Patons Bazaar

Last year when I was visiting my Mum, she gave me a couple of knitting and crochet books that had belonged to my grandmother. She is now in her 80s and has failing eyesight which prevents her from crafting any more, but in her younger years she was a great crafter and I remember her sewing and knitting lots of clothes and toys for me when I was a child. She, along with my mother, also taught me to knit, which I am immensely grateful for.

Here are a few images from one of the books that used to belong to her. It is a Patons Bazaar book (#178), printed in Great Britain. It is not dated, but I assume from the pictures that it is from the 60s or 70s. The book is a collection of knitting and crochet patterns for things to make for fairs. Obviously when this was printed, fundraising fairs were a common enough occurrence to warrant a whole book of patterns dedicated to them.


There are an awful lot of patterns in here that I would never make, but there are also some gems, like this set of tea-cosies (I especially like the knitted windmill one):


And the crocheted black bag with the flowers on it on the back cover:



I also quite like the granny square hot-water bottle cover in this photo:

I only learnt to crochet last year, so my skills aren't up to crocheting a whole granny square afghan yet, but I think I could manage enough squares for a "hottie bottle" cover. Don't know about the green crochet tie just above it though...

If you are interested in some more vintage goodness, I have scanned all the colour pages from this book and put them on Flickr.