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For this week I have another pattern from Columbia-Minerva's Teach Yourself to Crochet from 1972. This is perfect for a beginner, not so great for the heat we're expected to get in Minnesota this coming week.  This is just a long scarf that is folded in half with 8 inches sewn by the fold to make the hood. It uses worsted weight yarn and since I liked the color combination in the photo I tried to replicate that with yarn I had. I used vintage Columbia Minerva Performer in Brown, some Red Heart Super Saver in Buff and an unknown yarn in Magenta.
This a one row repeat that goes; sc, chain 2 across and repeats with the next row having the sc in the chain 2 space. This is really easy and works up very quickly with the I hook. I didn’t think the fringe was necessary and I really hate making fringe so I skipped that.
This one fit and it was super easy and fun. This gets a 5 out of 5 stars!
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There's no date in this booklet but given that these are listed as "in fashions" I think they're safely in the vintage category.  The first photo patterns are called Make them Lacy and include the vest, hat, and poncho. The second is called Boldly Banded. The poncho seems more like an open vest but I guess it makes it easy to move your arms around.
Next we have Flings and Hats. I guess the word "scarf" was just to boring to use. The two sets on the ends are crocheted and might end up in a future blog post. I'm intrigued by the purple hat in particular. The second photo is The Edwardian Vest. I don't think this would be completely out of place today.
I like the idea of this dress but I'm not sure if I'm sold on the flowery border. I think that might weigh the dress down and stretch out the top part.  And last we have the Color Cascade poncho photographed in black and white. They suggest doing the main color in Olive Green with stripes in Burnt Orange and Lemon, or Tangerine and Amber.  Do you have a favorite in this booklet?
The next two or three weeks will be photos from vintage pattern magazines instead of finished hats. I've been working on getting my Dakota County Fair entries done and I'm traveling next week. This week I have the Afghan and Fashion Collection from Columbia-Minerva that was published in 1970. I am using one of these patterns to make an entry into the Dakota County Fair. Can you guess which one? Here's the very green cover with their Sierra Vista Afghan and Sonora Vest and Headband.  Next up is the Estrella Peasant Dress that I think is adorable. The afghan is knitted and crocheted. I think the flowers in the background make this extra pretty.  I think these two dresses would be fashionable today. The first one is called Snowflake and the second one is Point Imperial. The photo sets are interesting. The Point Imperial dress looks very fancy with the hair done up but it's in front of what looks like a wagon.
These two are in very 1970s colors. I'm not sure what the statue in the background of the Marana jumper is. The Inspiration dress, beret and scarf is partially knitted and one way you can tell that this is an older photo is that the taped up thermostat is still in the photo. I think my photographer sister would find this pretty funny.
The red suit is called the Show Low Midi Suit. The gold outfit is called Old Basin Vest, Skirt and Cap. Both of these have some pretty awesome boots.
There are more photos than this but they are mostly afghans and less interesting than the clothing patterns.
Any guesses on which one of these I'm going to make for the Dakota County Fair? This week I have another hat made with 100% viscose rayon straw type fiber. The book uses HiStraw made by Columbia-Minerva. I guess rayon raffia was popular in the early 70s. Here is the front and the back of the booklet.
I went with the "Anne" hat (upper right in second photo) because I wanted something with more of a brim. This fiber isn't super scratchy but I don't think the granny square hats look very comfortable and I didn't have enough colors to make the other options. The pattern asks for seven skeins of HiStraw in tan and three in brown. I had neither of those colors so I mixed up some different brands and went with two StrawTex white, five HiStraw natural, one HiStraw light blue and one Swistraw in a yellow-orange color. The Swistraw had this description on the label, "WONDERFUL, WASHABLE SWISTRAW Ribbon is a remarkably versatile viscose rayon strand - durable, soil and fade resistant, and it may be washed, dry cleaned, ironed and steamed (handle as synthetic textile). It is available in many dazzling colors in brilliant and matt finishes...ideal strand for many craft and needlework projects - freeform and loom flowers, crocheting, stitchery, weaving, lampshade wrap, macramé, gift packaging ties, embedding in resin." This was a pretty easy pattern once I got past some odd instructions where they had you doing a row into the base of the previous row. It made the inside look like this and the only reason I could come up with for this was to give it a little more structure. This is done for three different rows in the head portion and in every row for the brim.  They suggest a G hook and give the same gauge as the previous hat but for some reason I needed to go up a hook size to get the gauge right. About halfway through the sides of the hat it still looked a little smaller than I thought it should so I upped the hook size again to an H. This hat has you crochet over some round elastic to make sure the hat will stay on and that worked pretty well. I will say that this isn't the easiest stuff to work with but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It takes a little more wrist twist to get the full strand in the hook sometimes and my hands get a little more tired than they do with regular yarn. The results are pretty good though and it makes a nice lightweight summer hat. I'm happy with how it came out and it fits so I'll give this one a 5 star rating.
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