Friday 30 May 2014

An open letter to Woman's Weekly

Dear Woman's Weekly,

In regards to your classics series "A Vintage View" - what a great idea!  I happened to stumble across issue #1 (1900 - 1920) at my local supermarket and as I am much interested in anything to do with homemaking, crafts and so called "women's issues" of the early 20th century, loved it.  It had interesting domestic tidbits and reproductions of articles from these years.  I was excited to see more.


So I bought issue #2 (the 1920s) and this didn't disappoint either.  More interesting tidbits and more crafty ideas that I plan to try out.  I was very much looking forward to issue #3 (the 1930s and a particular era of interest to me), especially since the teasers you gave indicated that there would be (oh joy of joys) knitting patterns involved.

And here is where it gets ugly . . . yes, issue #3 had knitting patterns, but you also introduced a horrible style of cropping images with a wavy line to disastrous effect.  Several of the aforementioned knitting patterns had the last few lines of instruction completely obscured due to this, frankly not very nice looking, wavy line.

observe the wavy line at the bottom of this article, completely obscuring directions for the collar

And that's just the beginning.  Whereas the first two issues reproduced the old layouts clearly (at least allowing the sentences to be finished before cropping them) and legibly, this new issue had layouts so small that I doubt I will be able to read them even with the aid of a magnifying glass.

I was hoping this was some sort of fluke, so yesterday (with some trepidation) I bought issue #4 (the 1940s).

Alas! The same wavy line! The same miniscule layouts! The same incomplete knitting patterns!  For shame! You should know that there are enough knitters out there interested in making up garments than to print incomplete patterns!

So here is what I propose to make amends for this:  You are clearly sitting on the archives of a formidable collection of vintage knitting and crochet patterns.  Might I suggest you publish a special series of "Knitting patterns of the thirties [forties]" and reproduce these instructions in their entirety for us crafters out there.

I, for one, would buy it.

Sincerely,
LMB

3 comments:

  1. Here here! Well said. I was also infuriated at finding the patterns incomplete, even the ones for make do and mend accessories. I was able to work out the gist of a necklace pattern from the 1940s one, but they really are sitting on a gold mine with those patterns!

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  2. Here here! Well said. I was also infuriated at finding the patterns incomplete, even the ones for make do and mend accessories. I was able to work out the gist of a necklace pattern from the 1940s one, but they really are sitting on a gold mine with those patterns!

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    Replies
    1. Have you noticed how this year's Vintage Classics series has the disclaimer at the bottom of the page "patterns are reproduced for interest only and can't be repurposed for current use" (!!??!!). It's almost as if they don't want us to use them.

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