Vintage Book Review 3 - Complete Home Knitting Illustrated

Reprinted in 1946, Complete Home Knitting Illustrated, by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, gives a fascinating glimpse of wartime Britain.

The summary on the title page states the book will show how to combine knitting with fabric, and to make new clothes from old, two very useful skills in times of shortage.

The trim lines of wartime fashion are shown to best advantage in this bouclé ribbed frock and neatly waisted moss stitch cardigan, which quite frankly would have taken me the entire duration to knit.

Quicker to knit are these short sleeved jerseys, knitted on size 8 and 10 needles in 3 ply wool, and teamed up here with tweed suits and lace up boots.

The illustrations are extremely clear, with plenty of drawings showing different methods of casting on and off, increasing and decreasing, making buttons and buttonholes, and everything a knitter needs to know to make the most of the patterns in the book.

These illustrations, showing how to carry the wool at the back of the work for Fair Isle knitting, are quite exceptional. 

Also of interest is the section about continental knitting, which concedes that "it is much quicker than the English way."  This was a method I hadn't even heard of when I encountered a German girl doing her knitting at a bus stop in Ireland in 1982.  When I expressed amazement at the fact that she had the wool in her left hand and hardly moved her needles, she unhesitatingly informed me that the German way was much more efficient.  Perhaps it is, but anyone who learnt to knit the English way at the age of six isn't going to change.  Old habits die hard.

The book shows numerous different stitches, from lacy and delicate patterns for babies' and children's clothes, to stitches specifically recommended for men's garments.  Feather rib is evidently the ideal stitch for the man who has the casual approach to digging.

This waistcoat is very smart and practical...

... with a pocket each for a packet of 10 Woodbines and a box of Swan Vestas.

The children's section includes all the itchy vests and knickers in 2 ply wool, babies' shawls, pilches and matinée jackets that are to be expected (and possibly dreaded) in old knitting books.  This little jacket, however, could be made reasonably quickly, as it is knitted across the body and the ribbed effect is achieved with knit rows alternating with bands of stocking stitch.

Equally ingenious are these gloves, also knitted across the usual direction of work.  Gloves figure large in the book, with patterns for gauntlets, open work gloves in cotton or wool, fingerless gloves and mittens.  Keeping warm in the years of fuel shortages was a priority, and this photograph shows that staying warm in layers of wool could be achieved with some elegance.  

Another preoccupation was making clothes last.  This little girl is wearing a dress made from fabric from an old dress, and which has been enlarged with knitted inserts in the sides and a new knitted yoke and sleeves.  Somehow she doesn't look too enamoured with the result.  Perhaps it is a bit too hot and itchy around the shoulders to let her go tearing around after a tennis ball.

Possibly the most fascinating picture is this one, taken on a gloriously traffic-free corner in London.  The outfit isn't much different from those worn by girls when I was a child.  In fact, I could swear she has nicked my ankle socks and brown leather Start Rites.  The truly fascinating feature of this picture is the white painted kerb, no doubt to prevent people from breaking their necks in the blackout.

By far the barmiest pattern in the book is this one, described as a helmet with ear flaps.  Just an ordinary balaclava, (passé enough in itself unless you are knitting for a hearty outdoors type or a bank robber) but with the added feature of ear holes through which the wearer can pull his ears.  It really doesn't bear thinking about.  This man deserved a beer bonus for modelling this creation.  He would have been ribbed something rotten next time he went down the pub.

Complete Home Knitting Illustrated is a truly marvellous book, but perhaps not for the faint hearted who baulk at the prospect of casting on 183 stitches in 3 ply wool on size 10 needles.  It is packed with plenty of technical information, and patterns that can be adapted and updated, and it deserves a place on the bookshelf of every experienced and truly intrepid knitter.

Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday 

Vintage Book Review 2 - Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese de Dillmont

No book deserves the title "The Needlewoman's Bible" more than this one.  It is the size of a pocket bible, measuring 5 and a half inches by 4 and a half...

...and is an inch and a half thick.

It has been translated from the original French into several languages and there must be many thousands of copies still around. 

It even has its own angel bearing the DMC company motto.

It has more than 800 pages, so it has a silk ribbon (and now rather fragile) bookmark.

There are thirteen (or should I say XIII) beautiful colour plates scattered throughout the twenty chapters, which deal with absolutely everything a Victorian or Edwardian stitcher could possibly need to know: plain sewing, mending, lace making, trimmings, embroidery...  Whether you were a housekeeper mending worn out areas of knitted garments, or a skilled embroiderer working on silk or velvet or with gold thread, this book was written for you.

There are over 1100 engraved illustrations, which, although tiny, show a remarkable degree of detail.  I particularly like the disembodied hands with the neat frilled cuffs that float through the pages to show you how to work the thread.  The hand positions shown are sufficiently clear to enable you to learn a skill from scratch or broaden your expertise in a particular craft, for instance...

... tatting...

... netting...

... or knitting. 

Having been an avid knitter in my younger days, I had never encountered or felt the need to do double crossed casting on with a threefold thread.  Somehow it sounds as if there is cheating involved.  However, once you have cast on, the book gives an impressive array of stitches to choose from, including the gloriously named Double English on page 285, which sounds like an entry on a hotel menu ("Ooh yes, I'll have the Double English"... visions of a full English breakfast with two fried eggs).  Those who prefer a lighter, more continental start to their day need only refer back to page 284 for the Brioche pattern. 

The ubiquitous hands also show some interesting little gadgets, including a winder or lace turn (I'm still trying to work out the theory behind that one) and this rather marvellous cord wheel.  I own up.  I want one.  Next time I decide to make my own cord for braid I won't need to stretch yards of stranded embroidery cotton across the room to loop it round a dining chair and twist it with a pencil.

This little book is an absolute gem to be treasured by anyone with more than a passing interest in needlework.  Its only drawback is that none of us will live to the age of 487 and have the time to perfect every wonderful craft it describes.

If you want a closer look at this book

It can be viewed online here or at Project Gutenberg.

Alternatively, the relatively recent reprint of the book entitled The Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework is easy to find if you make an internet search.

Finally, I have found a very brief, sad and intriguing biography of Therese de Dillmont.


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Vintage Book Review 1 - News Chronicle Needlework and Crafts

Here is my slightly battered copy of the News Chronicle Needlework and Crafts by Irene Davison, Agnes M. Niall and R. K. and M. I. R. Polkinghorne.  The smudges on the cover are where I scraped off some ancient candle wax.

The sub-title hints at the scope of the book, which is just over 330 pages long.

There is no date of publication given, but the delightful frontispiece has a late 1920s look to it.

The chapters on sewing and needlework take up approximately one third of the book, the remaining two thirds covering a wide variety of crafts, including raffia work, simple ways of weaving, an introduction to basketry, poker work and artistic leather work - but not, as I might have expected, candle making.

Inevitably I have been drawn to the chapters about sewing.  The opening chapter deals with plain sewing - the art of making finely sewn garments by hand.  In real life this is the type of work I would run a mile from, but I am quite happy to read about it, because in doing so I am transported back to a vanished world.  Comparisons are made between the different methods and styles used by seamstresses in Britain as opposed to those in France. Curiously enough, we are told that what we know as a French seam is known by the French as an English seam.  The samples for the photographs of various stitches and seams were all specially worked in France, yet unfortunately the sepia-toned photographs are tiny and far from clear, with about eight crammed onto one page.

These line drawn illustrations in the dressmaking section are far better.  

I always find it easier to understand how to make something if I can stare long and hard at a picture, but essentially this isn't how this book works.  This is a reading book.  Not only are you taken back to the domestic scene of the years following the First World War, you are also expected to pay attention to every word and pick up a needle.  So rather than look at paragraphs describing in minute detail how to do embroidery stitches and dismiss them as incomprehensible, I decided to read them properly.  As a result of visualising the process, I could now try out bullion stitch (described as a prolonged French knot, which makes a firm little caterpillar) and any number of equally ingenious little tricks.

The section about care and use of sewing machines contained a strange mixture of common sense and absurdity.  The sentence If anything goes wrong with your machine, don't tinker with it! manages to combine both - common sense when the book was written, but absurd now, when anyone with a vintage machine has to be prepared to do their own maintenance and perhaps the occasional repair.

The most ludicrous advice concerning machine sewing reads as follows:-

...But here is a valuable tip for keeping your machined lines straight, as, for instance, when stitching just within a fold-edge.  Kneel down so that your eye is on a level with your work, or sit on a low stool, and you will find that you can work much faster and more accurately.

Impossible with a treadle, darned uncomfortable with a hand machine, and hadn't they ever heard of the seam guide?  Obviously written by a plain sewer.

The rest of the book takes a tour of crafts I am never likely to try.  Nevertheless, it is a good read, and I doubt I would otherwise have heard of barbola or thought through the practicalities of gesso work.  Some of the illustrations are gems too, like these disembodied hands showing how to do poker work...

... this ivy design, which I am tempted to adapt for free motion quilting...

... and this rather worrying mythical beast eating a giant salad, which would look better carved in oak rather than on a leather bag.

In summary, the News Chronicle Needlework and Crafts gives a fascinating insight into domestic history, and is the sort of book to enjoy in winter when sitting by a roaring coal fire, but I am not sure that it is a book that is going to inspire me to any great degree with future projects.

Linking up to Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday