Today’s vintage pattern – Knitters Choice 1960 – is from a bundle of patterns I recently received from my friend Nicole. She gave me about 50 patterns from her own collection and they’re all fantastic!
Knitters Choice 1960 is a Patons and Baldwins publication, with lots of patterns for women, men and children as well as a section on rug making. While the patterns in this booklet are all quite appealing to me, it’s the rug designs that I fell in love with.
I’d be very happy to have any of the rugs on the left hand side of the picture. The ones on the right are cute, but a bit on the twee side for my liking.
The designs pictured here were made using printed canvas and pre-cut lengths of wool. I think they were made the same way as the “latch hook rugs” that were popular in the 70’s and 80’s.
Along with Hobbytex and copper foil art kits, latch hook rugs used to give me the horrors – so many ugly craft projects! Now I’ve softened to the idea of a latch hook rug, but only if they look as good as the ones in this pattern book.
As far as the knitting patterns go, Knitters Choice 1960 is a great example of stylish early 60s fashion.
Before the child-like mod styles of the mid 60s, the decade gave us softer, simpler versions of 1950s fashion. Those first few years of the early 60s are my favourite for wearable styles that reflect 50s flair without its extravagance.
The beret is definitely on my “to knit” list. It’s made with two strands of 8ply which has to create a chunky knit – so I think it might have to wait for next winter.
