Who was Elizabeth Hiddleson?
June 20, 2009 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under crochet
A few years ago, I bought a couple of neat vintage crochet books by the designer, Elizabeth Hiddleson.
photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright
Last weekend, I found 3 more of
her booklets at a garage sale.
The booklets have a specific look:
They are VERY black and white.
Hiddleson’s crocheted lace pieces
appear to have been laid on a photocopier
and photocopied.
Perhaps they were simply
placed on a black background
and photographed that way.
The 3 booklets that I found last week
were copyright 1979.
When I googled to see if I could find out more information about Elizabeth Hiddleson, I drew a blank.
There are tons of entries about people selling her booklets on eBay and other venues, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find anything about her at all!
In one of the booklets, there is a photo of her son, her daughter and the house where she lived. But, there was no information about where and when she was designing and how she built up her distribution network.
She appears to have worked with the Lily thread company at some time. She also asked people to please not send her checks, just money, since her bank charged her so much to cash her checks.
I think that she would have thrived with pdf’s and paypal.
Elizabeth Hiddleson was obviously a very prolific designer, and I would love to know how she managed to take care of the million details that her publishing obviously must have raised for her.
Does anyone know anything about her? I think that she should be celebrated in the crochet and needlework community!
There’s a little about her at this site: http://crochetdoilies.com/crochet_Elizabeth_Hiddleson.html
click on the link “more about Elizabeth Hiddleson and a pink box opens with a bio. She lived till she was 101! See, crochet is good for you!
Jill
Thank you so much, Jill!
This is so neat! I really appreciate the link…. I looked and looked and couldn’t find biographical info on her. It would be lovely to have a photo of her!
thanks again!
I have one or two of her books, and I really like them. I wish I could find more!! our garage sales/estate sales here don’t have much vintage crochet/knit items… I like having the actual photocopied doily as a reference when following the sometimes cryptic instructions.
I’d love to know if anyone is cataloging her work.
Hi Mary
I agree! I think it would be great if a publisher was able to round up a complete opus of her work and offer it in a book or series of books. What a treasure that would be!
I was just astonished to find 3 of her booklets at a garage sale in my neighbourhood. You just never know when something unexpected and wonderful will emerge! LOL! That’s what keeps me going back to garage sales. (Even though some of them are soooooooooo disappointing!)
If you really wish to know more about E. Hiddleson, you best option is J.Gaskin. Her website is: countryyarns.com She has made contact with the Hiddleson family and will be able to fill you in.
Hope this helps…smiles…:-) Floy
Wow, this is awesome! Thank you so much – what a neat collection of treasures on her website!
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