Retro Monday – Koala Tea Cosy

Today’s Retro Monday features my oldest knitting pattern book. It’s dated 2 November, 1936 which makes it 77 years old. It kind of smells 77 years old too.

Still, its in pretty good condition for something printed on newsprint quality paper (apart from the colour cover which is on a denser, satin faced paper). A few of the pages are stained but I think they are all there and all the patterns are complete.

The thing that enticed me to pay $15 for this pattern book was the promise of a koala tea cosy pattern. I have a thing for knitted Australiana (and Kiwiana too), so an Australian publication from the 1930s with a koala on the front was just too good to pass up.

I suspect that the cover artist has taken some liberties with their pictures of the finished products. The pattern suggests that the koala cosy is basically a tube with some ears knitted on and a bow around it’s neck to define the head. It’s a bit hard to tell without a schematic drawing that I’m so used to in modern patterns.

Still, I think I’ll have a go at making a koala tea cosy. I’ve got plenty of grey/brown yarn in the stash and it will be interesting to see how it really turns out. I’ll photocopy the page first though because the pattern is just too fragile. And it smells like a shed.

(Please note that I do not own the copyright to any patterns featured in Retro Monday. Unfortunately this means I can not make or send out copies).