More Treasures from the Past – 1961

Look what I got from my boyfriend! In the recycling store where he volunteers he found a decade of Ariadne magazines – 1960 to 1961.

Ariadne was a craft magazine that featured all needle crafts, from knitting and crochet to embroidery and macrame. Nowadays it turned into a home design type of magazine. Not very creative or interesting anymore unfortunately.

A decade of Ariadnes

I have chosen the year of my birth, 1961, for a selection of some of the knitting highlights. If you are interested in any of the patterns, just let me know. I will scan them for you.

children's bathing suits
Bathing suit for the beach, suitable for ages 1-2 and 2-4.

1961 ariadne men's accessories
So stylish, the men of those days! Now that beards have come back, maybe pipes will as well!

1961 Ariadne Parisian Deux-Pieces with Pompons

Paris knitting tricks: pompons, frills and ruffles.

1961 ariadne-deux pièces à la chanel

Deux-pièces à la Chanel with fashionable accents.

Treasures from my Mother’s Attic – the 40-s

This knitting magazine is not dated, but from the Editor’s note – signed by “Your faithful friend Margriet” – it becomes clear that this pattern book was published during World War II:
“..I am one of you. One of the many Dutch houswives who struggle each day with sorrowful little sorrows and hard little hardships. One who counts her food stamps and who cannot make do with her tea rations, and who tries to cut down on butter and watches her distribution points! But who forgets all her troubles when she dives into her needlework basket and joyfully anticipates how nice her little girl’s dress will be…”
margriet revue-cover
The choice of models struck me as accommodating the occupying forces, given the ample presence of German-Austrian inspired patterns. Like the one on the cover above. And also the Tyrolean jacket “Steffi” (for non-knitting readers: it is crochet) and the dress for “Lientje”, both here below .
Tyrolean Jacket Steffi    margriet revue-lientje en mientje
Throughout the magazine there are references to shortages, of wool among other things. There’s also a page with instructions on how to make your own sandals with wooden triplex soles and heels. Just put the wooden soles for two minutes in boiling water and you can shape it in the right form. The back cover encourages readers – “Really Miep, big Margriet is just as outstanding as Margriet Revue” – to subscribe to the weekly magazine, so that she can read the wholesome recipes that will take care that her children will not suffer from nutrition shortages.
margriet revue-heus miep
And the last picture for now: Little Sun Bathing Suits. To remind ourselves of the days when not every piece of garment was stretchy lycra crap. In many cases that style of the past was way more flattering than today’s fashion, except of course when you had to swim in it!
margriet revue-zonnebadpakjes

Treasures from my Mother’s Attic – the 70-s

My aim for making the trip up to the attic was to get a few extra needles for the knitting course that started last week. My mother (84) used to be a seamstress and she really preferred sewing over knitting, but I knew that she had a stack of knitting needles up there and would be happy to part with them. Searching through the boxes I hit upon so many other surprises! She still had loads of old knitting & crochet magazines, not only from her own adult life, but also from my grandmother’s. The oldest crochet book I found dated from around 1910. My grandma was a young girl then and my mother wasn’t even born yet..

3 suisses restjes-colsBut let’s start with the seventies, the best decade for vintage fashion.

Cowls, a clothing species that is now extinct. But how practical and warm. I used to wear them with V-neck pullovers and loved them.
3 suisses restjes-teenage dolls

 

 

 

 

 

This is sort of Arne and Carlos avant-la-lettre. These two are called ‘teenage dolls’. Don’t miss the bell-bottom pants!

 

3 suisses restjes-pillows

 

And then these pillows. Aren’t the colour combinations beautiful? Why didn’t we just stop time in the seventies? The eighties were fun, but fashion-wise, what were we thinking? Not to mention the 90-ies.

 

 

3 Suisses Bags

 

 

 

Last picture: bags. These are crochet, not knitting, but aren’t they cool? I do not only have pictures of all this, I have the patterns as well. So contact me if you would like to make any of these. For the handles: saw two rings off from a piece of pvc pipe and crochet around them. I made something similar in macrame at highschool, but that’s another course!

Next episode: the 40-ies