Mini-Skirts and Mod Style: a Selection of Knitting Patterns from 1960-1969

This post is the seventh on my series of posts on 20th century knitting patterns (you can find the other posts in the series here) and contains a selection of ten patterns dating from 1960 to 1969. It was surprisingly difficult to find patterns for this post. The first post in this series, for 1900-1909, took more time than any post I've written for this blog because there were so few Edwardian patterns available of any description, and so few were wearable by modern standards, but the posts have gotten easier and easier to find by the decade. I assumed the post for the sixties would be a snap, especially since Mad Men, a show about a New York advertising business in the 1960s, has renewed interest in sixties style. I had no problem at all finding material for my post on Mad Men knitting projects. But as it turned out, there just weren't that many sixties-era patterns available online. The web sites I've been depending on to find patterns for previous posts in this series all have collections that end with the fifties. I don't know why. Could it be that there were just fewer patterns available from then, as crafting went into a downturn during the sixties and the seventies? Or perhaps the patterns are just generally less appealing to knitters. I know I don't generally care for sixties fashions myself; I find the styles from the first half of the decade too staid and the fashions from the second half just plain ugly. However, I kept searching until I found ten patterns that I consider presentable and here they are.

The checked man's pullover above is the first pattern, which was published in Eva Breit magazine in January 1961. And the pattern is free. The one drawback is that the pattern is in Dutch and the odds are you don't read Dutch. However, I dared to include it because Google translate does what seemed to me on a quick read through to be an amazingly good job of translating the instructions, and I think a good knitter can manage to figure out what is not a terribly complicated pattern. Again, I had quite a hard time finding patterns for this post.

This simple sleeveless top is another Eva Breit magazine pattern from its January 1961, that again is in Dutch and must be translated.

I can't get over how not-knitted this Houndstooth Jacket looks. The aim of much early sixties knitting seems to have been to make knitted garments that didn't look knitted. There was a lot of fine gauge stockinette involved. This is another Eva Breit magazine Dutch-language pattern from January 1961.

This Nordic-Style Ski Sweater originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 1963 issue of Vogue Knitting, and can now be found in Vogue Knitting Vintage Collection: Classic Knits from the 1930s-1960s.

This Natural Beauty pattern may be my favourite in the entire post. It was originally published in The Australian Women's Weekly in October 1964, and is available for free.

I love the shape of this Mohair Bag, and the fact that it's mohair, but it might be a little too large in scale for a modern woman's taste. However, it should be easy to scale it down to whatever size you wish. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in June 1965 and is available for free.

This Long Leggy Gear pattern for lace stockings appears to have been knitted in white, but I'd suggest that you knit them in another colour, such as anything but white. Grown women just can't get away with white stockings. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in March 1966 and is available for free.

This Zipper Jacket and Cap is a Patons Australia pattern from 1968, and is a free pattern. I'd advise against making that hat, but the jacket is quite sharp and mod.

The At The Park design is quite cute, though it should probably lengthened for wear today and I see it in a variegated yarn and coordinating solid colour yoke rather than in black and white. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in September 1968 and is available for free.

This knitted dress with lacy panels is a nice little number that would look quite timely today, though again you may want to lengthen it somewhat. This pattern originally appeared in The Australian Women's Weekly in May 1969 and is available for free.