I don't actually remember being taught to knit - though I do remember not being able to cast on and having to get someone else to cast on my teddys' oddment scarves (I could always cast off) - which I guess must mean I learned in the 70s - but most of my active childhood knitting memories are of the 80s. Then, the only real source of patterns was yarn companies - Sirdar, Wendy, Patons etc - or "womens" magazines - Women's Own or my granny's People's Friend (I still have her pink plastic free People's Friend crochet hooks). In fact I'm pretty sure the Women's Own must have been granny's as well. We had an eclectic collection of patterns culled from both grannies, and from the LYS in Long Eaton where I used to dive in the bargain bins for cheap wool. I was, and I think remain, the only knitting granddaughter, which is why I ended up with all of them - and still have many of them.
So we had some very 80s yarn company patterns:
A typical example, in glorious 80s chenille (although chenille is now back, back, BACK, as Smash Hits would say, sticking with the 80s theme).
We also had some older yarn company patterns:
This is I think a particularly splendid example, from good old Sirdar, the company who basically taught me to knit - I was knitting Sirdar long before I got into Ravelry, knitting magazines or even Rowan. It's obviously my Luton Gran (i.e. paternal)'s pattern as it has the stamp from her LYS in Luton - Angelique, in Riddy Lane - I would imagine long gone. This is quite a good way of dating patterns as my family moved a lot - so I can date a pattern to within a few years according to whether it's stamped Bristol, Bradford or Long Eaton. However some of my favourites in the collection are the magazine patterns, which they always used to give a bit of "lifestyle" styling, and would produce little themed pattern books, like this:
I've actually always been rather fond of this one! The Wool book is very much of its time, so you get this...
This is the Marryat Hat which I've designed for the book - very pleased that Jenny from Artesano is knitting a version of this to send out to someone serving in Afghanistan - apparantly the rib design is ideal under-helmet wear! The pattern is currently free to try on Ravelry & Jenny is going to send any hats anyone else wants to knit for the Forces out to Afghanistan - get in touch with her (ArtesanoYarnsLtd on Rav or @artesanojen on Twitter) if you would like to help out.
The theme for the book was classic British family designs so I when naming my patterns I went for authors of classic British childrens' classics. Frederick Marryat wrote Children of the New Forest and various other books, often with a naval theme - e.g. Mr Midshipman Easy - based on his own experiences in the Navy - the precursor of C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brien etc. The Forces connection is quite appropriate for Jenny's hats!
I also have Nesbit mitts:
My final choice was John Masefield, who was Poet Laureate, writing virtually the only poem anyone was called on to learn by heart when I was at school ("Quinquereme from Ninevah..." etc), and also one of the most fabulous children's fantasy books The Box of Delights.
It was great to be able to celebrate these authors with the names and hopefully any children who get these patterns knitted for them will go out and have adventures in them!
