#jane koster

[professorpski]

Quick Knitting Yarns- A thick yarn.... The advantage of these yarns is that they knit up quickly, but the result is clumsy and not altogether satisfactory. For children's dressing-gowns and very heavy sports wear they are sometimes useful.

Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, Practical Knitting Illustrated: the key to hundreds of garments you can make yourself, 1947. This is considered one of the classics on English knitting. If you look at knitting patterns before the 1950s, you are hard pressed to find bulky weight yarns being used, or even worsted weight yarns. In fact, most of the vintage patterns I find seem to be using sock yarn or smaller. I don’t know if it was the new leisure American had after World War II, and thus heavier sweaters were more needed for sports, or if women were coping with their Baby Boom offspring and felt they had less time for knitting, but it’s clear that you start to see “bulky” yarn patterns in the 1950s. While some were today’s bulky weight, others seem more like aran, or even worsted weight. They were clearly used to finer yarns and the more sophisticated patterns that resulted.

[professorpski]

The whole character of garments by knitting them in different yarns. For instance, a plain bolero… can be knitted in Angora to make a delightful evening jacket, and the classic jersey knitted in a bouclé yarn would become a really smart afternoon garment.

Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, Practical Knitting Illustrated: the key to hundreds of garments you can make yourself, 1947. So true that texture and color can take the same garment and change its use and its character. Angora is soft and fluffy, and bouclé is got a playful nubbiness to it, while both are good for more formal occasions. This is one of the classic British books of knitting which encourages you to “ring the changes” as they say, by trying different stitches and details as you work from their patterns. They clearly wanted their readers to think of their book as a start, and strike out on their own.

[professorpski]

Knitting Intelligently

The secret of success in ringing the changes [on a knitting pattern] is to knit intelligently. Instead of blindly following instructions, try to understand the reason for and the result of every step. By this means you will find it possible to achieve alternative results.

Margaret Murray and Jane Koster, Practical Knitting Illustrated, circa 1948. This is from a classic British book which ends with a long section on how to alter a pattern. Since I have been trying to ascertain principles since I first began my recent adventures in knitting, I appreciate the sentiment.

[professorpski]

Snoods for Summer, etc.

Snoods for Summer or Super Baby

I cannot tell which appeals to me more: snoods or a baby wearing a tiny cape. These are images from a British knitting book called Practical Knitting Illustrated which is considered one of the classics in the field. It came out int he late 1940s after World War II and was written by Margaret Murray and Jane Koster. I give you just a few of my favorite images from the book, including a bathing suit and a bedjacket that could easily be put to other uses.

The book claims to be “the key to hundred of garments you can make yourself,”  not because it literally offers you hundreds of garments. It doesn’t. There are about 16 items for women from hats down to socks, 7 household designs, 11 men’s garments, and tons of stuff for babies and children up to their teenage years. The hundreds of garments come in because the book explains how to “ring the changes.” Which means it explains how to take a garment pattern and redesign it whether by changing the garment size, the stitch pattern, or the garment shape. Which means, among other things, explaining how to calculate the number of repetitions of a different stitch to create the shape you want. They spend some 70 pages explaining how to redesign, and offer other stitch patterns in this section as well as the other sections. So that beach skirt could be lengthened and become a skirt for day wear. There are also 32 pages at the start on “The ABC of Knitting and Crochet.”  So, you can see why it became a classic.

Fortunately, because it was so popular, there are a fair number of used copies on the market. If you like vintage knitting patterns, prefer your sweaters fitted rather than oversized, or enjoy making babies and children’s clothing, this is the book you will like. And if you want to learn how to redesign patterns, this will come in handy too. Remember, that the British crochet terminology and the knitting needle sizes differ from the American ones, but that is a small obstacle.

[softsummergirl]