eBay Tragic for Ella Allan - Melbourne Knitting Pattern Pioneer

This week I had a most disappointing experience on eBay. This very old knitting book of baby patterns first published in the 1920s or earlier came up for auction on eBay.

 Yes, you know what's coming, don't you. There had been 5 bids on the item with 2 days to go, and it was sitting on $6.50. I set the alarm on my phone to put in a bid at the last minute, as there were obviously at least two other people interested in the item. I always try to be disciplined on eBay, and I set my reserve price beforehand, with the intention of not exceeding it. I set the reserve for this item at $18.11.
With one minute to go, I put in my bid. The item immediately went to $20.00. I increased my bid and for about 5 seconds I was winning the bid at $25.00. Outbid again,  I threw caution to the wind and upped my reserve to $34.00 and was immediately outbid again at $38.00, at which stage I thought hang it, and retired with 5 seconds to go. Boy, was I sad. I even missed the meeting I was supposed to be at. (That part made me happy!) That woman! I may have called her some impolite names. (I assume it was a "her") Who would have believed that there were at least two other people besides myself who would bid ludicrous sums of money to get this book?

This book is by Ella Allan. Here she is, from the fly leaf of the book.

This looks to me like a much older photo than 1930, the date given for the book by the vendor. I suspect that 1930 may have been a republication date for a popular book that had been around for quite a few years. Here are some of the illustrations, with baby garments modelled on china dolls.

This looks to me like the layout used in the 1920s and World War 1 era. Books from the 30s looked much more modern.
It also reminds me of a book I have. I do not know what this book is because the cover is missing, along with the first couple of pages. But check it out. No china dolls, but of a similar era, I think.

Well, at least the patterns are similar, but the layout more modern. I suspect once again, a reprint to update some classic patterns. Here are some of my favourite patterns from this book:

Baby's first gaiter.

Baby's Mocassin

Baby's Second Set of Stays

Cotton Hat

Crochet Bib

And wasn't I delighted to find this ad in the book:

Is my mystery book an Ella Allan book after all? I would have thought that the books most likely to carry ads for her books would be her own books.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography does not mention Ella Allan. (Nor does Wikipedia, by the way, just being thorough).

However, the State Library of Victoria, bless it's little heart, holds 22 items by Ella Allan, many of which have been digitised and are available online. Trove, at the National Library of Australia, lists several other of her books at other Australian libraries, though unfortunately not yet available online. Amongst the many Ella Allan books, dating from 1917 to the early 30s, I found the auctioned book. The State Library does indeed give its publication date as 193-.

My mystery book appears to be "What to Make For Baby", part 1. (the auctioned book was part 4.) I can't find the same edition in the library, the ads are different in the library's book, and I suspect mine is not quite so old.

But best of all, this is the missing cover:

We don't get naked cherubs adorning farm machinery these days.

Her books of patterns for toddlers are even more adorable than the baby books. "Dainty Adornments for Tiny Tots", which I viewed online,  includes the following patterns:

 Silk Filet Crochet Jumper

Child's Hat

Toddler's Dress

So, I haven't got the book that was on eBay, but now I know I have another book of Ella Allan's, albeit one with a missing cover and 2 pages. But, now that I have shared this with you, I hope I don't end up bidding against you on eBay another day!

P.S. One week later...

Yesterday I bought Ella Allan's What To Make For Baby, Part 2, on eBay. I got it by bidding in the last 7 seconds of the auction, and not before. And I had to pay a lot, almost $36.00!  I'm sorry if you are the person I outbid at the last minute, but then...you did it to me last week. So now we have one each. But I know there's a third person out there...

Update - June 2017.

Ella Grace Jane Allan lived in Melbourne from at least 1903, when she appears on the Australian Electoral Roll. She died in 1938, and this is when her books ceased to be reprinted. I now know that the first book  mentioned, with the designs modeled on dolls, is a 1930 something reprint "In New Form" of the book first published in the 1920s, or shortly before. The second book, my mystery book without a cover, is actually an older version from the 1920s. The 1930s books are dated, the earlier books are not.



The Knitting Stalker

Recently I purchased this old, out-of-print book on traditional folk knitting in the British Isles.

 

Gladys Thompson turns out to be a most entertaining woman. Apparently an elderly lady when this book was first published in 1969, she is unwittingly a character in her own book. The redoubtable Gladys tours to "remote" rural and coastal parts of Britain, studying the traditional folk knitting patterns.

Interspersed between the patterns are little, whimsical observations of the fisher folk and their villages. And Gladys is really doing research the old fashioned way, going straight to the source and pursuing a lead. She hangs about the docks of these villages, spying on the fishermen and hoping to be able to observe the patterns in their guernseys, which she dutifully copies onto paper. But she has to be quick, for example in Scarborough:

 "Down by the harbour and in the fish market, or leaning against the railings, many fishermen can sometimes be seen, sometimes showing the whole Guernsey, or only a V of pattern with a buttoned up coat; or a figure in sea-boots and a brown sail-cloth smock, just showing the knitted collar and welt. This is the most exasperating of all, as you are certain that a masterpiece of guernsey knitting is hidden under the brown canvas, and unless the man can be stopped and persuaded to show the pattern, he will disappear like a flash up one of the narrow passages." (p.47)

 

 

 

 

 

You'll be relieved to know that she does have some names and addresses of famous knitters and visits many women in their homes, where they are always happy to share patterns - which are never written down but always committed to memory, passed from mothers to daughters. They even loan actual Guernseys and family photographs to the author.

In Flamborough the author narrates the following experience: "One day I found myself in Queen Street in the old town, and I called at a whitewashed stone cottage with walls at least a foot thick. An old lady opened the door, and when she heard I wanted guernsey patterns she asked me into the kitchen. A tortoiseshell cat sat by the fire, and an old man lay asleep on his side on a horsehair sofa. She asked me to sit down and went to fetch some guernseys from  up the yard. She showed me one or two, and then pointing to the sofa said, "Tak a leeak at yon gansey he's wearing; yer can tun him over and see t'pattern!" Thank goodness our talking woke him, and I had a look without having to "tun him over". (p.23)

Gladys' research then takes her to Scotland, where she wishes to visit Holy Island to speak with some knitters. Imagine her surprise to find that a car drives to the island at low tide. When she complains to the 16 year old driver that the water is coming through the "floorboards", she is told to put her feet up on the seats.

 

The book is full of these wonderful old patterns, and their significance is recorded where it is known. This Scottish pattern deserves special mention:

 

It was particularly difficult to record. "The last one (figure 130) took me  a long time to absorb, and I chased the man up and down the harbour side. I was only able to remember 4 different panels when he darted into The Fisherman's Inn, and I was not brave enough to follow!" (p.103)

 

Gladys also recalls visiting a cottage in Fife where she chatted to a cottager for a while and shared patterns, before the woman asked whether Gladys would like to meet "Granny in the attic", who had also been a great knitter in her day.

"Granny was standing by a window at the far end , repairing a net. Yards and yards of net - she'd a netting shuttle in her right hand, and a small pair of scissors in her left. She worked at a tremendous pace - her hands flashing in and out, snipping and netting and talking at the same time, she spoke so fast I could hardly understand her. She kept all the family nets repaired and at busy times worked in the attic the entire day - I was really sorry to say good-bye, but it was nearly their dinner time." (p.95)

 

 

Gladys also journeys to the Aran Isles to study their knitting. While admiring their beautiful creations, she is a little critical: "The highly skilled knitters turn out lovely work, but sometimes, with a true Irish touch of "nothing really matters", their knitting shows mistakes, always found in the simple patterns, and a careless nonchalance in their crossing of their cables!" (p.121) It is also her opinion that often Aran sweaters can be "over bobbled".

 

What a wonderful idea Gladys Thompson had, to record the craft work of these disappearing cultures, and thank goodness she did it when she did, because I'm guessing there's precious little left of it now.

 

Keep a look out in second hand bookshops for this little gem. Experienced knitters may be interested in adapting some of the patterns, but many more of us are interested in the history and the stories.

 

Reference: Gladys Thompson; Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans: Fishermen's Sweaters from

                   the British Isles; 1971; New York; Dover Publications; 2nd revised edition.

Yarn updates thanks to the Glen Waverley Bazaar

See my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageKnitPatterns?ref=si_shop

Follow me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VintageKnitPatterns

 

Finally, I have got around to updating the most popular segment of this blog, the Yarns page. I went to the Glen Waverley vintage bazaar in suburban Melbourne with my daughter today, and amongst other treasures, I bought a pile of old Australian knitting books. Two of these were a kind of book I have never seen before, and believe me, I've seen a LOT of knitting books. (I have at least two thousand.) These books appeared to be an annual catalogue of Patons knitting books and the designs they contain, a boon for a collector like me. Also, one of them contained descriptions of all the wools produced by Patons at that time, which I estimate to be in the early to mid 1950s. I wondered why I had never seen books like this before, and I guess that although there is general knitting information, and a pattern or two, such books were not often kept for long by knitters, and mostly ended up in the rubbish bin.

The other great source for trying to find information about vintage yarns is Trove. Trove is the digitised pictorial collection of the National Library of Australia and several other State Library collections. Most of the information about knitting yarns comes from advertisements from old newspapers, such as the following:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58969601

I have just discovered that all the patterns published in the newspapers are also indexed, so there's a another few hundred hours of my life gone.

So I will continue to update the Australian yarns as I find the information and the time, but I rely on overseas readers to share their knowledge of what current yarns could do as equivalents to vintage yarns. Let's hear from readers in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, and the rest of the world too, please.

Sorry, Not For Sale!

I thought I'd share with you some of my best finds. These are the really special things that I decide to keep, so sorry to vintage lace lovers out there.
I recently learned that both of my adult daughters share my love of vintage lace doilies and other linen, so these are the heirloom items I will pass on to them one day. Funny that I never realised that I'd passed on my interest. It took my eldest daughter's prospective mother-in-law to fill me in on that.

Here is a very special piece which I have had for years. The person who gave it to me told me that it came from Government House in Melbourne. It would be 19th century work.

19th Century Silk Doiley

This gorgeous doiley is extremely fine work made of silk. I think it is handmade bobbin lace. It's pale beige.
It has sat on a sideboard or an occasional table at Government House and seen a succession of Kings, Queens and Princes entertained in right regal style. Definitely Governors, probably Prime Ministers and Premiers. If only these items could talk, they would tell some interesting tales... on second thoughts, they would probably be terrible gossips.




In January I visited a lot of op shops in country Victoria and New South Wales and found a few treasures. I won't call them bargains, because I paid through the nose for them. But they were so beautiful I couldn't resist.
This is a superb large doiley in Irish crochet, where the little flowers are three dimensional. It is hand done in extremely fine ecru cotton. I bought this and the collection about to be described at the Vinnies (St Vincent de Paul) shop in Benalla, in rural central Victoria. It looks as though they have all come from the one source.

 

I would guess that these doilies once belonged in one of the stately historic homes in this area.

Tatting

When I found this pile of handmade antique tatted doilies, (in the same Vinnies store) I had to have all of them. Many of these were stained, and quite a few were a very dark ecru, actually tan.

I can barely see the threads, so I can't imagine anyone actually sitting and making these by hand with the little tatting shuttle. If you don't know what tatting is, it's done with a tiny shuttle of cotton, which you pass in and out, like a complicated and permanent cat's cradle (that doesn't pull undone). The result is a series of tiny knots around a central thread, with loops for decoration. Many years ago, (when I had leisure time, before I had babies) I learned to tat. I couldn't be bothered keeping it up, such a lot of knots and joins, and if you make a mistake, you can't pull it undone, you have to cut it off and rejoin a new piece and start that bit all over again. And you have to try to darn in about 700 ends! I suppose it's because I've done it that I can appreciate the workmanship in these doilies.

I bought 10 medium sized and four matching small doilies. I'll keep some and divide the rest between my girls.

 

When I bought these doilies, as I said before, some of them were an unusually dark brown for linen. I recently read in an old magazine, some tips for cleaning lace, where they recommend soaking the stained article in cold tea. I think this must be what happened to these doilies. I could see that they had marks, and I think the laundress had tried to disguise them by recolouring the linen. However, I popped them in the laundry soaker overnight, and they come out a lovely pale ecru, with no sign of marks. Isn't Napi-san wonderful?

 

With this pile of Vinnies doilies, I also bought two of these lovely lace pieces. I don't know how they were made. Please comment and tell me if you think you know. These had also had the tea-soak treatment, but are now restored. They look to me to be similar to guipure lace. I am imagining the stately home they all lived in, and whether or not it still exists, or whether it has been bull-dozed to make room for a new sub-division.

                                                                                 And this sweet little bobbin lace piece.

 

Back home again, you don't have to drive hundreds of kilometres to find treasures. Last week I found this fabulous piece in the Salvos store in Hastings. I'd say it's 1920s work, or earlier. Australiana was extremely popular then, as I've mentioned in a previous post.  http://vintageknitpatterns.blogspot.com.au/2013_01_01_archive.html

 I'll bet the lady who worked this devised the pattern herself. Otherwise, it's the kind of pattern that may have been published in the Weekly Times newspaper. I was sad to find that the Weekly Times no longer has a craft and pattern page.

I just love the little wrens, and the beautiful way the wattle has been worked, with little bobbles for the flowers. This piece now lives on top of the piano that no-one plays anymore.

I'm amused by the way that op shops sell doilies. They sell by size rather than quality, so you can often get an exquisite handmade lace piece for $1.00, yet they charge $5.00 for a large machine made, mass produced piece. But I'm not complaining!

So, these are the kinds of pieces I keep. My drawer is getting quite full, so I am putting together an inheritance pile for my girls. And I guess, I may have to sell some of it.

Don't Get Your Knickers in a Knot - Undies

Did you ever wonder when people began wearing undies? No? Well, having read a few historical novels where grand ladies didn't wear knickers under their regal skirts, I did.

In medieval times both men and women wore chemises, but no underpants. By the eighteenth century, women were wearing long pantaloons or drawers, to keep their legs hidden from a stray peep.
By the 20th century, underwear underwent a metamorphosis that caused it to get briefer, synthetic and less constricting. Fashions for underwear, as for other clothing, was linked to social change.

1900 (Batterberry)

The tyranny of the corset had endured for centuries. Women endured extreme discomfort and frequently injuries from extreme corsetting. The image of Mammy attempting to lace Scarlet O'Hara back to her pre-baby 17 inch waist in "Gone With the Wind," is one many of us will remember. Some women, like the one in this illustration, even had ribs surgically removed in their quest to achieve a waistline of less than 20 inches. This is a feat which horrifies the modern reader, and ranks with Chinese foot binding on the list of barbaric social practices.

1910 (Batterberry) 

In Britain in the latter half of the 19th Century, many followers of the Arts and Crafts movement and of the Suffragette movement,  shed their corsets and adopted looser, smock type garments as a bid for the freedom and equal rights for women. The corset survived in the milder form of the "girdle", but was certainly not compulsory.






Look what I found this week! For masochists only.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/125794897/white-sequined-corset
 

I have a fabulous book called "20th Century Fashion", by John Peacock, which is basically plates of fashion illustrations for every 5 year period from 1900-1989, with descriptions. There are plates for day wear, evening wear, sports wear, couture and accessories for each half of each decade, and I will share a few with you. I hope John Peacock does not mind.

The cotton camisole with separate petticoat were the basic items, along with long drawers, either separate or combined with the cami as camiknickers or combinations. These usually featured an open crotch for practical rather than erotic purposes! An early form of the bra features at the bottom left in a heavily boned corset and "bust supporter".









By 1910, the line of the undergarments is changing in line with the evolution of the outer garments. This underwear features machine made lace. The corset is still in evidence, but it is shrinking.

And just in case you thought all undies were glamorous in the old days, check out these knitted woollies.
(I have the patterns, if you're interested!)














By the twenties, the looser fitting style is more common, although the corset still exists, but once again with a new line.  The brassiere has appeared as a separate garment but is a soft, unstructured style. Note the chest flattening corsets. Crepe de chine was a very popular fabric for underwear at this time, taking over from wool.

Shetland Camibockers - 1928

One of my oldest newspaper patterns is from this period. These are "camibockers" knitted in the finest Shetland wool. If you live in  a cold climate, you might like to try them.




In the 1930s, the glamorous look of the slinky bias cut dress dress would have made the girdle necessary, at least for evening wear, unless one happened to be waif thin. The bra has become a more structured garment, with boning or underwires. Silk and satin have become the popular fabrics for underwear.

Onesie 

Simplicity 2 piece set - late 30s

But wool is still popular for the winter. Here are some beauties from my favourite Sun-glo book.










I think this model is so beautiful. I often wonder who the models were. Imagine finding your grandmother doing this modelling. Miranda Kerr, eat your heart out.

Coming Soon - Underwear, Part Two.

References:
Batterberry, Michael and Ariane; Fashion - the Mirror of History; 1982; London; Columbus Books
Peacock, John; 20th Century Fashion; 1993; London; Thames and Hudson

Peacetime Fashions are Gay

A few weeks ago I came across this wonderful article about celebrating the end of World War 2 in fashion in Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion for October 1945. You don't see headlines like this these days.

"Peacetime Fashions are Gay

Apart from personal reactions, the news of Peace has brought many outward signs of brighter days ahead. Shop windows have blossomed forth in a galaxy of Spring  fashions, color runs riot everywhere and women who have waited so long  for this moment feel that they are justified in letting their heads go by buying something really feminine and attractive.
Girls who will be getting out of the various services will be sure to choose something soft and silky as a change from the severity of uniforn, and the present fashions will be ideal for this purpose. Many of the shops are showing frocks of plain pastel crepes - beige, eggshell blue, dusty pink, salt-bush green, and all those other soft shades which can be worn either with light or dark accessories...
A special effort should be made by women who are expecting their prisoner of war menfolk home soon for these men will expect to find their mothers, wives and sweethearts looking just as they left them. They have carried a picture in their minds  during the long, weary years away, and although women have had a lot to bear it is up to them to see that that picture has not changed.
It will not be easy, for women have aged just as the men themselves will have done, but a new frock, hat and careful attention to skin and hair, and perhaps the few lines that have developed will not be revealed in the general fresh appearance. Since all men love blue, perhaps that should be the color to choose. However, whatever the frock is to be, choose somehting colorful and becoming - made on truly feminine lines, and something which will appeal to him..."

There is a lot of detailed description about the upcoming fashion trends for various garments, but it was the sentiment that interested me most. It makes me think of Dusty Springfield's lines in "Wishin' and Hopin'", "Show him that you care just for him, do the things he likes to do, wear your hair just for him..."

Do all men love blue?

These are the years when fashion says goodbye to the tailored, masculine, shoulder-padded look taken on during the war by women stepping up into men's jobs and roles, and hello to the frivolous, feminine look leading into the 50s, such as that epitomised by Christian Dior.

After the war, they had another problem I hadn't thought about. They had all sorts of army surplus gear. What should they do with it? Ever the thrifty generation who had survivied the Great Depression, they recycled. I love this idea from the English Women's Weekly.

Who knew these were real parachute cords? I wonder if they made necklaces from shrapnel fragments too.

P.S. Keep Your Knitteds Nice

Back in October I was writing about dress shields, and how the use of them would prolong the life of your vintage garments. Well, I found this fabulous ad in an old Vogue knitting book, which is right at the end of the October post:
Keep Your Knitteds Nice

While we're on the subject, let me say now that I firmly believe in washing your knitteds as little as possible. With a baby, this is probably not going to be possible. But for adults (as long as they're not my partner) it should be possible. I rarely wash my woollens, and some I've had for 30 years are as good as new.

When my daughters were teenagers they were at first horrified that I only washed their school jumpers once or twice a year (and then they were carefully hand washed and dried flat). Their friends' mothers routinely washed their daughters' jumpers every week, often in the washing machine, because the tag said that was OK. I said, well that's fine if you want your jumper to be ruined in a few months. Slight soiling was sponged carefully, and that kept them nice. I firmly believe, I told them, that if it doesn't smell and it doesn't look dirty, then it doesn't need washing. They appreciated this "care" later on when their friends' jumpers were pilled, out of shape and needing to be replaced, while their own jumpers still looked like new after six years of secondary school. (Now, their brother was another story. Boys' jumpers appear to need much more frequent washing - he tended to lose them before they got ruined, anyway). Even if an item becomes a little smelly, often a good airing is enough to dissipate the smell and make washing unnecessary.

The school jumpers I'm talking about were of course machine knitted, commercially purchased items. It's hard to believe nowadays that mothers used to make school uniforms for their children. Jumpers were hand knitted, dresses were sewn by Mum. Imagine trying to get a child to wear a home made uniform these days - schools wouldn't allow it anyway, at least, not in Australia. I remember having a hand knitted jumper at secondary school. I had some regets that it wasn't a regulation item from the uniform shop, but enough other kids had home mades for me to have escaped being emotionally damaged by the experience.

My only other advice is never wring your knits, always gently squeeze out the excess water, and dry flat after pulling them into shape.

And if anyone ever wants a knitting pattern for a school jumper, I have quite a few. Collector's items only these days.