Vintage Knitting Patterns

As I've mentioned before, I come from a family of locally renowned artists. My great grandmother had a prodigious collection of knitting patterns spanning the decades of the 1940's, 50's,60's, 70's,80's and 90's. Upon her death in 2005, her collection was dispersed amongst her daughters and granddaughters. I am in possesion of several of these books. Many of them are long out of print, the patterns within them long forgotten. Several of the books had patterns earmarked as ones my great grandmother made for each of her 8 children. It is almost eerie to own the patterns for the dresses and hats my grandmother wore when she was a small child. To be able to recreate a bit of family history brings me great satisfaction. To that end, the idea behind my shop on Etsy, Stitches In Time, was to provide a venue to share these family treasures with the world. I fully recognise that many of the patterns are commercially useless for the time being, as the world has had its fill of poodle tissue roll covers and Barbie doll bed ornaments. However there are some viable patterns to be found in my collection. Several of the books I received are for Bazaar items that women used to knit to raise money for good causes. Some of the fashions have come back into style, such as the cloche hat and berets. Adding a modern twist by changing the colours or tweaking the shaping allows these items to enjoy a place in the modern market.

     Yesterday I listed this toy lamb. The pattern came from a book of Bazaar items from the 1960's. I had to use a different yarn than the one called for, as I doubt it even exits anymore but otherwise it is the same lamb that could have been sold at various craft sales throught the intervening decades. I look forward to adding more vintage inspired pieces to my shop in the near future.