About Weldon's Practical Needlework

From Interweave Press:

About 1885, Weldon’s began publishing a series of fourteen-page monthly newsletters, available by subscription, each title featuring patterns and instructions for projects using a single technique.

About 1888, the company began to publish Weldon’s Practical Needlework, each volume of which consisted of twelve issues (one year) of several newsletters bound together with a cloth cover.

Each volume contains hundreds of projects, illustrations, information on little-known techniques, glimpses of fashion as it was at the turn of the twentieth century, and brief histories of needlework. Other techniques treated include making objects from crinkled paper, tatting, netting, beading, patchwork, crewelwork, appliqué, cross-stitch, canvaswork, ivory embroidery, torchon lace, and much more.

From 1999 through 2005, Interweave published facsimiles of the first twelve volumes of Weldon’s Practical Needlework.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Wrapping Up My Year of Weldon's

It's time to "shut that whole thing down"...I'm preparing to head to England for the holidays, so the Lady's Silk Mitts pattern is my last project in My Year of Weldon's.  I will be blogging about my trip, hopefully with good photos (my daughter the photographer is coming, so you won't have to rely on my horrible picture-taking skills)

It's been a fun year, and I come away with tremendous respect for the unjustly anonymous Weldon's pattern writers.  Their patterns are so well-written, with very few errors and clear enough that they can be used today, over 100 years after they were written.  While we may not want to knit all the fussy items in the Weldon's catalog of patterns, lots of them are surprisingly up to date in current yarns.  Some knitting fashions really don't go out of style (the fingerless mitts are a great example of a style that looks as good today as it did in 1895)

I'm hoping to donate my year of Weldon's projects to our local museum, which includes a home maintained with the furnishings and fashions of the 1890s.  Perfect for my box of Victorian projects.
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3 comments:

  1. LaurieDecember 12, 2012 at 1:42 PM

    Thanks for sharing the year with us. Enjoy England! Laurie

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  2. KatieDecember 14, 2012 at 9:24 PM

    SO proud of you for making it all year! And I loved (nearly) all the things you made! ;) It's been fun watching what you come up with, and your abilities to translate those crazy patterns and completely foreign yarn requirements into actual product is always impressive!

    although that chest protector IS awfully itchy... ;)

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  3. LaurieDecember 15, 2012 at 7:41 AM

    It wouldn't be a Victorian sickroom item if it didn't itch

    I have had fun with this and will continue to work w Weldon's patterns, but I need to knit in the 21st century for a bit lol

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