New year, new project!

Golden Hands magazine was a part publication that was published by Marshall Cavendish from 1975. It was devoted to needlecrafts - knitting, crochet, embroidery and dressmaking, as well as some more unusual crafts such as macrame, lacemaking and daisy work. The magazine was issued each week and built up into a detailed reference work, containing excellent instructions for techniques and many, many projects. My research reveals that there were 75 issues of the magazine and because this was so successful, and other 15 or so were issue that had a slightly different emphasis - a more creative approach to the traditional crafts, and the introduction of some new crafts such as candle making and millinery. My set of Golden Hands is in 18 volumes of 5 magazines bound together, including the last 15 issues. A friend of my mothers worked for Paul Hamlyn, distributors in Australia for Marshall Cavendish, and I think I got it about 1980. I paid $10 for the whole set, which was a bargain even back then! Why the project? I am a keen needle worker and have attempted many crafts, but my main loves are embroidery and quilting. I do enjoy knitting, and have taken it up again recently after a long pause. Those yellow-bound volumes of Golden Hands have sat on my bookshelves for a very long time! Over the years, I have often browsed through them just for the pleasure of looking at the 70s fashion, or looked up a technique, or occasionally attempting a project. I always think that I would love to make more of the projects, but somehow never seem to get around to it. So 2014 will be my year to begin the Golden Hands Project.

This is the cover of the first issue of Golden Hands magazine, and the cover of my Volume 1. The beautiful ball of wool and the golden reel of cotton always make my fingers itch to get sewing or knitting. In 1975, when the first Golden Hands magazine was issued, I was in my last year of school and worked part-time in a newsagency, and I think I bought the first few magazines (or more than a few!) but these single issues are long gone out of my collection.