A Compendium of Historical Knitting: March 2026

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Dahlia pan-holder from "The Workbasket" (ca.1937)

This is the "Dahlia" pan-holder, one of three from the vol.3, no.3 issue of "The Workbasket" -- "Home and Needlecraft for Pleasure and Profit -- Ideas for the Bazaar, the Home, Gifts and Sparetime Moneymakers -- with Many Inexpensive, Easily Made Articles that find a Ready Sale" -- published in Kansas City, ca. 1937 (and generously made available through Antique Pattern Library). "Frost Tone thread" is vaguely suggested in the pattern, but no gauge or target size is given; I used Lily Sugar 'n Cream in two not-very-dahlia-like-but-high-contrast colors, resulting in a potholder about 9 in./23cm across. The yarn not in use is simply carried along the round underneath the working yarn, which makes for a lot fewer ends needing to be woven in, although it does mean that the carried color tends to peep through the stitches. The scalloped petal tips are made with short rows.

(Lily Frost-Tone thread looks from the photos on Ravelry to be about the weight and luster of size 3 perle cotton.)

There is a short history of "The Workbasket" magazine by Nancy B. on HubPages -- originally "Aunt Martha's Workbasket" but it seems, judging by the relative sizes on the cover of even this fairly-early issue, that most people just called it "The Workbasket". The magazine was published for an impressive 61 years, changing with the times in the types of patterns and crafts it featured, but finally ceased publication in 1996. The Antique Pattern Library has a number of issues available, mostly from the 1930s and 40s.

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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.