Crochet · Knitting · Tatting · Sewing
Three thousand vintage patterns, catalogued one by one.
Leaflets and pattern books from across the last century, some from the early 1900s. Each one described by Karen, and each one a PDF you can print tonight.
Not sure what it was called in 1953?
Ask Karen's Helper
Ask Karen's Helper about what you're making, who it's for, or what's in your workbasket. Karen's Helper knows every pattern in the collection and can explain old terms like lacets, bars and picots.
Karen's Helper is a computer assistant, not Karen herself. The Helper has read her whole catalogue and will say so when unsure.
Try one of these:
Browse the shelves
Deepest in lace: filet, tatting and pineapple crochet.
Filet crochet · 162 patterns
Old charts, square by square.
Filet crochet is worked from a chart of open and filled squares. The collection holds leaflets and books for doilies, chair sets, runners and tablecloths, some of them over a hundred years old.
A few from the collection
Each is a reproduction of the original, sent as a PDF.
Every pattern, found by Karen
Karen has spent more than twenty years hunting down vintage patterns. She found these leaflets and pattern books at garage sales and in thrift shops, one at a time, and wrote every description in this shop herself.
Karen's Variety began in 2002. More than three thousand finds later, here they are, ready to make again.