Vintage Knitting: 18 Patterns from the 1940s

By Liza Hollinghurst and Liza Hollingsworth

This vintage guide is based on Knitting For All, written by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, published in 1941 - the same year in which clothes rationing was introduced. It was just one in a popular series of books written by Murray and Koster throughout the 1940s that provided not only a complete instructional guide to knitting, but also contained an assortment of patterns for the whole family. Apart from the knitting of new garments the book also focused upon the re-making and repairing of existing items, clearly reflecting the contemporary 'Make Do and Mend' ethos.

Following a quick introduction to the styles and spirit of the era, selections of their own charming knitting patterns - which typify this wartime austerity - are reproduced in their entirety in the latter part of this book. These clothes and accessories are still wearable some seventy years after they were first designed and can be easily knitted by the modern knitter (with the conversions provided). For the less experienced, and as rudimentary knitting skills have hardly changed since Knitting for All was first published, excerpts from the original 'Principles of Knitting' chapter that provide a basic 'How To Knit' guide are also included.

Patterns for the whole family include pullovers, cardigans, socks, scarves and gloves.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1908402970
• ISBN13: 9781908402974
• Release Date: May 2015
• Publisher: Old House Books
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

No Mending Section

I bought this book for the mending section. Unfortunately there is no mending section. The closes it comes to a mending section is the section that talks about unraveling items to re-purpose the yarn. However there are portions of the book that are good for today's knitting. There is a chart that compares imperial UK knitting needle sizes to the modern metric knitting needle sizes and American knitting needle sizes. Most of the women's patterns are for a 34in bust. The sock patterns have 3 size options. The gloves have 5 size options. The men's patterns are for 38in chest or 46in chest. The book has some info on casting on stitches and binding off. It also has sections on decreasing and increasing stitches, picking up stitches, seaming pieces of knitting together, how to match different pieces of knitting together (like attaching sleeves to the body of a sweater), and grafting. I like that it shows how to graft knitting pieces together when the stitches have been removed from the knitting needles. It even has a small section on how to trap floats in fair isle/2 stranded knitting.