Needle Sizings

If you have looked at any vintage pattern, especially those from the turn of the century (last one, not this one), you know what a pain it can be to determine what needle size the pattern is asking for.

We have had conversations with people asking about needle sizes required by some of our patterns and often comes down to determining when the pattern was written and the researching the type of yarn called for in the pattern. Generally, the yarn is pretty small and the needle sizes are a blindingly small size as well.

Alison ran across these cool charts from the early 1900's that show needle sizes called for in some of our really old patterns. We have put them in pdf file so you can download these little nuggets of vintage-ness.

Click here to download the pdf.

From a Patons & Baldwin's pattern book, early 1900s.

Taken from a Fleisher's pattern book. circa 1917. 

Taken from a Fleisher's pattern book. circa 1917. 

Bestway Hats - New hat finished (knit)

So it's been awhile since we posted anything to the blog.... School ended, summer started and things went crazy from there.

I recently had a small chunk of time to make a hat. I was going a little crazy not knitting. I'm pretty sure my family would have encouraged me to knit more often if they knew how much I like doing it and how much it helps focus & relax me.

From the Bestway hat Three Hats pattern is The Cossack Hat. It is knit in bulky weight yarn, so it goes pretty fast. The vintage English needle sizes work out to a modern 10.5US (6.5mm). This was a quick project, small enough that I could throw it in my purse and work on it when I had to take the boys to some sports practice or another.

The pattern called for a vintage yarn: Sirdar Supreme, a bulky weight wool yarn. After hours and hours of searching, we couldn't find any info on this yarn online. I had a bright orange (safety orange) acrylic yarn that was re-purposed from an unfinished project that I had been given. While I think that the hat would work better in a wool or wool blend yarn, I didn't have to go out and buy any more yarn. That was exactly what I needed - no new yarn.

The first two pics show the color closest to what it actually is - though it probably doesn't matter since we aren't selling the old, re-purposed yarn.

As soon as I visit Alison and take some pics, we will post pics of the hat on a real, live person. My sad little styrofoam hat head doesn't do this cute little hat justice. Stay tuned!

Happy knitting!