Blast From The Past

A recent trip back to my home town was quick, too short, and resulted in a few tears.  Not tears of sadness.  The kind of tears that leak fond memories and good times.  It seems that my brother was cleaning out a trunk and re-discovered things that we packed away almost two decades ago.  

Check out the ephemera.   Two copies of The Workbasket are now a cherished part of my reference library.  Why these two issues were saved by my mother is unknown.  It does not matter at all.  These are just fun and enjoyable.  

I love the Irish crochet collar on the cover of the April, 1959 issue.   Yes, the full instructions are in the issue.  Alas, 1959 was before crochet charts and symbols came into existence.   Thankfully, the entire printed pattern is intact.  I doubt that I'll ever make this, but I have the whole pattern and that is important.  

By the time these issues were printed, the magazine was accepting advertising.  A lot of advertising.  A lot of fun advertising.  Two pink daffodil bulbs are offered for 25 cents, post paid.  An electric hot pot cost only $2.88.  And, as I would expect, Postum offered wives who worry about their husbands an alternative to "give those over-coffeed nerves a rest..."  Gotta love that marketing plan.

The April, 1958 issue includes this fabulous Modern Motif Rug.  Please know that the rug is made of three colors (ecru, black, and brown) but the magazine is printed in black & white.    The rug is just a sixteen row repeat with a border worked all around.  It includes reverse single crochet that shocked me.  

Today, we work rss (aka crab stitch) from left to right on the right side of the work.  RSS is considered an edging.  Not so in this 1958 pattern.  The stitch is worked on the wrong side of the work and from right to left.  Get out your hook and give this a try - 

 

"Make single crochet as follows:  With yarn in front of hook, insert hook from back to front in next sc, wrap yarn around hook and draw lp through, yarn over, draw yarn through both lps on hook,  repeat." Workbasket, April, 1958.  

I might be making a rug just to try it out.