Chadds of Lowestoft 1973 catalogue

Here is a rare glimpse into a world of 1970s acrylic wonder - the Chadds of Lowestoft yarn catalogue. With a vintage knitting pattern, you can only see the colours that the stylists chose to use for their cover photo, but this catalogue reveals the whole range of shades available to a 1973 knitter equipped with needles, knitting bag, and the Chadds Knitting For Leisure book.

You may want to put on some sunglasses now, before going any further.

Here we have a selection of colours available in Bri-Nylon Super Crimp (100% nylon). I think my favourites are Orangeade and Clematis.


Carlton Tricel Nylon (70% Tricel, 30% Nylon) sports an equally colourful rainbow of man-made colours:

Hopton 4 Ply (60% Courtelle, 40% Nylon) is probably the most vibrant of all, with Peacock and Signal Red still zinging off the page despite their age:


Babies, however, had to make do with this wishy-washy selection of pastel shades, in either 100% Cortelle ("wears and washes well so that any baby looks a dream") or in 100% Bri-Nylon ("for the mum who really cares"). Maybe the fear was that brighter colours would keep babies awake at night. They can progress on to Orangeade and Clematis when they are older, and stronger.

One point of local interest for me is that the happy bowlers on the cover are strutting their stuff in a bowling alley in Worthing, West Sussex - my home town. You can just make out posters for Supreme Fours, Worthing, and Ambassador Lanes, Worthing, behind young Hermione Granger, here.