1921: In the Books

 

 

Another decade completed! I used this cool, cloudy, showery July Sunday to its fullest knitterly potential and spent most of the day completing the final details and finishing my 1920s sweater. For appropriate period atmosphere, I did all this work while watching more than a couple episodes of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. It seemed only right. 

 

With its short sleeves, worsted-weight-gauge, and comparatively minimal finishing, this project was a breeze. And the pattern was very good, too: I found no errors and made only one modification throughout the course of the project. It was a simple one: I decided to crochet rather than knit on the top border along the front checkerboard. Easy!

As with my 1910s sweater, this one was knit in one piece, sleeves and all. I picked up stitches along the neckline and sleeves to add the garter-stitch checkerboard pattern, which was a little fiddly on the wrong side as the colors had to be carried in front and moved to the back to work the knit stitches. The portion along the neck was fairly time-consuming and done in two sections, but I really like the results. I was worried that the sleeves would be too tight once bound off, so I opted for Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off. It ended up creating a rather pleasing flare.

Overall, I really like the completed garment. I think it will be quite wearable across the seasons and I like the way it looks and fits. I'm not even sure that it looks like it's a nearly 100 year old design. Does it?

 

I'm looking forward to working on the 1930s next! 

 

Specs

Yarn: Cascade 220 in navy blue and white

Amounts: 3.75 skeins of navy and < 1 skein of white

Needles: size 8

Crochet hook: G/6/4.25mm

Started: 3 July 2016

Finished: 31 July 2016

Quick as a bunny

In case you missed it, here's my pattern-choosing-process for the 1920s. I ended up picking the creatively-named "Knitted Sweater" from the 1921 Columbia Book of Yarns. It's a sweet little short-sleeved sweater that will be perfect for July knitting, plus it has a very intriguing knit-on neck treatment in a very pleasing checkerboard design. The shape is a bit more forgiving than the long, lean, straight lines of many other sweaters of the era and yet the high contrast geometry of the borders nevertheless seems to capitalize on the new trends in '20s fashion.

In reading through the pattern (a mere 4 paragraphs long), I noticed that the construction of this piece is very much like my last knit. The body and sleeves are made as one piece from the bottom hem of the back, up around the shoulders and sleeves, and down the fronts. There are two bands of 2x2 ribbing at the lower edge, but everything else is done in garter stitch, just like my 1919 sweater. Although no gauge is listed in the pattern, I estimated that a similar gauge to that previous sweater (4.5 stitches per inch) would produce the desired fit, which made my yarn choice very easy. I'm going with Cascade 220 once again. I purchased 5 skeins of navy blue and have 1 nearly full skein of white in my stash. I don't believe I'll have to make any modifications to the pattern (fingers crossed).

I started knitting last Sunday; garter stitch and short sleeves are already making this project feel lightning fast! I'm also enjoying that this sweater has:

1. No sash
2. No skirt
3. No double layer cuffs
4. No wide collar
5. No crochet edging

 There's a lot to like here!

Women's hockey, knitwear, and the 1920s

We've made it to the Roaring '20s! I've been looking forward to exploring the knitwear of the 1920s for a while now: longer, leaner silhouettes with modern, graphic sensibilities. Faux fur trims, luxurious fibers, matching hats and parasols, sporting ensembles, swim suits: the '20s have it all.

Again, my personal collection is somewhat lacking in 1920s patterns, with just a few designs that very much recall the 1910s. I really wanted to pick a pattern that made a distinct change from the first few sweaters I've made, so I browsed around online for a while. There are quite a few '20s pattern books available as reproductions. The Antique Pattern Library offers the 1922 Corticelli Yarn Book by Mrs. L. Addie Crandall Smith, which features some lovely, colorful designs with bright stripes and geometric patterns. I highly recommend a browse! There is also a nice selection of 1922 patterns on "A Good Yarn." You'll see tuxedo jackets, accessory sets, and activewear there. And then there's the Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions, which has loads of '20s pattern books available as reproductions, including this Columbia Yarns booklet from 1921. If you scroll down to the fifth picture, you'll see a pattern that particularly struck me. It's a trim crocheted suit with a matching hat, but the model appears to be carrying a hockey stick! This is very different from the usual golf club or tennis racket. I was intrigued.

As a lifelong hockey player myself (I started playing goalie for my local girls' team at age 13 and am still playing 23 years later), this image immediately sent me down the delightful rabbit hole that exists at the intersection of women's hockey and knitwear. Of course, I knew that today's hockey jerseys started life as sweaters and that if you're playing hockey outside on a frozen pond good knitwear is essential. But I did not really know the early history of organized women's ice hockey, which dates back to the 1890s in Canada and rose in popularity through the '20s and '30s. In the US, we see it taking hold in the 1910's and '20s. I love photos of these early-twentieth-century teams, like the one below of the Gore Bay, Ontario team in 1921. Their boldly striped sweaters, toques, and socks are fabulous and I love seeing pictures of these female athletes with their teammates. The camaraderie that I know from my teams over the years is so palpable here, in this group of women, standing elbow to elbow with their sticks and skates nearly 100 years ago.

Credit: Library and Archives Canada/PA-074583

There are so many more pictures like this. A Google image search will provide plenty of pictures of knit-clad women on the ice through the years.

But, I digress. I did eventually find my chosen sweater pattern for the 1920s, with my husband's kind assistance. There's an album of photos and patterns from the 1921 Columbia Book of Yarns, 22nd edition, volume 2 freely available on the Vintage Knitting Crochet Needlework Patterns Dazespast Facebook page. I picked this one:

Visit the Facebook album for more pictures from this volume!

I'm off to buy yarn! More soon.