Hungerford Arcade co-owner, Adrian Gilmour was thrilled this week to come across this knitting pattern for a Pixie Helmet. Dating from the 1950s/60s, the pattern gives intricate detail and design into this Fair Isle Bonnet for 7 to 8 year olds of the time. The cover pictures would now be considered old-fashioned, but come from a more innocent and simpler time.
Produced by P and B wools, it cost only 3D (an old threepence), and required ‘Beehive’ knitting needles, intriguingly ‘measured by Beehive gauge’. We hope one of our readers can tell us what this means!
The skill and craft of home-made clothes of earlier times is often all but forgotten, but until recent years, there was enormous skill and care which went into clothes made for children, from their mothers, aunts, and grannies. These skills were handed down through generation to generation for many hundreds of years.
There is huge nostalgia for those of us who can remember hand-knitted hats and jumpers as part of childhood, every one individually made.
While many working mums have less time for sewing and knitting, and fashions have moved on, knitting still continues alive and well for many people.
For anyone interested in having a go, there are knitting workshops Saturday August 12th at the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury 1pm – 4pm, free, with the Kennet Valley Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers.
