I know I’ve been such a bad blogger lately. My sincerest apologies. I hope I can make up for it with a free pattern for you all! This is something I wish I was knitting now. It is a lovely stripped sweater with a pretty lace panel in the front to give a little touch of vintage femininity. I hope someone knits it up and lets me know how it goes!

People have been asking how to easily print my free patterns. I’m not to much of a help with that. My only suggestion is to save the image onto your comptuer and cut it up into pieces to print on pages. I cut it up into 4 pieces this time so if you save, make sure to get all the pieces.

Yes, I am still lost to the dolly world. I started a little at home business of selling their knit and crocheted clothes called Dolluxe! It’s 10x less money than I was making at a “real” job but completely forfiling. I keep busy, use my creativity and get to play with dolls all day! What a lucky little girl I am!

I have to admit, my two vintage projects still remain unfinished. I believe it is all about fear! The lavender sweater has me perplexed. I finished the back and did decreases for the arm holes. I’m not sure if it did it right though as the pattern was very vague about how to do it. I did it along the edge but the lace pattern makes waves on seam ends. I just can’t see this seaming up as nicely as I’d wish it too so I stopped at the decreases on the front. Honestly, I bet if I sat with it for a week it would be done since I stay at home these days.

My husbands sweater is also unfinished mainly because I worry it won’t fit him. The body with out the arms is seamed up. I think with a nice thick zipper it will fit perfectly and snug. Each of those seams took me a few hours though so I’m not looking forward to arm seams. Again, I think this is a daunting task of vintage knitting, new patterns are written to give you really easy to work seam areas and bigger stitches so you can see what your doing. I hate to turn anyone off to vintage knitting because I admit this though. It just takes patience and forethought.

Anyways, on to the pattern!

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I’m starting to enjoy the look of doilies. There is an charming artful mystery about them. With modern lace weight wools in variegated colors they can quite endearing. Maybe it somehow makes you think of your loving grandmother and the comforts of home.

I used to fear doilies and had an unknown vengeance towards them. My mother at one time tried to shove off the ones her grandmother made on me but I hid them in a drawer never to be seen. Maybe they are still there? I can’t really explain why I hated them so much. Maybe I had a fear of “old people” as a child. Maybe most of them smelled like moth balls, turning me off them unconsciously?

Now I think my feelings changed as I realized all the work that goes into making them. Lacey patterns done by hand are no small task. They can evoke so many styles beyond “Grandma Chic” as I’ve heard it been called. Dark variegated colors give a very Celtic look. Light frothy colors give a dreamy feminine vintage look. Maybe you might use them to set up a tea party. Doilies help you practice lace work in small format helping you perfect your skills.

I have to say, though I am picky about doilies this is a lovely one. This pattern was generously donated to us by Rick and Kary of Toad Hollow Presents from eBay! They reproduce beautiful patterns for sale that are mostly crochet but some knitting too! When donating this pattern they told me “…we like to make sure that these wonderful patterns can be preserved and that anyone can afford to own and use them. I hope this pattern is enjoyed by many.” Check them out!
Pattern under cut. (more…)

I’m a firm believer in freedom of information. Maybe it is due to being born into the age of the internet when anything you’d like to know is at your fingertips. In some ways the internet has probably made turned the library into a forgotten resource. I love libraries, especially ones smart enough to keep history in the form of old periodicals and books. When I lived in Ithaca, NY I spent endless hours at Cornell University flipping through actual pages of “Ladies Home Journal” from the early 1900’s into the 1930’s. When I moved back to the California Bay Area I spent more countless hours in front of a microfilm viewer to look at 1920’s “Vogue” magazine.

I was delighted to learn that the largest library; The Library of Congress, offers inter-library loans thanks to the American Library Association. You can fill out a book request and it will be sent to your local library. I browsed their online library catalog and found the best search results by looking up the keyword “knitting” and setting search limits of 1900-1950 (or any years that suit you) and English language items. What results is numerous wonderful knitting magazines and books from our favorite eras. They have holdings of Columbia Yarn pattern books mainly from the Edwardian period as well as Utopia yarns, Bear Brand yarn from 1902-1915 & Priscilla knitting books. Also noteworthy is their holding of “the Hanicrafter” from the late 20’s which have knitting patterns. I also see there also are patterns from Worth.

So far I have had success getting items loaned to be from the LOC. Now, the New York Public Library hasn’t been as easy. They tell me anything in their research library can not be loaned but can be photocopied for a charge. I’ve also submitted “Electronic Data” requests where they are supposed to scan the book but they came back with empty scans! Who would have thought that the government library has been more helpful than local public libraries?

NYPL has holdings of Minerva pattern books from 1933-49 as well as some Edwardian Fleishers books and 1928-1937 issues of Bernat’s Handicrafter. Remember to use the NYPL CATNYP directory to search older titles.

Maybe someone who lives in NY will have better success gaining scans of these books. I’m by no means giving up! Our tax dollars pay to keep these libraries. We should be able to have access to information we technically own.

Los Angeles Public Library has one 1931 Columbia pattern book. If you’re in the area maybe you can review this book. They also are hesitant at this point to loan out this item.

Yale University has a Minerva, Fleisher’s and a Columbia knitting book if you go to this school. I believe they do inter-library loans but for a hefty charge.

University of SouthAmpton has 1930-1939 issues of “Good needlework and knitting magazine”.

Toronto Public Library has 1933-1948 issues of Minerva Style Books as well as 1936-1940 issues of Needlecraft magazine that have both knitting and crochet patterns.

It is hard to come across libraries that still have holdings of vintage pattern books. At one time women burned their bras and said good bye to feminine hobbies. With resurgence in knitting, antiques and crafts these books become a very valuable resource for us. Not only do you get patterns printed exactly how people in the time wanted these knit items to be, you get ideas of color schemes of the era from yarn descriptions, your shown all the latest hair styles as well as seeing women’s life style needs from landscapes in the photographs.

Please keep in mind Section 108 of the Copyright Act provides specific exceptions for libraries and archives in which they may make reproductions without obtaining permission from, or providing compensation to, the copyright holder. Libraries will try to first deny you any reproduction rights due to copyright. (Honestly I think it’s due to laziness on some librarians’ part.) Hold your ground and refer to section 108. As researchers we have a right to gain copies of these old books. Short of sitting in the library with knitting needles, how will these books ever get use if they sit in library archives unread?

“Library user requests for entire works. If certain conditions are met, your library may make one reproduction of an entire book or periodical at the request of either a library user or another library on behalf of a user. The library must first determine after reasonable investigation that a reproduction cannot be obtained at a reasonable price. The reproduction must become the property of the library user. The library must have no reason to believe that the reproduction will be used for purposes other than private study, scholarship and research.”

Stay tuned and soon I will tell you how you can access hundreds and soon to be thousands of vintage patterns online that I will be sharing with you from my personal collection free! With one catch

I’m feeling generous so here is the pattern for this to-die-for 1950’s shrug. It is next on my to do list in a vivacious lipstick red. Go truely retro with some capri’s and summer halter underneath. If anyone starts on this, let me know. I can’t wait to see this made! (more…)

By boogaj on needlework

Sometimes your are surfing around and similar things come to you from different sources. This morning I somehow ended up at Project Gutenberg, a great site with over 17,000 free books online, and started looking around for craft books. I came across this gem — The Ladies’ Work-Book, which contains knitting, crochet and other needle work patterns as well as some nice old illustrations.

A little more searching found Beeton’s Book of Needlework, which includes 600 engravings! And I’m sure there are more books like this hidden in this site. Days can be wasted with this kind of web surfing.

So I finally pulled myself away from Project Gutenberg, only to be sucked into the beauty that is Illuminated Books (found via meggiecat.) They have taken beautifully illustrated and illuminated books from private collections and scanned them into the website for your viewing pleasure. Some of the children’s books are especially nice.

Here is another charming free pattern for my guests. This one was obtained through the NYPL image search and is from an old periodicle. I apologize for the bad quality scan. Scan was obtained from their digital database.

For pattern click, (more…)

“With angora’s popularity riding high, this fuzzy three piece set will bring smiles to any girl’s face. The hat is capable of infinate variety in shape and angle according to her whim or style. There’s just enough pattern in the stitch to lend distinction, but it’s not a pattern that makes work for the knitting. All in all it makes a grand gift - for someone else - or for yourself. ”

Yarn Suggestion: Bouton D’or in color 050 “Blanc”.

Needle Size: Please note that needles are UK sizes. I believe they convert to a size 1 & 2 US needles.

For pattern, click (more…)