Vintage Knitting Part I

Part 2 of this series is here

Part 3 of this series is here

One thing that typified the 1960s (and for that matter the 1940s and 50s) was the sheer quantity and quality of the knitted clothing worn by men, women and children alike. Almost everyone had some knitted item and they were an inexpensive way to produce clothing and also show off creative designs.

And, since little in reality changes over the years, the ability to create knitted clothes these days is an easy, pleasant and relatively quick way to get that authentic vintage look, as well as being a good way to express individuality.

But, of course, times do change and today it’s not every girl who learns to knit at her mother’s knee. However, even if your knitting is a subject in development, there is still a lot you can do. In fact, it’s often more useful to be able to produce just simple hats, scarves and jumpers. For just these items there is a seemingly endless supply of patterns that can be made up using any number of colours and styles so it’s hard not to find something useful you can wear.

But saying this misses the point. Part of the fun of vintage fashion is being able to change the colour or the style on a whim to get just the look you want and being able to quickly knit a hat or top gives you a big advantage over having to search the shops. In addition knitting allows you to make an item in whatever size you want and so dispenses with that awful problem of having to find something your size or, worse, finding that they have just sold out.

But there is a further and less obvious advantage. Once you can knit proficiently, it is a relatively easy matter to look through patterns or old magazines and pick an item to produce. This way you can create an absolutely authentic look unique to you!

Patterns, of course, are the mainstay of knitting and once upon a time every mother had a collection of patterns cut from weekly magazines to refer to. Sadly, knitting patterns in magazines have almost disappeared (with some notable exceptions) but an alternative is the printed book. As a resource below I have included a link to all the knitting books in stock at Amazon that contain vintage patterns.

Resource
Obviously this is a big resource and naturally there is a lot to look through but it is well worthwhile for there is much available. It is also useful as it allows you find possible presents, both for yourself of course and for others, particularly with Christmas so fast approaching. This Link also contains at the bottom a link back to the Sixties Britain website.

Click here to go to the knitting patterns book page on Amazon.co.uk.

The Amazon Kindle is now enormously popular (I wouldn’t be without mine) and, I’m pleased to say, a lot of patterns have been produced as kindle books that can be had and read almost immediately. A link to Amazon UK just for kindle books is below.

Amazon UK Vintage Knitting Patterns

For those reading this article from North America, similar books exist on Amazon in the USA and a link to those books (including this time kindle ebooks) is here.

Amazon USA Vintage Knitting Patterns

Aside from books, fascinating as they are, another good way to get patterns (and often this can be for nothing) is from the internet. However, this is a whole subject in its own right and so that will be part two of this article.