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!

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!

 

The Start of a 1950s Sweater

While we have taken some time off from the blog - hello again! - that doesn't mean we haven't been working on projects.

I received a bunch of yarn from a family friend. In it was a slew of RHSS (Red Heart Super Saver) yarn in a cream fleck colorway. There was enough for a sweater, but since it was a fairly old batch of yarn, it didn't have yardage listed. I had been thinking about using it for quite some time. I'd look for a pattern, but there wasn't a pattern that screamed it was the right pattern for the yarn. Then, one of my co-workers was wearing a cream swing sweater, and I realized that I had the perfect pattern in our collection. Voila! There was my inspiration.

I started the Basic Coat of Any Length back in December 2016. This is a raglan sleeve sweater. The kids were on vacation, we were on a hiatus from sports. It was magical. I zipped through the back. It took me less than three weeks to get the back completed, working on it sporadically.

The pattern calls for Spinnerin Marvel Twist (4 ounce skeins) . It turns out we had the yarn listed on our Wiki page. It's a worsted weight yarn. With some swatches in hand with different needle sizes, I swatched then washed the swatches. The washing of the swatch is almost necessary when working with the Super Saver. It's so stiff when it is being knit, but softens beautifully once washed.  I achieved gauge with a US5 (3.75mm) needle.

Sweater back along with all of the yarn for the sweater.

Cast-on: 
I used this cast on.
This cast on needs to begin with a knit stitch; and it is a cast on in even numbers. Because I like using this cast on method, I cast on one less stitch than the pattern called for – an even number of stitches. I then cast on one single stitch with a knitted cast on. I began working the pieces by knit, knit, K1tbl and continued in the pattern.

Measurements: 

Measured from directly under needle cable to bottom of back
Laid flat – not stretched: 13.75”
Laid flat –stretched: 15”

Gauge: 

6 stitches = 1 inch without stretching.

Happy Knitting!

Tunisian Crochet - A Tale of the Hat

I've made the All American hat from the 1960s Hats Bucket, Flower and Brimmed Hat plus 2 Purses - 5 Crochet patterns before - several of them in fact. But, the first time I made it, I didn't realize that the afghan stitch was Tunisian or Tapestry crochet. With the second one I made, I figured out that there was a difference between crochet and Tunisian crochet but the adjustments I made to the pattern were to make it a little more fitted and the fabric more dense.

This time around, I got a wild hair and decided to try my hand at Tunisian crochet/afghan stitch. I had to buy a hook in order to start the project. You know how it is when you get a wild hair! You have to start now, and there's no time to wait for an online order to be delivered. The big box stores do not carry double ended crochet hooks or Tunisian crochet hooks - sets or singles. On a whim I ended up at a little local fabric store that has one spinner that holds all of their knitting and crochet supplies. They had a double ended hook. I was in business!

Close-up of the stitch patterns.

I went with the blue yarns because they were in my stash. I used two colors to make it easy to tell which direction I was supposed to be working. The lighter (more royal) blue is the main color that I worked the forward stitches with. The darker blue was used for the return pass.

I watched a lot of videos on Tunisian crochet in the round. The one I found most helpful were from the Stitch Diva tutorials. She has a wealth of information on her website. Also helpful and informative were the following: Tunisian Crochet sampler & stitch dictionary at AmbassadorCrochet.com and the stitch guide at tuncro.blogspot.com.

Happy crocheting!

A Little Cowl/Big Swatch - Using the Black Evening Blouse Stitch Patterns

I will be the first to admit that this little cowl is far from my finest knitting. But I was impatient to start the sweater....

I made this cowl using the stitch patterns from the Black Evening Blouse pattern. I cast on about 147 stitches. I used the gauge measurement of 7 stitches per inch to determine the number of stitches needed to pull the cowl over my head or about 21 inches. I didn't want to mess up my hair when I put on the cowl. Vain, I know.

The pattern calls for a 2 inch section of stockinette stitches before starting the Hive pattern. You can see from the pics that I wasn't completely successful in maintaining the pattern throughout the Hive stitch section. I thought about ripping it out, but then I decided that the cowl wouldn't show the stitch problems because it will probably be scrunched down around my neck or under a jacket. It most likely will not be visible all at one time unless it's laying on a table and I'm showing it to someone.

The middle section is the Lace pattern, which is used for the ruffles around the sleeves and neck. I wanted to see what that section would look like as well. I didn't worry too much about the holes in the lace work. The cowl will be scrunched down when I wear it.

I knitted in eyelets to weave I-cord through. I thought it would be nice to be able to pull the cowl close to my neck and keep the wind from blowing down my coat. And, if necessary, I can cinch up the I-cord and wear the cowl as a hat.  A lesson learned after I had finished the hat and was threading the I-cord through the eyelets was how to determine the correct number of eyelets. I had an odd number of eyelets so I have one eyelet that isn't threaded. An even number of eyelets would have allowed both ends of the I-cord  to pop out the front of the cowl. 

The cowl is finished. I learned that the acrylic/nylon yarn was a little too soft, stretchy, and fuzzy for the sweater. While I still love the feel of the yarn, it just wasn't going to work for this blouse. That meant I had to buy some new wool yarn. I had to buy a pair of size 1(US) circular metal needles, too. The new yarn is a beautiful juciy wine color, but the color is too dark for me to easily see the individual stitches on dark wood needles. My eyesight is not great right now, working on the sweater would blind me. The metal needles will provide a nice contrast to the yarn color and allow the wool to glide freely across the needles.

I will be posting updates on my progress for the Black Evening Blouse as I go along. Stay tuned.

Happy knitting!

And the Swatch Continues - Black Evening Blouse

We are continuing on with the growing swatch for the Black Evening Blouse. The original post can be found here. I should have included a pic of the blouse in the original post, but it didn't even occur to me until after the post  went live on the blog.

This is what the sweater looks like:

I am finding that making the swatch is helping with my tension. My tension was all over the place when I made the first, little swatch. I am used to working on heavier weight yarn.. I usually work with worsted weight yarn, so everything knits up fast. My first original swatches were small - I cast on 30 stitches on size 3US needles. The swatch was about 2.5 to 3 inches wide. 

The info that we could find on the Botany Saxatones yarn is for the 1 ounce size skeins. The 1-ounce skeins contained about 170 yards. The yarn is 100% wool. The pattern calls for 4 or 5 of the 2 ounce skeins of yarn.

The pattern can be found here.

Happy knitting!

A Big Swatch - Black Evening Blouse

I found a lace weight yarn I wanted to try, but I didn't have a pattern to use it on, until Alison sent the Black Evening Blouse pattern to me.

The yarn I wanted to use is an acyrlic/nylon blend, and not very expensive, but is so soft. I had to go buy a pair of metal needles size 1US at a local yarn store that sells the needles I like to use. The owner suggested that before putting in the work with this tiny yarn, that I knit up a large swatch and run it through the washer ten times to see how well it holds up.

I definitely don't want to do all of that knitting only to have the sweater pill on the first few washings and wearings. I really really dislike swatching. But I could see the sense in creating the large swatch. As I made peace with the idea of swatching and washing, I realized this could be the perfect opportunity to show the stitch patterns that are used in the pattern. The patterns aren't completely visible in the picture of the sweater. This first pic of the swatch shows the Hive Pattern from the pattern.

 


I have to use a lifeline (the peach colored cotton thread running through the swatch). I forgot to add it when I switched from stockinette to the pattern and ended up having to rip out about 10 rows of the hive pattern (unknit is the new term for ripping out stitches, I think). I decided that I was tired of unknitting and that a lifeline would save me time in the future. We were camping and I was so excited to be knitting by headlamp light that I wasn't paying as close of attention to the pattern as I should have been. I guess that makes me a nerd knitter.

I found that placing a stitch marker on row 1 of the pattern repeat made it easier to figure out where I am in the pattern when I pick up after setting it down for any length of time.

I will be posting more pics as I get further along in the swatch (or cowl).

Happy knitting!

1940s Jiffy Raglan Sleeve Sweater - A Quick and Easy Knit

I thought I had posted pics of the 1940s Jiffy Raglan Sleeve Sweater Button Front (knit) a while back, but that was not the case. So, without further ado, are pics of the sweater.

We posted this pattern quite a while ago, and I had always been intrigued by the "Jiffy" part of the title. It turns out that this really was a quick knit. I know I have mentioned that I may be the world's slowest knitter. I am always hopeful that my knitting speed will increase, but it has not yet happened, so I was amazed at how fast I was able to knit this sweater.

I used some "vintage" Lion Brand Wool Ease that I had purchased years and years ago to make my husband a sweater vest. The yarn is a navy/light blue twist - an acrylic and wool blend.

The vest didn't happen because he thought I was a little nuts to be making him a sweater vest. So, the yarn sat in my stash, maturing like a fine wine, waiting for the perfect project to come along.

It can be difficult to find vintage patterns that use worsted weight yarn. That's why I like this pattern. Large yarn, easy directions.

The pic on the left is a close-up of the lacy, yarn-over stitch used for the majority of the sweater. 

I found the use of stitch markers invaluable when it came to working the yoke. The raglan increases were easier to see when I used the markers. The button band was crocheted on, and so much easier than I expected. 

In vintage terms this is a 16-18 sized pattern. I currently wear a medium or large in sweaters. That would put this sweater more in the 12-14 size range, depending on how aggressively you block the sweater.

Happy knitting!

"Hairpin Lace Creations" Patterns For Sale

Alison found a few great books from the 1930s and 1940s for hairpin lace. I have a hairpin lace tool/loom, so it looks like work is piling up for me.... The original name of our store was "My Sister's Sweatshop" because Alison was always (ALWAYS) finding patterns that she wanted me to make - either for her or just because.

This is one of the cool new books...

Vintage hairpin pattern booklet taken from a 1936 booklet, called "Hair Pin Lace Creations Made in a Jiffy with Bear Brand and Bucilla Yarns, Volume 89" 11 Designs are in the book.

Includes Ladies Dresses, Blouses, Cuffs and Collars, Purse, and, Girl's Dresses.

Hairpin Lace work is an old art revived but there is a new twist to it now for fashion tells us to use it for making smart wearing apparel and accessories--grandmother used it for making edges and insertion.

Materials required: 

Yarns - Glossilla Bouclette, Bear Brand or Bucilla French Zephyr, Glossilla Petite Bouclette, Bear Brand or Bucilla Twinkle Crepe, Adjustable Hairpin Lace Loom Bone or Bucilla crochet hook

  

To see the individual patterns, just click on the links: 

• Girl's Dress
• Girl's Cape Collar Dress 
• Frill Blouse
• Back Button Blouse 
• Purse  
• Cuffs and Collar  
• Shirtwaist Blouse
• Cape or Bed Jacket  
• Puff Sleeve Dress  
• Cover Dress

I guess this means I have to try one of these patterns, unless I can sweet talk one of my friends into learning a new craft. 

Happy hairpinning!

Free Pattern Download for May 2014

Alison has a pattern booklet featuring super cool patterns using Nomotta Ruban D'Art yarns....This is one of the patterns from the booklet. Click on our Free Monthly Pattern Downloads page to download this sweater.

This month's pattern download is a blouse pattern with a full scoop neckline and rosette detailing. The pattern download features pages from the booklet showing how to work with ribbon yarn.

While the yarn is no longer available, it can be occasionally found on Etsy or eBay. In fact, Alison just purchased 9 balls of black Ruban d'Art ribbon yarn from eBay. We have info on the yarn specs available on our yarn wiki page. Click here to visit the Vintage Yarn Wiki page.

Happy knitting!

It's Moving Pretty Quickly (for me) - Jiffy Knit Sweater

I just started working on a new project: the 1940s Jiffy Raglan Sleeve Sweater from our shop. I was really happy to find that I could use yarn already in my stash: a wool/acrylic blend. I purchased the yarn about 15 years ago, back when we still had a Ben Franklin craft store in town. I bought the yarn and started a sweater vest for my husband. I thought he would look cute. He thought I was nuts! So the partially completed vest has been in storage since then. I purchased so much yarn that I can probably make two of these sweaters.

The sweater is knit from the top down. Once you hit the bottom of the sweater, the vast majority of your work is already completed and your project is almost ready to wear. That seems pretty fantastic to me. In the first pic, I have the sweater waiting on my circular needle cable while I work on the sleeve.

I used a modified traveling loop that I first found a few year ago on YouTube to work the sleeves of the sweater. Liat Gat has fantastic knitting videos that are really well done. This is the video that I used to get me going on the sleeves. I might break down and buy a 16" circular needle if I make the sweater again. I think it might go faster if I didn't have to fiddle with the cable on every single round.

I will be posting my progress on the sweater. It should go fairly quickly since it is the Jiffy Raglan Sweater.

Happy knitting!

A Hat from My Stash Yarn - That's How Started, Anyway

When Alison showed me the picture of these three hats, from this pattern, I knew I had to make one or two of them. The one in the center was just so dang cute - it had to be my first project from the pattern. The only caveat for making these hats was that the yarn has to come from my stash. I am not buying any new yarn. I have full and partial skeins galore. More yarn than I will ever make into hats to wear or to sell, even if I live to be 150 years old. That's how it started, anyway.

The pattern calls for a straw-like yarn,
which is difficult to find and expensive.

We had to go to a craft store to get supplies for a middle school project. I happened to notice that they had yarn on sale. We decided to get a skein of yarn to donate to his leadership class - they are learning to crochet in order to make squares for an afghan or two to donate to a local organization. Since we were buying a skein for school, I decided I would get one for myself as well. So I have a pretty summer green hat. So much for using up my yarn stash.

This is the easy version of the All-American hat. I decided not to do the loops on this hat since I'm not much of a loop-wearing gal. The color of the hat in the top is closest to the actual color.

So these cute little hats are crocheted. Great, that means fast and easy. The picture shows a fun brimmed hat. That's the beginner level of the hat. The advanced level features a crown made of looped crochets. I wanted to make the looped crochet crown, but I didn't have enough of the grey yarn. Those little loops eat up a lot of yarn.

I started the looped crown, just to see what it would look like. I didn't have enough yarn to finish, so I took these pics then ripped it out and going work to the beginning level hat. The crown is made of non-looped crochet fabric. Then we went to the craft store, and I found my green yarn. And the dark grey yarn was no longer a great fit for the pattern.

There are a bunch of different methods to make the crocheted loops. I used this video to see how to make the loop stitch.

Close-up of the pattern stitches.

I had hoped to use my stash. But I love this kicky spring color. You can find the pattern in our store.

Happy crocheting!