November 1963: Tufted Hat

Once upon a time, there was a top hat that fell in love with a mop. Or was it a poodle? Either way, they had a child and it was… this hat. This amazing “tufted” hat made in crocheted loop stitch, “snug and gay” and shown here in a glowing shade of “Blue Lagoon” turquoise.*

Loop-stitched accessories (knit or crocheted) enjoyed a trend in the early 1960s, and some of the designs were even more over-the-top than this one. Here are some examples from a 1959 American Thread Co. magazine book, “Fashions for the North South East West” for a “Loop the Loop” knitted hat as well as a knitted, looped-and-cut fringe hat and sweater. (The thing the model is holding the “Loop the Loop” on is supposed to be an oversized knitting-needle pole, but it just makes the hat look more mop-like.)

My first challenge with the crocheted Stitchcraft hat was finding the right wool. It’s written for “Ariel”, a wool-synthetic mix which is described as “triple knitting” but also “feather-light” and has between 15 and 19 stitches to 4 inches in stocking stitch, depending on the design. It seems to be normally plied and just slightly fuzzy. I had a hard time finding modern yarn in the right thickness (DK is usually 22 sts in 4 inches, and the bulky yarns I could find were more in the 12-16 stitch range.) Ultimately, I settled on Schachenmayer “Boston”, which is technically too bulky for this project, but which gave a great loop effect. I figured I could always make the hat a little smaller. It’s acrylic, which, I know, not great from an environmental standpoint, but very vintage-appropriate (not to mention probably waterproof).

I am not the world’s best crocheter and the loop stitch was a new technique for me, so it took a bit of getting used to. The word-for-word instructions are “insert hook into next stitch, place first finger of left hand behind hook and take wool anti-clockwise under finger and over hook then under finger again, (put wool clockwise over hook and draw through two loops) twice.” And true enough, if you follow those instructions exactly, it works, but requires a certain dexterity of brain as well as fingers. (1963 was a long way from the age of video tutorials…)

The finished hat has a loop of millinery wire in the crown to keep it from collapsing (and make it fit over your bouffant) and a ribbon to give it some shape. I had a bit of ribbon in stash with a very psychedelic pattern (so actually a few years too late in terms of 60s fashion — Stitchcraft has definitely not gone psychedelic yet — but it’s what I had.)

My colour choice was basic black, which I realised halfway through was maybe not a great idea. On the plus side, the loop fabric looks uncannily like those Persian lamb coats that were quite popular in the the mid-century years, and the hat would make the perfect matching accessory. You could even go all out and crochet yourself a modern faux-Persian-lamb coat in vegetarian-friendly synthetic yarn! Any vegans out there who have guilty dreams of vintage Persian lamb, this is your answer! I don’t have a Persian lamb coat though, nor do I particularly want one, and though I see the appeal of making a faux one, I don’t want it enough to put in the time and effort to design and make one. (Billie from the Show and Tell podcast suggested making long cuffs for a cloth coat in loop stitch to match the hat — that’s a really good idea.)

On the down side, I realised that this particular design in black had a high probability of making me look like either a recently groomed poodle or a white person in an Afro wig, neither of which are looks that I am trying to cultivate.

It ended up looking quite accurate, so you could say it turned out well, but I have to say, I am not convinced. The photo doesn’t do justice to the sheer ridiculous size of this thing, and the mop/poodle association is strong. If I wear it on top of my head, it looks like I am trying to join the Buckingham Palace guards.

Buckingham Palace Guard. Public domain photo.

Buckingham Palace Guards. Public domain photo.

If I push it back behind my hairline like the Stitchcraft model in the photo, it has the right basic shape and looks very 1960s, but it is still huge — the photo doesn’t do justice to the sheer size and mass of it. As always, I tried to recreate the magazine photo, and now I understand why the model looks less than overjoyed.

I don’t know what I am going to do with this hat, but I had fun making it and learned a new crochet technique, so I’m satisfied.

*For anyone thinking, “Turquoise poodles don’t exist”, may I present this amazing knick-knack that I inherited from my grandmother? (With historically appropriate plate.)

November 1963: Overview

The autumn months are always the best for knitting magazines, with a mixture of heavy garments for colder days, easy-to-make holiday gifts, warm accessories and a few glamorous items for parties. Stitchcraft‘s November 1963 issue puts the focus on “warm family fashions… with the emphasis on colour and attractive textures that are interesting to knit and very becoming to wear”. There’s something for family members of every age and “for the petite to the not-so-slim.” The homewares and little projects are quick and fun to be finished in time for holiday decorating and/or gift-giving.

The “country jacket” on the cover continues the tweedy, variegated colour effect in fashion this fall, using Bracken Tweed wool for the main body and Totem DK for the collar and cuffs. I finally know what colour Totem “Oakapple” is! The other women’s outdoor-wear fashions include a zip-neck sweater with textured pattern bands in turquoise, an “overpull” with cabled neckline in flecked “Cantaloupe” colour (sadly, no colour photo, I have no idea how it looked in real life) and a simple brown top made glamorous by knitting the wool (Cameo Crepe 4-ply) together with a strand of sparkly Lurex thread. There’s also a warm, soft cape for winter reading in bed, knitted sideways in an easy zig-zag pattern. Aside from the green and white bedcape, shades of autumn brown as well as bold blues and red are the season’s trendy colours. Stripes, zig-zags and textures complete the Autumn 1963 look.

Men’s fashions are just as colourful as the women’s, or even more so (less use of plain brown…) and show more of the zig-zag trend. Here are some bold designs for “him and her” using bulky Big Ben wool (and photographed in front of…). The construction is the same for both, with the smaller design for bust sizes 33-35 inches and the larger for 39-41 inches, with the advice that “Plumper girls could follow his size”. The man’s pullover in “Italian colouring” uses stripes and textures, toned down by the use of more neutral colours. The blue-and-white cabled sweater in the photo next to it is for teenagers.

School-age children get their own “tough, tomboy sweaters” in Bracken Tweed wool. The suggested colours are “Black Olive” or “Gorse Heath”, which I assume is a sort of green-yellow tweed (no colour photo). Babies get a lovely shawl to match the layette from the September and October issues. It’s easy to knit, as the centre and borders are made separately. The other baby/nursery-age items are crocheted, sewn or stitched: a pram cover with a teddy-bear motif, a little nightcase with fluffy appliquéd kittens, a knitted doll, an embroidered “feeder”, sewn and appliquéd pinafore smocks…

There are fewer designs for accessories, but the utter fabulousness of this loop-stitch crocheted hat makes up for anything else that could be missing. The model in the photo features in many issues from this time period and always looks either quite sad or has that alluring Mona Lisa smile that’s she’s sporting here. (Am I mean, or wrong, to assume that she probably had bad teeth?) I would smile widely if wearing that hat, and I hope everyone who saw me in it would too. Also, knit your man a tie!

With all this bounty, the homewares are mostly standard: embroidered table mats and a Christmas-design tablecloth, a decorative panel with the Star of Bethlehem for more religiously-minded households, and a very impressive tatted doily and crocheted trolley-mat. The show-stopper is a lovely decorative panel “taken from a book of Oriental designs” embroidered in Filoselle silk on linen. (The design is allegedly of Persian origin, though of course neither Stitchcraft nor its typical readers of the time gave much thought to questions of authenticity, nomenclature, exoticism or any related issues that we would regard and discuss today.) It is a pretty picture in any case, and was probably not too difficult to embroider, consisting mostly of standard seed and straight stitches, French knots, and so on.

That’s all for this issue! I am going to make that wonderfully ridiculous hat.

Design Extra: The Valiant Tailoress

This has nothing to do with Stitchcraft, neither is it vintage, but I had a design published in a brand-new magazine and just wanted to share that with all of you.

The Valiant Tailoress takes its name from the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “The Valiant Tailor” (or “the Gallant Tailor” or “Brave Little Tailor”, original title Das tapfere Schneiderlein) and combines sewing, knitting and crochet to create outfits that look great together. The theme of the first edition is “The Enchanted Forest” and was, fittingly, photographed in the beautiful Black Forest area of Germany.

I hesitate to call it a “magazine” because it is really a book — 260 pages long on glossy paper, with articles on unusual fibres, traditional hat-making, different techniques for lining a sleeveless dress, and pages and pages of gorgeous photos. Seriously, even if you don’t knit, crochet or sew, you could use it as a coffee-table book — it’s that beautiful. The knit/crochet patterns are excellently tech edited with full charts, schematics etc. and the sewing patterns are printed on real paper.

My design was a long, lacy cardigan called “Lemon Leaves” and was paired perfectly with a floral bustier dress.

As an only semi-professional designer (I’ve had one other pattern published until now, a stranded tam and mitts set in Knit Now magazine), I was really honoured that my design was chosen to be part of this project. And I love the idea of combining sewing and knitting/crochet in one publication! In a way it does tie back to vintage publications like Stitchcraft that combined knitting and crochet with embroidery, tapestry, rug-making, etc.

The Valiant Tailoress is available to purchase in print form from their website, www.valiant-tailoress.com. It’s published in Switzerland (in English) and can be shipped around the world.

September 1963: Use up your left-overs

Crocheted cushion, Stitchcraft magazine, September 1963

This month’s project was a crocheted cushion “to use up your wool left-overs.” It was promised to be “very quickly and easily made”, and it was! Nota bene, today is September 5th, I started this project on the evening of September 1st, and it is already finished, including blocking and photographing. I don’t think I have ever made any project, no matter how small, that went this fast.

It’s designed for DK wool and the original colours are black, flamingo pink, silver and white. Of course, I used leftovers of DK wool that I had in stash, and they happened to be more in the blue and green spectrum. The black is Jamieson’s Double Knitting left over from this blazer, the dark grey and turquoise are Reginella wool-alpaca mix from Chile left over from a non-vintage project, the more blue-blue is lovely Schoeller&Stahl left over from swatch knitting, the slightly darker green is Drops Lima left over from another non-vintage project and the lighter green is not technically a left-over, but hand-dyed wool from a knitting colleague. Yay, I used up some leftovers! The pattern is a standard granny-square shell stitch which just continues around to make… two giant granny squares.

I worked on both squares (front and back of cushion cover) at the same time in alternatum and was glad I did, because I ran out of some colours sooner than expected and had to adjust the colour scheme accordingly. I like how the colours turned out. The finished size in the pattern is 13 inches square, but I happened to have a cover-less cushion in the sewing drawer that was about 15 inches square, so I added another colour pattern repeat to make it fit. I considered dyeing the cushion turquoise, since I had some fabric dye and the crochet is fairly hole-y, but in the end I thought the white cushion showing through gave the dark colours in the crochet work a bit more pop. The edges of the two squares are crocheted together on the right side.

What more is there to say? I now have time to finish all those WIPs, so stay tuned for progress on the August 1963 cardigan… and the April 1963 embroidered blackwork cushion… and the I-don’t-even-remember-when-I-started-it-it’s-been-so-long epic Jacobean appliqué cushion. So many cushions, not enough sofas! Here’s one, at least.

September 1963: Overview

Cover photo from Stitchcraft magazine, September 1963

“Knitting Time starts with a Sparkle” is Stitchcraft’s motto for the September 1963 issue, and the editress’ note assures us that “this is going to be a particularly interesting Autumn-Winter knitting season.” What does that mean for us? Lots of interesting use of bolder colours in traditional or not-so-traditional stranded and geometric patterns as well as subtler use of colour variation in tweeds and toning changes.

1963 was the year when variegated yarns, so beloved by modern knitters, first came into fashion (hence the “sparkle”), and although Patons doesn’t yet offer a truly colour-variegated yarn, here’s one from the competition: Bernat Klein No. 1, as featured in this stunning eight-page advertisement in Vogue Knitting Book No. 62 from 1963:

(The Lux and Opti-lon ads should look familiar to Stitchcraft enthusiasts as well.)

The tweedy look starts with the three-piece suit from the cover photo, consisting of a skirt, long-sleeved jumper and high-buttoning cardigan with stripe accents to bring out the lighter blue tweed flecks. Apropos “fleck”, that’s the name of the yarn: Totem Fleck. The jumper is made in the lighter, solid blue color with ribbing accents in the tweed shade. It seems to be a “switch-around” ensemble, i.e. you are not intended to wear the cardigan over the jumper as you would with a twin-set. Bracken Tweed, the somewhat bulkier tweed wool of the season (Totem Fleck is DK and Bracken is more like Aran-weight at 18 sts to the inch), is featured in this blazer “for young men who like comfortable clothes”. You know, the kind of clothes you can play ball sports in: a button-up shirt with tie, short wool trousers and a hand-knitted tweed blazer. Of course.

The other adult or teen garments feature bolder colours and interesting stranded or textured designs, like this intriguing dolman sweater with the stranded stripe running horizontally across the yoke and down the sleeves. I feel like this use of colour would look terrible on me (wide chest and long arms), but I love the idea! The man’s sweater uses a more traditional placement of the colour bands, but in contrasting green and orange tones and a spiky geometric diamond design (continuing the trend from summer 1963). The sweaters on the inside back cover have a more muted colour palette and subtle diamond texture pattern. Textured patterns make a showing in the other women’s garments as well: a bobbled raglan pullover, mock-cable cardigan and nubbly “Rimple” jumper. I want those glasses! The diamond-shape trend shows itself here in more subtle form via V-neck openings and pointy collars.

This issue also starts a new layette set for the youngest members of the family, starting with a warm dress, hat and bootees. Next month’s issue promises a matching matinee coat and cosy “helmet” cap. The caption for the modelled photo reads, “Jonathan is just 2 months” and reminds us that babies of both sexes wore lacy dresses with both pink and blue embroidery on them. 1963 was definitely a more sexist era, but also a more practical one in some ways.

There’s an interesting selection of Autumn-themed homewares as well, like a leafy fender-stool and chair-seat set, some blackwork finger-plates for the door (reminding me that I still have not finished my blackwork butterfly cushion from April…) a cushion and runner with Chinese motifs (I cannot vouch for any kind of authenticity — the motifs look very similar to the traditional European “Jacobean” designs to me, but what do I know), a pair of crochet-appliqué trolley cloths and a crochet-motif cushion.

And then there’s this “practical idea” — cover an old box (they used a wooden margarine box of about 16×12 inches and 8 inches deep, which sounds like a lot of margarine ha ha) with embroidered Binca canvas, cushion the lid with foam rubber under the embroidery and strengthen it with a piece of wood on the under-side and voilà: a “magazine tidy” which can also be used as a little stool to sit on. Very practical indeed and reduces clutter. I like it.

That’s all for this issue! I’ll be making the quick ! easy ! uses up leftovers ! crochet cushion. How quick and easy is it, you ask? I’ll tell you: it is so quick and easy that I started working on it last night, September 1st, and am already more than half finished: (Working on both halves of the cushion cover alternately so as to gauge how much wool I have of each colour.)

So there will definitely by a finished project in September, and hopefully this will give me some time to finish up the rest of the WIPs. I did also complete a retro-themed jumper of my own design which is not technically from Stitchcraft, but I’ll post about it anyway, because it was fun.

April 1963: Overview

Cover photo, Stitchcraft magazine, April 1963

First Fashions for Holidays! It’s almost always some sort of holiday season in these vintage knitting magazines — in this case, Easter and preparations for the summer. As the British climate makes it possible to wear thick, warm wool sweaters pretty much any month of the year, “holiday / not holiday” is less a matter of warmth or season and more about casual, easy-care garments to wear while “strolling” and sight-seeing, or projects that are small and simple enough that you can work on them while lounging in your deck chair. Or, as the facing page title puts it, “Sweaters off-duty.”

Thick, collared pullovers and cardigan jackets that can be worn as outerwear make up the bulk (-y) of the garments in the first category, many of them made in Patons Big Ben wool at 3 1/2 stitches to the inch. The tweedy, dark green jacket on the inner front cover is a good example of this and features an intriguing wavy slip-stitch pattern. The “Italian” tunic on the inner back cover has a knitted-in border pattern made of beads. DK-weight wool is used for the women’s round-yoke sweater on the front cover. Hip-length is the fashion for everyone, wide collars continue to be in style and decorative borders near the hem are the new spring trend.

There are fashions in finer-weight wool as well, “for elegant summer wear”. The red men’s pullover on the inside cover and the women’s Nylox pullover both have interesting stitch patterns, though I feel like the placement of the inserts on the women’s pullover could go horribly wrong a little too easily. If your man finds cables too exciting, you can knit him a plain V-neck pullover in bouclet wool and match it to your own fluffy mohair-mix jacket, made in Patons’ best-ever-named wool, “Fuzzy-Wuzzy.” Colours are strong and bright, including some very springlike salmon and turquoise.

Fashions for the younger members of the family cover all age groups: a dolman cross-front cardigan for the baby, a play-set for the toddler, a “miniature Paris blazer” for small and medium-sized children (she’s painting a picture on a easel, so you know it’s Parisian!) and a quick-to-make “chunky” pullover for “sub-teens” which is easy enough for a bigger girl to make for herself. (I don’t think the young model in the photo actually knows how to knit, though.)

With all that pre-holiday prep knitting, the homewares in this issue are generally unspectacular. There are chair sets in counted cross-stitch, a crocheted cushion and rug for the older daughter to make for her room, and a tapestry tea-cosy. The two more interesting projects are these corded crochet mats and a wonderful cushion with a design of butterflies, made in blackwork embroidery. Unfortunately I’m not good enough at crocheting to really understand how the “corded” look on the mats is achieved, besides the fact that there are a lot of picots and crocheting many stitches into a ring. Oh, and there are embroidered table mats, too, featuring line drawings of famous parks. I like the white-on-black effect — something different.

That’s it for this issue! The ads are pretty normal and in the comic, Miss Muffet continues her adventures, getting magically shrunk down to the size of an insect in order to go flying with a nice beetle-lady. I’m afraid the dragonfly might have dropped her into the lake, though! Oh no! How will it end?

My project for this month will be the embroidered butterfly cushion. Happy Spring!

January 1963: Overview

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s 2021 in the real world and 1963 in the Stitchcraft Sixties blog world. The real-life 1963 was a turbulent year: the Cold War escalated, as did the war in Vietnam; the civil rights movement in the US both gained ground and suffered violent setbacks; John F. Kennedy was assassinated; the Second Vatican council entered a new phase. In England, scandals abounded in the wake of the Profumo affair and the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. On a happier note, the Beatles recorded their first album, Please Please Me, kicking off Beatlemania around the world, and women in Iran gained the right to vote. Also, the smiley-face symbol was invented. 🙂

Of course, none of this — not even the Beatles or the smiley face — had any direct influence on Stitchcraft (certainly not in the January issue, before any of it happened…). What we think of as “1960s fashion” — the miniskirt, the “space age” look, the shift dress, the Mod look, the hippie-bohemian styles of the later years of the decade — was just gearing up around 1963, and Stitchcraft was a fashion-conservative magazine. That said, holdover fashions from the 1950s like fitted, waist-length cardigans and wide, swingy skirts have disappeared completely by now; the female models often wear trousers or “slacks” and casual, bulky-knit sweaters are ubiquitous.

So what does January 1963 have in store for us? The theme of the January 1963 issue is “Paris Casuals” and resolves to start with “a bumper all-round family number.” For adults, that means warm, comfortable jumpers and cardigans in a range of wool weights with V-necks or interesting collars and textured stitch patterns. The cover garment epitomises all the trends: made in bulky Big Ben wool in a two-colour slip stitch pattern, it sports “this season’s Paris collar choice and longer line.” The textured raglan cardigan is a similar look, as is the man’s casual cardigan on the back cover. The bouclet cardigan gives a nod to earlier fashions with its choice of fine wool and classic shape, but here too it is longer and looser-fitting than previous classic bouclet garments. A simple collared jumper in double knitting with attractive fine details rounds out the adult garment selection.

There are great winter fashions for children, first and foremost the girl’s skating set of skirt and collared pullover. Unfortunately, I suspect something went wrong with the sample knit, as both pictures show the model turned 3/4 away from the camera and it’s not clear how it is supposed to look from the front. (Also, could someone please give her some warm tights to wear before she goes out onto the ice.) Toddlers get a cute “buster suit” with a design of cherries on the jumper, and older children get a wonderful hoodie (to use the modern term) and jumper-cap set to wear while playing in the snow. (Or in the photo studio — check out the snowman and snowball made of wool and/or cushion stuffing fluff!). Crisp, wintery colours of blue and red with white are trending. Notice also that the girl model is wearing trousers, the hooded sweater is unisex, and the model wearing the red outfit in the black and white photo is allowed to be active and tomboyish for once. I wouldn’t even have known she was a girl if the sweater weren’t (for whatever reason) considered specifically a girls’ garment. Slowly, very slowly, roles are changing.

Babies get a pram cover instead of a garment this time — padded and quilted to be extra warm — and there’s a cute bedjacket and fantastic “tower” hat that is perfectly in fashion. (Side note: The caption, “PARIS HAT”, makes me think of that line “If a Harris pat means a Paris hat, Bébé… ooh la la!” in “Always True To You In My Fashion” from the musical Kiss Me, Kate. In true Cole Porter style, it’s an upbeat love song… in which the singer explains to her boyfriend that her dalliances with other men for gifts and money — basically sex work, though of course not explicitly described in those terms — shouldn’t count as infidelity, since she’s only doing it for the financial benefits and is true to him in her heart. Ah, romance! Anyway, the hat is great.)

With all the great knitted items, home fashions are pretty standard this month. There are rugs and cushions, a lovely embroidered tablecloth and tea-cosy set, a tapestry picture, a cutwork table set, a very impressive crocheted doily and a hassock or kneeling cushion for church-goers.

The “readers’ pages” have a review of what was probably a very interesting book on dressmaking for dolls, and –bucking the “single girl” trend of the early 1960s — we’ve got another “stand by your man and knit him something” ad for P&B wools (though this one is really quite sweet and romantic, unlike the “you only exist to be pretty for him” ad seen in other issues). There’s also a new cartoon serial for children: a re-telling of the “Little Miss Muffet” nursery rhyme, where Miss Muffet is not at all afraid of the spider. I’m sure, when she grows up, she will be not at all afraid to suggest to her man that he knit something for her for once.

My project from this issue will probably be a scaled-down version of one of the children’s sweaters for a smaller child. Stay tuned!

December 1962: Quick and Easy Cushion

I have a huge backlog of unfinished projects and recently even got a commission to write a pattern for a new knitting and sewing magazine, so I needed the December project to be something quick and easy that I could make from stash. Behold, a very 1960s crocheted flower-petal cushion from this month’s issue! I love cheerful crocheted cushions and afghans — they have that fun, old-fashioned charm.

This one is made in double knitting, and I had two colours of blue and one of green to make a big, blue flower. I guess it’s a cornflower? Whatever, it’s cute and the colours looked good together. The dark blue is 100% acrylic (left over from this project and this project, which was patterned after this project — yes, I bought plenty of yarn), the light blue is 90% alpaca / 10% sheep wool (a gift from a very nice friend who brought it over from Chile!) and the green is a wool-acrylic blend last seen in this project from January 1960, so I was concerned that the finished item might behave inconsistently when washed or blocked, but I had no problems with that.

The size and scale, on the other hand… There was no tension given in the instructions, only a finished size of “approximately 17 inches diameter” and instructions to use double knitting wool and a No. 8 (5 mm) hook. The cushion is made in pieces — first the petals, then the triangular inserts at the top of the petals, then the center, then it gets sewn together, then you crochet the border and sew it onto fabric for the back side of the cushion — so it was hard to tell how big it was going to be. Also, the instructions very clearly say to make 12 petals and 12 insertions, but the accompanying photo very clearly shows a cushion with 16 petals and insertions. Patience Horne, you need a tech editor and a proofreader!

The result — once I had finished all 16 petals and 16 insertions, which was in fact the correct number to get the petals to form a circle, and sewn all the fiddly bits and pieces together — was huge. Granted, 17 inches in diameter is a fairly large cushion, but mine was 19 inches in diameter before I had even started crocheting the border, and the triangular insertions were also too big, making them pucker and wave a bit. I made a snap decision to just crochet the border larger and larger until all of the green wool was used up and have it be a baby blanket instead of a cushion, which would also spare me the trouble of figuring out how to make the back of the cushion, whether or not to make an inner cushion pad and have the crocheted part be a removable cover, etc. etc.

The border in the instructions only being a few rounds and me not being the world’s best crocheter, I searched for a formula to crochet something in rounds of double crochet that would have the right amount of increase per round to keep the circle flat. Though I found many amazing doily patterns and not-quite-fitting formulas, I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I just increased one stitch per petal each round and did a plain round in between every so often. There was much ripping back and doing over, but in the end it worked out fine. As for the still-puckery triangle inserts, I declared them a “design feature” and left it at that.

I wash-blocked the blanket, which evened it out some more, and only then realised that I had forgotten to embroider the lines down the center of each petal. In the end, I decided against it. The dark blue and green yarns were all used up, I didn’t have any other colour that looked right and I honestly thought it was fine the way it was. The finished size is 23 1/2 inches or 60 cm in diameter, which will fit a baby’s pram nicely. Not having a baby on hand, here it is with a teddy bear for scale:

It’s not perfect and it definitely has that “home-made charm”, but I think it will make any parents and baby happy.

December 1962: Overview

It’s that time of year again, and Stitchcraft is getting into the festive season with their annual Christmas issue — though if it weren’t for the wreath on the door behind our cover model and the other model in the window holding a metallic tree and box of ornaments, I wouldn’t know it was the Christmas issue at all.

The suit on the cover is “The Suit for Spring ’63”, made in Bracken Tweed double knitting (colour: “Green Witch”! Great name) and trimmed with black braid, like the November 1961 suit from which I made the blazer last year. The December 1962 jacket has no buttons and more of a boxy “swing-line” shape, like the classic Chanel suits that were especially popular in the early 1960s. The simple pink blouse worn with the suit was made from a Vogue pattern which could be ordered via Stitchcraft, thus completing the outfit.

The other larger knitting projects are either warm, bulky and practical for the cold, or fancy, pretty things to wear to parties. In the first category, there’s a wonderful hooded coat for a toddler which keeps out “all the draughts” — except, of course, the ones traveling up her bare legs! I still feel sympathetically sad every time I see pictures of cold-weather children from pre-1970s eras with five layers of wool on their upper bodies but basically nothing on the bottom half.

There’s a zig-zag patterned sweater in Big Ben wool for a larger child or young teen (who is luckily old enough to wear trousers, as seen in another photo) and a stranded design in double knitting that fits into the same “harlequin” diamond-pattern idea (though the adult version makes me think of spiky eyes looking out at me). Also in double knitting is the cabled turtleneck “for the extra slim” (30-31 or 32-33 inch bust). Rounding out the warmer designs are two partner-look sweaters in bulky Ariel and an “Italian stitch” (stranded knitting and purling — that’s going to be really warm and bulky.) The “Continental” trend can be seen in the spiky-eyes sweater as well, which is apparently of Viennese (as per page 20) and/or Tyrolean (as per back cover) design.

Then there are the party clothes: a fluffy cardigan for a young girl and a beaded 2-ply blous with minimal shaping and a beaded crochet finish on the neckline. Holly green is always a hit in the winter designs and other than that, the preferred colour is white with bright contrasts in red, orange or turquoise. The cabled turtleneck is made in “Lipstick Red”.

Surprisingly, this month’s homewares are not particularly special. Our year of embroidered flowers has come to an end with a design of “Christmas roses” (really, they’re just roses) and readers could back-order any transfers they might have missed over the course of the year to make a tablecloth with all of the 12 flower designs on it. There are quick, easy cushions in darning or crochet and a cutwork design for another tablecloth.

The Christmas issues of Stitchcraft usually have a lot of very creative and sometimes bizarre ideas for knick-knacks, small gifts and other “novelties”, but this year seems to put more focus back on knit designs. There are a few small sewing projects that could work as gifts any time of the year — little aprons, a pincushion doll and a sewing case. The winter-motif mats for the Christmas table, a small tapestry scene and a felt Father Christmas wall panel that you can pin cards to are more appropriate to the holiday theme, and the back pages give readers a few traditional cross-stitch motifs to adapt to their own use and ideas for table trimmings. The table-trimming “trees” are made of sequinned tissue-paper trees stuck on top of empty sewing-thread spools and the “Berries and Twigs” are twiggy branches from a real tree, painted white and decorated with red wool pom-pom “berries” and foil leaves.

Christmas and any other large family get-together holidays are obviously not happening this year, but — good news! — as the blog year 1962 draws to a close, so too does the real-life year 2020, which I’m pretty sure most of us can agree was awful. I hope you all continue to get through it with minimal damage and enjoy the holiday season as much as possible in a pandemic-safe way. My project for this month will be the easy crocheted cushion, and finishing up all the unfinished projects.

November 1962: Overview

For 1960s Stitchcraft readers, November means holiday planning, so this month’s issue is full of quick homewares for decorating and small, easy projects for gift-giving. The garments are warm and bulky, featuring Patons’ new “Ariel” wool. Warm autumn tones of brown and orange as well as bright, cheerful holiday reds and blues are the colours of the season. Christmas Plans and Winter Fashions ahoy!

Our cover garment is a bulky, yet elegant coat in Big Ben wool, weighing in at a hefty 52-56 ounces (up to 3 1/2 pounds, or about 1500 grams). The mock cable/twisted rib pattern certainly won’t curl at the bottom edge, which is why I guess it’s designed without a hem or ribbing, but at that weight and in that pattern, I suspect the coat would grow ever longer and ever narrower (just in time for holiday weight gain). Still, it looks lovely! I especially like the buttoned collar. Also, I just might try to re-create the model’s hairdo with my long lockdown hair.

The outdoor photography was taken near historical buildings in York, whose grey-beige stone walls give a nice background to the bright red and blue sweaters made with “Ariel” a bulky, yet “feather-light” (well… 20-24 ounces for a sweater, so lighter than Big Ben, at least) wool-synthetic mix. I really like the red chevron sweater and it doesn’t look bulky at all to me, just fluffy and cosy. Father and daughter also get warm, cheerful garments, and look at this amazing mini-dress for a young miss! That is going on my list of patterns to adapt for myself.

Older teens and young lovers can make “the ‘sweater-match’ theme with girl-friend and boy-friend” – classic pullovers with cable ribs in double-knitting weight and identical except for slightly different shoulder width and back length proportions. That’s all for the knitted garments in this issue, since the real focus is on Christmas preparations with little gifts and housewares.

For children’s gifts, there’s a doll, clothes for another doll (pattern in last month’s issue), and a night case in the form of a puppy. This last was especially popular around the late 1950s and early 1960s – I have a different magazine with a poodle nightcase on the cover, and Stitchcraft also had some kind of poodle nightcase in the later 1950s. Poodle or puppy or not, I don’t know why a person would want to put their nightgown in a special case in or on the bed. If you don’t want other people who might be using the room to see your nightdress lying around, you could just… put it under the pillow?

There’s an intriguing “Byzantine” cushion, a firescreen with this month’s embroidered flower (chrysanthemum) and some little gifts sewn in felt, but the more interesting projects are displayed nicely in the large colour photo in the middle of the issue. We’ve got an embroidered farm scene for the nursery wall, a “hostess set” of apron and coasters featuring international drinking mottos, the usual cross-stitch cushion, and a tray cloth/tea cosy design that I would love to adapt to an iPad/tablet cover. Crocheters can use up all their scraps with medallions or a … cute? eerie? not sure what to say about it? pixie doll and patchwork fans, generally ignored by Stitchcraft, finally have a little bag as a starter project.

There are even rugs in Scandinavian designs (is that basket pattern from Denmark or from Sweden?), one stitched, the other done with a latch-hook.

What an issue! There are so many projects I would like to make from it: the girl’s dress in my size, an embroidered tea-cosy for the digitalised world, the little girl’s bulky red sweater, even the green latch-hook rug. Sadly, pandemic and lockdown have thrown a monkey wrench into my current knitting plans, it’s hard to get supplies, and I’m trying to finish or even start multiple other large projects that were planned or promised or have been lying in the WIP pile for ever. One of those WIPs was a (non-vintage) garment that I will have to frog anyway (ran out of wool and can’t make it work), so the plan is to frog that project and use the wool to make “Father’s cardigan” from this issue. Said project and I are geographically separated at the moment, though, so long story short: I do not know when I will be able to post a November project. Take heart, though: there will be some more Stitchcraft cooking fun in December as well as a special surprise next week.

Repeat Performance: Charming Blouse

EDIT: Finally finished in March 2021!

It was very difficult to get a project going this month. The October 1962 issue of Stitchcraft didn’t have any designs that interested me and I had been trying to finish up some larger, non-vintage projects in time for the cold-weather season. But inspiration came from a good friend of mine, who politely reminded me that, way back when I made this “charming blouse”, I had casually offered to knit one for her if she ever wanted one, and wouldn’t this be a good time to make it for her? I agreed! So this month’s project echoed the one I made then. Here are photos from that issue and the finished project:

The original blouse, from the July 1960 issue, was designed for “larger”, curvier figures (37-38 or 39-41 inch bust) and featured horizontal bust darts, which was very unusual for knitting patterns of the time. I was intrigued to see how the bust darts would turn out, since I don’t usually make them on garments for myself. As I probably could have guessed, the bust darts were not only unnecessary for me, but actually negatively impacted the fit — since I am not busty enough to fill out the darts, the front of the blouse was too long compared to the back. That didn’t particularly bother me, but I did note it for future projects.

My friend has a more suitable figure for this design, and her version turned out even better. I used the same wool (Juniper Moon Farm Herriot Fine) in a lovely tweedy green colour, and (by request) without a collar or contrasting colour bands along the front.

It turned out perfectly and we were both very happy with the result. Since we’re not meeting indoors and it was still too cold for her to wear just a blouse outside (even a warm knitted one), I’ve only got her selfies for now, so I’m sorry if it’s hard to tell what the finished product looks like. When it’s warm enough to do a socially distanced outdoor photo shoot, we can hopefully get some better photos! According to her it fits perfectly, and it’s obviously a fantastic colour for her.

My friend, by the way, is the wonderful opera and concert singer Andrea Lauren Brown. We have all been out of work for a solid year now due to the pandemic, but you can definitely still buy her CDs, which I heartily recommend to all of you who love classical music. Seriously, she’s amazing.

July 1962: Overview

Cover photo from the magazine showing two women and a male waiter drinking cocktails.

Holiday and party seasons are both in full swing in Stitchcraft’s July 1962 issue and the more I look at this cover photo, the more I love it. Note how the foreground model is staring off into the distance while sitting on a table with a compass printed on it, as if fantasising about her faraway holiday (though, if she’s on holiday already, as the picture is implying, does that mean she can’t wait to get home?). Meanwhile, it’s a good thing that our flirty tuxedoed waiter’s drinks tray is empty, with that precarious balancing act. If anyone feels inspired to creatively augment this photo with speech- and thought-bubble captions, please do and share it with us!

Colour photo from the magazine showing a modeled, knitted ensemble and blouse

In keeping with the easy-going, summer holiday theme, the knitting projects are simple and quick to make. The two illustrated on the cover have no sleeves, minimal shaping and patterning, and are made in quick double knitting wool. Although pictured as stand-alone tops, they could easily be layered over a blouse on cooler days. There’s also a simple blue blouse with loopy flower details on the collar and a striped, sleeveless tunic-blouse with matching skirt, all in 4-ply wool. Our waiter from the cover photo has found another holiday-goer to flirt with, and sports a “Casual Italian design sweater” in the same colour as her skirt: “Water Green.” (Holiday tip: if the water actually is that colour, don’t drink it.) Speaking of Italy, doesn’t that beautiful model in the collared blouse look like she just stepped out of a Fellini film?

For cooler days, there are cardigans in “golfer” or classic, slightly bobbled styles, both made in double knitting. The golfer takes her sport very seriously! Knitters who are really in a hurry to get packing can make some simple, bulky pullovers for the kids in the family (shown here building a lovely British castle out of cardboard and sand in the Patons photo studio — I am guessing everyone had a lot of fun on this issue’s photo shoots) or a fine-knit slipover in honeycomb pattern, written for a home knitting machine.

The embroidered homewares are mostly easy and predictable: a chairback with this month’s flower, the carnation; a quickly-made “gay garden cushion” (Happy Pride!), and place mats with heat-resistant cork inserts. There’s a tapestry stool and/or project bag in Florentine pattern, knitted or crocheted cushions, some fancy knitted doilies and a trolley cloth from crocheted motifs. I didn’t photograph all of them, since they’re pretty standard fare.

For those who like to immortalise their holiday paradise in tapestry, there’s a wall hanging of the village of St. Etienne de Bougary in the lovely French Pyrenées. For your outing to that very inviting-looking lake, you can sew you own beach bags and/or an appliquéd blanket-towel-baby’s-playmat for outdoor lounging. The beach bags feature adhesive plastic lining to keep wet bathing suits from leaking into the bag. Smart and easy, indeed.

I’m kind of ambivalent about making a project from this issue. The only thing I could really use is the bobbly cardigan, but it’s not exactly necessary, and the only design that I find exceptional is this crocheted blouse (worn by my favorite Stitchcraft model, who featured in a lot of the mid-and late 1950s issues). Model and blouse are both beautiful, but the blouse is way beyond my limited crochet skills. I wish I had the “Traditional Norwegian Designs” booklets from this ad! I think I’ll take the time to finish up another long-standing WIP instead.

September 1961: Circular Rug to Crochet

September’s project (finished only one day late) was this extremely 1960s crocheted green rug with black, white and orange embroidered spots (they “add a modern touch”) and fringe. Loved it!

Before I could start, I had to figure out what kind of wool to use. Rug wool, such as the Patons Turkey Rug Wool in the pattern, was available in the 1960s in large skeins by weight and rugs could be made using tapestry stitches on canvas, crocheting, tufting or using the latch-hook method. Latch-hook rug makers had to cut the wool themselves and there were ingenious little tools to help them do that, like this Patwin rug-wool cutter or this “strip slitter” from Bliss. Later in the decade, “cut packs” were introduced for latch-hook use and it is now very difficult to find rug wool in skeins.

Felting wool, like rug wool, is bulky, mostly unprocessed, coarse and strong, so that was my first thought… but would it felt with use or washing? I decided to take the chance, since it’s easy to find, inexpensive and there happened to be some in the perfect colour at my local yarn shop. It’s the exact same shade of green as the embroidered cushion from 1960 that I made last year! It even possibly matches the original colour from the pattern, “Green Haze”.

I had to order more wool than they had in the store. To figure out how much wool I needed, I asked a better mathematician than me if he could work it out using the diameter of the swatch, finished diameter of the rug (29 inches without fringe) and the amount of wool per skein. Then I calculated it myself based on the number of stitches in one skein’s worth of wool and the total number of stitches in the rug. We were both a bit off — he thought I would need 11 skeins (65 grams) and I thought I would need 9, when in fact I only needed 8. Then again, the 8 skeins made a slightly smaller rug when done by the pattern, so I kept on for a few more rounds and used one more skein to get the proper size.

The crochet part was easy — just rounds of double crochet with regular increases — and went very quickly. You can see that the wool I ordered was from a different dye lot than the first skeins from the store, but I don’t mind. The embroidery was a bit tedious and the fringe posed a new problem: this type of old-fashioned cotton sew-on fringe is very much not in fashion and hard to find in stores these days. I hate buying things on the Internet, so I asked my friendly wool-shop owner from the store where I bought the wool what she thought, or if it could be ordered through the store. She suggested hand-knotting the fringe with cotton yarn in a similar colour to the rug. (the fringe in the original seems to be white or a lighter colour). I was eager to get the thing done and not wait for more elements to arrive, so I did it. I like the result! It’s stringier than the original, of course, but it makes the rug look like a sort of friendly amoeba. I like that.

Wash-blocking it gently in cold water worked well and did not felt the wool. Also, it is going to live under my coffee table where it won’t get much foot traffic, so I’m not worried.

A good friend saw it and said, “Wow, it’s so ugly, I love it!” Which stung a bit, but I know what they meant. It’s really 1960s! But it also really goes well with my retro/vintage living room decor and I don’t think it’s ugly at all, just goofy. I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

September 1961: Overview

“Knitting with an Autumn Theme” is the motto of this month’s Stitchcraft from September, 1961. Knowing that September is the month where many knitters take up their needles again after not wanting to handle wool in the hot summer, I would have expected a “bumper issue” with extra ideas, new fashions from Paris, more colour photographs and so on. Not the case! It has more or less the same mix of “chunky”, bulky garments and easy homewares that we saw in the summer issues.

Not that that’s bad, of course (though bulky is not and probably will never be my style). The kid’s coat looks cosy and fun to wear, and the “gay sweaters for him and her” in a Norwegian-style pattern are warm, practical and unisex. I imagine the boatneck collar on an unshaped front must scratch horribly across the neck, though.

There are more men’s garments than usual: a wide-collared “sports sweater” and an elegant crossed-front pullover with twisted-rib details on the pockets and borders. The former is meant to be worn for “golf, country walks and all the week-end jobs in the garden”. I’m guessing the plants in the garden will grow better if you wear a shirt and tie under your sweater while working on those week-end jobs, as it will make them feel important and worth dressing up for. Maybe I should try it — I’m terrible with plants.

Collars, V-necks and checked patterns are still in fashion, as seen on the comfortable, yet elegant cardigan suit and the cardigan in a familiar three-colour slip stitch pattern. Terry-towel-like Rimple is still going strong, featured here in a cardigan for larger sizes.

Babies get a bonnet and jacket in the same bramble stitch pattern as last month’s coat and July’s dress (“Part 3 of our Layette”) as well as a vest and pilch (underpants/diaper cover) and small children get machine-knit slacks to match the blazer. Hooray for warm legs, finally!

If all of that sounds underwhelming, we haven’t even gotten to the housewares… The knitting and crochet projects focus on using up scraps and “leftovers” to make either a cushion, a stuffed puppy toy or some utterly goofy egg cosies. Needlewomen (sadly, they don’t write “embroideresses”, which would be more entertaining) can make floral cutwork mats or a cushion, or a “Vintage Parade” of early-20th-century automobiles. There’s a tapestry hassock for church-goers and the last of the Zodiac-themed projects — this month’s sign is Virgo.

I almost gave up on this issue, as there just wasn’t anything that inspired me… but then there was this rug! This utterly 1960s, easy enough for me to crochet, fringed and polka-dotted rug that would look marvellous underneath my vintage, Danish Modern coffee table and, if made in the right colour, would perfectly match my embroidered cushion from the January 1960 issue. I love it! Rug wool in skeins isn’t really sold anywhere these days, but I’ve got a solution for that that I think will work.

Stay tuned for the result… and the “special bumper issues” with “extra features in colour” that are promised for October and November.

August 1961: Overview

“August is an issue that needs special thought and planning” writes Stitchcraft‘s “editress”, Patience Horne, in the introduction to the August issue, pointing out that it is “rather an “in-between” month for needleworkers” — often too hot to want to wear or make heavy sweaters and too late in the year for fine-knits. At the same time, reminding people that “Autumn is around the corner” can be “a little depressing” to people enjoying their late-summer holiday.

I get this! It’s one of the … hazards? “joys”? features? of living in a temperate/oceanic climate zone like the UK: August, and in fact the entire summer, can be so hot that you can’t even imagine holding wool in your hands or performing any excess movement (thus the small, easy embroidery projects in cotton thread on linen), or 10 degrees Celsius with unending rain (just ask Edinburgh, or the Bretagne), or anywhere in between.

Stitchcraft‘s answer is to offer casual, “all-year-round” knit styles that could work either on a (cold, wet…) holiday or back home in the autumn and lots of little needlepoint and embroidery projects that fit in a suitcase and can be done easily in the heat. The adult garments are thick and warm and serve as outerwear on a summer evening or Atlantic boat trip: the cardigan on the cover, “chunky” pullovers for women (one knitted, one crocheted), and a man’s pullover in “that typical man-appeal style which will make it a winner.” All are made in double knitting-weight or bulky Big Ben wool and both the knitted pullover and cover cardigan feature slip-stitch patterns which make the finished garment that much thicker and warmer. Golden or orange tones and white continue to be popular colours.

There are sleeker, finer-knit short-sleeve tops for girls in their “early teens” (the models seem to be young, slender adults, but OK) with high necklines and an interesting mitred collar on one. Smaller girls (or boys, I guess? this garment doesn’t seem to be heavily socially gendered, but the instructions only have options for buttons on the “girl’s side”) get a fine-knit cardigan with a border of “Scotties chatting to a friendly Cockerel.” Babies get the newest addition to their “Stitchcraft Layette” with a matinee coat and bootees in bramble-stitch to match last month’s dress.

The real fun is in the homewares, where there is a huge selection of projects and needlecrafts to choose from: embroidered ivy borders for tablecloths, traycloths or cushions, a tapestry footstool or “needle etching” picture of a “typical Cornish quayside”, a crocheted rug, blue rose sprigs to embroider on a cushion or a fringed lampshade, a weird crocheted and embroidered tea cosy in Turabast (which I can’t imagine would have good insulating properties), or “Fluff”, a somewhat psychotic-looking, yet endearing knitted kitten. Also, I thought the Zodiac year theme had to be finished by now but no, it’s Leo the lion’s month.

My favourite, though, is this sewing project: a head cushion that lets you recline charmingly in bed with your hair and makeup perfectly done, your satin nightie on, a book on your lap and your telephone on your ear. It’s glamorous leisure and lifestyle advertising personified, and though they say it’s an “idea for your bazaar”, I would bet the Stitchcraft readers who made this in 1961 did not make it to sell.

Apropos lifestyle advertising, the early 1960s Stitchcrafts show a rise in full-page ads for Patons and Baldwins wools. That’s obviously not surprising considering the magazine was published for the Patons wool company, but the full-page ads that “tell a story” are a new trend: the late 1950s and 1960s issues up to now had little celebrity testimonials. This one caters to grandmothers and the message is clear: Knitting is not only a rewarding pastime on its own, but earns you the love and affection of the grandchildren for whom you knit. (But only if the kid likes it, and that’s only guaranteed if you use P&B wools, of course.) The 1950s and 1960s saw a huge shift in advertising methods towards a psychologically-based system, which is a huge topic that I won’t start with here, but suffice to say there will be more of these ads, and that they are representative of changing advertising styles.

That’s it for today! I have lots of unfinished projects lying around, so my August project will be something small, definitely not the Turabast tea cosy, but very probably the blue rose sprigs on a little bag, or tablet cosy, or something.

Inspired by Stitchcraft: Red and Blue Dress

This month’s project was a little bit different than usual. Instead of making something from the April 1961 issue, which didn’t have any projects that really spoke to me, I decided to finally make something I’ve been dreaming of ever since I made this little girl’s jacket from the March 1960 issue. I loved the check pattern and the bright red and blue combination. “Wouldn’t that make a great 1960s-style minidress?” I asked myself, and the idea has been percolating in my mind since then.

I chose the same yarn and colours from the child’s jacket: Schachenmayr Bravo, which is inexpensive, machine-washable and knits up quickly. It’s even historically correct for a 1960s design, which is a nice way of saying “100% acrylic.” (Though true 60s synthetic wools were more often Bri-Nylon or Orlon.)

I chose a typical basic construction with front, back and sleeves all made flat and separately from the bottom up and sewn together, and made a stockinette-stitch hem with the blue yarn. The dress shape is a modified A-line: flared at the hem and narrowed to the top waist, then increased slightly at the bust. I used another knit dress as a pattern, but had to deviate from it as the stitch pattern made the fabric behave differently. The sleeves are short, simple and set-in. The front piece is essentially the same as the back, but divided in half after the armhole cast-offs and rounded a bit at the neck. The button band is plain crochet.

After it was all done, I realised that I liked the roll of the blue stockinette stitch hems, so I decided to just leave them as is. That means the bottom hem is a little bit narrow in the blue part where it should flare out. I may or may not fix that in time, depending on my laziness levels.

It’s soft and squishy and in spite of the synthetic yarn, doesn’t feel like plastic or make me sweat uncontrollably. The only real disadvantage is the virtual weight it puts on. It’s got negative ease everywhere and is narrower than the very svelte-looking dress that I used as a pattern, but the sponginess and three-dimensionality of the stitch pattern makes me look much bulkier than I actually am. I thought a crocheted belt in blue would help define the waist area a bit more, but the belt is curly and not heavy enough. Maybe a 1960s metal ring-chain belt would do the trick? But it’s utterly comfortable and fun to wear, so I’m happy.