1945 Victory jumper - 1. an abandoned knitting project

You might have spotted By Gum, By Golly's 'Knit for Victory' banner in the side-bar. It seems like I've started this 40's challenge knitting project ages ago (somewhere in november 2013) but after a rather enthusiastic start I begun to doubt wether I liked the results...
It is another free jumper pattern from the internet, from the collection of the Victoria & Albert museum and there are quite a few gorgeous jumpers out there, made from this pattern. It looks so flattering on everybody, I just had to make one for myself!
   

I thought this 1945 jumper named 'Victory' would be perfect as my 'Knit for Victory' project! Back then (seemingly) I had plenty of time, so I thought I could easily finish it by the end of january. I choose to use the original 'national' colors: navy, red and white. I've ordered the wool (my fav: drops baby merino) a few months ago when it was on sale: 30 (navy)blue, 16 red, 02 natural


As usual, I started with my trusted 'blueprint'  pattern. Why would you change something that works? I thought that I would knit the lace pattern more loosely, normally I have that with repeated yarn-overs, so instead of a size 3.5 I started with a metric 3 needle. Of course, I didn't make a swatch and of course, the lacy pattern wanted desperately shrink in width, rather than stretching out...

By the time I started to realize I was going from zero ease to a negative ease I was too far progressed and almost finished the front and the back (knitted in round as always) And then...I just didn't know what to do and have put the jumper away. For quite a while...

And now, with only 2 weeks left I pulled it out to decide on it's faith. Frogging or finishing? When you observe the original picture you can clearly see that the lace pattern is supposed to be steamed open  (how could I missed that?!) so I decided to steam block the piece. Then I tried it on and it didn't look bad at all! Of course, it didn't look exactly the way like my Top Honours jumper looked like, it was just different. This might be the problem after all: the fit is just not the same.
Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but in my imagination it was supposed to look exactly the same, right? Have you ever had the same problem? The garment you were making appeared to be different from the garment you thought you were making?...
Let's hope I manage to finish my Victory jumper in the next 2 weeks!

Want to join this 1940's challenge?

Well, there is still enough time to join the 1940's 'Knitting for Victory' project, if you are planning to make something small! I'd recommend a few patterns from my blog, listed under 'free knitting patterns', going from easy to more difficult:

- 1940 pleated scarf

- 1943 servicewomen gloves

- 1942 lacy gloves