A Compendium of Historical Knitting: "The Columbia Book of Yarns"

Thursday, January 7, 2021

"The Columbia Book of Yarns"

The cover of the 1904 edition, with a lovely, rather Pre-Raphaelite illustration.

The Columbia Yarn Company issued a number of pattern books for knitting and crochet in the early years of the 20th century. The first edition shows some of the articles in drawings and some in photographs, but the subsequent volumes are nearly all photographs.

All of the editions from 1907 to 1918 are credited to Anna Schumacker.

The Columbia Book of the Use of Yarns (1904)

Columbia Book of Yarns (8th ed., 1907)

Columbia Book of Yarns (9th ed., 1908)

Columbia Book of Yarns (16th ed., 1915)

Columbia Book of Yarns (17th ed., 1916) and another copy here

Columbia Book of Yarns (1917)

Columbia Book of Yarns (19th ed., 1918)

Columbia Book of Yarns : Women's Sweaters, Scarfs and Hats (22nd ed. no.2, 1921)

It is interesting to see the changes over time not only in fashions, but in the names of the garments themselves -- for example, the "Eton Waist" becomes the "Eton Vest".

For a helpful guide to relative yardages of Columbia yarns for those knitters now who want to find an equivalent yarn for the patterns, see the Columbia Yarns page at the Vintage Yarn Wiki.

I have not been able to find out anything about Anna Schumacker, who, by the entries in WorldCat, wrote (or revised) quite a number of books for Columbia besides The Book of Yarns, with publication dates from 1907 to 1919, including Columbia Cottons and How to Use Them: Latest and Most Practical Manual for Making ['Crocheting' on the cover] Infant's and Children's Caps (5th series, 1915).

Some time during or after the Great Depression, the Columbia company merged with Minerva Yarns to become Columbia-Minerva.

A Columbia Yarns ad from "The Dry Goods Economist" (a periodical for dry-goods merchants) of 25 February 1922, via GoogleBooks.

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About this project

This page is a compendium, not the compendium, and makes no claims to be definitive. That said, we will attempt to provide a broad spectrum of examples of knitting patterns, techniques, and stitches across the years.

The label "Pattern links" indicates that a link to an outside webpage is given in the post, directing the reader to the pattern (sometimes for purchase from the designer or adapter, but often free), and the label "Patterns" indicates that the pattern is given here in the post. Both categories are subdivided into historical periods.

The label "Historical patterns in modern terminology" gives either patterns themselves or (more usually) links to historical patterns rewritten for the knitter of today. (It can be very illuminating and educational to compare the original with an updated version!)

Note that although ordinarily we far prefer to refer to authors as they wished and presented themselves to the world on their books' title pages, in the case of knitting authors who were known -- sometimes known only -- by their husband's name, we have decided to here use their married names, e.g. Mrs. G.J. Baynes is here listed as Anne Baynes.

Weights of the more common historical yarns

Andalusian falls between modern fingering weight and sport weight; Jamieson & Smith's 2-ply "jumper weight" Shetland can also be used.

Crewel is the same as modern crewel wools.

Double Berlin is equivalent to a modern DK or a three-ply worsted.

Fleecy could come in a range of weights, probably from fingering weight to a soft bulky weight, but was most commonly from DK to soft bulky; the modern knitter will have to experiment to achieve the desired result.

Germantown is equivalent to a modern worsted (18-20 sts per 4"/10cm).

Knitting floss is probably a modern lace-weight.

Lamb's wool or worsted equivalent to modern sport weight; it is not a modern worsted, but refers to the way the wool was spun.

Pyrenees is a lace-weight wool with a slightly tighter twist than Shetland.

Saxony is equivalent to modern fingering or baby yarns (about 32 sts per 4"/10cm).

Shetland can still be found today; a two-ply lace-weight can also be used.

Single Berlin, like its relative double Berlin, was traditionally of merino wool; single is a needlepoint or fingering weight.

Worsted or lamb's wool is equivalent to modern sport weight; it is not a modern worsted, but refers to the way the wool was spun.

Zephyr is probably a light fingering weight wool.

A detailed table of discontinued vintage yarns (i.e. mostly 20th-century) and their respective weights can be found here, and a very helpful table of specific modern equivalents to historical yarns can be found here.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

"The Columbia Book of Yarns"

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