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.

What is a balaclava?

A balaclava is a knitted (or sometimes crocheted) head covering that is essentially a close-fitting cap combined with a tube-shaped neck, with an opening at the front for the face. It can be worn exposing only the eyes, or with the lower part of the opening at various points to cover or reveal the nose and mouth. The cap section may be pushed back off of the head in warmer conditions or as necessary. It is said to have originated sometime after the Battle of Balaclava in 1864, during which British troops wore handmade garments against the bitter cold because their own supplies had not arrived. The style of the cap is said to have been based on similar caps, the Uhlan worn by Polish and Prussian soldiers and the Templar cap worn by outdoor-sportsmen, earlier in the century. The earliest-known use of the term balaclava, though, was apparently in 1881; it was first called a helmet, and in pattern books of the early 20th century is often clarified as a "helmet (or balaclava)". Nevertheless, it is clearly a very practical garment for cold-weather wear, especially because it can be worn under larger hoods or protective helmets, and it is no surprise that it became a popular item to knit for soldiers and sailors during wartime.

(Franklin Habit writes about his search for a pattern, or even a logical description, of either the Uhlan or the Templar cap, and gives an updated pattern for Weldon's 1881 "Gent's Balaclava Cap" --

in his "Uh-la-la" post at Knitty. There is an "Uhlan Cap" as part of the instructions for "A Seaman's Outfit" in the Columbia Book of Yarns by Anna Schumacker, but this is dated 1915, long after the origin of the term, and clearly used there as simply a synonym for balaclava.)

Soldiers of the London Rifle Brigade with troops of the 104th and 106th Saxon Regiments during the so-called Christmas Truce, 1914. The soldier second from left at the front is wearing a balaclava; the soldier to his right is probably also. Non-commercial use permitted courtesy the Imperial War Museum, cat.Q 70075.

 

Knitted Comforts for Men on Land and Sea (Baldwin, 191?) provides two "helmet (or balaclava)" patterns, one with a split lower section that provides extra warmth to the front and back of the wearer's neck --

 and one with a plain ribbed neck --

(See also the post at "Knitting Now and Then" for some background information on this booklet and its pattern writer, Marjory Tillotson.)

The article "Knitting Comforts for the Troops" by Susan Strawn at PieceWork Magazine has another helmet pattern, with garter stitch flaps and a stockinette cap, from the Columbia Yarn company ca.1917.

This image, from the Jaeger Handknit series no.44, is courtesy the V&A's page on 1940s knitting, and a PDF of the pattern in modern terminology is available here. Interestingly, the Baldwin "helmet with flaps" pattern of a generation earlier says that "War Office Experts do not recommend apertures for the ears" which are especially vulnerable to the cold; presumably the development of radio technology in the ensuing twenty years made the additional openings necessary, one hopes not at the expense of the serviceman's ears.

Holly Shaltz has posted images from an American Red Cross booklet of three balaclava patterns for servicemen, and provided both transcriptions of the original "receipts" and updated instructions.

The Chelsea Bridge balaclava is undated but is most likely a 1940s pattern, as is the balaclava pattern from the "Guide to Knitting for Active Service" by the Australian Comforts Fund; the pattern in this link shows only the instructions rewritten in modern knitting terminology.

An American booklet of the 1940s that had at least one further edition post-war was Bucilla's "Warm Hand Knits for Servicemen".

See also the blog and online shop "Handmade WWI and WWII Reproduction Knits" for some interesting photos and background (though no patterns) on knitting for servicemen during those two wars.

"Boudoir Jacket no.476" (1917)

This crocheted boudoir jacket pattern is from Corticelli's "Lessons in Knitting and Crochet, book 6," available at Antique Pattern Library.  A boudoir or bed jacket was a waist-length garment, often knitted or crocheted, worn over one's nightgown while reading or perhaps breakfasting in bed; it was most popular from about the 1920s to the 40s.  (Joanne Thompson theorizes, quite logically, that the garment's decline in popularity in the 1950s was due most likely to the rise in central heating, that an extra layer of warmth simply wasn't needed any more.)

Fatima at Crochetology by Fatima has a long post detailing her making of this boudoir jacket.

In the Winter 2021 issue of "PieceWork" magazine, Pat Olski has rewritten the jacket pattern into modern format, adding to very handsome effect the Crocheted Coat Fastener no.321a from Corticelli's "Lessons in Crochet, book 2," also available in its original format at Antique Pattern Library.

 The boudoir jacket in "Weldon's Practical Crochet, 194th series" (no.423, vol.36) from about the same date,

is of very similar construction, though rather more dégagé in appearance.  Note also the similarity between these particular boudoir jackets and the hug-me-tight worn by Trini Alvarado as Meg in the 1994 film of "Little Women" which, if it is indeed an authentic 1860s garment, would certainly be an ancestor --

"Panel Slip-On Sweater" (1919)

This panel sweater appears in the May 1919 issue of the American magazine "The Delineator," available online at the Hathi Trust, via Google and the University of Iowa. Note the model's fashionable post-war "corset-less" figure! quite a difference from her mother's rigid silhouette twenty-some years earlier.

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.