattern from last month? I was featuring the June 1977 issue of Workbasket Magazine and you chose the girl's dress over the one skein hat. A friend from our crochet guild, Crochet Twin Cities, offered to make the hat so I gave her one of my extra copies of the June issue. Julie finished the hat and had this to say about the pattern, "It was easy enough to follow or figure out what was meant by the instructions. I used Lion Brand 24/7 cotton and used most of the 186 yds in the the skein." So, it really was a one skein hat! She made two versions. One with a round top and one with a flatter top and plans to add flowers to embellish them. Thanks Julie! |
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. Archives
June 2024
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