Wonder Socks

Wonder Series leaflet No. 1

There are three knitting pattern leaflets in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection for 'Wonder-Socks', with the slogan 'No Darning' on the front.  They don't need darning because either the toe and heel, or else the entire sole of the sock from toe to heel, are made separately from the rest of the sock and are easily replaceable. 

The leaflet shown above for 'Wonder-Socks' gives a patent number for the design.  I do like a hand knitting or crochet patent, and have collected quite a few.  They mostly relate to tools and gadgets - knitting needles, crochet hooks, needle gauges, row counters, and so on.  Patents for knitting patterns are very unusual.  The 'Wonder-Sock' patent was granted in 1937.  The proposed improved sock 'comprises at least two separate portions detachably secured together wherein the separate portions are provided along their edges with holes, perforations or loops whereby the separate portions may be readily secured together without the edges of the different portions overlapping.'  The patent application explains how to knit little holes along the edges of each piece of the sock (by a series of yarn overs and knit-two-togethers), so that the pieces can be joined by lacing a thread though the holes. 

Diagram from Patent 475912

According to the pattern leaflet: 'The Wonder-Sock is ever new and needs NO DARNING. A very valuable asset at the present time, with its perfectly fitting heels and toes, which only require a few stitches passed through the perforated selvages. No ugly darns: only a charming clock design where the new part is put in.' The 'present time' was 1940 - the leaflet goes on to say that the suppliers of the leaflet would knit men's socks for you, and that 'early bookings are wise to secure 1941's supply'.  (It doesn't say how many spare parts you got for each pair of socks, which I would have thought would be crucial information.) 

These days, when most machine knitted socks are hard wearing and relatively cheap, and knitting wool for socks usually has about 25% nylon for durability, darning socks is not the chore that it was in the 1940s.  Back then, before the days of nylon and other synthetic yarns, wool socks could wear into holes quite quickly, and many people could not afford to replace socks as soon as they developed a hole - especially in the 1940s when clothes were rationed, so that even if you had the money, you couldn't afford the coupons.  Darning and mending was a constant task for many women. 

Some years ago, someone knitted a sample Wonder-Sock from the pattern shown above, to see how well it works. 

Some people who have seen the sample thought that the joins between the pieces could be uncomfortable in wear (though no-one has actually tried wearing the sock to see, as far as I know).  The patent says  'the two portions [e.g. the heel and main part of the sock] may be readily secured together without the adjoining edges of the different portions overlapping' - but implies that you should take care that they don't overlap.  I think that it would be important not to make the stitching too tight - this has happened in one place on the sample sock and there is a slight ridge at that point, but elsewhere, with looser stitching, the seam feels perfectly flat. 

There are two versions of the Wonder-Sock, one with a separate heel and toe, as in the sample sock, and the other with the entire toe, heel and sole part replaceable, as illustrated in the patent.  The Wonder-Sock leaflet shown above illustrates both versions, but only gives instructions for the first version, though the leaflet does casually suggest that an experienced knitter could easily knit the other version without additional instructions.  But perhaps customers complained that they needed a proper pattern, because a leaflet for a 'Victory' sock, with the instructions for a replaceable sole, was produced. 

Wonder Series leaflet No. 3

Replacing parts of socks rather than darning them was not a new idea, as the Wonder-Sock patent acknowledges. Socks were invariably knitted top-down, so toes could be replaced by unravelling them, picking up the stitches and reknitting them with new wool.  Replacing the heels was less straightforward, but as early as 1886, Weldon's Practical Needlework, in its first Stocking Knitter issue had some (very brief) instructions for re-heeling socks.  As far as I can understand the instructions, you cut out or unpick the worn part of the heel, pick up stitches along the upper edge of the resulting gap, reknit the heel as far as you need to fill the gap, cast off, and sew the new heel in.  It seems that you then end up with a seam along three sides of the new heel, including one along the cast-off edge which would be under your foot.  The Wonder-Sock patent comments: 'this repairing operation has either been difficult and tedious to accomplish or has necessitated the formation of a ridge at the join which has given discomfort to the wearer' (or quite possibly both at once, I should think).   

As well as the Wonder-Sock patterns, there is a glove pattern in the same series. 

Wonder Series leaflet No. 4: Sun Ray Gloves

The fronts and backs of the gloves are knitted separately and then sewn together, so it would be possible to replace either half if they were worn out. They are knitted sideways: you knit the fingers one at a time (or rather half a finger at a time), along with the corresponding part of the palm, and then cast off the finger stitches and cast on stitches again for the next finger.  An ingenious idea.  

I have found out some details about the person who invented the Wonder-Sock. The 1937 patent was granted to Ida Janet Dufour-Cole, with an address in Cambridge. Ida Cole was born in 1880 in Burwell, Cambridgeshire, the youngest of five children of a jeweller and his wife.  Her father died when she was very young, but in 1891, the five children and their mother were all living together in Cambridge, and the three sons were working, and presumably supporting the family. In the 1901 census, Ida was a lodger in Eastbourne and was employed as a Costumier - I assume in Eastbourne, though it's impossible to tell from the census. 

In 1910, Ida married Samuel L Dufour in the Paddington district of London. Samuel Dufour is something of a mystery man - I can find no sign of him in any of the records in FindMyPast, except for his marriage to Ida Cole. In the 1911 census, Ida J. Cole was the head of a household in Edgware Road (London). She is listed as married, but there is no sign of her husband. She was a dressmaker, working from home, and there were two other women in the household, both her employees: one was an assistant dressmaker and the other the housekeeper. So apart from the absence of the husband, Ida Cole seems settled and successful by this time, aged 31.  

I can't find any trace of Ida Cole, or Ida Dufour-Cole, in 1921, or in the 1939 Register either.  In 1937, when the patent was granted, she was presumably living at the address in Cambridge given on the patent, and she was the manageress of a clothes shop in Cambridge (she appeared as a witness in the prosecution of a shoplifter).  

In 1940, the Wonder Series pattern leaflets were being published under the name J. D.-Cole.  The address on the leaflets is The Spinning Wheel, 22 Gloucester Road, London, which appears to have been a shop selling toys and yarns, from a post-war ad. You could order Wonder-Socks to be knitted for you, via the Spinning Wheel. One of the leaflets (probably a slightly later edition) claims: 'These leaflets can be obtained from all the leading Wool Shops and Stationers', and as one of the functions of the leaflets was to advertise the knitting service, she may have had mail-order customers for socks all over the country - and must have had a team of knitters to make Wonder-Socks. She doesn't seem to have used the pattern leaflets as a vehicle for selling wool - the leaflets say that you can use any 'good standard wool'.    

The KCG collection also has a later pattern in the Wonder Series, for leather moccasins.  The pattern pieces are drawn on the other side of the sheet, to be traced onto something else, e.g. a sheet of newspaper. (The 'Save Coupons' message shows that this leaflet was printed while clothes rationing was in force (1941 to 1949) when everything including paper was in short supply. That's why you got the pattern on just one sheet of paper, and you would not use blank sheets of paper to trace the pattern pieces onto, when newspaper would work just as well.) 

The moccasin pattern lists the other leaflets in the Wonder Series then available.  There are seven knitting leaflets, including the three shown in this post, and eleven leather charts.  In addition, five children's leaflets are listed, four of them for soft toys, I imagine - Bambi, Thumper, Flower and Teddy Bear.  The first three are characters in the Disney film Bambi, which came out in 1942, giving an earliest date for the leaflet.  The fifth pattern is for a Pop-gun (no idea).  

I assume that Ida Cole used her dress-making experience in designing the moccasins and other leather items  - certainly the pair illustrated look very expertly made.  The leaflet doesn't offer to make the moccasins for you, unlike the socks, though I suspect that many customers would not have the leather-working skills to be able to produce such a good result. 

Ida Cole died in London in 1955, and was buried in Burwell, where she was born. I'd like to know more about her, because she seems to have been a successful woman, making her own way in the world, without apparently any support from her mysterious husband.  And inventing and making a living from an ingenious sock design is a commendable achievement, it seems to me. 

Members of the Knitting & Crochet Guild can have copies of the Wonder-Sock and Sun Ray Gloves pattern leaflets - email requests to collections@kcguild.org.uk.  

Wolsey Knitting Wools

 

Wolsey leaflet 943

I was aware of Wolsey as a long established brand name of ready-made knitwear and hosiery, and I can just about remember it as a brand of stockings in the 1960s.  But I had not heard of Wolsey as a brand of knitting wool until I found Wolsey knitting patterns in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection. 

The company seems to have kept that side of the business quite quiet - the only ads for the knitting wool I have seen were in the 1930s, while their ready-made clothing was widely advertised over a long period. Below is an ad from 1941, showing that they then made stockings, underwear and outerwear for women  - no mention of knitting wool. 

Wolsey ad in Vogue, October 1941

A bit of history: the company Wolsey Ltd. of Leicester was formed in 1920 as an amalgamation of several existing companies, covering the range of processes from spinners to manufacturers of ready-to-wear clothing.  The main company involved, R. Walker and Sons, had a history in Leicester going back to 1755, and it was claimed that the new company was one of the largest hosiery manufacturing firms in the world.  It made "all classes of knitted fabrics, including underwear, stockings, socks, gloves, sports coats and jerseys".  The company was apparently named for Cardinal Wolsey (who died in Leicester) - and presumably because it is an appropriately woolly name. And it still exists, though now only making menswear, and no longer in Leicester - their website is here.

The first Wolsey knitting pattern in the KCG collection is no. 23, published in 1932. (1932 was a good year for hand knitters - the first issues of Vogue Knitting Book and Stitchcraft magazine appeared then.).  The leaflet is not in the best condition, but the instructions are legible, and it is a pretty pattern. The bands knitted in the darker wool are in feather-and-fan stitch, while the lighter bands have just a single line of eyelets. "A chic jumper", as it says.  

Wolsey leaflet 23

Wolsey knitting wool was sold earlier than 1932 - I have not seen any ads for it from the company, but ads for yarn shops often listed the yarns that they sold, and I have seen a 1921 ad mentioning "Wolsey Art. Knitting Silk" (i.e. rayon, or art. silk). 

The KCG collection has only 10 Wolsey patterns with numbers less than 400 (though presumably there were 400 published) - this is typical of 1930s leaflets, I think because many of them went for salvage during World War 2. Here's one of the survivors. 

Wolsey leaflet 389

A nice cardigan to go for a walk in, as in the little drawing.  It's knitted mostly on size 8 (4mm.) needles, partly single rib and partly the openwork panels shown, on the fronts, back and sleeves.  The leaflet shows (top left) the Cardinal Wolsey trademark. 

Leaflet 433 is from the end of the 1930s, and has an intriguing stitch pattern on the front. (The back and sleeves are in a purl 4, knit 1 rib.)

Wolsey leaflet 433

There are also Wolsey patterns for men - mostly V neck sleeveless pullovers, which I haven't shown, because there were so many similar patterns published in the 1930s.  But after the start of the war in 1939, like many other knitting wool producers, Wolsey produced a leaflet of "Service Woollies" for men in the armed forces, including scarves and gloves as well as the balaclava on the cover. 

Wolsey leaflet 488

And because the Wolsey name was strongly associated with underwear (especially in wool), there were, of course, patterns for you to knit your own. 

Wolsey leaflet 509

During the war, leaflets were printed in a smaller format, to save paper.  Here's an example.  

Wolsey leaflet 633

The jumper has buttons at the back of the neck, so the collar is in two parts, and the cable on the front is repeated on the collar.  A nice design, I think. 

Dating the Wolsey leaflets is difficult, without ads to help, but I think that the leaflets numbered 900+ are from the late 1940s.  We have far more of them in the KCG collection - almost half of those numbered from 950 to 999 (compared with 10 numbered up to 400).  Most of these, like number 943 at the top of the post, are printed with a red background - presumably Cardinal red.  Some of them have very exaggerated shoulders - leaflet 959 has instructions for knitted shoulder pads, to support that very long shoulder seam. 

Wolsey leaflet 959

But the fashions were changing rapidly: leaflet 984 shows a more natural shoulder line.  It is trimmed with stranded colour work in five additional colours - colour work was very popular in the late 1940s.    

Wolsey leaflet 984

Some of the late 1940s Wolsey patterns were printed in colour, which shows off the stranded colour work in leaflet 987 very well. 

Wolsey leaflet 987

And then...  there were no more Wolsey patterns, apparently.  We have leaflets numbered up to 997 in the KCG collection.  Some of the leaflets advertise other Wolsey leaflets on the back, and leaflets numbered up to 998 are shown there.  It is as though the company realised they were about to run out of three-digit numbers for their leaflets and just decided to .... stop. 

If anyone knows any more about Wolsey knitting wools and leaflets produced in Leicester around 1950, please let me know in the comments. I know that there was a company Sunbeam Wolsey based in Millfield, County Cork, who were also using the Wolsey name and trademark.  It appears to be an entirely separate company, and operating in another country, but perhaps it had something to do with Wolsey in Leicester ceasing to publish knitting patterns. I'd love to know. 

Copies of any of the patterns shown in this post are available free to members of the Knitting & Crochet Guild.  Please email requests to collections@kcguild.org.uk. 

 

Marriner's Knitting Patterns

Marriner's leaflet No. 163

I have been compiling a catalogue of Marriner's leaflets in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection from the late 1940s and early 1950s.  They are now out of copyright, so that we can copy the leaflets for Guild members.  Marriner's leaflets were first published in the late 1940s, and from the start were colour leaflets, nicely designed and attractive.  

First, some history of the company behind the brand.  This account is mainly based on the book 'Marriner's Yarns: The Story of the Keighley Knitting Wool Spinners', by George Ingle, published in 2004.  The address on the pattern leaflets is R. V. Marriner, Greengate Mill, Keighley.  The company originated in 1784, when the mill was owned by a partnership, one of the partners being Abraham Smith whose niece and heir Ann Flesher married William Marriner.  Their sons bought out the other partners, and the company became B & F Marriner from 1817, and switched from cotton to wool. In 1908, after the death of his father, the company came under the control of Raymond Victor Marriner, a great-grandson of William and Ann, and the company was renamed R. V. Marriner.  

In the 1920s, the company formed an association with L. Copley-Smith & Sons, who sold Copley's wools.  According to George Ingle, they were "supplying Copley-Smith with about 80% of their yarns and much of their output was hand knitting wool." By the 1930s, one of the R. V. Marriner directors was one of the Copley-Smith sons, so the two businesses were very closely linked.  During WW2, production was disrupted, and after the war, the agreement with Copley's was ended, apparently from the Copley's side.  Although R. V. Marriner had previously sold some of their knitting wools themselves, by mail order or through their own shops in Keighley, the need to find a new market for the bulk of their production led the company to start selling to yarn shops more widely.   The company started to advertise nationally and introduced knitting patterns under the Marriner's brand. 

Back to the pattern leaflets.  The earliest ad I have seen for Marriner's knitting wool appeared in 1948 and featured leaflet no. 21.  The ad emphasises that the leaflets are 'printed in natural colour', so that a knitter could see exactly what the finished garment would look like in the suggested colours.  Here is another of the earliest Marriner's leaflets, probably also from 1948, for a Lady's Jumper Coat:

Marriner's leaflet No. 6

The company played up the seafaring connotations of the family name by using a logo of a pair of knitting needles and a skein of wool, arranged to look something like a sailing boat.  The colours of the wool copy the colours in the garment - in leaflet No. 6, the skein alternates scarlet and white wool, with a bit of dark blue for the tie. 

Marriner's advertised quite widely in women's magazines and needlecraft magazines such as Pins & Needles, and almost always featured at least one pattern leaflet, which is very helpful for dating them.  Some of the leaflets in the catalogue have the message "Marriner's have been spinning wool during the reigns of nine Kings and Queens".  These must date from after the death of George VI in 1952, and tie in with the starting date of 1784, which was during the reign of George III.  That does give nine reigns (George III, George IV, William IV, Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II) - but since Greengate Mill was originally a cotton mill, the claim isn't entirely accurate.  The slogan gives a handy way of dating some of the Marriner's leaflets, though it was not used consistently, so its absence does not imply an earlier date. Another dating point is the Coronation in June 1953: leaflet 186 has a sticker on the front reading "One of the Marriner Coronation Series".  Again, the sticker was not used consistently -  another copy of the same leaflet in the KCG collection does not have it.  But we can safely say that any Marriner's leaflet with a number less than 186 was published in 1953 or earlier.  

Marriner's leaflet No. 186

The embroidered 'Hungarian Cardigan' in leaflet 186 is knitted in DK wool, and so is perhaps more accessible than many of the earlier patterns which are almost all in 3-ply wool (or even 2-ply) - a hangover from the clothes rationing period of the 1940s, when a little wool had to go a long way.  

Many of the leaflets have a black-and-white drawing inside, as well as the cover photo, showing an idealised version of the garment.  Here's a pattern for a very fancy bed jacket, with frills everywhere and stranded colour work on the yoke:

Marriner's leaflet No.107

And here is the sketch inside, showing an improbably slender woman in an elegant 1950s boudoir. 

Here's another pair of cover photo and sketch: 

Marriner's leaflet No. 133

The sweater has an unusual construction, with the sleeves knitted sideways in a twisted double rib (also used for the collar and welts).  The sketch shows a very smart 1950s sitting room, with up-to-the-minute built-in furniture. 

Copies of any of these patterns are available to KCG members - just email collections@kcguild.org.uk to ask.  The catalogue showing 69 Marriner's patterns will be available shortly on the KCG website (kcguild.org.uk).

A 1949 Sports Jersey

 

The sweater shown in the photo was donated to the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection more than 30 years ago, in 1994.   We have the matching pattern, too - in fact, probably the copy that the sweater was knitted from, though that wasn't recorded at the time of the donation.  

Don Maid leaflet no.212

The leaflet has clearly been kept folded in four for a long time, and mended with Sellotape (not a good idea for a long-lasting repair).  But the instructions are just about legible, and there isn't another copy in the collection.    

'Don Maid' was a brand of knitting wool manufactured by Donisthorpe & Co. of Leicester, a very long established spinning company, dating back to the 18^th century.  Knitting wool was a minor part of their business, starting just before World War 2 with knitting wool for children's clothes, under the label  'Little Pals'.  The company seems to have seen the end of clothes rationing in the late 1940s as an opportunity to extend their range of knitting wools and patterns and hence introduced the Don Maid brand.  

We currently have just 17 Don Maid leaflets in the KCG collection: a few children's patterns, numbered between 1 and 18, and the rest adult patterns, numbered from 201 to 246 - I suspect that the gap in numbering reflects two different ranges of numbers for children's v. adult patterns.  Don Maid leaflets aren't common, and I don't think that many were produced after no. 246, published around 1952.

Judging by the dates when Don Maid patterns with numbers close to 212 were advertised, Don Maid leaflet 212 was issued in 1949.  Our sweater is described in the leaflet as a Sports Jersey.  The pattern instructions are to knit with 2 strands of 3 ply wool, held together, making a double knitting (DK) thickness, and that is how the sweater is knitted – the two strands are easily seen in the floats on the stranded knitting sections.  I think that Don Maid knitting wool was only made in 3-ply at that time, judging by the other leaflets in the collection and Don Maid ads I have seen.  Many spinners had produced DK knitting wool before WW2, but it had disappeared during the war, and was not reintroduced until the 1950s. Even so, Donisthorpe & Co. evidently thought that a pattern for a sweater in the equivalent of DK wool would be popular - and of course would sell a lot more wool. 

The sweater is knitted on size 7 needles (4.5mm).  The body and sleeves are in brioche stitch, i.e. on a multiple of 3 stitches, plus 1:

Row 1: Slip1 purlwise, (knit 2 together, yarn over, slip 1 purlwise) to last 3 stitches, knit 2 together, slip 1 purlwise.

Row 2:  Knit 1, (yarn over, slip 1 purlwise, knit 2 together), to last 2 stitches, yarn over, slip 1 purlwise, knit 1.  

This gives a very soft, warm and squishy fabric.  

The stranded colour bands are the most noticeable feature of the sweater.  The bands round the yoke and cuffs are knitted in with the rest of the sweater, but the bands along the raglan seams are knitted separately and stitched in place when the sweater is made up. 

It was very different from most 1949 knitwear designs, and I think could be worn now, with minimal adaptation.  I have only recently studied the sweater in the KCG collection in detail and realised how distinctive and unusual it was for its time  - it's now one of my favourite pieces. 

An (Almost) A to Z of Knitting Needles, Part 2

In the last post, I showed knitting needle brands with names beginning A to M - here I'll show the second half of the alphabet.

You might think that it would be easy to find a needle brand for N, but the only ones we could find in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection are a pair of Novi needles, stamped 'Novi Norway' on the head. I assume that they were made to be sold in the UK, because the word 'Norway' is in English not Norwegian.  They are the only needles in this alphabet in a metric size, and so I think they were sold here after we adopted metric needle sizes in the 1970s. Otherwise, I don't know anything about them.  

Novi Norway needles, size 3mm, 35 cm.

O is for Ostrich. 

Ostrich needles, size 9, 12 inch

Ostrich needles were advertised in Pins and Needles magazine in 1951.  The ad says they 'are ideal in every way being made of specially finished light alloy which gives strength and lightness.'  It goes on to say that 'their grey finish is restful to the eyes'.  That might be a reason why grey knitting needles became so common in the 1950s and later, though I suspect that it was as much to do with some advantage in manufacturing.  

Ostrich needles were made by James Smith & Sons of Redditch, who had also made Double Century needles from the 1920s until the start of WW2.  Double Century needles had a steel core coated in cream plastic (always cream), and I wrote about them here.   Steel for knitting needles wasn't available during WW2, but ads in the late 1940s showed that the company was trying to start production again.  It appears that the company switched to making Ostrich needles instead - and maybe stopped making knitting needles altogether some time in the 1950s.  

  

Ad for Ostrich pins & crochet hooks, 1951

Pelican needles, size 3, 10 inch

Pelican needles - no idea about these. 

Queen Bee needles, size 7, 14 inch 

For Q, we have Queen Bee needles, made for Patons & Baldwins. They are the usual metal needles - an aluminium alloy with a grey coating.   In the 1930s, P&B advertised Beehive needles, which were plastic, in bright colours, and they were often mentioned in P&B knitting patterns.  I think that Queen Bee needles were introduced in the early 1950s, and knitting patterns often recommended both Beehive and Queen Bee needles - e.g. 'Two No. 12 and two no. 10 Beehive or Queen Bee needles, measured by the Beehive gauge', in a pattern for Patons & Baldwins wool that appeared in a newspaper in 1956.  (In fact, size 12 needles (2.75 mm.) in plastic would be quite bendy, and metal needles would be much better, though also inclined to bend. I wrote about the Patons & Baldwins beehive trademark here.

Robinoid needles were made for Robert Glew & Co. of Robin Mills, Queensbury, near Bradford, a spinning company which made Robin Brand knitting yarns.  The company first published patterns in the 1930s, and specified Robinoid knitting needles and crochet hooks.  The paper label on this pair of Robinoid needles have a 1930s look, though the needles continued to be mentioned in Robin pattern leaflets into the 1960s. The needles themselves have 'ROBINOID' and the size stamped into them, with a white filling, barely visible on the turquoise needles. 

Robinoid needles, size 6, 12 inch

I wrote about Stratnoid knitting needles in 2017 here. They were patented (you can see the patent number in the second photo below) and are made of an aluminium alloy, according to the patent.  They are shiny, rustproof and light, and are some of  my favourite needles to knit with.  In spite of those advantages, which made Stratnoid needles almost unique, in the early 1960s, the company that made them (Stratton) changed the design and made them of the same grey enamelled aluminium as many other knitting needle brands.  But you can still find the original Stratnoid needles in charity shops - they were made to last. 

Stratnoid needles, size 6, 15 inch

Tightgrip needles are made of brightly coloured plastic with a black plastic head.  It was evidently quite difficult to ensure that the head would stay on a plastic needle. 'Tightgrip' says it all.  

Tightgrip needles, size 3, 12 inch

I could not find any knitting needle brand for U, but for V we have Viyella.  Viyella was originally a wool and cotton blend woven fabric, and eventually developed into a fashion chain, but in the 1930s, the company started to produce knitting yarns, with supporting pattern leaflets. Viyella knitting needles are not common, but I suppose were intended as an additional way of advertising the brand. 

Viyella needles, size 6, 12 inch

Wimberdar is, I think, one of my favourite knitting needle names. (Stratnoid is my least favourite.)  They were made by Critchley Brothers, of Stroud, who originally made pins, but diversified into all kinds of small items made of plastic (probably casein) in the 1930s.  They had two mills near Stroud, Wimberley Mill and Dark Mill, and the names were combined to give Wimberdar.  All the Wimberdar knitting needles I have seen are plastic, in many different colours, but the company did also make metal needles under the 'Quaker Girl' brand - the usual grey enamelled aluminium.  According to Grace's Guide, the company moved into making plastic fittings for the electrical industry after WW2, and later plastic pipes for land drainage. In the 1970s, manufacture of aluminium knitting needles was abandoned (again according to Grace's Guide) - presumably this was the Quaker Girl brand, and they had already stopped making the Wimberdar plastic needles. 

No X or Y, but for Z we have Zephyr needles. There are two pairs of Zephyr needles, still with their paper wrappers, in the KCG collection.  But the name Zephyr is not marked on the needles - they only have 'GAUGE 5'  engraved into the plastic.    Plastic needles marked in that way are quite common, and usually knitting needles lose their paper wrappers.  Perhaps all plastic needles marked just 'GAUGE n' are Zephyr, or perhaps there are other makes marked in the same way - who knows? 

Zephyr needles, size 5, 12 inch

So there we have 23 needle brands, from A to Z (except U, X and Y).  Only the Novi needles are marked with a size in mm., so the others pre-date the introduction of metric sizes in the UK in the 1970s.  And I think most of these needles are much earlier, from the 1930s to 1950s.  

Some of them were made by the needle and pin manufacturers based around Redditch, the traditional centre of the trade - Duralite (Alfred Shrimpton & Son), Flora MacDonald (Abel Morrall Ltd.), Ladybird and Milward Disc (Milward's), Ostrich (James Smith & Sons).  I would also include Stratnoid, made by Stratton & Co. of Birmingham. 

When plastics were introduced and became a common material for knitting needles and crochet hooks in the 1920s and 1930s, many companies were set up to make them.  I know that Wimberdar needles were made by Critchley brothers of Stroud, but often it is very difficult to find out anything about the makers of plastic needles. The names Bonette, Ezeenit, Ivoree, Tightgrip suggest that these needles were made by manufacturers who claimed some particular advantage to their needles, reflected in the name, but I don't know who made them, or where.  

Other brands were made for manufacturers of knitting yarns, presumably as an additional way of advertising - Anlaby, Cronit, Jaeger, Queen Bee, Robinoid, Viyella - or in one case (Golden Spinning Wheel) the needles were made for a shop  

And as I have said, some brands in my alphabet I know nothing at all about  - Hella, Kirven, Pelican and Zephyr.  If you have any information about any of these brands, please let me know via the comments.  

Bridget's Blunder

Last year, I posted a rhyme, Anna's Adventure, published by Patons & Baldwins about 1946, to advise knitters on how to wash wool.   Last week, I found another P&B rhyme in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection.  "Bridget's Blunder" is about the dangers of using allegedly shrink-proof wool, other than P&B's own 'Patonised' wool.  Here it is, with a transcription below:

BRIDGET’S BLUNDER

My story tells of Bridget Whitting
Who loved both plain and fancy knitting,
But though she worked by day and night
Her efforts seldom turned out right.
Friends would say, "Cor! That jumper's posh!"
But when she'd given it a wash,
Instead of snugly fitting Bridget
It seemed more suited to a midget.
One day, when off to see her draper
She saw announced inside her paper
A brand-new wool; was she elated!
For bold as brass the maker stated
"This wool's the best that can be got,
It will not shrink, no matter what!"
So Bridget told her woolshop flat,
"I'll have a basinful of that."
And hurried home with glowing cheeks,
But couponless for weeks and weeks.
Soon willing labour bore its fruit—A salmon pinky jumpersuit,
Which Bridget wore with pride o'er-weening
Till, soiled and creased, it needed cleaning.
Said B., "It won't take half a wink,
The makers say it cannot shrink."
(But they forgot to say—the wretches!—
That wool made shrinkless sometimes stretches).
'Twas washed; the outcome nearly killed her,
It went three times round Aunt Matilda!
And looked in shade like Aunt Euphemia
Who suffers from acute anaemia.
"That's finished it," wept B., "I'm quitting,
I'm through for good and all with knitting;
I'll write at once to my M.P.
About this dire calamity."
Her tale was penned 'midst groans and hisses,
—The M.P. showed it to his Mrs.
Who said, "That girl should be advised
To stick to wool that's Patonised,
Which, used with reasonable care
Will wash and wash, and wear and wear;
Trust P & B, the leading spinners
Only to turn out certain winners.
Just tell her she's a chump to quit
When there's such lovely wool to knit."
B. took the tip, no longer weeps;
That M.P.'s in his seat for keeps! 

The poem appeared in The Nursery World 1st Knitting Book, published I think in 1946, like "Anna's Adventure".  Even after the war was over, clothes rationing in Britain continued until 1949, so the reference to being "couponless for weeks and weeks" after buying enough wool for a jumpersuit is no exaggeration - in fact, I doubt if anyone could afford the coupons for that much wool more than once a year, and even then it would be your main clothes purchase.

I suspect that the shrinkproof wool that stretched in the first wash might have been intended to refer to Emu wool.  Emu started to appear in ads from 1943 (possibly earlier) with the slogan "Knit with Emu and stop thinking about shrinking".  One ad claimed: Emu is the result of scientific research into wool shrinkage.  It is made permanently unshrinkable and easy washing by a secret process called "emunising". I assumed that emunising and Patonising were more or less the same process, but perhaps not.   And in any case, if Patons & Baldwins were indeed referring to Emu wools in "Bridget's Blunder", it didn't do the brand much harm - Emu Wools were very successful, and remained so until the 1980s.  The company was eventually taken over by Thomas B Ramsden (makers of Wendy, Robin and Twilleys yarns), who relaunched Emu Superwash Wool in 2005 (though it seems to have been since discontinued).  So shrinkproof Emu wool evidently had a long and distinguished career.

I wonder if there are any more P&B rhymes from the late 1940s still to be found?  We have had A for Anna's Adventure and B for Bridget's Blunder - was there a C, D, ...?   If you know of one, please let me know.

Crochet Gloves

On Saturday, I went to Lincoln with a suitcase of some of my favourite pieces from the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection, to show them to the local Guild branch. I shan't write about most of them here, though one that has already had a post to itself is the "Victorious Peace" tea cosy -
an obvious choice as it has the date 1919 worked into the filet crochet, so this is its centenary year.

I also took a few crocheted gloves, which I think are fascinating.  I don't ever want to wear a pair, but they represent the way that women once wanted to look.  Once upon a time, ladies were not properly dressed out of doors without a hat and gloves.  In winter, gloves had an additional function in keeping hands warm, but in summer, they had to be cool and preferably light coloured.  In the 1940s and 50s, patterns appeared for summer gloves crocheted in cotton. We have many of the patterns, and at least a dozen pairs of the gloves, in the collection. 

Here are two pairs I showed on Saturday: a white pair with a very open pattern of ovals on the back of the hand and the fingers, and around the cuffs. 

 And a pale blue pair with a pattern of trefoils around the cuffs, and crochet buttons to fasten them - I think these are delightful.

In a few cases, we have managed to match a pair of gloves to a pattern.  Here's a late 1940s Bestway pattern, and a pair of gloves to the same pattern.

Bestway 2014

My favourite patterns for these gloves show the ideal look that the gloves were intended to complement.  Coats leaflet 298 is an example - it shows a sketch of a lady in a sort of New Look outfit, wearing the gloves that you could make from the pattern.

Coats 298

 
Inside are further sketches of various ladylike activities which would be enhanced by the gloves - drinking champagne, smoking a cigarette (in a holder, of course),....  All with a smartly dressed (no doubt rich and handsome) escort.

And Coats Book No. 405, with several patterns for crochet gloves, sets out what a pair of crochet gloves would offer: "Paris or Penrith, country or town, feminine fancy dictates crochet gloves for summer chic.  The 'finger tip-top' smartness of fashionable gloves in crochet gives that groomed, well dressed, finish to spring suit or summer ensemble.  Elegance, daintiness, delicacy, youthfulness -- take your choice from these inexpensive 'made-to-treasure' gloves."

Coats Book No. 405

They would certainly be inexpensive to make (if you are skilled with a crochet hook, which I'm not).  They are totally impractical for everyday activities, but they could look very pretty with a floaty dress at a summer wedding.  (Again, not for me.) 

If you'd like to try making a pair, and you are a member of the Knitting & Crochet Guild, the Coats booklet is available to download from the Membership area of the Guild website. (And if you're not a member, you could join - membership is open to anyone.)

From Coats Book No. 405