July 1968: Overview

“Summer and the Country Life” is the caption of the introduction to the July 1968 issue of Stitchcraft. After eight years of blogging about this magazine, I have to admit that I still can’t necessarily say what makes a garment “country” or not in the world of 1960s British knitting fashion. Tweedy and casual, yes, and cardigans that can be worn as outdoor jackets. As for the rest, either there are some historical or regional codes at play (please enlighten me if you know what they are), or Stitchcraft just got tired of writing “for your holidays” in every summer issue.

The front cover design, for example, looks more like a fun night on the town to me. Knit in this year’s new bobbly-textured “Four Seasons” wool-synthetic blend, it’s a good example of the growing trend for cardigan-coats, here interpreted as a sleeveless buttoned dress. Other women’s fashions include a striped T-shirt and matching knitted skirt in smooth crepe wool, a long-line cardigan in the same Four Seasons wool, a textured blouse with a ribbed waistline, and a Victorian-era-inspired blouse in dropped-stitch lace in a “Romantic Mood”. Pastels (the long cardigan is “Surf Blue” and the ribbed-waist blouse “Beryl”) and especially pink are this season’s colours, or if uni-colour, in textured yarn and patterns.

(Apropos colours: there are so many more colour photos in the latest issues!)

For men, there’s a truly “country” cardigan in Patons Double Knitting wool, with vertical pockets and cable patterning on the sleeves and yoke. I cannot imagine a more 1960s male fashion photo than the one on the back cover. The other men’s design is a similarly loose-fitting and casual (i.e. worn with the casual dress shirt and tie; we are on holiday in the country, after all) pullover with a zig-zag texture accent. Suggested colours are “Musk” or “Earlybird Yellow”, matching the pastel theme from the women’s garments.

There is more of a balance between women’s, men’s and children’s clothes in this issue, i.e. fewer for adult women and more for the other two categories. “Boys play it rough” is the caption for the thick, tough moss-rib cardigans with ring zippers and little stripe accents for school-age boys. They will certainly have more fun playing in them than their sister, who has to try to play ball in a micro-miniskirt and a weirdly fitting short-sleeved knitted blouse. The choice of patterning ending just below the bust, plus pocket flaps (without even pockets) just below the patterning, must have been excruciatingly awkward for a preteen or teen girl. Maybe they got her to smile for the photo by promising her a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to change into. The girl on the inside back cover doesn’t fare much better in terms of casual, country comfort. Her (admittedly very cute) yellow-and-white-striped mini-dress has similar patterned / non-patterned proportions and picot edgings.

Rounding out the wearable fashions are a pattern for a plain knit skirt, tucked back in by the Readers’ Pages, which is quite similar in shape and style to the skirt worn with the striped T-shirt blouse, and a “Crochet Bonnet for the Sun” worn by the “sad” model. I like this model and think she is very pretty, but her facial expressions don’t do much to sell the designs, as she looks anxious and miserable in them. Maybe she just has terrible teeth?

The homewares mostly echo the summer holiday theme, with easy designs that can be adapted to different items. There’s a cross-stitch design of boats and fish to use on a beach bag or cleverly constructed pillow with a hidden pocket “for a day by the pool”, an easy flower embroidery pattern to trim a cushion, chairback, guest towel or pillow slip, and a Victorian-inspired tapestry design for a stool top and matching rug.

The crowning glory of home decorations in this issue is the large, paneled wall hanging with embroidered illustrations of some of the characters from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: the Squire, the Wife of Bath, and the Canon’s Yeoman. The figures are mostly worked in stem-stitch, including the fillings, which gives them a rich and solid texture. The panel is perhaps not all that difficult to embroider, but the finished effect is extremely impressive. In the introduction to the issue, “editress” Patience Horne promises another panel of 3 motifs in the coming months, so that readers can make a set of six pictures or two long panels of three.

in our current children’s comic, “Pets Corner”, Tottie Tortoise misunderstands a compliment meant for Pippa Poodle, paints her shell, ties a bow on her head and goes out for a walk feeling pretty. Then her mistress carries her home and she takes a nap. Sounds like a good day to me!

That’s all for this issue. My project will be the striped T-shirt, if I ever finish up any of my other other works-in-progress. Like Tottie Tortoise, I am currently slow. Have a great July, everyone, and I hope to be able to update some of the projects soon.

June 1968: Overview

“Holidays In the Wind” is the title of the June 1968 issue of Stitchcraft, promising “fashions for sunning and sailing”. The couple on the cover are dressed appropriately for sailing and/or a typical summer in the UK in their warm woolen cardigan-jackets. “Easy-fitting to slip on quickly — and smart for her to wear with culottes and slacks for rambling and biking” is the caption to the additional photo, showing the female model looking cute while the male model fixes her bicycle. When he’s finished with that, he can slip into a slipover in fine 4-ply flattened ribbing.

For the most part, the other women’s fashions in this issue eschew the casual, “country” holiday style in favour of slightly more dressy outfits in fuzzy or textured yarns and “dreamy” pastel and neutral colours. There’s a belted skirt suit in Patons’ new “Four Seasons” nubbly wool-mix, a dress and a sleeveless top in fine, fluffy “Princess” wool, a jumper with a lace yoke and sleeves in 4-ply “Cameo Crepe”, and another skirt suit, this time in bouclet wool and a flowery lace-rib pattern.

“Sophisticated”, “elegant”, “graceful”, and “softly fashioned” are the key words in the accompanying desciptions.

Crocheters get an opportunity to make something fine and elegant too: a cotton lace blouse, “so feminine for summer.” Crochet garments, especially somewhat more difficult ones like this, are rare in Stitchcraft, so we are assured in the description that it is “not a really difficult design to work.” The highlight of the issue though, if you ask me, is the knitted bikini! It is made in plain stocking-stitch, to show off the texture of the nubbly “Four Seasons” wool (the same as the skirt suit) and notably described as being for “sunning and… lazing.” Nota bene, not “swimming”! I assume it would sag horribly when wet, or fall off and float away. Still, it’s glorious.

There are some fun fashions for kids in this issue, too, conveniently in a “his and hers” version for both toddlers and school-age children. The former can “paddle and splash” in striped trunks (boy) or one-piece romper (girl), knitted in 4-ply Purple Heather wool. The bigger kids have matching short-sleeved knitted shirts with a jagged stripe pattern, paired with a skirt for the girl. I feel sorry for her trying to play on a beach in a tiny mini-skirt! The boy seems to be wearing more practical non-knitted shorts.

The homewares in this issue are pretty standard: counted embroidery for garden cushions or to work in tapestry on a stool-top.

More ambitious needlecrafters can make a tapestry scene of Dunster to hang on the wall, or a knitted lace table-cloth in washable crochet cotton.

In the children’s comic, “Pets Corner”, Hamish the Hamster decides he wants to go on a walk, then goes, then decides he doesn’t like it after all. Luckily, he comes home to find a spinning hamster wheel, “which meant that he could walk a hundred miles without leaving home.” And so the stay-cation was born!

Wherever or whatever your “holidays” are, I hope you get some and wish you well. My project will be the knitted bikini. Let’s hope it gets finished soon enough to get some “sunning and lazing” time.

May 1968: “Sunny Cushions” Adaptation

The May 1968 issue of Stitchcraft had a lot of cute projects: the striped sweater set on the cover, a couple of nice little “shell” sleeveless tops, a baby cardigan, a jumper with an interesting lattice yoke… but alas, I was so busy with real life in 2026 this month, and had so many unfinished projects lying around anyway, that it would have been foolish to try and start (much less finish) an entire normal knitting project. Luckily, there were some cute and easy embroidery projects, and I had a friend visiting whose hot-water bottle was crying out for a knitted cover, so I adapted one of the embroidered cushion designs into a simple motif for a knitted cosy.

I had bought two skeins of bright and fluffy Natural Lama Chunky by Lana Grossa in hot pink some time ago, probably because they were on sale and displayed on that little rolling shelf which my local wool shop so cleverly rolls outside onto the sidewalk in good weather. It is delightfully soft and squishy and can be knit into pretty much whatever tension you want, as the fibres compress or fluff up to fit the space allotted to them.

I used 5 mm needles and just cast on a number of stitches that seemed good, and worked in the round up to the neck part of the bottle. At that point, I realised that it would be much better to do the embroidery before the knitted bag part was completed, since I was going to use ribbing to pull the fabric in at the neck and it would be easier to access the embroidered part while the knitting was shorter and wider.

The embroidery pattern was the oddly-titled “Daisy Heads”, featured together with “Corn Cobs”, the other cushion embroidery project from May 1968. (I really loved the corn-cob pattern, which looked like a fine-line cartoon drawing, but it would have been very difficult to do without the original transfer and certainly not on a knitted bag). Besides looking nothing at all like actual daisies (orange petals with brown centres?), the petals were designed for fine long-and-short stitch on a cushion, with stem-stitch white outlines and French-knot centres, which is all perfectly fine with embroidery wool on a cushion, but equally impractical on a bulky knitted bag. I substituted normal DK knitting wool in white and yellow (somewhat more daisy-accurate) and made the petals in satin stitch, or as close as I could get to long-and-short stitch. The stem-stitch outlines were on a little larger scale, but nice enough, and the French knot centres were fine in in yellow instead of brown. I did have some brown wool that I thought I would use for the very center, but the plain yellow and white on bright pink looked better.

For the top part of the bottle where the cap screws in, I kept the same amount of stitches and just worked them in 1×1 ribbing, with a row of eyelets to thread a cord through to pull it in more if desired. The cord was monk’s cord, made the simple way by tying the strands to a door handle and twisting.

That was all! It was more “inspired by Stitchcraft” than a real re-creation of the pattern, but that’s OK. I destashed some yarn, made a useful object and made my friend happy. What more could a person want? I hope to get some WIPs finished in June and have an extra project or two to write about then.

May 1968: Overview

Happy May Day, everyone! Stitchcraft‘s “summer mood” is enhanced by a new layout format with more colour photos, distributed on single pages throughout the magazine. There are “soft colours” for the “gentle fashion look” as promised on the front cover, “Colour Bold and Bright” featured on the back cover, and some earthy rust-orange tones as well as natural or white garments. Diagonal lines, zigzags, chevrons, and stripes show up in the pattern stitches.

The “gently styled” skirt set on the cover is worked in twisted garter stitch (every row knit through the back loops) and has a choice of mini- or just-above-the-knee-length skirt. The purely decorative belt is held in place by little buttoned tabs, and the jumper is buttoned at the shoulder. More gentle styles and colours show up a pink and white jumper with a different lattice lace on the sleeves and yoke, a pastel top knit sideways in stripes, and a “romantic little dress” in fluffy “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” angora-mix yarn.

For those who prefer neutrals and earth tones to soft pastels, there are two summery tops to knit in lacy lattice or cluster stitch, And if “bold and bright” is more your style, the pullover on the back cover is warm both in wool and colour.

Men can get into the “summer mood” with a comfortable, loose-fitting pullover in natural white or a rust-orange cardigan with practical pockets. They are touted as the “casual, leisurely look” and the two men in the photos are apparently getting set to go hiking or fishing. Nevertheless, a buttoned-up shirt and tie are required! The little boy’s “out-door look” of “comfortable raglan sweater” would also not be complete without a shirt and tie, but he still has it better than his sisters, who are expected to play on the beach in a micro-miniskirt or travel on a cartoon train with no apparent clothing on her lower body at all. The caption says she will be “smart and comfortable on her journey”, which I doubt very much.

The baby of the family fares much better with not only an embroidered dolman-sleeve cardigan, but actual leggings on its legs. With feet, even! The leggings aren’t hand-knit though, or if they are, there’s no pattern for them in the issue. The diagonal lace pattern on the cardigan is knit in and the little loop flowers are embroidered on later.

The homewares and needlework designs are quick and easy, in keeping with both the casual summer mood and the general trend of needlework designs becoming simpler and more practical as the 1960s progress. The last few issues of Stitchcraft have featured a single, simple embroidery design that can be adapted to decorate all kinds of different homewares. This time, it’s quick trims of fruit and vegetables to put on a gingham apron, cushion, or pot holders. The agricultural theme continues with daisy (? I have never seen an orange daisy, but whatever) and corn-cob cushion motifs. For the nursery, you can make a cross-stitch wall hanging or rug with the little pet animals featured in the children’s comics from the last and next few issues of Stitchcraft.

Speaking of, this month’s comic (number three in the series) features Bertram the budgie, who has no other birds around him and is consequently lonely and depressed (realistic.) Luckily, another budgie just happens to fly in the window and join him! (less realistic, but hey, problem solved!) Or not, as it happens: Bertram is territorial and jealous and does not appreciate a stranger just showing up for tea and inviting themself in. His owner solves the problem by giving Bertram a mirror, and Bertram discovers he is his own best friend (realistic.) Realism points, 2 out of 3, and Bertram is very happy.

I don’t know what to make from this issue. The lattice lace pattern on the sleeves and yoke of the plain pullover is very cool and I toyed with the idea of making modern “rave sleeves” by leaving out the rest of the pullover and just adding some ribbing to the bottom of the sleeves and yoke. But I don’t really have anything to wear it with or appropriate yarn in stash. I don’t have the time or energy for a big project, have too many unfinished projects going on (including from last month), and have already knit something for my colleague who is having a baby in July. I guess I could embroider an orange daisy or a corn cob on something? Or a fruit and vegetable motif on a fruit and vegetable bag? Stay tuned!

April 1968: Overview

Cables, zigzags, and dogs, oh my! April 1968 is going to be a fun month at Stitchcraft.

The “country knits” on the cover are in just two sizes, “for her” (34-36 inch bust) and “for him” (38-40 inch bust.) I imagine the style would look good on a larger woman as well. The raglan seams are sewn together after front, back and sleeves are knit separately. The cables continue onto the collar, which folds inward.There’s also a “travel coat” with mock-cable twists in “Super-Sonic” style (multiple strands of bulky wool knit together on maxi-size 3/4-inch needles) and a smooth and elegant cardigan with just a few cables on front and sleeves.

Texture without cables can be achieved using Patons nubbly “Four Seasons” yarn for a tweedy dress (love that wig again), a plain jumper with frilly edgings, or a ribbed “classic blouse in larger sizes”.

The three summer tops in the centrefold photo also use textured rib patterns for a cable-like effect. All three are in different weights: the sleeveless top on the left looks lightweight but is make in bulky “Big Ben” wool; the fluffy blouse in the middle is made in soft, fine angora-wool “Princess”, and the “practical wash-tub summer sweater” on the right is made in Bri-Nylon “Brilliante”.

There are some nice cable and zigzag designs for men and children as well: Besides the cover pullover, there’s a traditional Aran-patterned sweater with cables and zigzags, a textured cardigan-and-skirt set for a little girl, and a boys’ jumper with a similar zigzag pattern to the men’s Aran sweater.

With so many great knitting projects, it’s no surprise that the homewares are mostly basic. There’s a pretty hedgerow-flower embroidery motif that can dress up a cosy, a tablecloth, a cushion, and/or an apron. The apron has a wide horizontal strip of embroidered fabric that’s divided by seams to make multiple pockets — very practical.

You can also crochet a quick baby blanket to use as a cover in the cot or pram, or a set of chair protectors with a flowery lace motif. Churchgoers can make a tapestry kneeler in “stained glass” effect for Easter, provided they work fast — Easter Sunday 1968 was on April 14th. The colours — two shades of blue, lemon yellow, red and gold — were probably quite pretty.

Plus, dogs! Besides the real live dog posing in the photos with the male model for that “country” effect, there are four projects for dog lovers: a cross-stitch rug with a corgi on it, a setter embroidered on a cushion cover, a cross-stitch dachshund for a book or “Radio Times” cover, or a tapestry dalmatian to hang on your wall. All of the pattern were included on one transfer, and all could be adapted to any medium (rug, tapestry or cross-stitch on Bincarette), so dog fans could go wild decorating their country homes.

The Readers Pages feature a reprint of the “Sunshine Cushion” from June 1966, which I made in July 2024. It’s a great pattern and deserved to be reprinted! In the children’s comic, white cat Pearl and black cat Inky meet and become friends.

That’s all for this issue! I like the cover cables and the Princess top, but I’m working on other projects that I would like to finish, so I’ll probably embroider the hedgerow flowers onto a vegetable bag. Or maybe unravel a half-finished cardigan that I’m unhappy with and turn it into the long-line cable cardigan.

March 1968: Bold and Bright

There were some nice knitting designs in the March 1968 issue of Stitchcraft as well as a very 1960s “bold and bright” embroidery/appliqué design. Captioned “The Modern Look for Embroidery”, it featured flower motifs in a sort of, I don’t know the word — cartoon style? The opposite of delicate and ornate. You could embroider them onto a cushion or appliqué them onto a coffee cosy. I have more cushions than sofas and do not need a coffee cosy, but a new laptop case would be useful and pretty.

In keeping with the spirit of upcycling / using up scraps before buying new products, I decided to make the embroidered version, since I had some wool embroidery thread in the appropriate colours (gold, orange, white and two shades of green) left over from other projects. I had lots of appliqué felt too, but not the right colour scheme. Still had plenty of denim from an upcycled pair of jeans (original would have been yellow furnishing linen), lining fabric from the fabric drawer and quilt interlining for padding. All I needed to buy was a spool of thread and a zipper.

Als always, I would have had to send away for the transfer in 1968, but there was a helpful schematic in the magazine which I transfered over to paper and then onto the denim, sizing it up to fit. Transfering the design to the denim was hard, even with a white tracing pencil. I had to go over it with chalk and then of course keep going over it again and again because the chalk wiped off during the embroidery. One of these days I will try using solvent paper.

The embroidery itself was not hard, but lots and lots of buttonhole stitch over a large area. I had two kinds of embroidery wool and one kind (the two shades of gold and the white) was very fine and thin. There would have been no way to make a proper buttonhole stitch where the threads like right next to each other. So it came out somewhere between buttonhole and blanket stitch.

The hardest part, as always, was setting in the zipper. I try not to use profanity on this blog, so I will just say that I was greatly frustrated. Also, why am I utterly incapable of cutting or sewing a straight line? It is a rectangle…. it is not difficult… I measured constantly in all directions … I have one of those quilting mats with measuring lines on it… I don’t know what my problem is. In the end, I just sewed the zipper in by hand, which was far neater and easier than doing it on the machine. I tacked the lining on by hand as well.

When it was finally finished and I had successfully managed to not throw either the project or my sewing machine out of the window, I realised two things: 1) in spite of the deep frustration and the hours (yes, plural) spent trying to get the zipper in, the upper edge (zipper edge, of course) was totally crooked and 2) the motif was actually meant to be repeated smaller and multiple times across the fabric, not just once and big. No wonder the buttonhole stitch was so hard to do correctly… Yes, there is a photo of both cushion and cosy in the magazine. No, it somehow didn’t dawn on me in spite of consulting the pattern frequently. No, I don’t know what my problem is.

In spite of that, it’s…. not bad? I mean, functionally it’s fine. My laptop fits in it perfectly, the zipper works (hallelujah), the padding is a good thickness, and denim is a good, tough, washable fabric for laptop cases. The design is indeed bold and bright, and quite cheerful. The crooked edge annoys me, but I could re-do it. Still, somehow I feel this project is not quite right. Maybe I will fix the crooked edge and try to sell it? Give it as a gift to someone with the same size laptop? Keep it and let it grow on me? We’ll see.

March 1968: Overview

Spring is here and the March 1968 issue of Stitchcraft celebrated by introducing a new yarn: Patons “Four Seasons“. Four Seasons was a crinkly, nubbly mix of synthetic fibres (59%) and wool (41%) that produced a textured, tweedy effect by virtue of the “nubs” being a different colour than the rest of the yarn. It was double-knitting thickness when knit up and produced an interesting colour and texture even in plain stocking-stitch, so was perfect for making simply styled garments quickly.

The simply designed, next-to-no shaping “Chanel Style” suit on the cover (Stitchcraft’s name for it, not mine, and shows how iconic the Chanel suit was) is made in plain stocking-stitch with Four Seasons and trimmed with an interesting crochet braid in plain wool “Cameo Crepe” yarn. You can see how Patons coordinated the Four Seasons colour palette to make it match with the plain wool yarns already in production. The matching sleeveless blouse is also made in the same shade of Cameo Crepe. The equally simply-knit travel coat in Four Seasons goes well over a plain jumper and mini-skirt.

Other women’s fashions include a twin-set in Patons’ almost-new yarn, “Princess“, a soft, fluffy wool-angora mix. The colour photos on the inside front cover contrast the “Soft Look” (Princess) with the “Shetland Look” (Patons “Fiona“, a mix of 51% Shetland wool and 49% acrylic) while also making great use of blue-orange-mustard contrasts. Also, amazing wig on that model in the mustard-coloured dress! The “soft misty mood of the traditional Shetland look” gets exploited for all its worth in a pretty, but very much not traditional Shetland-style graded-colour pullover.

There’s more! The “overpull” in bramble stitch has a great three-dimensional texture, as does the high-buttoned cardigan in a trellis lace pattern. Knitters who preferred the smooth and simple look could make a classic, loose-fitting polo-neck jumer. All three are in tried-and-true Patons 100% wool yarns: the classic jumper in Cameo Crepe, the overpull in Totem Double Crepe, and the cardigan in Patons Double Knitting. That 1960s diagonal-line photography becomes amusingly apparent when you place photos next to each other.

Men, boys and babies get their due as well. The men’s Aran-patterned cardigan in thick “Capstan” wool features the same model from the September 1967 issue, who looks like a friend of mine. The cardigan, available in four sizes from 39-40 to 45-46 inch chest, seems way too big for him, though. The photo of the boy’s “Super-Sonic” polo sweater has the same too-bulky, too big mismatch, though anything knit the “Super-Sonic” way (6 ! strands of DK wool held together on huge “Maxi Pin” needles to get 3 stitches to the inch) will look huge and bulky anyway. Babies, at least, still wear fine-knits, like the lacy set of dress and matinee coat for Spring.

Crochet fans can make something for baby, too: a soft and pretty blanket made of 48 lacy motif squares in Patons “Fiona”, bordered with plain dark bands and lined with blue fabric. You can make a lacy blouse for yourself in the usual Mercer-Crochet thread, and use the leftovers to make a tie for a little boy for Easter! Can’t tell if the kid is happy about having to wear a tie or not, or if someone is holding a candy bar just behind the camera.

With all those great Spring fashions, it’s no wonder that the homewares are a little boring this time. There’s a little flower motif to embroider on an apron, or place mats, or a tablecloth, and a wonderful and very 60s floral design for a cushion in wool embroidery, or adapted to appliqué for a coffee cosy. Beginning embroideresses can practice stem stitch, loop stitch and chain stitch with lots of simple motifs on a tablecloth. There’s also an easy Florentine tapestry design for a large tea cosy or stool-top.

There’s a new serial comic, “Pets Corner”, whose first episode features puppie Blink and Boo, who do rascally puppy stuff and end up tearing a rug apart. But then they each have their own rug, so it’s all good.

The ads are the usual: Carters Liver pills for constipation, mail-order services for fabric remnants and marked tablecloths to embroider, pen pals, a poodle barometer…

Wait, what?!?

Yes, a poodle barometer. A decorative stone poodle that has been chemically treated with something that presumably responds to changes in humidity and/or temperature. Okay? I too have a vintage poodle, so I shouldn’t say anything. Mine is made of porcelain and doesn’t predict the weather, but does a great job guarding my grandmother’s 1950s Rosenthal coffee service.

Enjoy the Spring! My project will be some variation on the embroidered or appliquéd flower pattern. And I will soon be finished with the amazing orange dress from the September 1967 issue, so stay tuned.

February 1968: Overview

After the “cold snap” predicted in the January 1968 issue of Stitchcraft (and which actually happened throughout the icy, snowy month of January 2026), the February 1968 issue looks toward Spring. There are still plenty of warm things to knit, but the focus is on layering and knitwear as outerwear.

The cover design is a lightweight, but presumably warm pullover in a leafy lace-panel pattern and Patons “Princess” yarn (85% wool, 15% angora.) It’s slimmer, longer, high-necked, and belted — trends that will continue throughout the year. The back-cover design is a twin set in late 60s style, loose-fitting and worn with a kilt-like plaid skirt. It, too, is touted as a “long-liner” and the caption says it can be “belted if you like.” There’s a similar long-and-slim feeling to the “Country Mood” set on the inside back cover, which features a zipped cardigan over a mini-skirt, both in really interesting two-colour trellis pattern. The pattern looks like it would be made with slip-stitches, but is in fact stranded, with twisted stitches to give the trellis effect. Longest of all is the amazing bobble-stitch coat on the inside front cover, weighing in at a whopping 50-54 ounces and similarly zipped up the front.

For men, there’s a his-and-hers “Two for the Country” bramble-stitch sweater to be worn indoors or out, and a softly-coloured stranded jumper in an interesting “key”-type pattern. It only uses three colours (“Banana Cream”, “French Mustard” and “Light Steel Grey”), but the pattern gives additional depth and richness.

There are three patterns for children of different ages in this issue, starting with a coat-and-cap set for a little boy. I suspect he’s only looking so happy because he’s in a warm photo studio; if he ever actually went outside in that outfit, both his legs and his ears would freeze right off. I know if was customary to dress little boys in shorts at the time, but this poor kid doesn’t even seem to have those! How on earth is he supposed to play in the snow with a practically bare bum? At least the little girl gets to wear tights with her mini-dress/tunic this time, and since it is “for visiting”, I assume she will be wearing it inside. The circular yoke of the tunic is knitted horizontally and sewn on, and the white stripes are made by dropping stitches and picking them up later. The third design is a great indoor-outdoor sweater for a slightly older child, in thick “Capstan” wool and a twisted-stitch pattern that presumably acts as s sort of thermal blanket to keep warm.

One nice thing about this issue is that there are extra close-up photos of the more interesting stitch patterns:

Most of the housewares in this issue are advertised as “Easter Gifts”, though I see no connection to the the patchwork rug and cushion, or the embroidered cushion and chairback.

The elaborate crocheted or knitted doilies as well as the knitted tea cosy have floral patterns, but still no real connection to the holiday. I guess the “Humpty Dumpty” coffee-pot and egg cosies could accompany your Easter breakfast, if they don’t put you off it entirely! Stitchcraft is obsessed with Humpty Dumpty. Over the years, there have been egg cosies, stuffed toys, Christmas tree ornaments… I admire the creativity and the artistic commitment to a theme, but I do wonder. If you know why the egg cosy is happy and the coffee pot is angry, please tell me in the comments!

They apparently gave up on the Easter theme by the middle of the issue and just promise “4 pages of Rug-making, Tapestry and Embroidery for the Home”, which appear exactly as promised. There’s an elegant tea-table set of cosy and cloth in rose-pattern embroidery, a rug and cushion in best 1960s shades of brown, orange and gold, two floral tapestry wall panels, and a “Toilet Set” of toilet cosy and two mats. In previous issues, such items were called a “Pedestal Set”. I guess by 1968, there’s less need to be euphemistic. (But still a need to put a cosy on the toilet cover.)

There are some great “novelty” and “bazaar” (…”bizarre” if you ask me) items in the Readers Pages: crocheted rabbit and chicken egg cosies and an “amusing” string holder. Like the Humpty Dumpty obsession, I don’t get the point of string holders. They always seem to involve pulling the end opf a ball of string through the mouth of some creature, in this case a koala. It’s better than the last one, which was a terrifying clown, but again, if you know why this was ever a thing, please enlighten me! The felt pincusion to wear on your wrist, on the other hand (heh), is practical and useful.

We have come to the end of our latest comic, “The Woodland Workshop”, in which various woodland animals learn that you cannot find a dropped stitch by looking for it on the floor! Words of wisdom, truly. I liked this comic.

I don’t know what to make from this issue. I love the little girl’s tunic-dress and the boy’s sweater, but don’t know any children of that age who might want one. I love the trellis stitch pattern from the “Country Mood” set, but don’t want to make a whole skirt or cardigan from it. Maybe I could adapt the pattern for mitts or something? Or I could work on the fabulous dress from the cover of the September 1967 issue, for which I bought the yarn and everything, but haven’t had time to start. We’ll see! I did finally finish the jaquard pullover from the November 1967 issue and will update that post on Tuesday, so stay tuned.

January 1968: Overview

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s 2026 in the real world and 1968 at the Stitchcraft Sixties.

Looking ahead, 1968 is the year that Stitchcraft finally starts to get into the “Swinging Sixties” vibe, with miniskirts, oversized hats, bright patterns and lots of dresses. The January issue doesn’t quite get there yet, though. The cover cardigan has a similar construction and fit to similar garments from 1966 or 1967: long and loose-fitting, with deep raglan sleeves and a collar. The stitch pattern looks like small horseshoe cables, but is made entirely with knit, purl and slip stitches!

Other women’s garments include a bright pink-and-purple crocheted pullover with a similar bulky, V-necked shape. The model has a bizarre January tan that can only come from a bottle. There’s also a colourwork design to use on either a sleeveless top or a dress, and a short, zippered cabled jacket.

Cable, mock-cable, and bobble patterns are trending, and warm reds and golds pair with bold pink and winterly white. Warm accessories include a a chic little bed-jacket with ill-placed (or strategically designed to draw the attention of one’s bed partner?) bows. You can make a pair of warm cabled gloves, or bed socks with ribbon bows to match the bed-jacket.

Two of the women’s garments stand out. The cape made a brief fashion appearance in the later 1960s, and Stitchcraft‘s version pairs it with a skirt in an ensemble for larger sizes (to fit 38/40/42 inch bust). There is even an adorable version for a little girl, with one of the cutest photos ever. She looks like Little Red Riding Hood going out to see her grandmother on New Year’s Day, but with cold legs. At least she’s wearing tights, for once! The adult version is made in an intriguing “Purple Dusk” shade of Bracken Double Knitting tweed, the children’s version in the same wool, but in two shades of pink: Gentian and Raspberry. Little Pink Riding Hood, as it were (and without the hood.) The caption to the cape photos is “The Cape makes sense”. I disagree — capes are bulky and hard to layer. It does have a certain flair, though.

Speaking of bulky and hard to layer, another late 60’s flash-in-the-pan trend was extremely bulky garments made by holding 4 or more strands of bulky wool together. Patons called this “Super-Sonic” and included a pattern for a cabled and moss-stitch dress that can be made in 8 hours at a tension of almost 1 stitch/inch using 4 strands of bulky “Big Ben” wool on 00 needles — that’s 9mm or a US 13. The accompanying text says, “The thick fabric is firm and elastic and 2 inches at least, are deducted from the length of a dress, to allow for settlement.” That’s a nice way of putting it! I imagine it sags immediately. The colours are a wild mix of Light Navy, Sunglint (yellow), French Mustard, and Jade.

There are two designs for men, both featuring thick wool, warm gold colours, and textured, geometric patterns similar to the ones used in the women’s garments. The zig-zag pattern is made with knit and purl stitches, with twisted stitches on the front side panels, and the textured looks-like-a-mini-cable pattern on the polo-neck pullover is made entirely with knit and purl stitches on a reversed stocking-stitch background. Note the very 1960s dynamic diagonal-line photo poses.

For babies, there’s a thoroughly cute, but also quite practical, zippered romper. Congratulations to the photo team for getting a baby to smile in two different photos! That’s what having warm legs will do for you.

The last garment in the issue is a wonderful set intended for a young teen, made up of a jumper, skirt and matching knee socks. Here we see Stitchcraft finally getting into the swing of things, with a fun, geometric colour motif in primary colours that looks like it was inspired by a Roy Lichtenstein comic-art speech bubble.

With all these great garments, it’s no wonder that the homewares are a little boring, but that’s also the direction Stitchcraft‘s homeware designs will take in the later 1960s. The most interesting design is an “attractive scene for your first attempt at a picture in tapestry.” Then there’s a tapestry design for a cushion or church kneeler, a “key pattern” embroidery design for a cushion or place mats, a cross-stitch design for a cushion or chair-back, and a design in woven embroidery for a cushion or workbag.

Versatility is key (but when in doubt, make a cushion.) Even the Readers Pages offers a design for a cushion, knit in squares from leftover wool.

In the children’s comic, “The Woodland Woolshop”, Samuel Squirrel finds out what happens if you don’t use cushions — he paints a stool and then Eddy Bear, who has come in to replace a hole in his knee, unknowingly sits on it and gets a flower design on the seat of his trousers. May all your mistakes turn out so fortunate.

December 1967: Overview

It’s here! The December 1967 Stitchcraft Christmas issue is a “bumper number to help with last-minute ideas for your Christmas giving, and suggestions for your winter handicrafts.”

The cover photo went with a wintery blue, white and silver colour scheme to set off the featured 3-piece skirt suit. It’s knitted in Patons “Princess”, a light, fluffy yarn made of 80% wool and 20% angora. At 8 stitches to the inch on No 11 (3.0 mm) needles, I imagine it won’t get finished by Christmas. The striped top is sleeveless, and the skirt shorter than knee-length without being “mini”: this is an outfit intended for the respectable suburban mother of the family. A more fun-loving adult woman can make a party dress with or without sleeves, that combines knitting and crochet. Looking at the second picture, you can see why all the models pose with their spines in that corkscrew S-curve — it’s to hide the fact that the unshaped, unbelted dress will look like a sack on them otherwise. Must be hard to hold the pose for the whole party…

As for the “young team”, they “love to match”, according to Stitchcraft, and can knit themselves (who am I kidding, the girl will knit for both of them) some warm pullovers in a fun two-colour basketweave pattern with ribbed sleeves. The colour pattern is made with slip stitches. Other adult garments include a “lumber style” mens’ zipped cardigan, two practical jumper-blouses to “go with suits and skirts” and a classic cardigan for larger sizes.

Cables and basketweave textures are on trend, and the colours are not particularly Christmas-oriented — strong, cool colours and neutrals. The mens’ basketweave cardigan is made in cream-coloured, undyed “Capstan” wool and the two suit-skirt jumpers in “Planet Jade” and “Bracken Gold” with “Brandy Snap” contrast. Only the knit-crochet party dress is in holiday “Hawthorn Red”.

There are some great fashions for children in this issue that could theoretically be finished by Christmas morning: a warm set of jumper, leggings and hat for a little one, a dress-and-cardigan set for a school-age girl and another jumper, leggings and hat set for a pre-teen. On second thought, you would have to be an extremely fast knitter to get any of those sets finished in time… Here too, cool, bright colours prevail, and stripes, slip-stitch lines, and diamond patterns are trending.

(On another note, the slogan that Stitchcraft chose to describe all of these children’s patterns is “Gay as a Cracker”. I do understand that they mean the outfits are as bright, fun and festive as a Christmas cracker that you pull across the table and get a little prize and a paper hat out of, but that did not age well.)

For quick gifts that have to be finished on time, you can make a “tweedy” (actually moss-stitch, but OK) beret or cleverly designed gloves for the whole family. The gloves are all made from the same pattern, using double knitting-weight wool for the large/men’s size, 4-ply for the medium/women’s size, or 3-ply for the small/child’s size. You can also make a very easy crochet cushion, and it even matches the hat!

There are plenty of embroidery and tapestry projects for those long winter evenings. My favourite is the cross-stitch cat that can be made into a cushion, rug, and/or nightcase. (I have not yet understood the point of putting your pajamas or nightgown in a zippered case during the day. Were any of you readers children of the time and can tell me about it?) According to Stitchcraft, cross-stitch cats are lucky! I could use it. There’s also an appliqué picture of a boy and girl rowing, an embroidered dragon cushion or wall panel (that dragon is definitely high on something, cheers), an opportunity to turn leftover tapestry wool scraps into a tea-cosy or cushion, and a cross-stitch rug to use as a hall runner. The only specifically Christmas-themed project (in the entire issue, really) is an embroidered serving set of table cloth and/or trolley mats with somewhat abstract renditions of shepherds, sheep and a star.

In the children’s comic, “The Woodland Wool Shop”, Mrs Olive Owl starts knitting a long strip of fabric with no plan about what to do with it (been there) and realises that it would make a great coat for Daniel Dachshund. Isn’t that nice? I hope all your projects turn out to be equally useful and make someone (including you) equally happy.

My project will be something small, probably the gloves. I do love the lucky cross-stitch cat, though. Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and happy December holidays to all.

November 1967: Overview

Autumn is officially here, winter is around the corner, and Stitchcraft‘s November 1967 issue presents “the GOLDEN LOOK for winter sparkle”, with warm garments, warm colours, fun textures, and matching his-and-hers outfits to chase away the cold, grey days of November.

Our cover models sport matching polo- (aka turtle-) neck sweaters in “Flair” wool and a suitably golden colour called “Musk.” There are only two sizes given: 35-37 or 40-42 inch bust, so intended as a one-size-fits-most, basically unisex pattern. The textured pattern is made entirely with knit and purl stitches. Our other partner-look models wear polo-neck pullovers as well, with a simple stranded chevron border at the hem. They seem to be designed for somewhat younger and thinner folks, with three sizes from 32-33 to 38-39 inch bust. There’s one more design just for men: a “country cardigan” in blue wool and a fern-like textured pattern.

The women’s designs include a rich green jumper suit, with a buttoned pullover in low-contrast stranded diamond pattern and a plain olive-green skirt; a hooded jacket in a chunky bobble-like pattern made with twisted stitches; a delicate jumper in soft, fuzzy “Princess” wool with a contrasting colour yoke; a polo-neck pullover in colourful “rainbow” chevron pattern; and a bright blue cabled jumper for larger sizes (40-45 inch bust).

With all these great designs for adults, it’s not surprising that there’s only one children’s pattern in this issue, a tunic for girls age ca. 4 to 7. It’s knitted sideways in pieces, starting at the left side edge of the back, then the fronts separately, then the sleeves separately, which are also knit sideways. I’m glad to see the girl model wearing tights, for once! The children’s comic in the “Readers Pages”, titled “The Woodland Wool Shop”, tells the story of Daisy Lamb, who wants to learn cross-stitch, but doesn’t want to be cross about it.

The homewares and “novelties” are all designed with an eye towards December gift-giving, and most of them are featured in a single, big colour photograph. There are lots of things to make in felts: holiday-themed potholders and party mats, a night-case patterned after the nursery rhyme about the old woman who lived in a shoe, some racist “Golliwog” puppet mitts (unfortunately, still a thing), giraffes to appliqué onto an apron, coffee cosy or apron, and another truly terrifying clown intended for use as a string dispenser — yes, you put a roll of string in its head and pull the string out through its mouth. Stephen King was already 20 years old when this issue of Stitchcraft came out (and lived in another country), but if he grew up with things like this in the 50s, it’s not hard to see where he got the inspiration for It. Just saying.

You can also embroider sprays of holly on place mats or another apron, or make a cross-stitch rug or cushion in a Norwegian pattern, or a different cushion in a Florentine pattern. More advanced tapestry aficionados can make a tray-cloth or yet another cushion based on a design from a Chinese tapestry. On the simpler side, you can sew a little doll and dress her in traditional Dutch clothing, or knit a little stuffed toy set of a mother and baby fox. Many, many gift ideas in this issue. Oh, and another rug, in cross stitch!

The ideas keep coming, with two little cross-stitch pictures symbolising “Autumn” and “Winter” (to match the “Spring” and “Summer” pictures in the last issue). And how could I not mention the best gift idea of all: the bed-jacket in loop-stitch, modeled by my favourite model, who seems to have been hired by Stitchcraft exclusively to model bed-jackets with a sexy come-hither smile. I have to admit, the loop-pattern spoils the sexiness for me, but we all have our own preferences… Love the pink-on-pink photograph, though.

That’s all for this issue! My project will be the buttoned pullover from the jaquard jumper suit (just the jumper for now.) May your November be bright and golden.

October 1967: Overview

The October 1967 issue of Stitchcraft brings “special news for knitters”: a new wool, Patons Princess. A lightweight yarn made up of 85% lambswool and 15% angora, it was presumably soft and fluffy, and promised to be “smooth and easy to knit”. The classic raglan pullover and lacy “shell” on the cover both use it, in bright pink “Camellia” colour.

Sleeveless shell notwithstanding, the issue looks towards cooler autumn days and the pre-Christmas holiday craft rush. “Winter Plans include the Polo Classic” is the caption for a bouclet pullover with double-strips of cables on the front. Other women’s fashions bridge the changing season with layered separates: a sleeveless dress in DK weight with “shadow check” patterned yoke and matching blazer, or a three-piece set of plain, sleeveless polo shell with pleated skirt and stranded cardigan in Shetland-mix “Fiona” wool. Polo neck(aka turtleneck) collars are in fashion, in shades of green, pink and red or in classic white and winter white.. For the coldest days, there’s a thick, warm coat-dress in brilliant marled green.

The two designs for men have a similar aesthetic to the women’s, but without the polo necks: a winter-white pullover with a simple cable pattern over reversed stocking stitch and a berry-red “stroller jacket” in a horizontal welt patttern with a nice use of cables on the saddle sleeves and button band. Note the knitted tie!

For the youngest in the family, there’s a babies’ cardigan and matching trunks (for boys — girls have to get used to a cold behind early in the age of bare-legged miniskirts and tunics). “For boys”, as well, there’s a “playtime set” of warm leggings, zipped cardigan and bobbled hat in a stranded colour pattern. Rebellious mothers could knit it for a girl, I suppose.

In the housewares department, there are multi-use heraldic designs of a unicorn, dragon, and fish to be worked in cross-stitch and Holbein stitch on a cushion cover, place mat, tray cloth or, interestingly, a matchbox cover. You embroider the cloth (two pieces), mount them on two pieces of cardboard and then glue them to the top and base of an existing matchbox of the larger sort that holds kitchen or fireplace matches. I actually really like the idea. There’s also a Jacobean crewel design that looks stunning on a black cushion or dainty and fancy on a white tablecloth.

Other home and personal accessories fall under the categories of “Knitted Gifts” or the ever-present “Bazaar Items”, starting with a pretty bed-jacket worn by the Stitchcraft model who models all the bed-jackets. And if you look at any of her photos, you will know why! No other model perfects the come-hither look like she does. The resulting offspring will appreciate a cute stuffed monkey or giraffe toy. I like how the giraffe’s pattern is embroidered on, even if it doesn’t look quite accurate to a real giraffe. Finally, you can make a simple and cheerful sewn and embroidered laundry peg bag, dusting cloth bag with pockets for “clean” (happy!) and “dirty” (sad!) or a set of felt-appliqué pot holders.

The ads are the usual ones for a sewing machine, Patons knitting books or “liver pills” to cure constipation, and the Readers Pages offer two reprints of popular items: little cross-stitch pictures of “Autumn” and “Winter” scenes for the nursery, or a cabled and bobbled ski hat that looks too small for any adult person’s head and would surely fly off if actually worn while skiing. In Part 2 of the children’s comic “The Woodland Wool Shop”, employee Samuel meets “Miss Clarissa Creepy-Crawley” (I’m sure there’s a Downton Abbey joke in there somewhere), a caterpillar with “pins and needles” — but not the kind Samuel has to buy! No fear, there’s a happy ending for all involved.

My project will be the little baby cardigan, for my colleague who is expecting a baby in November. I also ordered wool for the fabulous “Fashion Switch” knitted dress from the cover of the September 1967 issue, which will take a while to make, but maybe I can get a post about it up in October. Till then!

September 1967: Overview

It’s time for a “Fashion Switch” over at Stitchcraft! 1967 is the year where knitted dresses really start to feature, and as far as I can tell, the “switch” part means you can either make a dress or a skirt combo and mix and match. The cover designs fit in well with the trend: high necks, short skirts, deep raglan armholes, A-line shaping and big patch pockets. Note, too, the huge hats — they will only get bigger in the months to come.

The centrefold photo shows a slinky variation on the theme with a dress and/or skirt combo featuring a pretty beaded and textured design. Like the chevron dress from April 1967, the designs pick up some elements of 1920s and 30s fashion, while keeping a distinctly late-60s shape.

Other women’s knits include a bouclet blouse for the fuller figure with a very neat and pretty “soft-roll” neckline, a casually elegant afternoon suit with cable trims, a striped skirt combo in “colour brilliance” (tangerine and violet!), and a “Golden Glow” bright yellow pullover.

“Colour brilliance” applies to men’s fashions too, for once, and this green and yellow slip-stitch cardigan is a masterpiece. The model looks a bit like a colleague of mine — should I knit it for him? The other men’s garment, a chunky but streamlined pullover, echoes some of the design features of the women’s “fashion switch” combos. like the big patch pocket and contrasting-pattern sleeves. The photo is black-and-white, but the suggested colour is “Curry”, which I assume will be some kind of dark gold-brown-orange (so 60s). For children, there are two nice, sturdy, basic raglan pullovers in a more classic colour scheme — dark charcoal with red trim for the boy’s and “Cloud-dust Pink” with “Aztec Gold” trim for the girl’s.

There are some fun homewares for all styles and abilities, starting with some very easy sewn and embroidered aprons with whimsical kitchen designs. I’m not interested in the aprons, but I love the top that the “teatime” model is wearing! You can make a tapestry panel of an Irish homestead in Rosguill, Donegal or a cushion or chair-back in a gorgeous traditional-inspired design updated “for a modern setting”. Both are done in tapestry wool on furnishing linen.

It’s not too early to start on little gifts for Christmas, and here’s a little bag “for a friend” and a knitted tortoise toy “for a toddler.” Baby gets a thick, squishy pram cover in fluffy “Ariel” wool and a raised cable trellis design.

Or you can make a Florentine-pattern workbag or cushion for yourself. The colours — gold, green, and yellow — will match nicely with a lot of the knitted designs from this month.

In the “Readers Pages”, we finall have a new comic: Sue and Samuel Squirrel run the Woodland Wool Shop. Their adventures start when Sue finds a loose thread of yarn in the woods and winds it up — only to find that she has unraveled an elephant’s vest and needs to knit it all up again! Poor Sue. The only full-page advert is for Bri-Nylon. I imagine the dress in the photo is quite hot and impractical, especially if knitted in synthetic nylon wool, but what a lovely photo.

That’s it for this month! There are so many great projects that it’s hard to choose, especially since the ones that call to me are all big projects and I just finished the chevron dress from April 1967. I love the orange cover dress and the men’s slip-stitch cardigan, particularly, as well as the fancy embroidery design, which I think would look lovely going around the hem of a full black skirt. Or maybe even the Florentine needlepoint? I don’t have much time in September to knit, though, and even less to adapt an embroidery or tapestry pattern. We’ll see!

July 1967: Overview

Welcome to Summer! Is it hot where you live? It is supposed to be 35 degrees C today here and I already feel like a delicate wilting flower. Luckily, Stitchcraft‘s July 1967 issue brings us “Colour for Holidays” “in a gay easy-going mood with simple designs that are pretty and young looking, in lively colours to mix and match as you choose.” Here we go!

Our cover photo shows two “Little Sweaters for Holidays”: a mock-cable-and-lace jumper in synthetic “Nylox” yarn and a striped-and-ribbed “shell” in lightweight “Purple Heather” wool. Stripes are big in this issue, either via typical colour bands or the use of stitch pattern elements to create vertical lines. The dress on the inside cover uses coloured stripes in a dramatic way, with bold horizontal bands of red, gold and orange, while the thick “Capstan” wool jacket uses narrow bobble and cable panels to create a textured vertical-stripe effect. Horizontal colour stripes are contrasted with plain-knit sleeves or body on the shell and cardigan twin-set. Finally, rib panels and colour accents highlight the narrow silhouette of a zipped cardigan “for the extra slim.”

The men’s cardigan “in Classic Mood” is quite plain, but the “Viennese design” saddle-shoulder sweater incorporates some of the fun design elements that we see in the women’s garments: narrow rib panels to create vertical lines and plaid stripes for a splash of colour. The colours, by the way, are “French Mustard” with charcoal grey and white in the plaid stripes. (All in all, there are more colour photos in the 1967 issues than previous ones where only the covers and possibly the centrefold were in colour, but of course many designs are still only photographed in black and white.)

There’s a cute matinee set of dress and jacket for a baby and a cardigan for little girls with a slip-stitch colour pattern on the yoke. Of course, the little girl is pictured playing with her doll indoors, whilst the boy model gets to “play it rough in a shetland cardigan” out of doors (though the photo was obviously taken in the studio…) At least he’s not wearing a shirt and tie, only a turtle-neck shirt and a warm-knit cabled cardigan — which he might well have needed to stay warm on the day of the photo shoot, since according to the daily weather reports of the UK Meteorological Office, it was probably quite cold for summer, assuming the photo was taken in June!

The homeware projects are fun, with an impressive embroidered wall panel inspired by Chinese designs and a tapestry design adaptable for either a little pincushion or a church kneeler.

Adaptabiity is a key feature of the children’s homeware designs as well: the playful kittens or picture of “Mary, Mary” making her garden grow can be stitched into a rug, stitched as a picture or a panel on a toddler’s pinafore, or, in Mary’s case, worked as a little decorative picture in filet crochet.

The Readers Pages don’t disappoint, with a simple pattern for a crocheted belt and ads for a book of handmade tie patterns, crochet “snowflake” designs, and crochet for brides. The 70s are on the horizon! The children’s comic continues the “Children of Other Lands” series, which is cute and well-meant but of course, heavily stereotyped and not the right tone for the twenty-first century. The full-page ads feature Patons Brilliante yarn and another ad for that fabulous sewing maching that folds down into its own chest of drawers.

That’s it! My July project will be the jacket from the baby set. Stay cool!

June 1967: Daisy Motif Peg Bag

My project from the June 1967 issue of Stitchcraft was a “peg bag” adorned with simple embroidery.

“What is a peg bag?”, some of those who dry their laundry on a rack indoors or in an electric dryer may ask. As you can probably tell from the photo, it is a bag to hold laundry pegs a.k.a. clothespins so that they are close at hand while you are hanging up your clean laundry on a line to dry. The design from this issue had a folded-over top into which you insert a wooden coat hanger to hang it up while you work, as well as a matching apron for maximum laundry-hanging style which I didn’t make this time, but will keep in mind for later.

The base fabric is supposed to be orange or gold coloured — I used leftover dark grey from last month’s “crab” cushion. It is supposed to be lined with gingham — I used leftover green fine corduroy from last month’s “fish” cushion. The only thing I had to buy was more embroidery thread — I had enough white and black, but not enough yellow or green.

Not having a transfer as usual, I just drew the daisy on a piece of paper freehand and copied it onto the fabric with carbon transfer paper. For the chevron-and-loop-stitch borders, I drew two parallel lines with V’s in between for the chevrons. The embroidery was not quite as simple as the design would lead you to believe. The white outlines of the daisies are done in couching stitch — laying down a thread and tacking it down with tiny stitches along its length. Easy in theory, but tricky in practice. In retropsect, I could have glued down the outline threads with water-soluble glue before couching them, to make them stay in place better. (Do any of you do this?)

The yellow centers are also couched, or actually woven — you put down slightly loose satin stitches in one direction and weave cross-threads through in the other direction. It gives a marvelous texture, but I was working with 6 strands and the cross-threads were prone to either split or skip over the ones they were supposed to be weaving through. The outline around the centers is black chain-stitch and the leaves and stems are satin and chain-stitch — except that I didn’t read carefully enough and did the stems in stem stitch. Also, I think two different shades of green got mixed up in my green thread stash? But it gives a nice subtle shading effect. The borders are chevron stitch with loop stitches.

The difficult part of this project was the construction, particularly the lining. I had to rip out the top-pocket seam more than once and re-position it to make all the right and wrong sides come out correctly. When I finally got it right, the lining did not stay in perfectly smoothly, but i will live with it. Also, the corduroy-ish fabric is not really a good lining choice, as it picks up every tiny bit of fuzz floating around while also producing its own. The colour is good, though!

I inserted an old-fashioned wooden coat hanger and noticed that the lining “caught” on one side, so did some more adjustments until it fit better. Voilà. It looks better in real life — the camera makes weird shadow patterns. My only complaint, besides my inability to sew straight lines, is that the finished bag is quite big — how many pegs / pins are you really going to put in it? But it can also be useful for hanging in the hallway / coat rack area to hold gloves, accessories, cat toys or whatever.

I have both an electric dryer and a drying rack, but no outside space to hang up laundry, so I will give this bag to someone who has a garden with a clothesline. The intended recipient also wears hats and fingerless gloves and has two cats, so the bag will find a use in any case.

Not the most exciting project I have ever made, but fun, cute and useful.

June 1967: Overview

“Knit for the SUN” is the theme of the June 1967 issue of Stitchcraft, and our cover model gives us the best example of that in her striped and sunny yellow outfit.

“Stripes and Colour” show up in different ways in this issue, combined with stitch patterns and stranded colourwork for novelty and texture. The pullover on the cover has normal stocking-stitch stripes on the front and back and a novel mini-cable pattern on the sleeves which mixes the four-row colour repetition with a two-stitch cable every four stitches on every fourth row, alternating left- and right- leaning cables for a zigzag effect. Another short-sleeved pullover has striped ribbing, but a plain body and sleeves. The “feathery lace” dress has vertical stripes implied by the ribbed lace pattern combined with plain horizontal colour stripes that look scalloped due to the stitch pattern. Love those sunglasses, too! And a sleeveless shell uses a slip-stitch pattern to make stripes with toothy ridges.

Fun stripes show up on the children’s garments too. There are shirts for boys with the same striped ribbing and collar, plain body and sleeves idea as the women’s top, and a dress for older girls with a stripe of colourwork flowers at the hem. “Junior” girls can “splash and paddle” (i.e. not really swim effectively) in a supposedly stretch-proof knitted bikini in vertical stripe stranded work — the strands should keep it from stretching too much horizontally in the water, but I’m not sure I’m convinced. The top is just two rectangles sewn together.

Stripes can be vertical or zig-zagged as well — either worked in colour as with the top on the cover, or in monochromatic stitch patterns. There are his-n-hers pullovers “knit to match” in a pattern similar to the sleeves on the cover design, but worked with 2-stitch twists instead of mini-cables, and a sleeveless polo in “Shetland mood” with a cable pattern on the front. (The caption says, “Janet sports her own jaunty beret, but Booklet 9775 is an easy one to knit — details on page 37.”) The two remaining garment designs, a cardigan and a blazer, have neither stripes nor zig-zags, but continue the theme of fun stitch patterns and this month’s trending colour of bright sky blue.

Homewares dive deeply into the Jacobean era, with an amazing wall panel that integrates complicated, historically-inspired stitch work and floral designs with a bold and oversized 60s aesthetic. Not Jacobean-inspired, but equally colourful and exotic, is the cross-stitch tropical bird. You can work it on a cushion or use it to cover a cake tin (appropriately, the name of the background colour is Biscuit.) For a real historical flair, you can make a cross-stitch wall panel adapted from a brass rubbing of Sir John Harsick, anno 1384, in Southacre, Norfolk. According to Stitchcraft, embroidery in the style of a brass rubbing “has become very popular over the last few years.” Interesting!

For an easier project, you can embroider sea-horses on a beach bag and matching deck-chair cushion (love the little aspirational illustration.) Or you can sew up a practical, and also cute and sunny, laundry-peg bag and matching apron and embroider them with big, cheerful daisies — “quick and gay to work on kitchen linens or for a bazaar.”

The Readers Pages reprint a striped knitted rug from the September 1964 issue, and the single full-page ad gives us another example of brilliant, yet meaningless, 1960s advertising copywriting and exceptionally 1960s colour combinations: the “Sunflower” Orlon-nylon jersey ensembles is available in olive/cyclamen, olive/burnt orange, midnight/avocado or burgundy/cherry. (A midnight avocado with olives, cherry and a nice Burgundy doesn’t sound half bad, if you took care not to burn the orange.)

I am tempted to make the brass-rubbing embroidery just for the weirdness of it, but realistically, my project will be the daisy-embroidered peg bag and apron. Have a sunny June!