In 1949, my grandmother gave my mother a book for her birthday. It was the first craft book I ever saw as a kid. The title is Gestaltende Hände, ein Werkbuch für Mädchen, by Hildegard Fochs. That means Forming, Shaping, Modeling, Designing or maybe Creative Hands, a Workbook for Girls.
It’s a general crafts book, with leatherwork, bookbinding, weaving, woodworking, embroidery, doll house furniture making, and of course knitting and crocheting. It even shows how to make your own cookie-cutters.
Since I learned to knit at a young age, I appreciated projects like the bird motif sweater, because it was so complex.
As a grown-up knitter, the striped sweater caught my eye. The caption says it’s a pullover done in different stitches and colors, without a pattern (ohne Schnitt), and knitted in one piece. Nowadays the text gives numbers of stitches to cast on, and how many to increase for the sleeve shaping and decrease for the raglan shaping, so I’m not sure if I’m translating the ‘ohne Schnitt’ correctly. Mom, any advice on this?
Looking at the diagram below the photo, I (as a grown-up, experienced knitter) assumed that it was knitted from the neck down, and you could try it on as you went, which is why you wouldn’t need a pattern. But in fact, the instructions have the knitter start the four pieces at the ribbing, and knit up to the underarm, then join the pieces and knit as one, decreasing for the raglan shaping up to the neck. Only the sleeves and sides are seamed.
Now, we think nothing of starting at the neck and knitting down to the armholes, then knitting the body and sleeves circularly, so we have no seams at all. Ideas about knitting and garment construction have evolved over many years.
Here’s my favorite part about the striped sweater instructions. I love it because the author shows confidence in her readers: “For the stripe pattern, we don’t want to lay down any strict rules. Naturally, one can rearrange the stripes and knit them however one wants to.” Hurray for no strict rules!
I’ll end with this photo from the book of lanterns made of stiff black paper and tissue paper. When you put a candle inside, they glow like stained glass.
