Saturday, August 26, 2017

Blast From The Past

When my daughter was little in the 1980s I knit a lot of sweaters for her.  There was a design company which produced the cutest patterns under the name "Knit-o-Graf".  I think that the company had been around since the 1950s and I don't believe that it exists anymore.  

The patterns weren't expensive and I had many of them.  I knit for her and for her friends. There were pictures on the sweaters and it's where I developed my love of intarsia.  All were made in fingering weight yarn and I would mostly buy the acrylic yarns from Patons and the house brand at Eaton's ior Sears department stores.  There were lots of colors available and they held up well to washing and wearing.  A few years later I did a couple more sweaters using superwash wool and I have to admit that they didn't look as fresh as the acrylic ones after a while.  Acrylic has it's place in children's knitting, in my opinion.

If you Google the words Knit-o-Graf and look at images, you can see why I was so drawn to the designs.  There was Humpty Dumpty, ducks, trains, Little Red Riding Hood, cowboys, dogs and so much more.  I knit most of the designs that they had.  They even had a small catalog.

One of my favorites was a brightly colored cardigan with a clown holding balloons.  I made size 4.  Today I received a picture from my now-grown-up daughter.  It's showed my almost-2 year old granddaughter, Alyssa, wearing the clown sweater.  I'm still smiling at the photo.  Alyssa is adorable and the sweater looks cute on her and it keeps her warm during the family's camping trip.


The patterns were on one large sheet of paper in the size of the sweater.  You could lay your knitting on it and see if you matched the size for the design.  Great idea.  It was fun to pick out little matching buttons with balloons on them.


I'd love to know more about the company.  Who created it?  Who was the designer?  How long was it around?  

2 comments:

Tom Machine Knitting Guy said...

Hi,

Here is what I know: Knit O Graf by Decade Patterns by Publisher Tatting Patterns.

Tom
tompanciarello@yahoo.com
http://tommachineknittingguy.blogspot.com

Joanne said...

Thanks, Tom. They were a wonderful company. I got a lot of enjoyment from their designs.