Before we begin, how to you like the redesign of the blog? Trying to look professional. I’m also adding patterns to Ravelry for the first time, beginning with Patons #960. The pattern itself will still live on the website here.

This issue is tiny and doesn’t have many pages, probably due to wartime shortages of paper. On page 9 there is an announcement that the magazine is changing to 8 or 9 issues a year instead of 12, but that the it will be bigger “than the small issues we have had to print recently” and there will be more copies published. I know from a wonderfully researched book called Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You about Diet, Thrift and Going Green that there was a national salvage (ie. recycling) campaign, so it is a wonder that any of these magazines survive.

Inside the patterns are: some small gifts including a belt; the hats on the front cover in adult and child sizes; a pullover with matching socks for men in two sizes (32-34 inch & 36-38 inch chest); teddy bear baby’s jumper; lacy baby’s dress; women’s brick pattern cardigan-jumper (31-33 inch bust); women’s bobble cardigan slim fit (32-34 inch bust); women’s rib cardigan with pockets in the welt (31-33 inch bust); some pictures of two toys, pattern not included, that look rather creepy on the back cover and are described as “friendly competitors”; a tea cosy and a Ministry Of Food article on page 16. Here it is on Google Docs, where you should have the option to download as a pdf.