Name, Please!

I've made a good start on my "Name, Please." The deep moss-stitch welt, which looks so good in the pictures, is kind of a pain to knit in fingering weight yarn. It's incredibly time consuming. But, I've moved past that section now and am a few inches above the armhole decreases. A few more inches to go and I'll have finished the back. It's not very picturesque yet, as you can see.

The pattern is written for a vintage size 16 (34" bust), but offers options for size 12, 14, 18, and 20, which is an unusually wide range for a vintage pattern. My gauge with the Jagger Spun sock yarn and size 2 needles was just a touch chunkier than recommended in the pattern, so I got out pencil and paper and did a little math. It looks like my gauge combined with the original size 16 stitch numbers will produce a garment that should fit me. Normally, I'd knit a size 18 for a 36" bust.

Speaking of math, there are some oddities in this particular pattern. The numbers given almost seem more like estimates rather than exact figures, so I've had to be careful and have worked to chart out my course more specifically to make sure I'm working to the right measurements. There's also a vagueness to some of the instructions. For example, the pattern says to increase one stitch at each side every inch until you reach the desired length. This might have been problematic since I've opted to add a few more inches to the body of the sweater. If I had kept increasing as instructed, I would have ended up with too many stitches at the bust. So, I'm going cautiously and will plan to block the back and measure in detail before I tackle the front. That way, I can attempt to correct any sizing issues before the pieces are finished.

Meanwhile, I've been interviewed and my sweaters photographed for an upcoming issue of Maine Women Magazine!

It's metallic

It's finally sweater season here, which means that I'm actually wearing some of my past creations. The 1900s and the 1920s sweaters have both gone to work a few times, but it hasn't been cold enough yet for the 1910s. I envision that particular sweater coming in handy for watching hockey games or going on winter walks. It's no lightweight.

Meanwhile, I'm knee-deep in the 1930s. I have a fair number of 1930s pattern booklets and, boy, do I love them. Check out the two pictured above. A friend found the "Crocheted Dresses" book out on the street (yep, like trash!) with a stack of other vintage patterns and very kindly rescued it for me. I adore the styles and patterns, but the idea of making an entire dress out of crochet just fills me an intense feeling of foot-dragging reluctance. Also, I think I'd incur some pretty serious tendinitis. I think I get too tense and nervous when I'm crocheting and so my hand and wrist hurt after a while. In any event, the dresses are fabulous, but not for this project. The mittens are also wonderfully sharp and crisp in their classic black and white designs, but the deal here is sweaters. Maybe I'll make some mitts after I complete my century.

In addition to the two booklets above, I have a couple issues of "Home Arts Needlecraft" magazine from the '30s. I like these magazines because they provide good illustrations in a large format and a mix of articles about knitting and needlework plus pieces on contemporary fashion, cooking, and home design.  The "News Flashes--From a Needle-Minded New Yorker" columns are especially informative (two-fabric frocks! checks! vests! stripes! tatting! rick rack!).

Plus, the magazine was published right here in Maine (Augusta, to be exact). I have the November 1937 and February 1938 issues, which contain a few knitting patterns: one for adorable Scottie dog mitts and the two designs pictured below. Forgive my blurry image; I'm getting used to a new camera and now it's too dark to do re-takes. I came very close to selecting the lower sweater for my project, but had some concerns about that angled surplice-style front fitting correctly.

 

And that all brings us to this book from 1939, which you met several posts ago, following a little jaunt to some antique malls.

The great thing about this booklet is that it's got all of your fashion needs and situations covered. Heading out on a bike ride and looking for a cute wool top? Check.

Need something smart to wear to the Easter parade? Check.

Looking for that perfect knit item to complement the sweeping full-length skirt that you'll wear to the year's swankiest soiree? Check.

This is "Cocktail Jacket no. 124" and it's the one I chose, with some help from my husband. I liked the fitted look of it with the puffed sleeves and yoke and it's significantly different from my first three sweaters. It was hard to figure out the stitch pattern from the photo, so I read through the instructions several times. I couldn't quite picture what was going on, so I grabbed some needles and started swatching. Turns out, it's almost a smocked design: you knit a garter ridge to start, then several rows in stockinette, then another garter ridge, and then you knit back down into the first garter ridge to create a series of scallops or scales.

The best part, though? The original pattern calls for two types of yarn. One is " Fleisher's, Bear Brand, or Bucilla Angel Crepe," which, as far as I can tell, was a wool/rayon blend. The other is "Fleisher's or Bucilla Metal Thread." Yep. METAL THREAD. The pattern is worked with the two held together for the smocking sections and just the Angel Crepe for the stockinette sections, which means that the sweater has a super cool '30s metallic sheen to it.

And, in a near-miraculous stroke of stashing luck, I just happened to have a large cone of silver metallic yarn and a giant skein of steely gray yarn of indeterminate composition. I believe I purchased both at a deep discount. The gray skein was in the "seconds" section at a dye house as it has just a few areas where the color is slightly inconsistent, but, fortunately, these become invisible within the stitch pattern. It took a little while to achieve a workable gauge and I'm sure I'll be doing some math all the way through the project, but I think it will all work out.

The scalloped metallic design is fabulous. And time consuming. But mostly fabulous. I'm just about halfway through the back. Stay tuned.

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!

And the winner is...

The Goldie Golf Sweater!

I confess that this was always a front-runner in my mind and that I probably would have knit it even if it hadn't received the most votes, so I'm glad that the public vote will end up supporting my first choice.

I've read through the instructions 5 or 6 times and sketched out a schematic, as I did with the Ladies' Outing Coat. In this pattern, you knit the skirt portion first. It's a big garter stitch rectangle with wide bands of the main color and narrow strips of 1x1 ribbing that help to create a scalloped hemline. The hemline is then finished with a crochet border to emphasize the natural wavy edge. The rest of the sweater is knit separately in one big piece, sleeves included, starting with the back of the sweater. Button bands are knit simultaneously with the front (it's a relief not to have to worry about quite so much crochet finishing this time around) and then the side seams are sewn and the skirt is stitched onto the body of the sweater. The collar, sleeve ruffles, and sash are knit separately.

As with the Ladies' Outing Coat, there is no recommended gauge and the suggested yarn (Utopia llama yarn in golden brown and white) is long discontinued. Based on the stitch counts in the pattern, I've surmised that a modern worsted weight yarn will likely provide me with the gauge I need. I swatched some Cascade 220 from my stash with size 8 needles and achieved 4.5 stitches per inch, which is just exactly what I think I want.

Another unknown element in this pattern is the amount of yarn I'll need. There's a handy chart on the Lion Brand website with yarn estimates for various projects and yarn weights. Since I'm making a small adult sweater with an extra-long scarf in worsted weight yarn, the estimate falls somewhere around 1800 yards, which is about 9 skeins of Cascade 220 (each skein contains 220 yards). Maybe I'll get 7 skeins of my main color and 2 of my contrast color. However, since I always get nervous about running out of yarn, I might throw in an extra skein or two, just as insurance.

Next step: color selection. A trip to my local yarn store is in order soon!