Update: 1950s Three-Quarter Length Cardigan

I’m slowly making progress on the 1950s Three Quarter Sleeve Cardigan Sweater. I really like the design of the sweater. Having only side seams to sew up is gonna be terrific! I don’t like seaming very much, I’m not great at it. While practice makes perfect, it drives me crazy trying to get the seams to look nice and lined up correctly.

My check list. In pencil. So I can erase it when I have to rip out and redo.

I’ve been tracking my rows using a handwritten check list. It’s great. I can erase the pencil marks when I rip back after I discover mistakes. Boy, I’ve done a lot of ripping back because I lose focus for 4 or 5 stitches and knit or slip two stitches in a row. That really messes up the pattern. I’ve also used lifelines like they are going out of style.

A view of all the lifelines in the sweater back & sleeve backs.

The lifelines provide a good way to make sure the lengths are the same on each of the fronts. I can line up the lifelines as I complete the right front sections and insert a lifeline through the rows I noted during the construction of the left side.

I restarted the increases 4+ times. I didn’t like the way the edge was looking with the first several types of increases. I finally settled on knitting (or purling) the first stitch and then making a stitch (M1R or M1L).  

The increases meant that some of the rows have three stitches of the same color. At first, I worried about the stitches were going to stick out and look weird;  then I realized that I was making stitches that will be seamed up and barely noticeable. I shouldn’t have too many people wanting to inspect the underarm seams. I can’t even imagine how that would happen in the real world surrounded by non-knitters.

When it came time to put the right front stitches on a separate circular needle, bind off the neck, and work on the left front, I decided to try and leave the right side stitches on my working needle. It was a terrible decision. Not only did I have to constantly check that I was working on the left front, the needle was getting pretty heavy. I finally wised up and moved the right front to it's own needle with stoppers on the end, to keep the piece from sliding off, and the whole project became so much easier.

Left sleeve back.

I pinned out the left sleeve back on my foam blocking pad to measure the width. At this point I was really really hoping I was at the 11.5 inches as the pattern requested. 

That's it for now. I'm still poking along. Next up: finishing the left front and starting the right front.

Link to the pattern.

Happy knitting!

Finished Object: 1930s Sweater Sheer Lace Blouse or Top

1930s Sweater Sheer Lace Blouse or Top

Knit pattern PDF 5353

 

We would like to thank Kate for sending in pics of her finished sweater. She knit the Sheer Lace Blouse and it looks great. I can’t believe how nice her knitting is, especially with such fine yarn. Kate used a vintage crochet cotton. And is a really fast knitter. I wish I was that fast.

 

 

From Kate: 

"I thought you might be interested to see the jumper I made from the lovely pattern I bought from you in August. I love it so much I am making another one straight away :)"

"I like to knit old patterns using old yarns, and I don't worry too much if the yarn I want to use is not the same ply or weight as the pattern was written for."

“This is a really great, easy to follow pattern that was fun to knit. I used 3.25mm needles for the basque and 4.5mm for the torso and sleeves. The only variation I made to the pattern was that for the sleeve top decreases, I only made one decrease per row, where the pattern calls for two per row.”

 

 

You can find the pattern here.  

Our thanks again to Kate. She made a lovely sweater. I'm a little jealous of her knitting skills. 

Don't forget to check out the Vintage Yarn Wikia page for questions regarding vintage yarn weights.

Happy knitting!

Ladies Three-Quarter Sleeve Cardigan - The Beginning

The yarn has been calling to me for a year and a half. I finally had to start the project.

I inherited a stash of almost vintage yarn from a friend of my mom’s. There are plenty of yarns in the stash that were really nice and colors and weights that I want to make things (sweaters, hats, vests) with. There were a couple of yarns in the stash that I didn’t particularly like, but for some reason couldn’t get rid of them. Something about them made me want to hang on to them and use them together in a project. It’s the weirdest thing. 

I don’t really like the color of one of the yarns in this new project, but I liked it with the second color of yarn. I’m not sure they even go well when put together. But there you go, I couldn’t get rid of the yarn, so I had to come up with something that would use both yarns in a single project. 

Bernat Berella & Unger Utopia yarns.

I was clicking through our patterns one morning and came across this pattern, the 1950s Three Quarter Sleeve Cardigan Sweater - Knit pattern. The pattern called for mohair yarn, but I don’t enjoy working with mohair yarn…it’s almost impossible to rip out stitches when I mess up stitches.

1950s Three Quarter Sleeve Cardigan Sweater - Knit pattern PDF 0858

I started with a swatch to test the pattern. I hadn’t done a slip stitch pattern before and I couldn’t figure out how the stitches were going to work together to create the design. It turns out the pattern rows are easily memorized and even easier to knit.

Test swatch, using scrap yarn.

The yarns were perfect for the jacket. It’s pretty neat looking in-person. Using the darker yarn as the secondary color means that the color pops look more like shadows - they are subtle.

I have 4 skeins of the lighter/main color and 3 skeins of the darker/contrast color. I searched online and could not find any yardage information for the Bear Brand Curlicue or the Fleisher’s Curlette yarns. That isn’t too surprising. Back in the olden days, yardage wasn’t generally included on the label. The original yarns were worsted weight. Here's a link to theVintage Yarn Wikia page for info on yarn information we've run across over the years.

The pattern calls for 11 ounces of the main color and 6 ounces of the contrast color.  I have 14.10 ounces of the light and 10.5ounces of the dark yarns.  Here’s hoping I have enough to make the sweater.

Slip stitch pattern.

The project details:

• Yarn 1: Unger Utopia, Color: 171, 100% Courtelle Acrylic, 240 yards/skein.
• Yarn 2: Color: Bernat Berella, Color: 8815/Antq Rose, 100% Acrylic, 200+ yards/skein.
• Needles: 8 US. Chaiogoo Stainless Steel.
• Gauge: 5 sts = 1 inch (per the pattern).

I should have pics of the started project shortly. Fall baseball has started and we have some Saturday games where I will have to be knitting to calm my nerves.

Happy Knitting!

 

Finished Object - Sophie's Universe Mandala

I started this crocheted blanket last year, after deciding that something needed to be made from the two single skeins of vintage (old) yarn in my stash. I wanted to make something that I hadn't made before, something cute and colorful. 

I found the Sophie’s Universe mandala afghan pattern and thought it was just so neat. The pattern calls for lightweight yarn, but my two skeins were worsted weight aqua and white. I figured the yarn weight didn't matter too much because I was making a blanket. The pattern calls for so many different colors, I had no good way to calculate how much yarn I would need for a little blanket, or how big the blanket might turn out once I ran out of yarn.

I wasn't at all sure how the final product would turn out. Crochet isn't like sewing for me. When I am picking out a sewing project, I can usually see the finished product in my mind’s eye.

  

Once I started crocheting I began worrying that I would run out of yarn, and I didn’t want to play yarn chicken. So, I went through my stash again and found the sunny yellow yarn. It’s lighter weight than the other two yarns, but somehow it works. I loosened up my tension when stitching with the yellow. I was pretty certain that the yellow was going to look out of place and weird when I added it. I love the brightness and cheeriness that is added to the look of the blanket.

This blanket could work as a doll blanket, as a wheel chair blanket, or a snoozing place for a cat or two. Our cats always gravitate to projects I am working on. My UFOs seem to make the best sleeping spots for the kitties. 

LINKS:

Link to LookWhatIMade.net website with all of the Crochet-A-Long with all of the instructions.

Link to the Sophie’s Universe CAL on Ravelry. 

Grrr. As I was taking the photos outside I was reminded of the importance of checking dyelots. While working on the blanket inside, I could not see a difference in the whites. As I was happily snapping away, I noticed the difference between border and the yarn at the center of the mandala and almost fell off the chair I was standing on to take the pics. 

Happy Stitching!

FINALLY - The Finished Object....

The Finished Object – The Thoroughbred Sweater is Finally Finished, Blocked and Ready to Wear

 

The Thoroughbred / Coat of Many Lengths is complete. It was a long time coming, but the main reason it took me so long to finish the jacket was my inability to read and follow the directions. Instead of reading a line in the pattern and doing what the directions indicated, I would try to visualize the directions which lead to me putting down the sweater until I could figure out what the pattern wanted me to do.  I ended up putting down the sleeves for over a month because I couldn’t see how the decreases were to be worked. It turned out that the instructions were really easy, and I was overthinking them. 

 

 

 

I liked this pattern. If I were to make it again, I would try a lighter weight yarn. The finished sweater weighs in at a little over 2 pounds. As you might recall, I used the vintage Red Heart Super Saver yarn for this project. It was in my stash and yelling at me that it needed to be made into this sweater. One of the reasons I wanted to make this pattern was that it used a worsted weight yarn. Many (or most) vintage patterns use lightweight yarns. That is what was available in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

 I talked Alison into modeling the sweater with me, so we could show that different body types look so dang cute in the sweater. If we were to make it for her, I would shorten the sleeves 3 or 4 inches.

 

I finished the sweater just as it started to warm up in our little part of the world. I’ve worn the sweater to work a couple of times, but it’s been too heavy for everyday wear right now. I don’t want to jinx our summer and make it too hot this year, but I am really looking forward to the Fall and wearing the jacket often.

Happy knitting!