While in England, Guy’s grandmother gave me two very old knitting books that she had tucked away in a craft drawer. One was a 1940 Patons & Baldwins’ Woolcraft that belonged to her mother, and the other was the updated 1960 version, which belong to her. As she can’t knit anymore, she thought she would pass them along.



They are amazing. Mostly they have patterns for baby things, lots of soakers and such, and they also have mens and women’s patterns. Here are some of the highlights from the 1940s issue:

There ware several page devoted to techniques in each booklet, and ‘brushing’ is referred to quite a bit in the 1940s one:

 Isn’t that neat? I’ve never seen that before. And it’s not that angora yarns weren’t readily available back then. Check out this ad on the back:

I especially love some of the baby knits in this one, and there is a ladies ‘vest’ and ‘spencer’ that seems like a very cute sleep set. I’m defnitieyl going to try my hand at some of these patterns in the future, but I also find them really inspiring- it’s interesting to see how the cut of clothing and evolved over the decades.