Today’s Retro Monday features a Patons Bluebell pattern booklet from the early 80s. There are eight patterns in this booklet but I’m only going to talk about the four that are most interesting.
Actually there are only three that are interesting – the fourth is not great but it’s on the same page as one that I like and I didn’t want to crop the image. I think you can guess the one I’m not a fan of.
As with the Caressa booklet I featured a few months ago, these patterns have an “80’s does 30’s/40’s” feel.
While twinsets were popular from the 30’s to the 80’s, the simple two-colour palettes and short length pictured here have a 1940’s feel for me. But then I look at the styling – the hats and skirts and pants – and I think it’s all a bit more of a 30’s feel. I’m not sure why but I find it a bit disconcerting when bits and pieces from quite distinct decades are all mixed up like this.
The second picture (right) has the boxy striped jumper that I don’t like at all and the skirt suit that I think is quite clever. The top of the skirt suit is knitted sideways and the bands are picked up and knitted on last.
The skirt suit has much more of a 30s feel than the twin sets and it wouldn’t look out of place in one of the Stitch in Time books.
While the twin sets and the skirt suit are quite nice I think the only item I’d ever knit would be the top from the white and red twin set – and I’d probably alter the length. This pattern booklet is more on my “interesting” list than my “must knit” list.
I think the square necked top is fab!