This weekend I was in Marietta, Ohio for a paranormal convention at the Lafayette Hotel. During the break between speakers, I ducked across the road to a nearby antique store. The owner greeted me and my mother, and as soon as he lost sight of us, cranked the volume of the music to concert level, which cracked me up a bit. I had gone in to find a new piece of colored pressed glass because I am a colorful magpie, but as I rounded a corner I came face to face with a knitting magazine! Naturally, I snapped it up. It’s The Minerva Knitting Book Volume IV, apparently from 1920, but it’s in such good condition that I have trouble believing it’s that old. Supposing it is, it’s a bit alarming that I have something so old in my ham-fisted possession, but I will do my best. I can’t seem to find any definitive history on the Minerva company, other than Minerva, which is a sewing supply site, and that may be how the company evolved. I’ve found a few mentions of the Columbia Minerva yarn company, but the dates ranges I’ve found center on the 1960s to the 1980s.
Reading through the magazine makes me understand how spoiled pattern-wise the modern knitter/crocheter is. The 52-page magazine contains 72 patterns, all with brief descriptions serving as directions, often only a paragraph, and there is no sizing. There is a photograph of a model wearing the garment, so apparently if you hit gauge (they do tell you what it should be, mercifully) correctly, you’ll end up with a garment the size of the one worn by the model, which is less than helpful considering they don’t tell you the size the model is wearing. There’s nothing approaching a schematic, or even measurements other than gauge, so you’re really trusting to luck. The patterns themselves are very ’20s in style, but I found myself considering a few. One of the features I found endearing was a section in the middle with (presumably) the knitter modeling her own creation, with the bare bones instructions beneath. I wonder how exciting it must have been to be photographed modeling your own work.