"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.

"A Manual of Worsted Work" from Lion Brand Yarns, 1912

An "automobile or aviation turban" (pp.74-75) for those exciting new modes of transportation! Note, too, this early use of chunky yarns.

Lion Brand Yarns' 1912 A Manual of Worsted Work for Those Who Knit and Crochet includes illustrated sections on how to knit and crochet, with useful and clearly-illustrated stitch dictionaries for both knitting and crochet (including crocheted borders), patterns for garments to suit babies, children, men, and women -- though do note that most of the women's patterns are sized to fit a 34 to 36-inch bust (86 to 92 cm) only -- and patterns for afghans, "couch robes," etc. and "novelties" from leading reins to a dog coat. A treasure trove!

The entire book is available free through Archive.org.

"My Knitting Book" by Miss Lambert

 From the introduction:

The examples of knitting, contained in the following pages, have been selected with the greatest care,—many are original,—and the whole are so arranged as to render them comprehensible even to a novice in the art.

Knitting being so often sought, as an evening amusement, both by the aged and by invalids, a large and distinct type has been adopted,—as affording an additional facility. The writer feels confident in the recommendation of "My Knitting Book," and humbly hopes it may meet with the same liberal reception that has been accorded to her "Hand-Book of Needlework."

The numerous piracies that have been committed on her last mentioned work, have been one inducement to publish this little volume; and from the low price at which it is fixed, nothing, but a very extended circulation, can ensure her from loss. Some few of the examples have been selected from the chapter on knitting, in the "Hand-Book."

3, New Burlington Street,
November 1843.

The full text (with typographical errors corrected) of Miss Lambert's My Knitting Book (1843) is available on Gutenberg.org.