December 1964: Front Panel Classic Sweater

This month’s project was, as its name suggests, a classic sweater with a front panel detail. And while it may not be what you think of as a “Christmas sweater” (i.e. not tacky, no light-up reindeer baubles…), it was definitely my Christmas sweater this year, since I not only finished it on time, but on December 24th! (And there was much rejoicing.)

The sweater features many elements of classic 1960s casual design: a longer body (23 inches), no waist shaping, straight sleeves with an equal amount of ease (i.e. not much) from wrist to sleeve cap, set-in sleeves and a high crew neck necessitating a back neck opening. The front panel, like the one on the dress I knitted for the October blog project, appears at first glance to be some kind of cable or mock-cable, but is cleverly made out of a combination of normal knit and purl stitches as well as knit stitches made through the back loop.

The pattern uses plain Patons Double Knitting DK wool in “Flamingo”, which I would expect to be orangey-pink but judging from the colour photo on the back cover, is a cheerful bright orange. I love orange, so for once I made a project in the colour specified. My yarn was G-B Jil, an extremely normal, easy, inexpensive superwash DK wool.

The sweater knit up quickly and the only real delay came while waiting for the two extra balls of wool I had ordered to arrive. I had bought the wool at a local sewing/knitting shop that doesn’t order very often, and at the time there were only 400 grams of the orange wool there. I expected to use 450-500 grams, so ordered the two extra balls. It ended up using exactly 450 grams of wool and the two extra-ordered balls were even in the same dye lot, so there was no trouble with matching.

I made the sleeves one inch longer and used a button for the back neck closure instead of a zipper. Other than that, I made everything according to pattern. My only design worry was the complete lack of shaping — I was afraid it would make me look dumpy, since I have a pretty small waist and prefer to wear tight-fitting tops. The finished garment has zero ease in the bust and obviously a lot of ease in the waist and in retrospect, they should have written the (plain, no panel) back piece narrower than the front — it’s much more logical to have the front larger than the back, or at the very least, both the same, but effectively the back is wider than the front in this case, because the panel cinches the front piece in a bit. That said, it works out fine as written. The extra length and the tight ribbing at the hem make it cling to the hips, which keeps the waist part from ballooning.

It is easy to care for (I blocked it by washing in the machine!) and the perfect amount of warm.

As always, we had fun re-creating the magazine photos. This is the same model from the October dress, and she seems to like swingy, corkscrew poses.

I am very happy with this sweater and I am sure it will get a lot of use!

Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrated it, and a happy New Year to all, when we’ll be starting the year 1965 at the Stitchcraft Sixties.

December 1964: Overview

Stitchcraft sends good wishes for Christmas 1964! Yes, another year has gone by in a flash. Luckily, this issue is full of ideas for quick last-minute gifts, as well as warm clothing for the family.

The bulky partner-look cardigans on the front cover are timeless and modern – apart from the 1960s styling and lighting, and the man wearing a shirt and tie, this could be a modern advertisement for ready-to-wear knitwear. The jackets are made in „Big Ben“ bulky wool at 3.5 stitches to the inch, so they might just be finished in time for a winter cold snap. Similarly bulky, but lighter-weight „Ariel“ wool is featured in a vertically-striped („adds to the slimming look“) cardigan for somewhat larger women‘s sizes up to 42 inch bust, and there‘s a warm cabled „Cardigan for Driving“ for him with practical pockets and a big collar.

The women‘s fashions are more sleek, with classic straight lines and unfussy crew necks. A simple ridge-welt pattern can be knit from the bottom up with dolman sleeves for a horizontal stripe, or as a cardigan knitted sideways edge-to-edge for a vertical stripe effect. There‘s also a classic jumper with a twisted-stitch rib panel and a lacy sheath dress for parties.

„Juniors and Tots“ will stay warm in a fun stranded half-cardigan (zip opening from neck to waist – this is called a „Troya“ style where I live but Stitchcraft just calls it a jersey) with matching cap. Therre‘s another cap with cables running around horizontally, as well. „Tots“ from ages 1-4 get a sewn pinafore romper with a cross-stitch squirrel motif or a knitted tunic to wear over a jumper and tights (thank goodness, our child model can have warm legs for once.) Colours are warm and earthy — orange, brown and „Inca Gold“ for the adult and children’s garments and emerald green for the toddler‘s tunic.

The most important, and sometimes most entertaining, part of the December issue is the gifts, of course, and this one is full of „Last minute ideas“ — you can allegedly „make them all in an evening or two.“ Well, evenings are longer in the winter… There‘s a startled- looking owl to sew from felt pieces, and felt table mars with appliquéd butterflies. Felt is used for the draught-stopping caterpillar snake (with pipe cleaner feelers) as well, and cotton embroidered baby bibs shaped like a kitten and bunny rabbit complete the craft menagerie.

Other quick gifts include a knitted ball for a baby, a knitted and a tapestry tea cosy, and a knitted cushion — all good ways to use up scraps of wool. The „Ping the Peke“ stuffed dog looks a bit more time-consuming, and it’s probably difficult to achieve a really professional look with it.

Experienced embroideresses who have efficiently provided all of their Christmas gifts already and are not scrambling to get last-minute gifts finished can make a beautiful and very Christmas-y blue and green cross-stitch tablecloth based on a Rumanian motif. (For once, they didn‘t call a design from Eastern Europe „peasant“ embroidery! Progress.) Those looking for a simpler project can make a pretty dressing table set with flower motifs, or for the whimsically minded, there‘s a cross-stitch cushion „gift for a motorist“ with a picture of a prototype automobile on it.

The Readers Pages are full of ideas of things to buy (Stitchcraft subscriptions et. al.) plus an entire knitting pattern for a child‘s hoodie (2nd time reprint from 1954 — this must have been a very popular pattern) and instructions for an easy appliquéd spectacle case that a child could make „for Granny.“

My project will be the classic jumper with the twisted-stitch panel, in the same fun orange colour as the photo. Happy Holidays!

November 1964: Useful Gift to knit from your Scraps

My November project was this gem from Stitchcraft’s November 1964 “Readers Pages”. Over the years, these back pages featured everything from recipes and household tips to mini-reprints of popular patterns, little “novelties” or “gift ideas” to make, advertisements for other Patons/Stitchcraft booklets or subscriptions, or quick “how-to” lessons for specific techniques or stitch patterns. There’s always a comic for children, often featuring some sort of needlecraft and/or friendly animal character that you can knit or sew or embroider in a future issue. In addition to the current comic (“ANNE and her embroidery”– in this segment, Anne learns how to make oven mitts embroidered with a fish in herringbone and cross-stitch) the November 1964 Readers Pages offered “Your Christmas List gifts to note for a needlewoman” — two Patons pattern leaflets, a subscription to Stitchcraft and/or a binding case to hold a one-year run of twelve Stitchcraft magazines, and a pattern for a knitted coat-hanger cover.

The knitted (or crocheted) coat-hanger cover was a staple in every grandmother’s and great-aunt’s house I knew growing up, so I have a pleasant nostalgic association with them. It is indeed a useful way to use of scraps of yarn, and I guess the padding helps garments not crease at the shoulders. Also, they’re cute and I think these days, they would be a very fun little holiday gift for people who like crafty items. I certainly had enough scraps of 4-ply / fingering-weight wool, so this was the perfect November project.

The pattern uses “oddments” of 4-ply wool in white, yellow, pink and blue (or whatever colours you have, of course) and is knitted at a tension of 7.5 stitches to the inch on No. 11 (2.75 mm) needles. It is simply a strip 19 stitches wide, started at the small end and worked in a symmetrical stripe pattern for a total of 42 4-row stripes. The pattern is k1 row, p 1 row, k 2 rows, so there’s a little purl ridge at one edge of each stripe. You sew the short ends in half, poke the hook part of the hanger through the middle of the center stripe, pull the short ends of the knitting over the ends of the hanger, sew up the stripes on the underside and voilà. Then you can make a little crochet chain to wrap the hook part of the hanger and stitch it in place.

Of course, it only works on a certain size and shape of hanger… one that was apparently easier to find a few decades ago than now! All the new hangers I’ve seen or bought have a triangle shape with a bar underneath to hang things over. Admittedly, the triangle version is much more useful, because you can hang more than one thing on it (suits…) and fold things over the bar (trousers, long dresses if your closet space is short…). I only found two hangers in my closet that were the right shape for these covers! As well as a modern version that is similar, but too big at the top — as written, the knitted cover won’t stretch over the block-y part under the hook.

A quick look at ebay yielded a seller with a package of 8 vintage hangers for a few euros — including one that was already covered with a knitted cosy! Perfect. The covered hanger is knitted in a similar stripe pattern using three colours and garter stitch.

I made mine using the Stitchcraft pattern and more or less random colours from the “assorted 4-ply” bag. I used 2 mm needles and left the hook bare. The cover fit perfectly on the hangers (both mine and the ones from ebay, which were all the same size and type). The tedious part was stitching up the underside. When I made the first cover (blue, white, yellow and orange), I carried up the threads on the sides, thinking to save weaving in ends, but realised afterwards that the loose ends are useful for stitching up the cover on the underside of the hanger. So for the other two, I only carried up the threads within a two-colour, three-stripe block. Still… lots of ends.

I have other stuff to do and so many wips, so I’ve going to stop at three hangers for now, but maybe I can crank out a few more in December for presents. Loved this project and will surely come back to it to decorate more hangers, of which I now have plenty.

November 1964: Overview

“Winter Fashions and Christmas Plans” is the theme of Stitchcraft‘s November 1964 issue, with practical clothing for the family as well as gift ideas and a couple of glamorous items for parties.

You will be “set for winter” in the cardigan on the cover, knitted in bulky “Big Ben” wool at 3 1/2 stitches to the inch, with all-over mock-cables, a warm collar and practical pockets. The mock-cable pattern involves “losing” a stitch in the 3rd row with a sl1-k2-psso, then getting it back with a yo on row 4, making a “bar” and then a little hole for the mock-cable effect. There’s a handy close-up photo of the stitch pattern, so you can make sure you did it right.

The caption continues the use of a bit of word-play on the word “set”, which we saw in the October 1964 issue. There, the theme was “set to flatter”, whereby some of the items were part of an actual set, and some weren’t. Some of the other garments in the November issue really are a set, in that sense: this waistcoat suit in glowing fuchsia, for example. Rounding out the everyday women’s garments are a plain 4-ply jumper, a bright colour-motif sweater and a comfortable tweed jacket for larger sizes. I love that brooch on the jumper — it looks like Star Trek insignia.

The trend for textured patterns, big collars, zig-zag designs and bold colours continues with the men’s garments: he too will be “set for winter” in a textured pullover for larger sizes or a sport-weight “sweater-shirt” (they didn’t use the word “henley” at the time) that utilises many fashionable features. You get a glimpse of the women’s colour-motif sweater in the back cover photo, as well.

In the “Teens and Babies” department, there’s a wonderful winter “wind-cheater outfit” set (actually a set, this time) of sweater, leggings and hat, as well as a thick, warm jersey for a young girl (our model is quite possibly not a teenager yet, but the pattern is in three sizes up to 32 inch chest to fit older girls as well), and a continuation of the baby set (also an actual set) that was started a few issues ago with matinee coat, dress, etc.: this last instalment is a lacy one-size-fits-all hooded cape to go over all the other garments. I love the photo of the girl standing on the dock next to her boat, looking like a proud sailor! Last month’s issue, if we remember, touted “the Feminine Look”, meaning girls had to look pretty and not really do very much, so it’s nice to see our young sailor looking active and happy in her autumn sport set. The diagonally-striped hem and cuffs are knitted separately and sewn on later.

The non-Christmas-themed housewares continue the zig-zag / geometric trend with a crocheted rug, diamond-pattern cushion and wacky zig-zag chairback and cushion set (yay, another set).

There are tapestry and “needle etching” embroidered pictures that draw inspiration from Shakespeare’s family: “Anne Hathaway’s cottage” (Shakespeare’s wife, not the modern actress…) and “Mary Arden’s House” (Shakespeare’s mother, not Lady Arden of Heswall.)

But finally… it’s time for the pre-Christmas decorations! The wacky “novelties” and bizarre-bazaar items! I know you have been waiting for this and I promise you will not be disappointed. You may, however be scared out of your wits, if you happen to have a clown phobia, in which case I caution you to skip over the next few photos.

Starting with the melancholic stuffed animals, you can knit a “friendly” Jumbo the elephant, who seems to be rolling his eyes at the happy child who just pulled him out of their Christmas stocking, or a sad “bunny with a twinkle”. The table decorations are quite cute and easy to make: felt place-mats, napkin-holders and an Advent wall panel with wintery and Christmas-y appliqué motifs.

But that clown! The “Musical clown for a tot”! What in the world is going on with that clown? Even the bunny is giving it the side-eye. The construction is actually pretty interesting and a fun way to use up fabric scraps: you cut 4-inch diameter circles of fabric, gather them up with a gathering thread to make little poufs and then sew them on top of each other to make the arms, legs and body. Then all you need to do is sew and stuff a pointy head and cap and embroider a terrifying face onto it. Don’t worry, it has bells instead of hands and feet, so you can hear it coming.

EDIT November 12, 2022: I was browsing around on UK Ebay and someone is selling an FO of this clown! Unbelievable! I am not going to buy it but maybe one of you will…

To clear your mind of those images, here is a lovely lacy party top and fluffy “luxury stole” knitted with Lurex for holiday party glamour. The top can be lined with gold lamé for extra sparkle.

Rounding out this bumper issue are the “Readers Pages”, featuring Stitchcraft and Patons-inspred gift ideas (a yearly subscription, binding cases for past issues, knitting patterns…) and a fun way to use up wool scraps: a coat hanger cover to keep delicate items from creasing or stretching at the shoulders. The ads use babies to sell Lux soap flakes and Patons wool.

The only project that really called to me from this issue was (laugh if you want) the coat hanger cover, which could make a cute little gift for a friend or be useful in my own closet, as well as being quick and easy and a way to use up some of those mystery scraps in the stash drawer. The October 1964 dress is almost finished, so I’ll update that post soon as well.

October 1964: Totem Dress

EDIT November 20, 2022: Finished!

My October project was this fantastic “slim-line dress to flatter your figure”, designed in “a classic style with Aran panels and fancy rib yoke to give the fashionable textured look.” It’s written for Patons “Totem” Double Knitting, a very smooth, tightly plied crepe-twist wool suitable for the mock-cable pattern panels running up and down the dress body and sleeves.

Not having any Patons Totem on hand (of course, it has been discontinued for some time), I chose Drops Karisma, an easy-knit, easy-care DK wool. It’s also superwash — I don’t generally like superwash as it tends to stretch and sag after washing, but the advantage of not having to hand-wash a knee-length, DK-weight knitted dress won out. I chose to make it in brilliant grass green instead of “Spanish Rose” (medium pink, I assume), which is still quite appropriate for this month’s issue — it’s very close to the bright green of the men’s cardigan in the colour centrefold photo.

I made it in the second size with a few alterations: four inches shorter, to start. The finished length in the pattern is 40 inches, or just past knee-length, but this is a heavy garment and I am sure it will sag with wearing and washing. Also, I prefer skirts to be a bit shorter, so I aimed for 36 inches total length. To speed up the knitting, I made the dress in the round, with 3 stitches of ribbing at each side to make a stabilising “seam.” There’s a hem at the bottom edge, to which I added a purl-on-the-RS folding row. I wasn’t sure about the elbow-length sleeves and thought about making them long, but decided to stick with the pattern. (Ideally, I would have knitted them from the top down and just made them as long as I wanted, but the twisted-stitch pattern doesn’t really work upside down.)

Other than that, I stuck to the pattern. The pattern panels (2 on each of back and front, one on each sleeve) have traveling stitches in the middle, flanked by twisted stitches (k into the back of the second stitch, then the front of the 1st stitch on needle, then take both stitches off the needle together.) You are supposed to make the traveling stitches by twisting them as well:

Tw.2R = knit into front of 2nd st. on left needle, then purl into front of 1st st. and slip both stitches off needle together.

Tw.2.L = purl into back of 2nd st. on left needle, then knit into front of 1st st. and slip both stitches off needle together.

I could not make that work! I tried and tried. The stitch on the right side was usually twisted the wrong way, and the stitch on the left sat correctly, but was stretched out. I thought it might help to hold the wool in my right hand, “English” style (I generally knit “Continental” style with wool in the left hand and “pick up” the thread), but that was awkward and didn’t help. I tried ye olde “cable without a needle” trick where you basically drop the yarn and just hold it in your fingers, which worked but was no fun. Finally, I just used a cable needle, which was faster and neater. If anyone can tell my what was going wrong with the directions from the pattern, I’d be happy to hear it, though.

The knitting went quite quickly and by October 29 (date of this first post), I had finished the back and front, and one sleeve up to the sleeve-cap shaping. The total length before blocking was 34 inches, which, if my swatch is any indication, will stretch out to the desired 36 inches (and if not, that’s fine too.) The “fancy rib yoke”, by the way, is a simple rib/welt pattern: p1 row, k1 row, then k1, p1 for two rows. It makes a very pleasing, stretchy waffle effect.

I painstakingly calculated out the total amount of wool I would need, based on the yardage of the original Totem wool (from Ravelry, I didn’t have any of the real thing) and the meterage of the Drops Karisma, converting yards to metres and ounces to grams. Were my calculations successful?? We will see! Supposedly I will need about 730 grams, and I only bought 800, because I like to live dangerously. EDIT: The finished dress used exactly 737 grams of wool. Am I good at math or what?

I finished the dress mid-November, but had to travel for work right afterwards, so didn’t get around to blocking and photographing it until a week or two later. Finished measurements after blocking were about 37 inches bust, 32 inches waist, 40 inches hip and 34 inches long — perfect. The hem falls just above the knee and if it stretches a bit, that’s fine too. The wool is superwash, so I could always dry it in the dryer to make it snap back into shape.

I made a little belt out of green cord and pleather cord with baubles on the ends, to match the belt in the photos. We didn’t quite get the same poses as in the magazine, but we had fun.

The dress is warm and soft and fits perfectly. It is fun to wear and it is bright green. What more could I want? It’s glorious.

October 1964: Overview

October is the start of the best season for knitting, and the October 1964 issue of Stitchcraft rose to the occasion with multiple themes and more colour pages than ever before (photographed in the villages of Great Waltham and Stebbing in Essex). There are knit designs for “him and her” as well as for different ages of babies and children, embroidery, tapestry, rugmaking and appliqué projects, “novelties” and even a few extra tidbits in the back “Readers’ Pages.” Shall we… fall in?

Our first Autumn theme is “The Feminine Look”, which cracks me up, for when has Stitchcraft or any handcraft magazine ever promoted the “masculine look” for women? It goes without saying that they would never advertise the feminine look for men… As far as I can see, the designs don’t look any more feminine than the designs from any other issue. Maybe it’s meant in contrast to the “partner-look” designs from previous fashion trends.

In any case, the cover-photo suit with coordinating jumper for underneath is simple and elegant, and probably quite comfortable to wear. It’s made in still-popular nubbly Rimple wool in DK weight and a slightly tweedy shade of light blue. The jumper is made in fingering weight and has a diagonal pattern.

The women’s “feminine” fashions include a great cable-pattern dress as well, in smooth, DK weight Totem wool, and a less “feminine”, but probably very cosy, roll-collar pullover with an aysmmetrically-placed pocket. The mock-cable pattern on the pocket and collar is used as an all-over pattern on a man’s classic V-neck cardigan, and there’s another man’s cardigan as well in a very similar design, with “real” cables, a zip fastening and in bulky Ariel wool.

The cable cardigan and women’s pullover are shown off in a gorgeous full-colour centrefold photo where the green, yellow and brown of the knitwear harmonise perfectly with the country setting. As the caption says, both garments are made in “Flair”, a somewhat heavier wool-acrylic blend.

For the children, there’s a boys’ version of a men’s pullover from last month’s issue… the one that would not be a good choice for most women to wear. I personally think the placement of the star motifs is a bit odd even on a flat-chested body (they could have placed the band near the hem, or in a round yoke), but Stitchcraft liked it enough to offer a smaller-sized version in blue. Girls get a jumper suit in a plaid-trimmed “gay design from Vienna”. The colour palette for both the adult and children’s fashion is bright — blues, green, yellow, chocolate brown and “Flamenco” (I’m guessing red?), the patterns are bold and clear and collars and pockets are big and conspicuous.

Continuing the baby-outfit series from the previous months’ issues, the (girl) baby of the family gets a bonnet and matinée coat. “The feminine LOOK starts when you are tiny” — i.e. get used to having cold legs now! The set is certainly pretty, and there’s a very practically placed ad for a Patons’ baby-pattern booklet, “Babes in the Wool” on the page as well.

With all these great knitting designs, you’d think the homewares department would be skimpy, but they really went all-out on this issue: in addition to the usual cushions, stool-tops and chairbacks in huckaback work or tapestry, there’s a bold red-and-green “traditional Austrian” rug photographed in colour (notice how a traditional Austrian design is not called “peasant”, interesting…)

… and an appliquéd wall picture with a “kitchen”-themed design. Do I have terrible taste if I admit that I love this wall hanging? It’s utterly kitschy and very 1960s! There’s a little sewing design as well, for a child’s pinafore smock… “for playtime or helping with the chores.” Beware, little girl, that feminine look comes with its own designated activities.

And don’t forget the “novelties”, which are not quite as weird in this month’s issue as we have seen in other issues. There’s a little stuffed penguin toy with very funny feet, and a night-case in the shape of a knitted duck. There’s also a winter ski set for a doll, with ski-pants and a warm stranded pullover and cap. (If the doll looks a little worried and not quite warm and comfortable, it’s probably because it’s standing barefoot in the snow.)

But that’s not all! In addition to the usual comic (Anne learns how to embroider an owl and a swallow using different embroidery stitches), the “Readers’ Pages” in the back of the magazine have a reprint of a 1944 knitting pattern for warm “cami-knickers” underwear, and some dainty stencils to embroider onto handkerchiefs. I love embroidered handkerchiefs, having inherited some beautiful ones from my grandmother and occasionally bought more on ebay. If I ever find any plain new ones to buy (shouldn’t be that difficult), I could try my hand at embroidering them myself.

The handkerchiefs, cami-knickers and even the cheesy appliqué picture all appeal to me, but I love the cabled knit dress most of all, so that will be my October project. I can’t imagine it will be done by the end of October, but I have already bought wool and made a swatch and am just starting casting on, so I’ll post about it soon when there’s something to see and write about.

Till then, happy Autumn!

September 1964: “Peasant” Embroidery

Photo of am embroidered cushion and tablecloth, from Stitchcraft magazine, September 1964

This month’s project — finished just on time! — was another embroidered cushion, larger and more ambitious than the previous ones I have made.

The cushion cover measures roughly 15×21 inches or almost 40×80 centimetres and features a highly stylised flower design in bold colours in the style of traditional Hungarian or Romanian designs. It is… interesting to note that Stitchcraft used very different appellations for traditional embroidery designs depending on the country or region they came from or which style they emulated. Typical Nordic designs were called “Scandinavian” or used the specific country name. Designs based on Indian, Persian, Chinese or Japanese works or styles usually used those country names. But anything related to a Southern or Eastern European tradition — Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia (one country at that time), Yugoslavia (country name at the time), Greece, etc. was a “peasant” design, with or without a specific country name. I’m sure it wasn’t meant in an insulting way (also pretty sure that most of Stitchcraft’s readers were descended from “peasants” if you go back far enough), but the word doesn’t quite sit right when you think about it in context; there is an unconscious bias at play, unfortunately typical for the time but worth noticing and pointing out when discussing vintage magazines now.

The design, in any case, is beautiful, and is given in two versions, for a cushion or a tablecloth border. As always, the biggest challenge is re-creating the transfer, which Stitchcraft readers at the time had to order separately. There is a colour photo, and helpfully, also a schematic diagram that is presumably exactly the same as the transfer, just smaller.

If the cushion were smaller, I might have been able to scan the diagram into the computer, adjust it to the correct size and print it out, then copy it onto the fabric with carbon transfer paper. Or even use the special embroidery printer paper that you can stick onto the fabric and wash off when the embroidery is done. But the design is much bigger than any paper my printer can print. I suppose I could have taken it to the print-and-copy shop, but I chose to enlarge the design the old-fashioned way, by drawing a grid over the diagram and the paper and copying it by hand. It’s a good exercise, and one I can certainly use more practice in. I transferred it with carbon paper and went over it with water-soluble pen. For the border flower circles, I marked the positions and just traced around a button.

My fabric was a fairly heavy furnishing linen in exactly the same colour as the original. The pattern is written for wool embroidery thread, which I would have had to order from the one little shop in Paris that sells it. It’s a wonderful shop, but I wanted to get the project started, so I just went with regular cotton crewel thread. The colours are Black, Peacock, Red, Rust, Dk Orange, Lt Orange, Gold, Yellow, Lime, and Cream. I used the photo and my own taste as a guide to all the shades of orange and yellow. My “Lime”, like the “Lime” in the photo, was more like a slightly greenish lemon, but it looked good (and probably accurately reflected the colour of any real limes available in England in 1964…) On working the embroidery, I noticed that the directions say “White” instead of “Cream”, but I was glad I had used the off-white — I think real white would have been too strong a contrast.

The stitches are all quite basic: stem, satin, buttonhole and blanket with some French knots and one use of Romanian stitch in the middle of the red and black flower. It was good practice for buttonhole stitch and French knots, which were my nemeses before, but have improved significantly due to this project.

I realised while working it that the individual motifs weren’t quite big enough — in the original, they are much closer together, almost touching. There was no way I was going to re-do the entire transfer and start over, so I accepted it.

The work went surprisingly quickly, considering how large the cushion is. I made it up into a cover with the same fabric as a backing and a zipper close. A standard 40×80 cm bed pillow fits in it well. Though my embroidery skills are still a work in progress, I am very happy with the final result.

When I started this project, I had no plans for it after finishing — I have more cushions than couch/chair space, so I assumed I would give it away as a present or sell it. Happily, a colleague noticed me working on it during a break and loved it, saying it was the perfect colour for her sofa and the walls in the living room, and she offered to buy it! So it will have a good home and I earned a bit of money for the craft budget. Perfect.

September 1964: Overview

It’s the start of the autumn knitting season, and this issue’s slogan is “Knitting in Full Swing”. There are practical garments for adults and various ages of children, as well as a new yarn: Patons Flair.

“Flair” is somewhat heavier than DK weight — what is now often called “worsted” — and made of 60% wool and 40% “Courtelle“, a synthetic fibre pioneered in the late 1950s by the Courtaulds company. It features in the green cardigan and the yellow star-motif pullover on the cover. I love the cardigan, with its bright green colour and use of simple garter-stitch ribs and bobbles to decorate the fronts. The placement of the motifs on the yellow pullover is… interesting. I guess it works OK on a male figure, but I would not recommend it for a partner look! There’s also a plain, classic V-neck pullover for him and a “blister stitch” sweater for her on the back cover. Bright, cheerful colours are in fashion. (The men’s V-neck pullover colour name is “Sorrento” — anyone know what colour it is?)

The non-Flair adult garments are all made in DK weight yarn: a “country sweater” in a twisted-rib pattern with an oversized Vandyke collar, a complicated cable-and-stripe men’s shirt-style pullover, an elegant set of slim skirt and “overblouse” and a long, skinny sweater “for teens”. All of them feature interesting stitch textures, particularly twisted-rib patterns and bobbles, and interesting details like the fake “pocket” decorations on the front of the overblouse. The cable-and-stripe pattern is especially complex and uses separate lengths of wool for the vertical twisted ribs while stranding the stripe colours behind. Aside from the teen sweater in “Flamingo”, the colours are slightly subtler, with light “Cream Whip” and dark “Loganberry” for the base colours (sounds delicious) and accents of light blue, olive green and melon-orange.

For the younger members of the family, there’s a fun and cheerful five-piece set “for twins”, consisting of a skirt, shorts with braces, a short-sleeved jumper, cardigan and beret. They’re all made in DK wool in a similar bright, sunny yellow to the man’s pullover on the cover. Continuing the matching-set-for-babies look, this month’s issue has a dress and bootees for a six-month-old, to be followed by a matching matinee coat and bonnet in next month’s issue.

With all these lovely things to knit, it’s amazing that there are any homeware projects in the issue at all, but there are always a few utilitarian projects: here, an easy cushion / tray cloth or a thick rug or mat for kitchen or bathroom. For more ambitious embroideresses, there’s a tablecloth or cushion in bright “peasant” design (Stitchcraft‘s choice of word for traditional or folk designs from certain countries and not from others; I do wish they would just call them all “traditional designs” and leave it at that). The design, like the knitted garments, is big and bold and fun and colourful on the cushion, and slightly more subdued in red and blue for the tablecloth.

Though embroidery doesn’t feature big in the issue’s projects, it does have a place in the back pages: in the new children’s comic, “Anne and her Embroidery”, little Anne is bored on a rainy day and passes the time by learning to embroider pictures of the flowers in her window-box. Two pages later, there’s a full-page advertisement for a new tapisserie wool suitable for both tapestry and embroidery. Coincidence? I think not! The other interesting ad is for the new Patons Flair yarn, highlighting its easy care and washability.

That’s all for this issue! My project will be the embroidered cushion.

August 1964: Overview

The August issues of Stitchcraft are always a mix of styles and seasons. The summer holidays are winding down, and knitters will want to start work on warmer garments for the autumn. At the same time, it’s still summer, and it may well be too hot to want to hold wool in your hands, not to mention wear that bulky wool pullover. Stitchcraft’s solution is to offer a range of casual “country” knits that can be worn as outer garments on cooler summer days and be useful for indoor-outdoor wear as autumn approaches.

“Junior Knits” have a special prominence in this issue: heavier, loose-fitting pullovers and cardigans for older schoolchildren or teenagers (or smaller-size adult women) that are versatile enough to be worn on holiday, back to school, under a coat in later months etc. They are casual, but stylish, with interesting stitch-pattern details, and a mix of cheerful and neutral colours. The girl’s cardigan is made in DK wool with a twisted-stitch rib pattern and the pullover in bulky “Big Ben” wool can be made up to 34-35 inch bust size. The boys’ “lumber jacket” zipped cardigan is also made in a bulkier, quick-knitting wool: Bracken Tweed. The colour is “Marble”, perhaps a darkish grey? (The “father” in the photo is wearing the waistcoat from the July 1964 issue.)

The adult-size garments are a mix of casual, bulky holiday outerwear and more refined garments for a dressy holiday outing or the return to work and daily life in September. For women, there’s a striped, sleeveless top, knitted sideways and belted and made in DK wool to be warm under a jacket or cardigan, or the wonderful “harlequin” diamond-pattern pullover in the cover, or a sleek 4-ply sweater suit with pleated skirt for autumn wear. Men get a thick zigzag-cable cardigan for “driving and all-casual wear” as well as an elegant 4-ply slipover in a diamond pattern. With the exception of the skirt suit, neutral cream colours with ice-cream peach and orange contrasts prevail. Cables, zigzag and diamond patterns are still on trend, as are large , pointy or polo/turtle-neck collars.

The baby layette series continues with a second-size (ca. 6 months) “pilch” (shorts) and vest in an easy vertical and horizontal rib pattern. The vest is made in a simple T-shape. There’s also a reprint of a baby blanket pattern from 1958 in the back pages. Sitchcraft apparently got many requests for reprints of popular patterns and many of them appear in issues from the mid- and late 1960s.

Homewares are a mix of smaller, easy projects that one could take along or use on a late August holiday, and larger at-home projects to work on for the autumn. In the first category, there’s a charming, easy embroidered apron and cloth set for a summer picnic, with appliquéd hearts as pockets in both the apron and (for napkins, how cute!) picnic cloth, an easy cushion embroidered on Bincarette and simple woven table mats suitable for patio use.

In the second category, there’s a complicated “Swedish” rug with both pattern weaving and tufting and for churchgoers, a cross stitch panel or kneeler featuring a scene of St. Francis with various animals.

The Patons wool ad is weird and sexist, as usual. When you’re not with your man, naturally all your time is spent doing things for him and knitting for him — but if the photo is any indication, you’re not even happy about it? Here is the beloved man smugly lording it over his wife, who looks sad and embarrassed in spite of having knitted a lovely comfortable cardigan for him as well as a gorgeous outfit for herself. Be proud of yourself, skilled knitter, and remind your man that he would die of starvation and cold if you didn’t cook for him three times a day and knit him warm things!

As nice as many of the projects in this issue are, there’s nothing that catches my fancy enough to want to make it except perhaps the baby items (but I don’t know any babies that age at the moment, or anyone who’s expecting one right now.) I have so many WIPs and one of them is from a 1967 issue of Stitchcraft, so I’ll try to finish that up and make another “Fast Forward” post about it. My July ersatz project should get finished this week, so I’ll update that post soon as well.

July 1964: Blouse in 4-ply

EDIT August 10, 2022: Finished!

My July project was (emphasis on the past tense) a simple, pretty sleeveless blouse with a decorative square-cut neckline.

It’s written to be knit in (you guessed it) 4-ply wool, specifically, Patons Nylox. According to the Ravelry database, Patons made two different types of Nylox over the years: the first version was 80% wool and 20% nylon, the later version 60% wool and 40% nylon. The photos of the ball bands that I see on Ravelry make me assume that the Nylox used in 1964 was the later, 60/40 version.

It would not have been very much trouble to find a 60% wool, 40% synthetic modern yarn to substitute, but I much preferred to use a wool-cotton blend, being more natural, nicer on the skin and temperature-controlled than 40% synthetic. I decided to try Lana Grossa’s Alta Moda Cotolana, a 45% merino wool, 45% pima cotton, 10% polyamide blend which was available in my local yarn shop and in colours other than white, neutral or pastel. (Thank you, Lana Grossa, for understanding that some people do not wear light colours even in summer!)

The wool is chained, not plied, and of a sort of indeterminate thickness — it seems to be used more often for shawls and lacy items than solid garments. I got 6.5 stitches to the inch in stocking-stitch on 3 mm needles, which made a nice fabric texture on the swatch and would allow me to make the top with a modified gauge. Or so I thought!

Sadly, this is not the right yarn to make a garment in stocking-stitch. The yarn itself has absolutely no stretch to it due to the high non-wool content and the chain plying. The longer the stocking-stitch tube for the body got (knit in the round with fake “seams”), the more it stretched width-wise. Any attempts to measure, try on, or check the gauge of the garment were futile — it was too slippery and drapy. I frantically tried to save it by decreasing, but it was all to no use, and once the body was pretty much finished (!!), it was clear that it would not work. It was a saggy tent.

I frogged the entire thing (forgot to take a photo beforehand too, sorry) and thought about how to solve the problem. The easiest way was to choose a stretchy pattern stitch to make up for the lack of stretch in the yarn. A sleeveless top in feather-and-fan (a.k.a. Old Shale, Old Shell) lace would be pretty, stretchy, easy to knit and have a somewhat earlier vintage feel, so that was my choice. I made it flat in pieces with plenty of negative ease and adding some waist shaping to avoid any sagging or floppiness.

As I knitted, I remembered seeing an older Stitchcraft pattern with a pattern for a similar blouse in it. I didn’t know which issue it was, but a little digging turned it up: December 1949. Of course, the Stitchcraft pattern is for a different weight of wool as well a a different size of person — and even a different stitch count in the pattern repeats — so there was no point in trying to re-create it step for step, but I used the photo and general shape as a guide.

I made the waist shaping by increasing and decreasing, which was not as difficult in the lace pattern as one might think. The neckline is square and edged with just a couple of rounds of garter stitch. I did the sleeve cap shaping by guesswork and it turned out fine.

My only complaint is, again, the yarn. The top — made with at least four inches of negative ease everywhere — fit OK after knitting, but stretched during blocking. When I put it on this morning, it still fit fine, if a bit loosely, but by evening, it had sagged and stretched widthwise. As nice as this yarn seems, it is utterly useless for knitting garments, as it refuses to hold any shape and its elasticity only goes in one direction. What a pity, as it has excellent temperature-control properties (it was 32 degrees C today) and feels lovely to the touch! I’m happy with the finished result, though, and will probably wear it a lot.

July 1964: Overview

Cover photo from Stitchcraft magazine, July 1964. A women poses in a blue and white cardigan.

Are you in a “Summer Mood”? I certainly am and so is Stitchcraft. Knowing that knitters are less inclined to hold warm wool in their hands in hot weather, this issue, like most summer issues, is a bit less exciting than the ones from the rest of the year. Still, there are some nice designs.

Sky blue, white and peachy-orange are the trending colours, with the blue-white combination chosen for this pretty ribbed cardigan on the front cover. The ribs are broken up by little bobbles for a sort of trellis effect. Interesting variations on rib and trellis patterns can be found in the men’s waistcoat in slip-stitch rib and the wild and wavy partner-look pullovers on the back cover. At first glance, they might seem to be made in stranded technique, but if you look closely at the photo, you can see the dropped and slipped stitches that are “pulled up” in a later row. The long stitch is achieved by purling three times into a stitch on one row, then dropping the two “extra” stitches off the needle on the next row. It’s then slipped on multiple rows until it gets re-integrated in the pattern. Alternating this between the two colours makes a pattern that resembles Bargello tapestry (also popular at the time, though not well represented in Stitchcraft) and is less difficult than it looks.

A short-sleeved, yet DK-weight top in orange and white continues the colour trend and for a monochrome look, there’s a thick white cardigan in larger sizes and nubbly Rimple Double Knitting wool. The stitch pattern is also a rib variant, a mesh with lace eyelets. (Isn’t that photo fantastic, by the way? It’s so incredibly 1960s and I feel like it could be used as an advertising photo to sell absolutely anything from the time.) The final adult garment is a lightweight sleeveless top with a flowery neck border.

Children and babies get some fun play clothes for warm and cool summer days. The blue, white and “shrimp” pink/orange sleeveless top and trunks for a toddler make good use of July 1964’s trend colours, as do the blue and “sand beige” pullovers for larger children. Very clever to use sand beige instead of white for play clothes at the beach! Meanwhile, the “Bandbox Look for Baby” begins with a pretty matinee coat in this issue, to be continued with a matching vest and pilch in August, a “charming dress and bootees” in September, a cross-over jacket in October and a hooded cape in the November issue.

Speaking of children… Remember that playshirt from last month’s issue with the ladybird on it? Someone at Stitchcraft apparently forgot to mention that it was a trademarked logo! “No doubt” readers knew that it was used by permission, but just in case, they made a full-page announcement telling us about it.

Moving on to homewares, here are plenty of embroidery and houseware designs, though none so spectacular. You can make a rug and toilet(ry) bag for the bathroom, or a wall hanging or some small practical items (spectacle case, pincushion) in tapestry:

Or the usual cushion and chairset, some easy garden cushions, or tablecloth and tea cosy in embroidery.

There’s also fun “cocktail set” of place mats and “pinny” apron for holiday entertaining at home, decorated with an embroidered cockerel. The cockerel looks a lot like the Portuguese mascot that can be found on all sorts of souvenirs from the country, and I don’t think that’s an accident: the 1960s saw the first big boom in tourism from the UK to Portugal and it has remained an extremely popular holiday destination up to the present day. If our 1964 housewife couldn’t afford a holiday in Portugal this year and buy herself an embroidered serving set there, she could at least make one for herself at home. (The bottle-stopper is my own, from Portugal and vintage, probably from the 1960s).

There are a couple of crocheted doily-type projects in the back pages as well as two reprints of popular little patterns (bedsocks and a toy penguin) from the 1950s –this was a special “by request” feature in many of the mid- and later 1960s issues. And that about wraps it up for this issue! It seemed to not have as many projects as other issues, but after going through them all, it’s actually quite full of ideas. My project will be the sleeveless top with the square neckline. Happy Summer!

June 1964: Overview

Welcome to the official start of the Stitchcraft holiday season! The June 1964 issue gives us a mix of elegant 4-ply designs, casual bulky knits to wear as outerwear, beach clothes for the kiddies and easy homeware projects that can be packed up and worked from a deck chair.

Our cover models are just returning from the weekend market, where they have secured a basket of nectarines. They’re wearing an “easy-line sport pair” of “cruise mates” in complementary colours and the same basic block-and-rib pattern. The ribs are made with p1, k1tbl to give them a more textured look, and the men’s version has an eagle motif, because it is “manly for him.” I wonder if both versions were originally designed with a motif until the designer realised that it would fall in an awkward place on the women’s version?

Nautical navy blue and white with red accents never goes out of style for summer casuals, and we see it in this bulky, yet “featherweight” (18-20 ounces of Patons Ariel, so make of that what you will) white cardigan. I can believe Stitchcraft when they say that the wool is lightweight, considering its bulk, since the twisted-rib pattern eats up a lot of wool.

Ona different note, we see simple, yet elegant knitwear separates in 4-ply that are suitable for the office of a more dressy casual situation. The basic skirt and plain or diagonal-striped top are knit in muted pastel shades and meant to be interchangeable — “Basic skirt with a change of top” is the headline for this well-coordinated set. There’s also a waistcoat for her that would match the skirt when worn with a blouse, and a fine-knit raglan pullover for him. The waiscoat and pullover are both in this season’s trendy yellow tones of “Spun Gold” and “French Mustard”.

Children can enjoy splashing around at the beach in their trunks and sundress (the girl’s trunks are sewn into the sundress to prevent wardrobe malfunctions, definitely necessary with a micro-mini tunic skirt.) Here again, traditional red and white or navy blue and white are the chosen Somewhat older children have a choice of short-sleeved jumper and/or cardigan with a Ladybird motif (more about that in the next issue…!), continuing the red and white theme. On a completely different colour note, you can make a beach cover-up coat in crinkly “Rimple” wool lined with towelling — a brilliant idea for drying off and staying warm after a swim in cold northern waters. It’s quite easy to make, consisting of literally three rectangles for fronts and back, with garter-stitch borders and then lined with the towelling.

While sitting and sunning at the beach, you can work on an easy homeware project, such as a cross-stitch cushion, a knitted tea or egg cosy, or a tatted lace edging for handkerchiefs or pillowcases. Even the workbag in Turkish darning would be easy enough to work on while on holiday, though the Victorian-esque horse-and-buggy cross stitch picture, the needle etching, and the crocheted rug are presumably easier to work on at home.

That’s it! Summer issues are usually less exciting than autumn and winter, as many people (understandably) don’t like to hold wool in their hands in hot weather. As with many of the mid-1960s issues, there’s nothing in here that particularly speaks to me, so my June project will be another “excursion”, this time all the way back to the 1920s. The project is almost finished (unlike my April and May blog projects…) so I’ll be able to put out a finished project post in time for once, even if it’s neither from Stitchcraft nor from the 1960s. Think of it as a holiday from the usual blog theme.

P.S. The back cover is a full-page ad for “Lightning” brand zips and and is illustrated with a very professional-looking pattern for a suit! I am tempted to size it up and sew it. Here it is for any readers who would like to try their hand at it.

May 1964: Summer Cardigan

Edit June 15th, 2022: FINISHED!

My May project was this elegant little cardigan “for warm, sunny days” with a cute, easy bobble design on the front panels and decorating the collar and sleeve borders.

It’s actually meant as a blouse, knitted in 4-ply “Nylox” wool-synthetic blend at 7 stitches to the inch, but my version is a slight bit heavier and warmer, made with “Softwool” from the wonderful Apple Oak Fibre Works, whose production site / shop I was lucky enough to be able to visit in Ireland a few months ago. It is an amazing, all-natural plant-based dyeing company with a completely circular, no-waste production system. They even grow their own dye plants. The “Softwool” that I bought is dyed with cochineal for a bright cherry red colour and otherwise untreated (not superwash).

My swatch gave me 6.5 stitches to the inch, so I calculated it out with the pattern to make the second size (intended for 34-35 bust at 7 sts/inch, I am a bit bigger than that.) I started with the sleeves, to check that the modified gauge actually worked, and it did, but the body (which I made in one piece up to the armholes to save time and increase symmetry) was more complicated. I measured after a few inches and seem to be getting 7 stitches per inch, but at the same time, it was way too wide when I measured it. I trusted the gauge and kept going, and it turned out fine. Strange!

The bobble pattern is cute — two rows of twisted stitches “grow” out from a bobble made on the first row of the 12-row pattern. I don’t make bobble patterns much, but if I do, the only technique I knew until now was to knit 5 (or more) stitches in the back and front of one stitch, then cast those stitches off. This pattern says to

K into next st, turn and cast on 4, then k. into back of each of these 5 sts., cast off 4.

I couldn’t make that work and look nice! The bobble was floppy and the turning and casting on was awkward. After the first two, I used my method, which used the same number of stitches and looks fine.

The 3/4 length sleeves are finished off with a strip of bobble pattern. The collar was quite tricky. I like a collar which is picked up around the neckline and knitted on. This one is sewn as a separate piece (in very curly stockinette stitch), then you make another separate collar border piece with the bobble strip pattern from the sleeve edgings, then sew border and main piece together and sew that on. It was not easy to make it come out right and have it sit properly flat, but blocking helped a lot and in the end, it was fine.

I have an event on June 18th for which we are supposed to wear red, and I hardly have any red clothing, so I worked hard to get this cardigan finished in time and got it done a week early!

As always, we had fun re-creating the booklet photo. My telephone has a more modern shape, but it is old enough to still have a cord. What doesn’t exist at all any more are telephone books, so I substituted some thicker music scores.

I’m really happy with the way this turned out and will look forward to wearing it a lot. The only thing I might do is add some facing ribbon to the buttonhole bands to keep them from stretching.

May 1964: Overview

Cover photo from Stitchcraft magazine, May 1964, showing a woman in a pink knitted cardigan

Stitchcraft‘s May 1964 issue promises a “May Merry-Go-Round” of “a wide choice of Summer Knits for leisure, holidays, travel and all the warmer weather activities.” Time flies so fast that I feel like I’m on a merry-go-round even without knitting — but let’s see what this issue has in store for us.

Our cover feature is a high-buttoned cardigan with a deep “pineapple stitch” hem and collar. It’s made in DK weight wool, but the pineapple stitch and slip-stitch rib make it quite heavy (20 oz.) and presumably warm and sturdy. There’s a less bulky design in DK wool on the facing page; no collar and a plain twisted stocking-stitch make it require only 12-14 ounces of wool. Patterns that utilise texture and lines, especially diagonal lines, are still very much in fashion, as are high necklines and collars.

The back cover shows off the latest in partner-look sweaters, this time with a V-neck. It’s not what you would call a traditional Aran-pattern design, but it combines some of the typical cable elements with textured ribbing for a sleek, modern twist on the traditional look. The sweaters are made in light colours with Patons Totem Double Crepe, a very smooth yarn with a tight (“crepe”) twist, to make the pattern stand out.

(Side note: This issue is visually one of the most fun I have encountered, thanks to multiple photographs of the same garments and models in different poses, and the liberal use of illustrations. I particularly like the one with our male model looking up out of his book (travel atlas?), apparently quite concerned, while the female model looks calmly into the distance. Feel free to suggest captions!)

“Finer-knit fans need not feel neglected” by all these bulky, loose-fitting overgarments, promises our “editress” in the facing-page notes: here’s a cute blouse-cardigan in 4-ply wool with the same use of vertical lines, textured pattern and collar, but all in a more refined and elegant look. It’s made in Nylox, a wool-synthetic blend much like modern 4-ply sock wool, and promises to be “very pretty and feminine worn with a pastel skirt.” The man of the family sticks with DK-weight wool, though, and gets a “best of all golfer style” zipped cardigan with classic shawl collar and mock cable detail. I’m only sorry that they chose the normal pose for the full-page photo and relegated the fun one to the facing page.

A cardigan jacket for indoor-outer wear is practical for summer travelling, so this month’s issue offers us a structured, yet comfortable “Blazer for Globe-Trotting” in DK weight as well as a belted coat with pleated swing back for the teenage daughter. The coat has a matching cap, as well, and is made in tweedy, bulkier “Glenora” wool. Here, again, there are multiple photos, so you can get a sense of the coat in its entirety.

Younger children can enjoy their holidays in hand-knits as well: the boy’s zip-neck jersey promises to be “tough and manly” for the future rocket scientist of the family and makes nice use of stripes and a more subtle textured pattern. (The colours, from neck to waist, are “Breton Red”, “Magnolia” and “Woodland Green”.) Toddlers can go “splashing and paddling” at the beach in a cute romper with a matching cardigan to cover up when it gets chilly. And here’s another great illustration, showing our little model splashing and paddling with her father, sand castle in the background.

Speaking of beach holidays, how are you going to transport your (possibly wet) swimsuit, sunglasses, towel and whatever else you need back and forth? In a chic, yet practical home-made kit bag, of course. Here are two designs to sew yourself: an “envelope type” made out of tough deck-chair canvas, or a drawstring bag made out of towelling material lined with plastic and decorated with a sailboat motif in appliqué and embroidery.

There’s regular embroidery for the home, too (to work on which sunning in your deck-cair, perhaps): an easy cross-stitch book jacket for the Radio Times, another traditional chair-back/cushion design, and some more intricate wall panels with colourful wildflowers.

Speaking of intricate wall panels: if all that weren’t enough, there’s another amazing felt appliqué wall panel, this one featuring characters from “favourite books.” That is, if your favourite author is Charles Dickens, which, why not, I suppose? There’s Barnaby Rudge and Oliver Twist from their namesake novels, Peggoty, Little Emily and David Copperfield from his namesake novel, Mr Pickwick from his namesake novel (‘s papers) and Grandfather and Little Nell from… (OK, I admit I had to resort to Wikipedia for this one) The Old Curiosity Shop, one of Dickens’ books which I have heard of, but never read. Anyway, the appliqué is fantastic — just look at the detail photo on Mr Pickwick’s face.

That brings us to the end of our issue, and by the way, if you suffer from unwanted weight gain as a result of all your holiday leisure, why not try sucking on a tasty “WAFEX” wafer half an hour before each meal? I’m suuuuuure it’s not only extremely effective, but also perfectly safe. After all, it’s “SO GOOD — SO NEW AND DIFFERENT that it has been granted a U.S. GOVERNMENT PATENT” ! (Note: I do not actually know what was in these appetite suppressant wafers, but seeing as it was 1964, they could contain anything from sugar to amphetamines to absolutely nothing. Please do not take medical advice from me, or from 1960s knitting-magazine advertisements.)

I would love to make the 4-ply cardigan blouse, but it will take a while, as I have so many unfinished larger projects on the needles at the moment. Until then, enjoy your Spring, Summer, holidays, travel or whatever else May has in store for you.

April 1964: Girl’s Holiday Dress

Photo of a a girl in a yellow knitted dress, Stitchcraft magazine, April 1964.

EDIT, May 4th, 2023: Finished!

Smart 4-ply dress — chill-proof but not too hot — is a good extra to pack in a little girl’s holiday bag. Very pretty in bright sunny yellow with a crisp edging of white.

So is Stitchcraft’s description of this wonderful little dress, which was my project for April 1964 aka April 2022. It’s made in reverse stocking-stitch with vertical rows of eyelets and has many charming details: patch pockets, a buttoned packet with collar, waist ribbing, a picot hem and crocheted picot trim.

Photo of the same girl in knitted dress, Stitchcraft magazine, April 1964

I would love to make this in an adult size to wear myself, but for now I made it in the size written (for 26-27 inch chest, 23 inches long) and worked pretty much the way it’s intended. I say “pretty much” because I made it in the round to save time. That meant knitting it inside-out. Also, a hem in reverse stocking-stitch doesn’t look great, so the hem is in normal stocking-stitch with the picot folding edge, as intended.

The pattern is written for Patons Cameo Crepe 4-ply, which must have been a very smooth, tightly plied wool (“crepe twist”) in “bright, sunny yellow”. I do like the yellow, but I was trying to de-stash and I still had plenty of the of wonderful “Puppenfee” vintage wool that I used for this baby matinee coat last June. It is tightly plied, fine wool with an “Effektfaden” of (presumably) nylon or Lurex, giving it a little sparkle and also a bit of extra stretch — perfect for a rapidly growing child. It is also not scratchy, a rare trait with vintage wool but necessary when knitting a dress for a child.

Though lovely and not difficult to knit, the dress was quite time-consuming (7.5 stitches to the inch…) and soon ended up in the “Eternal WIP” pile in favour of more interesting projects. I needed a small, easy travel project last November (2022), so took it out and worked on it during breaks and train rides, and made a lot of progress.

I switched to knitting from the right side (but still in the round) when it was time to make the ribbed waistband, then continued in the round from the wrong side for a couple of inches until it was time to divide for the front opening. At that point, I broke off the yarn and started a new beginning-of-round from the front opening (instead of at the side, where it was until then), so that I could make it in one piece back-and-forth.

Then it went back in the WIP cabinet until now (spring 2023), when it finally got faster to knit after the skirt was finished. If you look carefully, you will see a very subtle difference in the shape of the eyelets after I switched to knitting back and forth. It doesn’t bother me, but it is noticeable if you look for it. There are no sleeves as such — you cast on a few stitches on each side and add a picot double hem to make tiny cap sleeves.

The collar and pockets are made separately and sewn on, after being decorated with a crochet picot border. I happened to have a little bit of white wool from the same stash that I inherited along with the blue wool. The placket is also knitted the same way as the hem and sleeve edgings, with double buttonholes.

I found the world’s most perfect little white fabric-coloured retro-style buttons at my local yarn and sewing shop, and sewed an extra one into the hem in case one gets lost. (They’re pretty sturdy, though.)The final touch was given by threading a couple of rounds of elastic thread through the waist ribbing to tighten it up a bit. When buying the elastic, I noticed it could also have been knitted together with the primary yarn, saving time and energy and making the waist that much springier. Noted for next time!

I never had a specific child in mind to knit it for. The little recipient of the matinee coat is currently (May 2023) almost three years old and the dress might well fit her now, but the time I started knitting it, she was quite a bit smaller and would not have fitted into the dress at all. Time to check in with the parents to see how much she’s grown! Or, I have a knitting friend here with a fairly big two-year old. Maybe the dress can even be handed on when one child has outgrown it?

In any case, this was a gorgeous project and I am seriously considering adapting it into an adult-sized version for myself.

April 1964: Overview

Like ~~March~~ April weather, Stitchcraft‘s „Spring Lineup“ from ~~March~~ April 1964 has a little bit of everything to offer. (No, that was not an April Fool’s joke — I have apparently lost track of time. Thank you Gretchen for noticing!!) There are warmer garments to wear on a spring ramble or for summer sailing, knitted cardigan jackets to take the place of outerwear, some slightly dressier separates for a going-out ensemble, and easy homewares that can be packed and taken along on your coming holiday.

Our cover model is wearing a knitted jacket whose texture almost gives the appearance of being woven, thanks to a very firm three-colour slip-stitch pattern made by moving the working wool back and forth and so „wrapping“ the slipped stitches on each row. It‘s made in Totem Double Crepe and is intended to be worn as outerwear — as well as being „ideal for the car.“ Men get an outerwear-cardigan as well, this time with a combined texture and colour pattern and classic shape, and anyone can wear these casual, loose-fitting „sports sweaters“ while sailing or otherwise out in cooler maritime weather.

For more dressier occasions, there‘s a two-colour fancy cardigan in 4-ply fingering weight, or a jumper with matching pleated skirt in 4-ply bouclet. You can also make an „overblouse“ in double knitting to wear over a short-sleeved, lightweight jumper in a new twist on the twin-set theme. Zig-zag patterns, whether worked in colour or texture, and large collars continue to be popular.

In the „Junior Knitting Fashions“ department, there‘s both a warm Scandinavian-style sweater in a typical snowflake pattern, or a wonderful „Sunday best“ dress.

Homeware project ideas are plentiful, but not out of the ordinary. Embroidery fans can make a lovely apron with a traditional Romanian design, or cross-stitch a kitschy „Swiss border“ (nice illustration of an Alphorn player!), or work a counted darning pattern on placemats or a chair back. There‘s a fire screen with appliquéd tulips, a tapestry chair seat, a fancy knitted lace traycloth and a mat with appliquéd crocheted butterflies. You can also crochet lace borders to trim linens or whatever else you like. Truly, there is something for everyone!

I would love to make the child‘s dress, but don‘t necessarily know a child who wants one. Maybe I should size it up for myself? I would wear it! Otherwise, the embroidered apron is really nice. Maybe too nice to get splattered with food… but it would make a great knitting apron as well. We‘ll see!

P.S. Sorry for the lousy formatting. The WordPress editor does not work well on a tablet.