Anne of Green Gables Crochet

by Kelly

Apple Leaf Lace from KnitWiki

I've always been an avid reader. When I was a kid, I was the same, and many of my own memories are tangled up with what I was reading at the time. So every so often I get nostalgic for a book I read a long time ago, because that also lets me go back to revisit happy memories.

I recently bought the Anne of Green Gables series and reread them all. There is an astonishing number of references to crochet and knitting in these books, and I didn't remember that at all. I probably glossed over these parts when I was younger, since I wasn't crafty then.

Here are a couple of the funnier references from the book -

DIANA: Myra Gillis had 37 doilies when she got married and I'm determined to have at least as many as she had.

ANNE: I suppose it would be impossible to keep house with only 36 doilies.

 and my favorite

 
Mrs. Cyrpus piped up, feeling it her wifely duty to back up Esme's unexpected defense of her father.

"And he can crochet so beautifully...he made the loveliest centerpiece for the parlor table last winter when he was laid up with lumbago."

Every one has some limit of endurance and Cyrus Taylor had reach his. He gave his chair such a furious backward push that it shot instnatly across the polished floor and struck the table on which the vase stood. The table went over and the vase broke in the traditional thousand pieces. Cyrus, his bushy white eyebrows fairly bristling with wrath, stood up and exploded at last.

"I don't crochet, woman! Is one contemptible doily going to blast a man's reputation forever? I was so bad with that blamed lumbago, I didn't know what I was doing."

I was intrigued by some of the patterns described in the book. Especially the 'apple leaf quilt' and the 'famous tobacco stripe bedspread'. So I thought I would search for these patterns online, just for the sake of curiosity. 

Along the way I found a few interesting sites - Lullabies and Lace ,   whose writer posed herself a 37 doily challenge and  CJ Stitching and Blooms, where you can find a link to rent Green Gables Cottage and pictures of quilts inspired by the books.

37 Doily Challenge

I also found Lady 'n Thread , whose author has done considerable research on the subject and says that the patterns I was searching for are not known.

Too bad! I'm kind of surprised that no one has recreated those patterns by now. I guess they'll just have to live in my imagination, as the rest of the books have for so long.