Knitting patterns

Our good friend Sarah Berry gave us some knitting patterns she had acquired from the estate of an old family friend in Wales. These patterns span the period from austerity in the 1950s (maybe even earlier) up to the 1980s.

For the most part, these are single sheets and on good quality paper (intended to survive the rigours of the domestic knitting process). Most have a picture on one side, always photographs, and the pattern on the other. The picture is taken usually in a studio with a suitably impressive backdrop, and in colour, but some are black and white. Almost all are undated, presumably so they had a longer shelflife and weren’t seen as ‘last year’s fashion’. The prices of the sheets vary, from as little as 3d to as much as a shilling (before going into decimal after 1971). Whether ‘old money’ or new, this can help us date some of the patterns.

Sorting the collection turned out to be an excellent education. I had no idea just how many different brands of wool there were – here, at least 25. It gets even more complicated when companies combine (as Lister and Lee did), and when they start to use brand names. Carter and Parker, who had the Wendy brand, also used the Peter Pan brand as well.

These sheets are excellent advertising for the different wool companies. We can learn when (roughly) each of the companies were trading and where they tried to locate themselves in a saturated market. Bestway, for instance, are all small format (roughly A5), mostly black and white, and I’m not sure whether this is an austerity measure or a deliberate marketing strategy. The photography, while in some cases most certainly cheesy, is excellent for helping us place fashions of the times and also to help us identify social norms, for example, men posing smoking cigarettes or pipes. I suspect that knitting was an activity exclusively of working-class women in the time period covered here, and a means of creating clothing at much less cost than buying the ready-made equivalent at shop prices. So, maybe these patterns aren’t for the latest high-end fashions – although, interestingly, amongst our collection is one issue of Vogue-Knit, a spin-off from Vogue. Whoever was doing the knitting, many of these patterns have been well used for their intended purpose, some with corrections and notes pencilled in.

Some of the bigger wool companies started periodicals, a very useful way to promote their brands and offer suggestions for new skills or styles as well as to provide compendiums of patterns. We have five issues of Stitchcraft, for example, published by Paton’s. The Stitchcrafts we have go back to the austerity of the 1950s (none is dated), with ‘This book is produced in complete conformity with the Authorised Economy Standards’ stated on the back page of the first few. We have three copies of Paton and Baldwin’s Woolcraft too, all, I think, from the 1950s and 1960s.

To close, our favourite pattern is surely the Strutt’s ‘man’s health vest in luxury finish’. Using ‘dishcloth cotton’, this ‘health vest’ is modelled by a young man posing with lit cigarette and not a shred of self-consciousness. The pay must have been good.

For the record, we have the following patterns and periodicals. I’ve lumped them together by associated manufacturer and brands:

Patterns

Ardfinnan (1) 

Bairns-Wear, Bairnswear (2)

Baldwin and Walker, Babyship (1)

Bestway, Lee, Copley (17)

William Briggs, Penelope (1)

Carter and Parker, Wendy, Peter Pan (16)

Emu (17)

Hayfield (3)

Jaegar (1)

King Cole (1)

Lister, Lister-Lee Target, Lister Listrada, Lavenda, Dorette (25)

Marriner (3)

Maygroves, Maya (1)

Paton and Baldwin, Beehive, Paton’s, P&B (25)

Regency Wools of Ireland (1)

Robin Wools (Robert Glew) (7)

Samband of Iceland, Viking Wools (1)

Sirdar (9)

Strutt’s, Strutt’s Milford (2)

Studley (1)

Templeton’s (4)

Viyella Viyellon (1)

Weldon’s (11)

Weston-Webb, Cronit (2)

Wolsey, Noptex (2)

Periodicals:

Dorette Knitting Book (1)

Family Knitting (1)

Mon Tricot (1)

Stitchcraft (5)

Vogue-Knit (1)

Weldon’s Practical Needlework (1)

Wendy’s Home Oddments (1)

Woolcraft (3)