Ladies' Crocheted Spencer (1915) and Princess Julia Crocheted Spencer (1916)

The Columbia Book of Yarn for 1915 contains this pattern for a crocheted spencer, here a sleeveless jacket rather longer than the usual waist- or below-bust length of a spencer.  This version is for a "36 or 38 bust," as are many if not most of the items in this book -- for which we are grateful to the author, Anna Schumacker! -- and is worked in period 4-fold (4-ply) Germantown yarn, which Kim Salazar of "String or Nothing" tells us is roughly equivalent to a modern worsted, e.g. Cascade 220.

A year later, Corticelli revised the pattern* to use their Sweater Silk crochet thread or alternatively, their Princess Pearl Crochet Cotton --

From Corticelli's Lessons in Crochet, Book 1, page 41 (page 43 of the PDF), available free from the Antique Pattern Library.

Note that the Corticelli version is to fit a 34-inch bust, with the suggestion to add more chain stitches to the beginning chain for a larger size, "allowing about six chain stitches to an inch."

Princess Pearl Crochet Cotton seems to have been approximately equivalent to a modern size 8 crochet cotton.

Advertisements for Sweater Silk and Princess Pearl at, respectively, the beginning and end of the Corticelli book.

*Yes, despite it being copyrighted by Columbia's publisher. The Corticelli version rewrote the pattern with their own abbreviations, but otherwise it is the same, even to the (presumably inadvertent) omission of instructions to work the left front.

Some more Elsa Barsaloux patterns

 Five Elsa Barsaloux patterns appear in the all-too-brief blog "Elsa Barsaloux Patterns" posted in 2014.  They appear to be from one of Barsaloux's self-published books, probably Knitwear De Luxe of 1919.

A selection of photos from Sweater Style (1921) has been posted here.

Indian Slip-On No.13A (1922)

Indian Slip-On No. 13A by Corticelli.

One of the more vivid patterns in the "Corticelli Yarn Book No.18" (1922) is the Indian Slip-On No. 13A, pictured here.  The body is knitted, with the collar and sleeve cuffs in crochet.

This slip-on, one of the newest of the Indian designs, is made of Corticelli Flosola in Sand, with the odd designs in Red, Goldenrod, Marion Blue and Black. The slashes at bottom of sleeves, the collar made of square tabs, and the bone rings worked in the girdle all add to the charm of this slip-on.

There is also a matching tam-like hat pattern. The complete booklet is available at Antique Pattern Library.

Ravelry user Rox has knitted up this garment, and her notes can be found here (membership required to view).

The Amazons' red caps

"Swallows and Amazons" (1974)

In the classic series of children's books by Arthur Ransome that began in 1930 with the eponymous Swallows and Amazons, the Blackett sisters usually wear distinctive red knitted caps.  The caps aren't described much, only that they are knitted and that the red color can be seen for miles, as when the four Walker children aboard their beloved "Swallow" can easily recognize "Amazon" as she tacks across the lake, by the red caps of her crew.

"Swallows and Amazons" (2016). Peggy has somehow got hold of a striped cap here, instead of the usual red one.

Because Ransome was so vague about the style of cap that Nancy and Peggy wear, we have more leeway in choosing a pattern.  In 1920s England, a watch cap pattern would be a logical choice, and would certainly have been available to a knitting mother or grandmother who had a relative in the merchant marine or the Navy, who had knitted for servicemen during the recent War as so many women did, or who simply had sailors in the family, as do both the Walkers and the Blacketts.

"Crow's Nest Cap" pattern, probably from the 1910s, from "The Needle-Worker" magazine's booklet Comforts for Sailors, and How to Knit Them. Note that the cap is worked from the top down.

One could also get a bit more elaborate than a simple watch cap, as the costumers did for these two filmed versions -- the 1974 Blacketts wear a longer version more like a ski cap with pompom, while the 2016 Blacketts' caps look very like the voyageur style.

"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.

Tea cozy

The cozy pictured here was knitted to the Paton's pattern with some nods to Keren's (both linked below), in rather un-1930s but extremely well-insulating wool and mohair blends from Brown Sheep Co., Lamb's Pride Worsted and Handpaint Originals for the solid and variegated respectively. Photo from A Bluestocking Knits.

Keren of Tea by the Sea gives a pattern for her granny's tea cosy, adding that the original on which she bases her pattern is at least eighty years old -- let's say 1930s.

Yasmin of Knit, Shear Bliss! has written up a pattern based on her grandmother's very similar tea cosy (with an earlier post about it here, in which she says her pattern is from the 1940s).

Paton's offers a free reprint in PDF format of their classic fluted cozy, though alas with no date. Their version offers three sizes of cozy, to fit your particular pot. 

("Cosy" or "cozy"? The first is British/Commonwealth, the other American.)

Elsa Schappel Barsaloux

 Elsa Barsaloux first appears in print, so far as I can tell, in 1915, with both The Priscilla Baby Book no.1 and Utopia Book of Filet and Venetian Crochet, no.2. A veritable spate of books followed in the next few years, some of crochet but mostly knitting.

She had been born in Germany in 1875, and immigrated with her parents and younger sister in the early 1880s, settling probably in the Bronx, and married David Barsaloux around 1897.  He had been born in Colorado also to immigrant parents -- his father from Canada and his mother from Ireland -- and by the time of the 1900 and 1905 censuses, the young couple was living in the Bronx with Elsa's widowed mother, David working as a cashier in a hotel.  Elsa sold design models to several major department stores, and made her first foray into knitting pattern books in 1915; these first books were mostly published by various yarn companies, but towards the end of the Great War the Barsalouxs had opened their own company and were publishing under their own imprint.  Although 1917 was her glory year -- with at least six pattern books published -- five more were published in the next few years, but sadly Elsa died at the age of 49 in 1924, and David just four years later.

This article from the "Dry Goods Economist" highlights a Barsaloux innovation -- "the newest thing in the way of a retail store ... a shop devoted exclusively to yarns".  As hard to imagine as that is nowadays, in 1917 there was no such thing as a bricks-and-mortar yarn shop!  Mrs. Barsaloux's establishment -- The Yarn Shop, mind you!-- was located at 400 5th Avenue (where the Langham Hotel is now), was tastefully decorated in up-to-the-moment gray and lavender, and included tables and comfortable chairs "for those who are receiving instructions," and, with an admirable knowledge of her prospective clientele, a children's room with child-sized tables and chairs! 

The Yarn Shop, close up.

Pattern books by Elsa Schappel Barsaloux

1915

• The Priscilla baby book no. 1 : a collection of babies' garments in knitting and crochet, with directions for making
• Utopia book of filet and Venetian crochet, no. 2 (Henry E. Frankenberg)
  

1916

• Richardson's cross stitch book and filet crochet no.5 (Richardson Silk Co.)*
• Richardson's silk and cotton crochet book no. 11
• Utopia book of Cluny crochet (Henry E. Frankenberg)
  

*According to Leigh Martin, Richardson's didn't publish the names of the designers, so it's interesting that Barsaloux's is known -- perhaps she insisted on it?

1917

• The Priscilla sweater book, including hats, caps, and other accessories, with directions for working
• The Priscilla war work book, including directions for knitted garments and comfort kits from the American Red Cross, and knitted garments for the Boy Scout
• Good Shepherd fingering yarns and their use: Sweaters (Shepherd Worsted Mills)
• Good Shepherd fingering yarns and their use: Infants' wear (Shepherd Worsted Mills)
• Good Shepherd fingering yarns and their use: The boudoir (Shepherd Worsted Mills)

1918

• The sweater book (The Yarn Shop/David N. Barsaloux)
  

 

1919

• Knit wear de luxe : original model creations and designs (The Yarn Shop) 
• Utopia yarn book : being a practical treatise on knitting and crocheting (Utopia Yarns)
  

1920

• The Priscilla Cluny crochet book

1921

• Sweater styles : original model creations and designs (The Yarn Shop)

Sources

New York, New York City marriage records, 1829-1940 (database).
New York, New York City municipal deaths, 1795-1949 (database).
"Sells yarn exclusively," in Dry Goods Economist, vol.72, no.3836, January 12, 1918, p.59 (bound in issues 3835-3845).

Polk's New York City directory, 1920-1921 ["Barsaloux, Elsa  yarns  500 5th ave" on p.283], 1922-1923
United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (database).

The "Five O'clock Hat"

The "Five O'Clock Hat" from the book or booklet "Chic Hats" (1938).  The pattern is available free from Vintageous (old link here).