Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Show & Tell: Old Knitting Patterns

I have a couple of stacks of old knitting patterns on my bookshelf and I've selected a dozen to show you today. My grandmother gave them to me a couple of years ago when she was going through her stuff and clearing things out. There aren't many items I would actually make, but they are very fun to look through! My grandmother started knitting while living in NYC in the 1930's. The first pattern books she had are just too worn out to photograph well, but this may be one of her early ones. It's Vogue's Third Book of Knitting and Crochet. Since it's missing the cover, I don't know the publication date. If you know, please leave it in a comment for me! Most of the images are black and white photos, but there are a few of these color plates.

There are a couple Minerva books and you can see the patterns inside are very dated looking.



Here are three more from the collection including Hand Knits for Men. Some of the patterns I would never get a modern guy to wear (well, not Jeff anyway!), like the one on the left, but the one on the right looks like a classic.



College Knits is full of happy looking, sweet girls in their knits.



Cable Knits.

The cardigan actually looks like some I saw in knitting magazines last fall!



This one is entertaining! No, I'll *never* knit those pants (lower right)!

There is a startled looking cat in one picture! I don't think it liked the camera at all and probably ran off and hid somewhere after this picture. Notice how it has its claws hooked in the skirt!

I've actually thought about knitting this cardigan, but doesn't the model look tortured? Perhaps she had a migraine?

The general needlework mags are fun to look through. The advertisements are as interesting as the articles/patterns! There are some Vogue Knitting mags in the stacks too.

I hope you've had fun seeing these patterns from 'way back in the 1900's'! Do you have old patterns too? Do you have any of the ones I pictured?

(The afghan in the background of the pics is one my grandmother made!)

5 comments:

knitseashore said...

I enjoyed looking at all of those vintage knits! I only have the booklets I posted about I think back in November. Even if you never make any of the patterns, they are so fun to flip through!

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing some patterns like these in my mum's and nan's collections. And the models often looked tortured or headache-y!!! Still, some of them are still fashionable: isn't that amazing???

Devorah said...

Now I have to dig through the stuff I got from my mother-in-law. I recognized the Cable Knits books so it may still be lurking around here. Mom loved a good aran style knit.

Anonymous said...

I love vintage patterns and pattern books and have a small collection. I especially like garment styles from the 1930's and '40's, very elegant but all that work on tiny needles! Some of yours look familiar; I'll have to dig mine out and check.

Hege said...

I have a bunch of vintage patterns, too. They are so fun! You have a really nice collection, and you might find some cute camisoles in there! :)