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!
*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
A POLKA COAT, FOR A CHILD.
Cast on twenty-five [sic, 225] stitches, which will make seventy-five ribs, in the Brioche stitch, which is done by bringing the wool forward, slipping a stitch the purl way, and knit two together; bring the wool forward, knit twenty-four rows, or twelve turns of white; then commence the scarlet, by leaving eighteen stitches on each side, knit twenty-four rows, or twelve turns of scarlet; then begin to take in, which is done by knitting the first thirty on each side, without decreasing; then bring the wool forward, slip one stitch, and knit five together; repeat this till within thirty on the other side, which, knit without decreasing, until you have only forty ribs, or one hundred and twenty stitches; knit forty-eight rows, or twenty-four turns, in this manner, still leaving the white on each side; put thirty stitches on another needle for the front, knit those backwards and forwards for thirty-six rows, or eighteen turns; then knit all the stitches but one rib, turn back, and finish the row, and so on, leaving one rib more each time, till it is the proper length for the shoulder. Cast off, but be particular that the slanting side is not in front; finish the other side in the same way, then take up the stitches for the back; knit thirty-six rows, to correspond with the fronts for the arm-hole; then knit backwards and forwards, leaving one rib each way, until it is the same length as the slanting part in front, which are to be joined together; cast off; now take up the white stitches on each side, and knit till it is long enough to go up the sides; for the sleeves; cast on seventy-two stitches, knit thirty rows, then twelve more, leaving one rib on the one side to form the wide part; for the collar; cast on seventy-six stitches, and knit twelve rows, leaving one rib on each side; then sixteen rows of white; cast off; cast on eighteen stitches for the cuff, and knit till it is long enough to go round the bottom of the sleeve; twist a cord of the same coloured wool, and put in the waist behind, with a tassel at the ends; the same under the collar. These may be done in four-thread fleecy, but they look much better in double Berlin wool, No. 9 pins, by the Eagle gauge. For a lady's, you must cast on stitches in proportion, and larger pins.
A similar polka jacket from an 1849 issue of "Family Friend" was transcribed by Carol Rhodes and appears in modern-pattern format in Helen Bonney's article in the January/February 2013 issue of "PieceWork" magazine.
"I wish I had something pretty to put into everybody's stocking," she went on, wistfully; "but I've only got the muffatees for Papa, and these reins for Phil." She took them from under her pillow as she spoke – gay worsted affairs, with bells sewed on here and there. She had knit them herself, a very little bit at a time.The two Workwoman's Guide muffatees in the illustration above are rather plain, certainly compared to the more elaborate ones in the book, which would make them likely candidates for Katy's pair, and why she doesn't think them very "pretty"!
