Heritage Knitting Books

Paragon knitting crochet and tatting books have been distributed throughout Australia since the 1930s, originally by Paragon Art Needlecraft Pty Ltd of Sydney, NSW. From 1946 these books were designed and printed in Australia from patterns provided by British and Australian thread companies, consequently these patterns may also appear in similar British and American publications. Paragon books were also printed in Australia for South African and New Zealand distributors under the Modella, Fontana and Russell-Lea imprints. Craft Moods purchased Paragon Art Needlecraft rights and assets in July 1995 and from then took over the copyright and publishing of all Paragon publications.

The layout of the original Paragon books was typical of the 1940s period when paper was in short supply. Most of the original books were approx 18cm wide x 24cm high and some were smaller at about 13cm x 21cm. The type used was small (about 4 lines of text per centimetre) which was difficult to read. The instructions for each row of work were not separated, which made following the pattern harder and the patterns never seemed to flow sequentially and almost always were continued on another page near the end of the book.

Concurrent with the long process of revision and republishing of selected books to suit the current era, the Heritage Series has been developed. The Heritage Series books are an unabridged version of the original Paragon series and have been reproduced using the latest laser scanning and digital printing technology with a finished size of A4 (21cm x 29.7cm), a soft cover and saddled stitched. Where possible we have enlarged the text to suit the A4 format, separated instruction rows into paragraphs and rearranged text so patterns flow consecutively throughout the book. Images have been rearranged to suit the revised format and both text and images have been “cleaned” to remove most imperfections.

The patterns in these books have not been proofed by us, but as they have survived the test of time we trust they are reliable. The patterns are written in British terminology and during a period where it was assumed the user was reasonably experienced. If you have difficulties following a pattern or believe there is a mistake, please seek assistance from an experienced person before contacting us. As we are publishers and not experienced needleworkers we would appreciate the correct solution to allow amendment of the pattern so everyone may benefit.