the Victoria and Albert Museum has vintage knitting patterns for free!

[kitewithfish]

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/1940s-knitting-patterns 

Hand-knitting was at a peak in Britain in the 1940s. During the Second World War, women on the home front were encouraged to contribute to the war effort by knitting for the troops, which was promoted as public duty. Advertising at the time stated: "England expects – knit your bit".

Many knitting patterns were given away free, while wool was also sent to schools so that children could knit gloves, scarves and balaclava helmets for the forces. Wool was also supplied to organisations such as the Women's Institutes of England and Wales, who made over 22 million knitted garments for the Red Cross (an average of 67 garments per member). Parcels of their knitwear were sent to prisoners of war, as well as to troops.

The warmth of woollen garments also made them popular for civilians who were faced with a shortage of heating fuel. In the face of wool rationing, knitters were encouraged to unravel old sweaters.

The original 1940s patterns, available to download below, show the wide range of items knitted during the War: a fatigue cap that could double as a scarf, a balaclava helmet and a waistcoat for men, as well as knitted turbans, a When You're 'Off Duty' jumper (its title hinting at the change in women's roles at this time), and gloves for women. They also show the many specialised patterns developed in response to the specific needs of the time. For example, the gloves have long wristbands for extra warmth, while the balaclava helmet has earflaps "to enable good hearing during telephone calls".

Download the free patterns below to create your own classic 1940s fashion.

Comments

[obstinatecondolement]

I'm a little intimidated by actual vintage patterns, but I have a great book called Vintage Knitwear by Lise-Lotte Lystrup that has vintage patterns updated for modern yarns and needles (and figures, as vintage patterns tend to run very petite). I guess all I'd really have to do is knit some swatches to get the right number of stitches per inch to use the unadulterated original patterns, but for some reason I've got the willies over giving it a go. Maybe because it's less likely than with modern patterns there'll be pages of Ravelry notes if I got stuck on understanding old timey knitting terminology, lol.

[kitewithfish]

That sounds awesome - I have heard of that book before.

I was surprised to find that some of the V&A patterns have already got people working on them in Ravelry - there's probably a corner of the knitting internet that's got a lot of people trying vintage patterns.

[obstinatecondolement]

Very true! There are so many niche Ravelry forums; it's not at all unlikely that there are ones devoted to knitting from vintage pattern.