Ripper-era Yarn Crafts

[Ausgirl]

I make some fairly complex crochet dolls and 'stuffies', and was just delighted to find a pattern for this little crochet elephant toy from the late 1800's:

http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1349659-victorian-era-toy-elephant-crochet-pattern

I'm really looking forward to making him, once my projects-on-the-go list dwindles a bit.

If anyone knows of other crochet patterns for clothing/toys/dolls of the time, I would be delighted with a link or an email (addy on request).

Has anyone else here an interest in Victorian era crafts?

[Zena]

I make some fairly complex crochet dolls and 'stuffies', and was just delighted to find a pattern for this little crochet elephant toy from the late 1800's:

http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1349659-victorian-era-toy-elephant-crochet-pattern

I'm really looking forward to making him, once my projects-on-the-go list dwindles a bit.

If anyone knows of other crochet patterns for clothing/toys/dolls of the time, I would be delighted with a link or an email (addy on request).

Has anyone else here an interest in Victorian era crafts?

Neat elephant! Thank you for sharing the link. (I probably won't make it because I normally don't crochet stuffed animals, but I enjoy looking at old patterns.)

I crochet a lot and knit a little, and I love vintage patterns. Antique Pattern Library has some going back to the late 1800s.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/

[Ginger]

Has anyone else here an interest in Victorian era crafts?

Not per se, although I've an interest in antique Christmas decorations, and did once make a Victorian style feather tree (an early sort of artificial Xmas tree).

[Ausgirl]

Zena, that site is just a treasure-trove. Many thanks for the link, I had no idea it existed. My things-to-make list just got a lot longer, I fear.

Ginger, a neighbour of mine years ago had a passion for old-fashioned tree decorations. She'd crochet and starch snowflakes and the like, and her angels were just glorious. Not a plastic reindeer to be see 'round her place. I still have a little angel she made us.

I'm currently making a summer baby's blanket from some gloriously soft soy silk (it's also surprisingly strong), tiny needle, tiny stitches.. If I can find this in non-infantile colours, it'd be wonderful yarn for a complex pattern vintage shawl. Delicate, but not flimsy at all.

[Ausgirl]

This made me giggle a bit..

Apparently Queen Victoria just adored crochet and endeavored to increase its popularity. Here's an example of her own work:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/j_RY4Ha6RDea3ae8rLv0pw

"Its pristine condition suggests that it was never actually used, but framed for posterity."

Oh, dear. I'm sure a few of my crochet gifts have never actually been used, either..

[Zena]

I read about the eight scarves Queen Victoria crocheted for her forces in South Africa (referenced in your link) a few years ago. Here's a link to a recreated pattern:

http://goodtimesithinkso.blogspot.com/2010/01/queen-victoria-crochet-scarf-pattern.html

Until recently, wool yarn has been impossible to find in my area, but my local Wal-Mart has started carrying some wool blends. At the time I read about the Queen Victoria scarves, I found two small skeins of Lion Brand 100% wool at a thrift store--one blue, the other red. I used the pattern to make two very short scarves using one skein each.

One of the Queen Victoria scarves is in the war museum in Canada:

http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibiti...sscarf_e.shtml

[Ausgirl]

Zena, awesome links - and to-do list be damned, I'm so making one of Queen Victoria's scarves this weekend, I just got in a parcel of yarn that would be perfect for it.

As for the getting of yarns - do try ebay! I live on a precarious budget, but I still manage to afford some really lovely pure wools and silks and so on, by buying mixed lots on the cheap at auction (sticking to the cut-off price is my personal demon, there). I got my last lot of silk/soy silk, valued at probably well over $120 new, for $37.50, for example. And a big parcel of pure wools for $16 (plus a lot of postage, but it was still a bargain). It's harder to get bulk lots of the same colour for cheap (for sweaters, etc) but I've been lucky now and then - I use smaller amounts for the dolls, so it's even cheaper. But for pure wool for hats/scarves/mittens/afghans, can't go wrong with ebay bulk buys.

I love this pic:

[Zena]

Great pic! Ah, she holds her hook like a pencil. I hold mine like a knife...probably shouldn't admit that on a Jack the Ripper forum.

I forgot that the QV recreated pattern is worked on the short side while the original QV scarf is crocheted longwise (as seen in the pic at the Canadian war museum site). The short row pattern worked out for the limited amount of yarn I had, though. When I get my hands on some suitable wool or wool blend yarn, I'll try the pattern longwise, even though I hate crocheting a beginning chain of hundreds--boring!

I'll check out eBay. Thanks for the tip.

As for a to-do list, I have the attention span of a gnat these days. I bounce back and forth between unfinished projects. I have a few afghans going that are so repetitious I get bored with them (ripples are the worst and I have two going and need to do a third--for gifts).

[Ausgirl]

I finished the scarf pretty quickly.. working lengthways, as QV did. In a thick boucle, however, no fringing, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Now all I need is a male friend in Alaska or perhaps the Antarctic, who's in need of 6-foot extremely warm neckwear...

edit: I may make the little elephant this week.

[Zena]

HOME WORK - Useful Designs for the Crochet and Knitting Needle

Toronto, Rose Publishing Co., 1891

https://archive.org/stream/cihm_08942#page/n5/mode/2up

[Pcdunn]

You crafters have my envy. I couldn't get the hang of knitting, but have done needlepoint pictures in the past. Nowadays everything seems to be counted cross-stitch, which I'll try to figure out.

I love teddy bears, and have researched the vintage ones a bit, but most of my own collection of bears are artist replicas or manufactured bears dating only to the 1950s and later.

[Zena]

Hi, Pcdunn:

To me, knitting is harder than crocheting. I can knit a little, nothing fancy. I can make a scarf. But I make lots of things in crochet. Have you tried to crochet? Only one needle, and it has a hook on the end. If you drop a stitch, it's right there to easily pick up again or re-do. Much easier to learn crochet than knitting, IMO. (Knitters will probably disagree. LOL) Tons of videos to learn how to crochet on YouTube.

Zena

[Robert]

For all you knitters :

https://centenarystitches.wordpress.com/

[Zena]

Thanks for that link, Robert. Very interesting!