Today I’m having a look at a The Australian Womens Weekly Knitting Book 1950. I’ve previously written about a Womens Weekly knitting book that I guessed to be from the 40’s. The publisher has saved me the trouble of guessing for this one which is good, because there are a few patterns inside that might make me think it was more recent.
Individual or loose knitting patterns rarely have publication dates, and I like to take this as a personal challenge. I enjoy guessing what year’s styles are represented by undated patterns and I think I’ve become quite good at it. I can usually pin things down to “early”, “mid” or “late” in a given decade.
One thing that really helps with dating vintage patterns is comparing the styles to publications of a known date – like this one. Spend some time browsing through knitting magazines to really get a feel for styles of different years. Not only is it enjoyable, its also a great excuse to collect vintage patterns.
Stitchcraft magazines are a fantastic resource to help with pattern dating. If you don’t have any in your own collection, Pinterest can be a very useful tool. There are hundreds of Stitchcraft magazine covers you can look at on this board. Inspired by this I started a board of my own for Lux Knitting Books, which are equally as useful but sadly not as numerous.
The Womens Weekly Knitting Book 1950 had a few surprises for me in terms of pattern dating. The patterns below have to be from 1950 because that’s when they were published; but without the publication date on the front of the magazine I would have placed them as mid-1950s.
The mother and daughter jumper above on the left are exactly three years ahead of their time.
The coronation of Elizabeth II in June 1953 saw an overwhelming number of crown motifs in knitwear design (and everywhere else for that matter). But here we are in 1950 with crown motifs doing a very good job of emulating the Imperial State Crown in stocking stitch.
The two beach outfits in the second picture above just don’t look like 1950 to me. They look like mid, to late 50’s, and I think its because the models’ hair is undone. My other beachwear patterns from so early in the decade have girls in perfect pincurl sets and high-heeled shoes so these two look like they belong in the more relaxed middle of the decade.
My last surprise was a happy one. I’ve previously written about my Woolcraft knitting books, and at the time I said I thought the one with the bo-peep cover was “from the early 1950’s or possibly the late 1940’s”.
Here it is on the back cover of Womens Weekly Knitting Book 1950 – with the bo-peep cover – advertised as “a completely new edition”. I’m really pleased that I got the date so close to it’s real publication.
Whether you enjoy guessing the dates of vintage patterns or you just like to browse through them, a bit of pattern-gazing is a great way to spend some time and appreciate the styles of the past.
