Stitchcraft’s April 1965 theme is “Out in the Open Knitting”, with “country” style cardigans and jackets to be worn outdoors, and easy homeware projects that are “just the type of work to do through the lighter evenings and out of doors.” Spring is here!
Our cover photo features a “stroller jacket” made in tweedy “Glenora” wool. At 30 to 32 ounces and made in stocking stitch, I fear it would stretch and sag to much longer than the 34-35 inches given in the pattern. The other adult “outdoor” garments are similarly heavy: a “country jacket” in bulky Big Ben wool and knotted-stitch pattern and a square-shaped men’s jacket in double-moss stitch. Outdoor colours include natural beige and brown tones as well as sky blue.
The “indoor” garments are less bulky and use matching layers to adapt to capricious spring temperatures: a subdued twin set with “braided” bolero-style border on the cardigan and a set of jumper + “overblouse” slipover. The twin set and jumper are in lightweight 4-ply wool, the overblouse in DK.
Colours are muted and match well with the outdoor neutrals: , soft pink, peachy-orange and grey-brown tweed. There’s an “indoor” pullover for men as well, in tweedy green to match the outdoor country theme.
Children of all ages get “bread-and-butter” garments for school and play. There’s a crocheted baby jacket to be made either without shaping (“for a boy”) or with a skirted matinee coat shape (“for a girl”). There’s a tunic dress for a somewhat older girl, featured in one of my favourite photographs ever. Drink your tea… or else! The dress is pretty cool too: decorated with embroidered chain-stitch over nubbly Rimple DK wool.
School-age kids can get a practical unisex waistcoat for school wear, or a very nice fine-knit cardigan in 3-ply “Brilliante” wool. Brilliante was a wool blend using “Orlon” acrylic fiber, which had been invented in 1941 but only started to be popular for hand-knitting use in the mid-1960s. See also: the two advertisements in this issue touting the qualities of Brilliante and Orlon: soft, washable and thoroughly modern.
There are all sorts of homewares to choose from, most of them fairly standard: a striped, darned rug, a church kneeler in trammed-stitch tapestry, cutwork place mats, a simple embroidered cushion… There’s a flowery embroidered tablecloth for Easter (Easter Sunday was rather late in 1965, falling on April 18th, but still — better get that tablecloth done soon!) and two more cushions in counted cross-stitch work.
The two more interesting projects are a pattern for tatted place mats and napkin rings, or tapestry chair seats with an oceanic theme. Tatting designs are rare in Stitchcraft, so this was a special “by request” pattern. The sea-life chair seats are quite pretty and elaborate. One design features sea shells and coral, the other “Pond Life” — flowers, insects and butterflies. They are made with tapestry wool on canvas.
That’s all! My project for this month will be unusual: an adaptation of the cross-stitch “spot” design in knitting. I love the design, but I don’t like counted work and I don’t need any more cushions. I think it would work really well as an argyle-like intarsia + embroidered lines pattern for fingerless gloves. We’ll see how that works!
The Stitchcraft Sixties 