Mohair, No Problem

I have completed my little puffy cloud of mohair! It's as light as air and surprisingly warm, despite being a fairly loose gauge. Gotta let that fiber halo bloom.

As a refresher, this is my 1960s project from the 1962 Mohair Hand Knits booklet published by Bear Brand/Fleisher Yarns.

This is the first time I've knit an entire project solely out of mohair and it was rather delightful. The particular mohair I used was a bit of a mystery. It came as a bag of three balls from GreaterGood.com (a gift from a coworker) with minimal label information, but it turned out to be rather magical as the entire sweater took 1.15 balls. I just kept pulling and pulling and the ball seemed to take forever to get smaller.

The knitting itself was extremely straightforward as this is knit from the lower back edge up over the shoulders, with built-in increases for the sleeves. The sleeve cuffs are picked up, knit on, and folded over and then the collar is knit separately and sewn in place. The only other seaming is along the sides, so it's pretty quick to finish. Because mohair can be so sticky and fluffy, I definitely recommend using a smooth yarn for seaming. I had some neutral sock yarn that worked beautifully. 

I stuck close to the original pattern measurements and achieved the very cropped jacket look shown on the model. I probably wouldn't wear this with pants, but it's ideal over a dress (as it's styled in the pattern booklet) and makes for a very cozy layer. We took these pictures on a warm September day and I quickly got too hot in the sun! It would be perfect for an evening outside or as a way to winterize a summery dress.

Before I committed to this yarn, I knit a swatch (of course) and tried it out against my skin to make sure it wouldn't feel too itchy. It's not the softest mohair I've encountered, but it felt fine in the swatch and, now, as a complete sweater.

All in all, this was a great summer knit: lightweight, easy, and fairly quick. Plus, I had perfect buttons in my stash!

Specs

Yarn: GreaterGood.com Mohair Wool Yarn

Amounts: 1.15 balls (115 grams/660 yards)

Needles: size 4 and 5

Started: 8 June 2019

Finished: 15 September 2019

Finally ready

I think I'm finally ready to start thinking about my next decade: the 1960s.

After the 1950s dress ordeal, I had to take a little break. I was thrilled to finish the dress and delighted with the outcome, but...whew...did it ever sap my knitting energy. I made a few smallish things over the winter and early spring: an extremely ugly pair of socks (not pictured...never to be pictured), a cute sweater for my cute nephew, a start on a sweater for Sam, and the most utterly satisfying Fair Isle hat. Finishing the hat in four days, after watching the colors build and play against one another and constantly thinking "just one more round," made me miss knitting it after it was done, which in turn helped to renew my creative spark.

And so today, I found myself with an idle hour or two and decided to page through a pile of duplicate pattern books that I'd separated from my collection with the idea that I might find someone else who wanted them. There's quite a few 1960s booklets in that pile. One is focused on Aran knits, one is for kids, one is an instructional booklet, and one is full of "Mohair Hand Knits."

The booklet was published by Bernhard Ulmann in 1962 and is clearly designed to be a vehicle for Fleisher's or Bear Brand Supra Mohair. Some patterns call for this yarn to be held double with a conventional sheep's wool, while others use only mohair. The cover design intrigued me, especially the model on the left with the oversized cables and collar. I kind of like it, though it's a little chunky for my personal taste. It's definitely wearable today. The red-on-pink sweater on the right is maybe a little less timeless, especially with that super close 1960s neckline, but the bold color choice is certainly eye-catching (maybe also eye-watering). Inside, there are a few more cardigans, a men's pullover, a hoodie, a matching shell and skirt, a jacket, a dress, and a massive, oversized, full-length, buttoned housecoat/dress/jacket combo thingy with pockets. In pink mohair and bulky wool. Really. It's wild.

Apologies for the blurry photo. My camera clearly couldn't handle the combination of the hot pink dress against my red couch. Pink and red again just like the cover. It's a theme.

I'm certainly not going to make that. Nor am I going to tackle another dress (plus, I already have a mohair dress of the full-body variety). But then I came across this design on the left below. That's something I could see working with my wardrobe. It would be good for work. It's fairly low commitment with the short sleeves and cropped length. It's knit in one piece from the back up over the shoulders. Plus, I remembered that I have six balls of pure mohair in my stash, just waiting for a classic 1960s mohair project like this. It seemed like it was meant to be.

I have three balls of black and three balls of white mohair. It's a bit of a mystery yarn as there's no suggested gauge or other information on the label. It feels a little thin compared to other mohairs in my collection, which, admittedly, is not many. The gauge for the pattern is 5 stitches per inch. Since it's mohair, it's a fairly loose knit to allow the yarn to bloom. I'll play around with my yarn to see what might work. I appear to have plenty of yarn (there's 570 yards in each ball), so I'll certainly experiment with holding two stands together as I have a sneaking suspicion that my mohair is lighter than the Supra Mohair specified in the pattern. I could even try one strand of black and one strand of white, which might be kind of cool. We'll see. 

It all seems like a no-brainer, surely. I like the pattern, I have the yarn. I'm not crazy to contemplate knitting a 100% mohair garment as we head into summer...right?

IT IS DONE.

At long last, my 1959 Vogue Knitting dress is finished!! There haven't been many other projects whose completion has brought me so much relief and joy. I honestly thought this one might be the straw that broke the camel's back and derailed me from my century project and languished forever as an unfinished object, but I made it. It was definitely a slog. At the end, though, I have to say that I am pretty pleased with how it all turned out. It was such fun to put it all together today and try it on.

I started this dress back on 25 August 2017. It was finished on 27 January 2019. Let's see if I can remember enough to recap some of my process!

I chose the pattern from the Fall/Winter 1959 issue of Vogue Knitting magazine with the idea of challenging myself to a bigger knit. I located some black wool crepe yarn from Made in America Yarns and ordered 4 cones, figuring that I would need to work with a double strand to get gauge. I experimented with different needle sizes and eventually settled on a size 4, which gave me a suitable gauge: 13 sts is about 2" wide and one full 6-row pattern repeat is about .75" high.

I chose the lacy black dress on the left!

I made the pattern's size 14, casting on 243 sts for each half of the skirt. I opted for 150 rows to get to about 20" in length so that the dress would be about knee-length on me. That's a little shorter than the recommended 27", which I think would have been a bit too long for me. This part of the process was very slow going. The pattern was easy to memorize once established, but, boy did it ever take forever. The skirt is knitted in front and back sections and then seamed together. Once I sewed the first seam, it became really clear that I had A LOT of knitted fabric to deal with. Here's the skirt laid out on our futon!

The top was a little easier to tackle. I again selected the size 14 specifications, but added a few inches to the body length (10" total). I found it very hard to manage increasing and decreasing within the pattern on the back, so I decided not to add any shaping to the lower front. I also opted to lengthen the the armholes slightly. For the sleeves, I went for the largest size so that they would fit into my slightly expanded armholes. Weirdly, there are no conventional shoulders on this top. It's really just a wide, straight neckline that connects directly to the sleeves. It was a little fiddly to put together, but the fit was just right when I finished.

The black lace was super hard to photograph!

I made a few modifications on the finishing. I did two rows of single crochet around the neckline, which was just enough to pull it together and finish the raw edges. The pattern recommends adding single crochet to the sleeves as well, but I really liked the pretty scalloped edge, so I decided not to straighten them out with the crochet border. I did add several rows of crochet to the waist on the skirt to help bring it in closer to my waist size. Since it was still so voluminous, though, I decided not to attach it to the top. I know that means it's technically not a dress, but I do think the two pieces will be more versatile as separates. Going back to the skirt, I thought I'd go with a gathered waist instead of the elastic-and-zipper waist in the pattern. Honestly, after I did a fair bit of crochet on the waistband, I just ran a sturdy cotton tape through the holes in the crochet and made it a drawstring waist. I knew this would all be hidden under the belt. It works just fine.

With photographer Sam's apologies for my cropped head!

I put it all together this morning, along with a wide black belt from my closet. At first, I wasn't sure about the skirt. It just seemed a bit...bulky. And then I realized what it needed. A PETTICOAT. And that was it! That gave the skirt some body and structure and made it so much more fun to wear. And what a great '50s silhouette! I did my best to recreate the model's pose from the original magazine, too. Arthur the Dog joined in on the fun!

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. And that's a major relief considering just how much knitting went into it. I'm looking forward to wearing this out and about sometime soon. Stay tuned for my foray into '60s knitting next. It's probably not going to be a dress.

Specs

Yarn: Made in America Yarns' Wool Crepe in black

Amounts: about 3 cones total (I held two strands together)

Needles: size 3

Hook: size E

Started: 25 August 2017

Finished: 27 January 2019