Look at the Knitting Pattern, Not the Styling

When assessing knitting patterns one has to ignore the styling. Yes, a team of professionals have made a certain pattern look appealing because the very attractive model wearing it appears to be, say, sailing down the Riviera, lounging elaborately in a deck chair, and is being fed chocolate truffles by a very handsome, adoring man, but you don't sail, you've never even been to France, chocolate gives you hives, the man in your life may adore you but he hardly ever notices what you wear, and you're not 5'10" and 115 pounds. You need to think about whether that sweater is going to fit and flatter you, whether it'll work with your existing wardrobe and be suitable for the climate where you live, and whether you can wear it to your specific workplace or out to the pub with friends. In short, you need to refuse to buy into the fantasy the stylist is trying to sell you, and to be realistic about whether the pattern will work for you.

In the cases where a photo is styled in an unattractive or dated way, you still need to look beyond the styling when you're assessing a pattern. This is actually quite a nice late sixties- or early seventies-era pattern that is perfectly wearable by today's standards, and that some knitters might dismiss without even really looking at it because the photo looks so silly and dated. I wouldn't make this top in these colours, but instead would choose a yarn and beads that were analogous (say, pale blue and lavender), and I would think about whether I have enough neck for a turtleneck. (If I were you, that is, because I know I don't have sufficient neck for this style.)

But of course before or after you've assessed this pattern, you'll want to take a minute to laugh at this cracked-out photo, because it looks like a still from some avant-garde horror movie where the character (and the audience) can't decide whether she really saw whatever it is she's looking at or whether she hallucinated it and needs to stop abusing her prescription meds. Or to declaim some sort of free-form, obscurely self-referential poem. I don't know which.

We're Going to Go Back, Way Back, Back in Time... and Steal Their Knitting Patterns

If you love vintage patterns, I recommend you pay a visit to Free Vintage Knitting, a web site containing a library of vintage knitting patterns, all free for the downloading. There are many, many patterns in their archive already, and the collection is only going to keep growing. If you enjoy the website and would like to give back by contributing to it, you can do so by donating your own old leaflets and pattern books to the site operators. Here are just a few of their patterns that caught my eye, with links.

A Vera Cruz dress. This could look quite contemporary if done in a different colour. Or even if done in a similar turquoise yarn from a modern dye lot. The dyes used date garments astoundingly. Dyeing technology has changed radically and the dyes from the sixties and seventies are always unmistakable.

Smart and classic cardigan. You'll be able to wear this one as long as it fits and holds together.

I like the striking effect of the cording on the front, but I would update this cardigan's shape a little by making it longer with a little waist-shaping and loosening the crew neck. The fit looks a little too prim here, like something a little old lady would wear because it's what she used to wear when she was young.

Socks with fancy tops used to be, to use a historically contemporary expression, all the rage back in the twenties through the fifties. We don't see them now, which is a shame.

Really pretty and striking little girl's sweater.

Very smart little boy's sweater.

This tiger-striped afghan isn't attractive at all in this colourway, but I can see it looking really sharp in a cream with black stripes.

The More We Knit, the More Things Stay the Same

If you love vintage knitting patterns like I do, you might want to check out Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions. This online store, which ships internationally, carries a vast selection of knitting, crochet and other needlework pattern and instruction books reproduced from original patterns dating from 1850 to 1950. The reproductions appear to be quite high quality as the store owner goes to a lot of effort to restore the appearance of the very old and often very worn and fragile original patterns. And the prices aren't unreasonable. The highest-priced book I've seen so far was under $25, and there are many booklets selling for under $10.

Even if you don't knit, or even if you do but have sworn on your own grave to NOT buy any more knitting patterns because you have so many already and your project list is already insanely long, if you are at all interested in what people wore in the first half of the twentieth century, this site is a must-see because of the array of beautiful photos for each of the many booklet offered for sale. I've barely begun to explore the listed titles, and so far I've seen patterns for Victorian outfits for 18" dolls, Edwardian capes, flapper-style beaded bags, thirties sports wear, and forties swing coats that are all perfectly usable by today's standards. And I've discovered one book containing a pattern for the famous fair isle worn by King Edward VIII.

Live and Let Knit

If you love vintage knitting and crochet patterns, you might like to check out Re Knitting, the blog of a retired West Yorkshire woman named Barbara who for the past two years has been helping to sort and catalogue the U.K. Knitting and Crochet Guild’s collection of magazines, pattern booklets, pattern leaflets and other publications. Barbara has posted about some of her finds among this collection, which are sometimes drool-worthy, sometimes hilarious, and always interesting. She’s come across such evocative knitting artifacts as: patterns for delicately crocheted WWI-era patriotic tea cosies and milk jug covers; the WWII-era official guide to knitting for the army; instructions for crocheting your own 1920's cloché out of paper; patterns for 1930’s bathing suits, a pattern for very mod Mary Quant sweater dresses; patterns for sweaters commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s 1977 Jubilee celebration; and patterns documenting Roger Moore's pre-James Bond career as a knitwear model.

Not All Vintage is Good Vintage

This isn't one of those vintage knitting patterns one drools over and that makes one reflect on some supposed decline in craftsmanship or aesthetics. This is one of those knitting patterns one has to view in the proper historical context: as the perfect thing for a miserable, Valium-addicted housewife to make her closeted gay husband. I understand these "string vests", also known as "Norwegian string vests" because they were first invented by a Norwegian Army Commandant in 1933, supposedly have heating and cooling properties, because they trap air between the meshes. My guess is they also work well as a form of birth control, because if a man strips down in front of a woman and she sees him wearing this, he isn't getting any.

Now this is the type of vintage pattern one drools over. It's utter perfection. This pattern is from a 1930's Patons Beehive booklet. I'm planning on making this one myself and have bought a PDF of this pattern online and some hand-dyed merino yarn in shades of teal and green for the purpose. I like the idea of making a thirties pattern in a very contemporary-style yarn.