Woollen Stockings

I was looking through some Stitchcraft magazines in the Knitting & Crochet guild collection and came across this striking image of disembodied legs walking downstairs.

Very surreal.  (The apparent tear in the bottom left corner is actually part of the image.)

Model legs like these are still used in shops selling tights and stockings (e.g. John Lewis) so the only question is how the legs were positioned like that.  It is a very bizarre illustration for a knitting pattern though.

The legs appeared in the January 1941 issue of Stitchcraft, more than a year after the start of World War 2 as far as Britain was concerned.  There were bombing raids against British cities every night that winter, though there is little mention of that in the magazine.  But the bombing must have exacerbated fuel shortages (through damage to gas mains, for instance) so keeping warm must have been difficult. Hence Stitchcraft's pattern for knitted stockings.

The introduction to the the pattern says:

"Who would ever have thought that in the year 1941 we should be wearing good warm woollen stockings? Yet so it is, and what fun they are—as dotty and amusing as can be. Gather up all the bright odds and ends of wool you can lay hands on and set to work. By this time you will have had good practice at turning heels after knitting all those socks for the forces, so you should have no qualms about making a good job of these." 

This implies that before the war, women didn't wear woollen stockings.  So what did they wear?  There were silk stockings, but they were expensive and not very warm, I should think, so what did ordinary women for everyday wear in the winter?   

Back to the pattern.  The stockings are knitted on two needles, except for the toe, which is knitted in the round and then grafted.  The leg and top of the foot are knitted in one piece, with a seam up the back of the leg.  The heel, sole and toe are in a different colour in the illustration and are knitted afterwards, with a seam along each side of the instep.  The construction means that it would be easy to replace the foot part of the stocking when it wore out.

The diamonds on the legs of the grey stockings are knitted in a combination of intarsia and stranded knitting.  The blue pair have embroidered clocks either side of the ankle.

There are several other knitting patterns in the magazine, including the jacket on the cover.

Stitchcraft magazine, January 1941.

There are patterns for two "Service Woollies", a sleeveless pullover for a woman, and a polo-neck jumper for a man.

Woman's WW2 Service Woollie 

Man's WW2 Service Woollie

There are a few other 'civilian' knits too, including this pretty jumper in a openwork design.

Although Stitchcraft was a Patons & Baldwins magazine, so its main focus was on patterns using P&B wools, it had a cookery page at that time as well.   And in January 1941, the cookery editor addressed air raids directly, giving recipes for fillings for sandwiches to take into the shelter:

Air raids, unpleasant as they are, offer a good opportunity for an enterprising and valiant woman to show the stuff she is made of. For there is no doubt about it that a little light refreshment does help to pass the time while a raid is going on. Some people are spending a considerable time in shelters, and the packing of a provision basket may need a little thought. There is not only one's own family to be considered, for it is surprising how soon one gets to know people in a shelter, and the offer of a sandwich may prove to be the start of a pleasant friendship. Even in the lower regions of your own house, you will find yourself popular if you can produce something unexpected in the food line. Speaking for myself, I try to see that there is always soup ready in the larder, for this is a great restorative when one has gone through a time of strain. In our cellar we have a shelf on which I keep two small saucepans, a spirit stove, bottle of methylated spirit, matches, tin opener, cardboard plates, unbreakable cups, Oxo cubes, Ovaltine, and so on, and it is only a matter of moments to heat soup or milk. We find time goes much more quickly if we have a little meal to take our attention off the sound of planes or bombs. Another tin holds bars of chocolate, and every morning I make a thermos full of coffee, and this we drink, raid or no raid. So here are a few suggestions, some suitable for a picnic meal in an outside shelter, others for use in one's own house. Some good sandwich fillings to start with, as the useful sandwich certainly leads the way in popularity. 

It was a terrible time, we shouldn't forget.

There is an edited version of the magazine on the Knitting & Crochet Guild website (only the pages with the knitting patterns - if you'd like to try the liver and parsley sandwich filling, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed).  Guild members can access it by going to Membership, then Pattern Downloads, then Stitchcraft Magazines and Booklets. 

November 1947

This is one of an occasional series in which I look back at a past issue of Stitchcraft.  So here I'm looking back 70 years, to November 1947.

Stitchcraft magazine, November 1947

Although the war had been over for two years, there were still severe shortages of many things, apparently, and clothes rationing was still in force.  But perhaps it was easing up a little - earlier issues of Stitchcraft suggested ways to recycle wool unravelled from old jumpers, but this issue expects you to buy new wool.

Christmas was coming, of course, so the front cover has an angora bolero to wear "For a Winter Party". (I must show the heading for its exuberant use of three different fonts in four words:)

And the back cover of the magazine has a nice twinset in a complicated stitch pattern, knitted in 2-ply.  You only needed 10 oz. (285 gm.) for both the cardigan and the short-sleeved jumper - they weren't being extravagant with their clothing coupons. 

From Stitchcraft magazine, November 1947

 Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern:

There are two more sweaters for women, and a charming little twin-set for a small child.

 For men, there are patterns for gloves and a smart pair of socks.

From Stitchcraft magazine, November 1947

And, with Christmas presents in mind, there are two patterns for soft toys.  They are called, I have no idea why, the Despondent Tiger and the Poetical Bull.  (Each toy requires nearly as much wool as the twinset, so the pattern does suggest using unravelled wool here.)

Earlier issues of Stitchcraft, such as this one from December 1941, had a cookery column.  That seems to have been abandoned by 1947.  And although there was usually quite a lot of sewing, embroidery, and other needlecrafts apart from knitting and crochet, both before and after the war, the November 1947 issue has only one item that isn't knitted - a cushion cover in applique and cross stitch.

But for a knitter, there is a lot to appeal.  I might even try the sock pattern. 

Members of the Knitting & Crochet Guild can download a pdf of this issue of Stitchcraft from the members' section of the Guild website. 

Christmas 1941

Stitchcraft, December 1941

75 years ago, Britain had been at war for more than two years, and on the home front, life was difficult.  Food and clothes were rationed, so Christmas could have been cheerless and miserable. But magazines like Stitchcraft tried to show readers how to make the best of things. The December 1941 Stitchcraft  had a bright and stylish jumper on the cover - it took just 12 oz. (340g.) of 4-ply (fingering) wool, and 1 oz. of contrast.  The magazine also offered a pattern for a sleeveless V-neck pullover for "one of your friends in the Forces", as well as two more knitting patterns for women -- another jumper and a cardigan.

An ad in the magazine illustrates the advantage of knitting your own clothes.  Greenwoods of Huddersfield would supply the wool to knit any of the patterns in the magazine, or would knit them for you.  The wool to knit the cover jumper cost 9/5½ (9 shillings and five pence ha'penny - about 47½p, directly translated into decimal coinage).  But as well as the money, you had to send in 6 of your clothing coupons.  Alternatively, they would supply it "completely hand-knit and ready to wear" for 25 shillings (£1.25) and 8 coupons.  So if you knitted the jumper yourself, you saved a lot of money, and 2 clothing coupons. As the war went on (and after the war too), clothes rationing became more severe, with fewer coupons issued to each person.  Knitting for yourself and your family was essential, to eke out the precious clothing coupons.  

Stitchcraft at that time had a cookery article in each issue, and in December 1941 it was of course about Christmas cookery - or how to cope with limited supplies of everything you might have thought essential.  There's a recipe for an Excellent Wartime Cake, with no eggs, and a Holiday Pudding, described as "a war-time substitute for our usual Christmas pudding - not the rich, fruit-laden affair of former days, but quite a good one, and far more digestible!"   Both the cake and the pudding contain raisins - it seems surprising that they were still available at all, as they were imported, but clearly supplies were much more limited than before the war.

Christmas present giving was not forgotten either - several pages of the magazine are devoted to ideas for gifts, largely made from oddments of wool and scraps of fabric.  There are needle cases, pin-cushions like cacti in pots, a soft toy fox terrier, and an egg cosy "for the monthly egg".   To be honest, these knick-knacks mostly do look like something made out of oddments, though the gloves and scarves would be very acceptable.  And the jumper, cardigan and pullover patterns are appealing, even today.  Overall, the magazine did a very good job of encouraging Christmas cheer.

A merry Christmas to us all.

A Popular Pattern

There are tens of thousands of pattern leaflets in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection, but I sometimes wonder whether some of them were ever actually made.  I don't just mean the horrors like knitted patchwork trousers - some of the designs that look quite stylish now might not have actually appealed to knitters at the time.  In most cases, all we know is that the leaflet was published - we don't know how many copies were sold.  Sometimes, we can tell that a copy in the collection has been used, and maybe the knitter has written on it (e.g. these), so we know that at least one copy of that leaflet was sold.  But occasionally we know that a pattern did catch on, and sold very well.

Stitchcraft, March 1954

One pattern that we know sold well was first published in Stitchcraft magazine, not as a leaflet - it was the cover design in March 1954.  Then in May 1954, Stitchcraft carried an ad saying:

Knitted blazers with the "Bulky  Look" are all the rage,  When this P & B design was featured on the front cover of March Stitchcraft it was so popular that all the copies sold out in two days.  For this reason you may have been unable to obtain the pattern.  So many women have asked for it that we have rushed out a special colour booklet (C-786) covering this blazer.

The blazer is not what we would call bulky now - it is knitted in DK yarn, on sizes 9 and 11 needles  (3.75mm. and 3mm.)  The stitch is quite textured, though, which would make it thicker than stocking stitch.

And twenty years later, the pattern was issued again, in Patons' All Time Greats booklet - I assume because it had been such a good seller first time round.

From All Time Greats

It's a smart blazer, but I can't say I want to knit it - especially not in white, such an impractical colour.  But maybe its time will come again.

And while looking through the issues of Stitchcraft from 1954, I found another of the originals of the All Time Greats designs - the cover design was taken from the February 1954 Stitchcraft.  I guess that it had also been a popular pattern in 1954.  It's very elegant - and I like the way that the stylist has found a pavement of pink, grey and white tiles to pose the model against.  But it's a lot of plain stocking stitch in fine yarn - not so popular these days as it was in the 1950s.    

Stitchcraft, February 1954

French Knitting

Stitchcraft was a monthly magazine published by Patons & Baldwins that first appeared in October 1932.  In the first few years, the magazine had a Paris correspondent, Ann Talbot, who wrote every month about the hand-knitting and crochet in the models designed by the Paris fashion houses. (Not just sweaters and accessories - evidently a lot of the dresses were hand-knitted in the 1930s.)  I have been looking through her articles in the early issues of Stitchcraft in the Guild collection, for a piece I am writing for the Guild magazine.  In the May 1933 issue, a paragraph  on what Ann Talbot calls cotton-reel knitting caught my eye - it's what I used to call French knitting and we now call i-cord:

Old-fashioned tubular cotton-reel "knitting" is being enthusiastically revived in Paris at the moment. Charming accents of colour are achieved by trimming with this original handwork. Quite a brisk, military air is given to a navy woollen frock by the epaulette trimming of two rows of cotton-reel tubing, one red, the other white, along the top of each shoulder. Wool fringe in red and white is frayed out at each outer end of the tubes. Cuffs and necklines are effectively trimmed in this way, and belts of varying widths, depending upon the diameter and number of tubes used, give an unusual touch to sport coats and frocks. Striped and plaid effects are frequently worked into a tube, for both stripes and plaids are very much to the fore in the new collections. 

And here is Ann Talbot's drawing of two of the outfits, including the frock with epaulettes that she describes:

I think that the two rows of tubing above the elbow look a bit daft, actually, but never mind.

I explained here how we used to do French knitting using a cotton reel.  It's interesting that Ann Talbot calls it old-fashioned - and I wonder when it started to be called French knitting.  I-cord, which is instead knitted on a pair of double-pointed needles, produces the same effect (more quickly). Elizabeth Zimmermann gave it the name i-cord (for idiot cord, because it is easy to do).  She always claimed to have 'unvented' or re-discovered any apparently new technique (not because she knew of an earlier source, I think, but because she thought that it was impossible to invent an entirely new idea in knitting).   Several websites suggest that she did invent the technique of producing a cord on two needles, but Jean Greenhowe tracked down an early description in a book printed in 1856, in an account of how to knit stay-laces - see here.  So EZ did unvent the i-cord technique, rather than inventing it.  

Anyway, back to Paris in the 1930s.  I imagine that the cords decorating the two models illustrated are sewn in place.  These days, if we used i-cord around a neckline, it would more likely be knitted in place, e.g. by picking up stitches around the edge and knitting them into the i-cord.   For instance, Ann Kingstone's Wetwang sweater has applied i-cord at the top and bottom edges of the yoke.   In  spite of Elizabeth Zimmermann's nothing-new-in-knitting theory, I do suspect that someone invented applied i-cord, fairly recently - don't know who or when though. Any information gratefully received.

The Man with the Golden Cardigan

As it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, there is a lot of discussion of 1952 in the media, so why don't I join in?  One thing that was happening in 1952 in knitting only became noteworthy later  -  Roger Moore was at the peak of his career as a model for knitting patterns, before switching to acting.  The move worked out very well for him, of course, even if it was a loss to knitting.  The Stitchcraft Men's Book appeared in that year, I believe, and he featured in most of the 1952 issues of Stitchcraft, including two front covers.

He looks very young (he was about 25) and really pretty good - male models of later decades often look ridiculous now (bad hair, dreadful moustaches and/or too much fake tan).

What looks most dated is that he is often posed with a cigarette or a pipe.  It seems quite shocking now to see a model smoking.  And I associate pipe-smoking with much older men, though perhaps it wasn't like that in 1952.

Busy as a Bee

I have been looking at some Patons and Baldwins patterns from the 1930s that use a thick wool called Totem.  The recommended tension is of course a guide to how thick the yarn is, but I wanted to check whether the needle sizes corresponded to modern sizes, so I have borrowed a Patons and Baldwins Beehive knitting gauge.  (The beehive was the Baldwins trademark before the two companies merged in 1920.)

It is actually made of shiny metal (steel, I assume) though that doesn't  show very much in the photo. I tested several pairs of needles that are marked with the standard British sizes (before we switched to millimeters) and the sizes on the gauge do seem to correspond exactly.   You'll see that the gauge goes as far as size 19.  Size 14 is 2 mm, size 16 is 1.5mm.  I don't have any needles beyond that where the size is marked, but the finest of my Eureka needles, which I think are 1mm diameter, are probably a 19 (don't fit in the 18 slot, fit comfortably in the 19 slot).   But that end of the scale is a bit ethereal and not for everyday knitting.

Back to Totem.  The front cover of the December 1935 Stitchcraft magazine shows a jumper in Totem, "an attractive affair in thick wool".

  

It is knitted on No. 3 (6.5mm) and No. 5 (5.5mm) needles, at a tension of 4 stitches to the inch. That seems to be between Aran and chunky, in modern terms.  I used to think that thick wool was introduced only in the 1950s, but in fact, it was re-introduced then.  As this pattern shows, knitters were using thick knitting wool in the 1930s, but during World War II it went out of production in Britain.  When clothes rationing was in force (between 1941 and 1949), a jumper like this would have used so many coupons that no-one could have afforded to buy the yarn.  Fine wool allowed you to knit a whole jumper for very few coupons.

Shopping in a Crochet Dress

Back in March, I wrote about the Hand Made Tales exhibition at the Women's Library in London - here's the link to my post.  One of the items in the exhibition was a copy of Stitchcraft from March 1965, and the caption said that the dress featured on the front was designed by Eve Sandford, a knitwear designer who had fulfilled a long-standing ambition to have one of her designs on the cover of Stitchcraft. 

Stitchcraft, March 1965

That issue of Stitchcraft has now come to light at Lee Mills, so I can show Eve Sandford's design.  It turns out that it is actually crocheted not knitted, but I suppose I shouldn't be prejudiced against it for that reason. The man is wearing a knitted cardigan, and it looks as though they have been shopping.  He seems to have bought a barometer, and what looks like a bronze statuette.   I can't work out what she has bought - it isn't very heavy, evidently.  There are green leaves sprouting out of the top of the bag, and possibly a trowel handle.  Maybe they have been to a garden centre combined with the 1965 equivalent of an antiques fleamarket.

He is clearly very proud of his new barometer, because he is next shown posing next to it - he has found a good place to hang it in their house.  The cardigan is very smart - just the thing for weekend shopping in the mid sixties, with a knitted tie.

 










Later, they go to a drinks party, and he swaps his cardi outfit for a jacket, and a less casual shirt and tie, whereas she decides that the dress is smart enough for day-into-evening wear. (I think she should have added some jewellery though.) They appear to be swapping opinions on the other guests - not very sociable.



Given the fashions of the time, the dress seems to me a successful design.  Although it now looks too long (to me anyway), the below-knee straight shift dress was very current in the mid-sixties - Mary Quant was only just beginning to introduce the mini-dress that we tend to think of as typical of the whole decade, and Stitchcraft readers would not have been trend-setters.   I think Eve Sandford was quite justified in feeling proud of her achievement.

Christmas 1940

A friend read that I recently bought a 1934 copy of Stitchcraft magazine, and sent me a Stitchcraft from December 1940 that she found amongst her mother's things. So exciting! It gives a fascinating view of how people in this country were living at that point in World War II.

There are patterns for two jumpers, including the one on the cover, and some small items suitable for Christmas presents. Clothes rationing was not introduced until 1941, though I assume that materials were already in short supply. There are frequent mentions of using up small quantities of wool, as in the coloured cables in the cover jumper.

The magazine had a continuing feature on knitting for men and women in the services. The Dec 1940 issue has a balaclava helmet. The pattern is for two sizes, to fit both men and women, though it must be said that even with make-up, it's hard to make a balaclava look glamorous.

In the same feature, there is a pattern for a pair of mittens with two layers, an inner layer knitted in wool and an outer layer crocheted in string. The idea is that the string layer gives a good grip on wet ropes, etc. on board ship. Quite ingenious, I suppose, though it makes me think of how dreadful it would have been to be on deck in a North Atlantic storm in midwinter, with U-boats after you.

There is also an ad for Lux soap flakes with a nice photo of a smartly dressed young woman wearing trousers and carrying her gas mask case, with the caption "Prepare for action in this cosy knitted Norfolk jacket". You could send off for a free pattern for the jacket. It's knitted in camel hair wool for warmth and softness, though you would think that camel hair might have been hard to find by then.

Stitchcraft had a cooking column, too, though it seems a bit outside its remit.  In this issue, it is mainly concerned with how to do your Christmas baking without the ingredients you would normally consider essential, like eggs, butter and sugar.  There is a recipe for a Christmas cake "using no eggs or sugar". It uses a small quantity of margarine or lard instead of butter, and some black treacle and quite a lot of dried fruit for sweetening - a very meagre mixture.

Alongside, there is a half-page ad from the Ministry of Food, exhorting people to eat healthily, by eating lots of the vegetables we can grow in this country, with small quantities of protein. A sort of medieval peasant diet, with added potatoes. I especially like the little rhyme:

Those who have the will to win

Eat potatoes in their skin

Knowing that the sight of peelings

Deeply hurts Lord Woolton's feelings.

Lord Woolton was the Minister of Food at the time, famous for giving his name to Woolton pie, consisting of vegetables mixed with a little oatmeal and with a pastry topping, which sounds very bland and stodgy. He would have been very pleased at the current popularity of baked potatoes, I suppose, though the fillings available now would have been far too rich for 1940.

I wonder if Sue's mother ever made any of the things featured in this magazine?

Tea at the Vicarage

At the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, I bought a copy of Stitchcraft from September 1934.  Amongst other things, it has several knitting patterns, almost all for clothes for (young, slim) women. There's one outfit for a toddler, but otherwise no men or children to be seen. The fashion then was to wear a close-fitting top with a long slender skirt, and many of the knitting patterns for jumpers look almost wearable today, except that they are probably too short for most of us - they are only 18 in. long.

There is also a charming ad for Patons and Baldwins knitting wools, entitled "Heard at the Vicarage sewing party". Alison, Janet and Enid are discussing the jumpers they are wearing. (It's a Knit and Natter session, in fact.) 
They are obviously intended to look (to a 1934 reader) young and fashionable, as they admire each other's handiwork, as well as the Patons and Baldwins' patterns and yarns.

Janet: ..... Patons & Baldwins never design stodgy styles. How do you like the bright idea I'm wearing now?
Alison: Lovely, dear. What pretty little cape sleeves! But you know I'm all for cosiness, so this long-sleeved style is more suitable for me.
Janet:  Well, the squiggly white hairs all over do make it attractive.

And so on...  (No idea what the "squiggly white hairs" are - the yarn is called Kempy.)

I think that the whole magazine is aimed at young women aspiring to be fashionable, though it's a bit difficult to grasp that the styles they feature were once the latest thing.  For instance, it's suggested that you could make a dressing table set with the free embroidery transfer, and it is just the sort of thing that would have appealed to my Grandma.

And elsewhere there is a puzzling piece about what an "older schoolgirl" could wear, by the magazine's Paris Correspondent. (Stitchcraft had a Paris Correspondent!)     "With the older school-girl in mind, I asked Anny Blatt to choose two models from her collection of knitted frocks".  The suggested outfits look very smart, though you wouldn't think of them as suitable for a teenager (especially as most girls then left school at 14).