We’re continuing on with the history series that recently debuted on this blog. Today we’re looking at crochet in the year 1932.
1932 Crochet Style
One of the things I am noticing is different in 1932 than in the previous years I’ve researched so far is that many newspapers started publishing crochet patterns in their pages. We’ll look at a few of those in the “Häkelanleitungen” section below. Because of this, obwohl, we also get to see a broader range of different styles. One pattern (for the cotton crochet top shown in the patterns below) sagt: “College girls are crocheting during their leisure moments and the vogue is spreading to high school girls and also to their mothers”. This is reflected in a style with a lot of crochet wearables for women and their kids. Crochet blouses and tops start to get very popular at this time, although it is still also common to see patterns that are knit or sewn and just have crochet as edging.
1932 Häkeln Nachrichten
The most awful piece of news that came up in my research was news about a woman who committed suicide with a piece of wire after several unsuccessful suicide attempts including one in which she “stabbed herself under the heart with a crochet needle”. The woman was the mother of a 13-year-old murderer and couldn’t leave with the guilt. Plus, she was the only witness so without her testimony they were considering letting the boy go. What a horrifying way to die.
A slight more upbeat news piece von 1932, and one I found really interesting, was a request for yarn donations for needy families at Christmastime. The article notes that many women bought a lot of yarn so they could knit and crochet at the start of The Depression but with the years dragging on they are no longer so gung ho about it and that yarn (oder “wool” as the article actually calls it) is now just sitting there wasting away. The women in these needy families could use it to craft items for their family members.
1932 Crochet Patterns
In 1932 the Sasktaoon Star-Phoenix and several other newspapers published a Häkelanleitung for a pair of “brother and sister sweaters”; the only difference between the boys’ and girls’ version is the placement of the buttons.
Das Muster für diese cotton crochet blouse was published in several papers including the Spokane Daily Chronicle.
1932 crochet beret pattern
Etsy ist annalaia sells the vintage crochet pattern for this super adorable hat and tie.
Although wearables were popular at this time, people did still crochet for the home. This thread crochet bedspread pattern booklet sold on Etsy by floraandflossies shows and example of that. The brand here is Bucilla and it seems like they put out a lot of pattern booklets at this time.
Another great example is this filet crochet pattern for a milk jug cover, which is sold on Etsy by VintageKnitPatterns. It was published in 1932 in The Weekly Times.
1932 Häkeln Bücher
My favorite book found in the research for today’s post is a reproduction of a 1932 book called Fleisher’s Afghan Book
ivarose produces reproductions of lots of different crochet books. This is an image from one called Columbia #41 c.1932 Knitted & Crochet Patterns Misses & Women’s Vintage Sweaters Scarfs & Caps.
A book I found that’s not a reproduction was a used Amazon copy of A Complete Collection of Crochet Designs
I’ll be back next week with crochet history from 1933. How are you liking this series so far?
