Old magazines harbor knitting treasures

At last. My pack rat ways have paid off.

A reader from Alton e-mailed that she was desperately seeking a knit baby sweater pattern published in the 1969-70 fall-winter issue of McCall’s Needlework and Crafts magazine. Well, thought I, that sounds familiar. I went to my trunk.

Yes. A big steamer trunk with metal bands reinforcing the edges, wood slats spaced at intervals on all sides, and a honking big lock – a trunk with room enough to pack an entire wardrobe when traveling to Europe by steamship at the turn of the century.

My trunk isn’t full of ball gowns, kid gloves and dancing shoes. It’s full of old needlework magazines. Any that I’ve ever bought, I’ve kept. When I’m done poring over a needlework magazine, I toss it into the trunk for future contemplation.

When the reader from Alton SOSed her request, I dug down into the bottom of the trunk and sure enough, I had the magazine containing the pattern she sought.

The process of searching for that particular issue of McCall’s Needlework was like exhuming my old bones as a needleworker – my flirtation with knitting, my love affair with crocheting doilies, my grand passion for country and folk-inspired needlework, my unerring magazine hunter-gatherer instincts.

The earliest McCall’s Needlework Magazine in my trunk is the 1966 spring-summer edition, bought at Merrow’s store in Patten. It cost 75 cents, contains 188 pages and measures 101/2 by 131/2 inches, a giant of a magazine. Reading the magazine was one way I learned new needlework skills, such as needlepoint, hairpin crochet and crewel embroidery when I was still a young bride.

The 1966 issue contains detailed patterns for Irish crochet dresses in super-fingering yarn or cotton Knit-Cro-Sheen, knitted and crocheted Barbie doll clothes, a rectangular braided rug and embroidery designs from Finland.

The pattern for the first sweater I ever crocheted was in this issue. Twenty-five years later, I got around to stitching one of the Finnish embroidery patterns also in the magazine: a boy in knee pants and a girl with wild hair – sort of like me – amid a swirl of yellow leaves and a flock of blackbirds.

Today, that old magazine is minus its cover, the pages are yellowed, many are loose from the binding and dog-eared. I read it to pieces. Many of the patterns in it are classics, such as the Aran Isle sweaters, those fabulous designs from Finland and a needlepoint pincushion in a vintage pattern embellished with beads.

As I thumbed through my trove of old needlework magazines, I noticed how limited the yarn choices were then – wool, nylon, Orlon and mohair were about it. Novelty yarns really hadn’t been invented yet, although some metallic types were available. Now, in addition to wool, we have cotton, silk, polyester, alpaca, rayon, linen and blends of all of those, plus the new fibers made of bamboo, milk, corn and soy. And Lion Brand’s runaway favorite, Fun Fur. The designs were pretty bad, too, so maybe that’s why I began doing my own.

I also found in my trunk copies of Better Homes and Gardens Needlecraft Ideas, Christmas Ideas, Country Crafts, Quilting Ideas, and Cross-stitch and Crochet, Good Housekeeping Needlecraft, Country Home Folk Crafts, American Home Crafts and Woman’s Day Weekend Crafts.

Many of the magazines contain little page markers for patterns that I haven’t got around to make, but will – someday.

Snippets

For those of you who suffer from aches and pains in the arms, hands and wrists when you knit, crochet or do other repetitive work, don’t miss the article about repetitive strain injury in the winter issue of Vogue Knitting International. It includes information about defensive knitting tactics, exercises, the anatomy of an injury, diagnosis and treatment and books to consult.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes comments, suggestions and ideas. Call her at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.