Last updated on August 25th, 2023 at 07:23 am
Work in progress. This is a general guide to dating yarn labels and pattern books that is intended as a starting point for any brand or publisher. To date specific yarn brands, see if I have a brand-specific page for the yarn brand you are researching (all linked at bottom of page).
This is introduction to vintage yarn. [Note to self: Put info here about resizing, about researching yarn weights and colors, etc.] Lots of words to come, Soon™
Phone Numbers
Does the yarn label, pattern book, or advertisement contain a phone number? If so, it dates after 1876 since that’s when telephones were invented.
At first, there were no telephone numbers at all – just names were used, either personal names, name of a business, and if not a local call, the name of the exchange or city (such as “Connect me to Blueblood Blacksmiths in Camden, please”.) This was unsustainable, obviously, even in small local areas (“John Jones? There’s three of them here…”) so implementing a telephone numbering system was imperative. The very first telephone numbers started in 1879 and were usually the name of the switchboard/exchange and a 3-digit number, such as Underwood-342. If you needed to reach someone within the same exchange you lived in, you just gave the operator their 3-digit phone number.
Starting in the 1920s, phone numbers were standardized to a 2-letter abbreviation for the name of the switchboard/region followed by either 4 or 5 numbers (such as PA6-5000 aka Pennsylvania 6-5000). If you see a phone number with 2 letters and just 4 numbers, it dates from the early 1920s until the early 1930s.
In 1930, phone numbers were standardized to 2 letters and 5 numbers in large cities (such as New York), although 2 letters and 4 numbers remained in use in suburbs and rural areas of the United States through the early 1940s.
In 1944 or 1945 (not sure), after WWII, Bell System standardized all phone numbers to 2 letters and 5 numbers nationwide then quickly switched to begin implementing all number 7-digit dialing in 1950.
Implementation of 3-digit area codes started in 1951 when the very first area code, 201, was assigned to New Jersey.
Australia implemented 7 digit, all-number dialing in 1959.
Even though the switch to all-digit telephone numbers was completed nationwide in the United States by the mid 1960s, you may see occasionally see advertisements with alphanumeric phone numbers as late as 1969. Many companies continued to list their alphanumeric phone number in advertisements throughout the 1960s and, in fact, it appears that the switch to all number dialing was controversial, with artists, journalists, business owners, politicians and more deriding the “loss of identity”, claiming that all-digit phone numbers were “inhuman”. This article is from the Village Voice (New York), February 14, 1963.
I find it amusing seeing mix of the old alphanumeric and new area codes like “Area (215) RE 9-4652” (seen in 1967).
ZIP Codes
Look at the address. If it has a 1 or 2 digit ZIP Code (such as New York 22, Boston 11, Detroit 4), then it dates from the early 1940s (during WWII) to 1963, when the US Postal Service implemented 5 digit zip codes. While 5-digit ZIP Codes started appearing in advertisements in 1963, 1 and 2-digit ZIP Codes continue to appear in some advertisements through 1967.
If it has no ZIP Code, it either dates to before the early 1940s or they simply didn’t list their ZIP Code – which is common in advertisements even today so don’t assume that no ZIP Code means it dates to before the early 1940s.
Material Brand Names
Lurex – invented in 1946
Olefin – 1957
Orlon (acrylic yarn) – Produced by Dupont starting in 1950.
Rayon – invented in 1884, rayon yarn production didn’t start in the United States until 1911; not sure when rayon was used in yarns outside of the United States but suspect it was before 1911.
Terylene (polyester) – 1941
Vicara – It looks like Vicara was used as a trade name starting about 1948, but I’ve not found a trademark record or more definitive date yet.
Vinyon – 1939
Viscose (aka Viscose Rayon) – first produced in Coventry, England in 1905
Types of Yarn/Thread
Bouclé – Production started sometime in the 1930s
Chenille – Either the 1780s or the 1830s (I’m not sure yet).
Eisengarn, Glanzgarn – Mid 1800s, seems to have come into popular/widespread use starting around 1927.
Mercerised Cotton – The process was devised in 1844 by John Mercer.
- Antique and Vintage Knitting Tools and Equipment
- Coats and Clarks Vintage Yarn Color Cards
- January & Wood Company, Inc., Maysville, Kentucky
- Miscellaneous Vintage Yarn Color Sample Cards
- Silk Purse Twist Threads
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