The World of Ephemera: A Classic Crochet Pattern

Something away from books today as a palate cleanser from all those best of lists! Plug the word ‘Ephemera’ into the search bar or click here, and you’ll bring up a rich variety of bits of vintage paper, most of which hail from my late mum, who was an inveterate newspaper clipper. I found this clipping the other day whilst looking for something completely different, but there’s no clue which newspaper it came from (probably the Daily Mail or the Daily Express back in the early 1960s).

Crochet an Afghan bedspread

The art of crochet is one I’ve never mastered. I can knit (reasonably) well, but I was never taught to crochet. Afghan squares were big in the 1960s, people crocheted them and sewed them together to make fringed waistcoats, shoulder bags, and bedspreads of course. My mum made a blanket for my dolls – and I still have it!

You’ll notice she didn’t do the full seven sequences in the pattern for these mini squares, just four, resulting in a blanket that is approx A3 size, and perfect for your average sized doll or teddy. It got well-used by me, and my daughter used it too when she was little, but I reclaimed it once past that phase and squirrelled it away once again. It must be over 55 years old and still looks and feels as good as new (probably not washed much!).

Can you crochet? Do you remember Afghan Squares?

6 thoughts on “The World of Ephemera: A Classic Crochet Pattern

  1. kaggsysbookishramblings says:

    LOL, that brings back memories! I can do basic knitting and a bit of embroidery – and I think I could manage a granny square back in the day, but I don’t think I have the co-ordination any more. I had a go a while back and managed a row of chain stitches… That was enough, frankly – I think I’ll stick to what I know! 😀

    • AnnaBookBel says:

      It’s the where you stick your crochet hook through and then the wrist flick to make the new stitch that gets me. I can knit, and I’m good at hand-sewing and basic embroidery, though I find cross-stitch tedious in the extreme. So I’ll leave crochet to those that can too.

  2. Jane @ Beyond Eden Rock says:

    I love knitting but could never get the hang of crochet, and though I am tempted to try again – because there are some lovely modern patterns out there – there are only so many hours in the day. I do remember granny squares and we have a couple of small blankets that the Man of the House’s mother made many years ago.

  3. Rebecca Foster says:

    I learned to knit at college but haven’t done it for years. I still have a crocheted blanket an elderly neighbour made for me many years ago, but its pattern is concentric rectangles rather than these squares.

Leave a Reply to Jane @ Beyond Eden RockCancel reply