Jumper plans spring 2014

I have already made plans for knitting a few new jumpers!
Moving a bit backwards in time, to the late 30's I choose the 3 patterns above. The 3 jumpers above have their individual challenges to me and all of them need to be resized a bit as well. Of course, I'm not planning to frog and re-knit them like I did on the Victory, so there are no lace stitches this time! Nice, solid knits with geometric patterns, mainly constructed with basic knit/purl stitches for an easy calculation of the gauge.

1. valerie
This pattern appeared in an 1940's AWW. Though it is a 1940 model we know that the AWW used mostly imported patterns which were released overseas earlier. I love the tabs and the all-over pattern which make this jumper special and very 30's. Actually, I already started knitting this one in 2013, but sewing up the pieces and the finishing took more than a month. In te meantime the Knit for Victory challenge started and I just didn't got round to share the finished jumper. Mine has 3/4 sleeves and is knit in a bright, electric blue color. I ordered the yarn (drops baby merino as always) when it was on sale. A short series of the knitting process will follow shortly.

• my challenge: to achieve the right fit and calculate 3/4 sleeves

2. trellis jumper
This is a Lincoln Mills booklet pattern, which is another free pattern from the internet. There is no exact dating possible, but looking at the hairstyle, the small shoulder pads and the button detail it must be released somewhere in the late 30's or very early 40's (though in the early 40's the shoulders 'grew' quickly bigger, like my Philippa's)
Again, the pattern looks rather simple, but very decorative, containing a small cable pattern in the yoke and sleeves. Most vintage patterns include some amount of increase along the torso to achieve a slight V-shape. This pattern instructs to increase in the last row of ribbing to the definitive amount of stitches at once. That way the visual lines of the vertical cables won't be disturbed.
I'm going to use the same drops baby merino yarn in bright blue-ish red, which I also used in my Victory jumper (yarn ordered when it was on sale)

• my challenge: cable pattern

3. easy stitches jumper
Guess what, another free pattern from the net! The main pattern of the bodice of this one looks similar to the trellis jumper, but the spacing between the vertical lines is filled up with moss-stitch here. Also, the jumper has a rounded yoke which is knitted in the round for the front and the back, including the top of the sleeves. raglan style sleeves. This will be a new challenge to knit! Interesting detail: the pattern instructs to cast on more stitches for the front than for the back. The color is going to be medium or light gray drops yarn which I yet have to order. I might try another quality of yarn to avoid too much calculations in the round yoke area. The drops cotton merino yarn is slightly heavier than the baby merino I use and is available in a pretty light-green color which I like very much!

• my challenge: to knit the yoke in round with the right fit

Jumper styles and shapes from the 30's to the 60's

It is interesting to look at how jumper styles changed through the decades. Before starting to knit you really need to look at the pictures of the finished items and ask yourself the quetion: Will this look good on me? We all have different body shapes and let's be honest, not every garment accentuates the best parts of it. The models, even from 100 years ago seem to have the same, slender body shapes with tiny waists which makes every item look wonderful on them. Frustrating!

When it comes to making vintage inspired garments I think you need to know which era produced the most flattering patterns for your body type.
As you might know by now, I prefer the 40's. This is why:

• The accentuated shoulders are perfect to disguise the lack of shape in the waist. 
• The 30's could also be a good choice because of a wide variety of embellishments, for the same reason. 

I also know which parts to adjust:

• Those era's are well-known for the high necklines. I lower them a bit because of my round face. 
• Since I am high waisted I know it is more flattering to add extra width above the waistline to create a slightly blousy shape.
• Of course, I lengthen the tops too, because a very short jumper with a high waist is not a good combination...

The 60's are not my fashion era, simply because of the lack of shaping in the garments. I can imagine those garments would look fabulous on a thin person with small boobs, but with my swayback and broad shoulders they'd just look shapeless sacks on me. The 50's have a question mark in my book, because the hourglass shape which I simply don't have...

Which fashion era do you prefer and which one looks best on you?
Sloping shoulders or elevated ones, dolman sleeves or puff sleeves, fitted tops or relaxed ones?

1945 Victory jumper - 6. close to the finishing line

Yes! Today is the day when I'm going to finish my Victory jumper, knitted in a whopping 10 days! To start, a picture from yesterday evening, when knitting the neckband:


To avoid stretching out I opened up the neckband and did a quick crochet buttonhole with a heart shaped button this time. I explained how to do this here.


picking up stitches - the easy way!
I used a 5:6 ratio for picking up the stitches for the neckband, same as on my Top Honors jumper. What I like about this technique is that you pick up every stitch in the first round, you don't need to count at all. By reducing the amount of stitches when starting to knit the ribbing you avoid holes between the stitches.

- pick up every stitch you come across evenly
- reduce the amount of stitches in the first row of ribbing by ribbing 4 stitches and then knit (or purl) the next two stitches together.
(you knit like this: K1, P1, K1, P1, K2TOG, P1, K1, P1, K1, P2TOG...)


Project of the day: setting in the sleeves and weaving in yarn-ends. (+ taking pics of the finished garment!)

1945 Victory jumper - 5. the victory is close

The victory is close!!! Yesterday was a rather unproductive day. In a hurry I made a huge mistake when decreasing the armholes. Knitted a huge piece with decreasing at both ends of the back while I should have decreased only at the beginning of every row. The evening was again about frogging and re-knitting...sigh...

my armhole shaping
(already used 3 times and works perfect for me)
- cast off 6 sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows
- decrease 1 st at the beginning of each of the following 10 rows

My planning was to finish the bodice yesterday and start knitting the neckband today. But again...I don't give up! Luckily have 2 days off from work, so I should have enough time to finish the back today, block the pieces and knit the neckband. The original pattern instructs to do this in two parts, one for the front and one for the back but I'm going to stitch up the shoulder seams and pick up the stitches all around like I did with my Top Honors jumper. The neckband is going to be a bit wider this time. I like the neckline of this second version of my Victory better, though I did a partly 'freehand' decrease to shape it. The jumper must be ready by friday midnight If everything goes well I only need to set in the sleeves tomorrow and make pics of my finished project.

Inspiration: contemporary knitted jackets

Have you ever tried to knit a jacket instead of a sweater? Knitted jackets can be fun! I've found a few great examples which are both modern looking and versatile. What do these designs have in common?
- the perfect choice of color combinations
- simple lines
- inventive accents

elegant:

knitted in simple stocking stitch with interesting ribbon details.
idea to remember: contrast color ribbon is pulled through the knitted holes.

parisian chic:

double breasted classic white jacket with black accents.
idea to remember: textured cross-stitch pattern imitating fabric-effect

chanelesque:

collarless, straight jacket with Irish cable patterns
idea to remember: crocheted Chanel-like trimming bands along the edges
Patterns from: Bergere de France yarns

1945 Victory jumper - 4. rewind and repeat!

Sometimes things are not working out the way you expect. The only thing you can do is raise the bar, start over again and perform even better...

A quick recap on this project. After a month of 'silence' I pulled out my knit-for-victory project and decided to complete it by the end of january. It seemed an easy task since the bodice was almost finished. After knitting the back part from the armholes up I started with a sleeve. This is how my almost finished jumper looked like last week:


This is how it looked like 2 days ago:

So what happened? On the 23th of january the bodice was finished and I was halfway of the first sleeve. Because the sleeve seemed to be too wide I decided to rip it out and re-start with less stitches, following the original stitch count of the Victory pattern. Re-started the sleeves on the 24th of january and finished them on the 25th. The modification in the sleeves is the different way of decreasing used for the sleeve cap. The original Victory pattern starts right away with decreasing without the horizontal part which is usually formed by casting off a few stitches first. I used the decrease of my 'blueprint' pattern,  without an enlarged or lengthened sleeve-cap:
- started at the beginning of the 4th red/white stripe block
- cast off 3 sts in the beginning of the next 2 rows
- decrease 1 stitch at the beginning and end of every alternate row until 28 sts left. Cast off.

sleeve version 1
you can count more pattern repeats in the width here

sleeve version 2
I was a bit tired so decided to start the sleeve-cap decrease the next day and started with the straight part of the second sleeve next to the first one. That's why there are two sleeves on the same circular knitting needle:

the finished sleeves (not blocked yet)


After finishing the two sleeves decided to take the right step and frog the bodice. It was just to small and I knew I wouldn't like it at all. So why knit something and then not to wear?


Frogged the bodice almost completely, with only the ribbing left re-started to knit on the 25th. Instead of 13 pattern repeats I did 16 pattern repeats in the width, which will give a better fit across the bust. Thanks to a quiet nightshift I managed to knit for a few hours during the night and then sacrificed a day on knitting while watching series 3 of Homeland. I must say, it was a great relax-day with just a little of shoulder-pain at the end. Here we are now, with just 5 days left of the Knit-for-Victory challenge, there is hope I manage to finish it on time:

1945 Victory jumper - 3. progress

After 2 days of 'speed-knitting' 2x half of the sleeves are ready. This time the sleeves are smaller, there is less pattern repeat in the width but a little more lengthwise to achieve the same look as in the picture above.

Actually, after getting to the armhole part I just started knitting the another sleeve instead of starting with the decrease in the evening. (Knitting+watching tv works only if you are not involved in knitting increase/decrease or intricate patterns...) I'm trying to finish and set in the sleeves this weekend and hope to finally see the overall fit!

1945 Victory jumper - 2. on track again...or not?

Well, don't be fooled by this picture! This was the case in the morning. Now the jumper is sleeveless again... Victory became officially my jumper from hell!


The story (or should I say, saga?!) so far:
As far as construction goes instead of following the original pattern I followed my own 'blueprint' pattern, both for the stitch-count and for shaping the armholes. (Actually for the third time, as I didn't share my second jumper between the TH and Victory.) The neckline was a bit of freehand work this time, I wanted a wider ribbing than on my Top Honours jumper, but didn't want a too high neckline (like the original) so I lowered it a bit.
Somehow, I just don't know what happened, it turned out a size smaller in width than my TH jumper. Instead to grow, the lacy pattern somehow shrunk. Sounds weird, right? After blocking the results were reasonable, but I couldn't say I was in love...
Anyway, learned my lesson, but still started out the sleeve the wrong way.
Thought to be smart, I added a row of increase after the ribbing, like my blueprint pattern instructs. Instead of the expected results, the lace pattern seemed to grow this time, adding  too much ease with a blousy look, instead of the perfect fit.

Since I really want another perfect jumper decided to frog this sleeve (proudly produced past week - sigh..... and start all over again.
I must say, at this point I'm not completely sure that I'm going to leave the bodice as it is. I'd rather frog it and knit it up again than having something that's not perfect.

My plan for the next 1.5 week:
- start to re-knit the sleeves, this time using the stitch-count of the original pattern
- after finishing the sleeves sew it into the armholes, try the whole thing on and decide whether it looks good or not. (worst case scenario: frog and re-knit the bodice)
- try to finish the whole thing by the end of this month?!
- Yes, I am definitely knitting for victory!!!!

the pattern
Since I didn't share much information about the pattern yet, here is a little introduction:
'Victory' is a pattern from the collection of the English Victoria & Albert museum. Among other patterns from magazines and a couple of Bestway leaflets it is available as a free download. How about these other jumpers from the Woman's Weekly Magazine? I wish all editions of those would be available online!!! There is 'Neat and feminine' and the 'When you're off duty':


There is also 'A new design in cable stitch' or a 'Waistcoat for warmth':


My choice was the 'Victory' jumper, and as it is the 'Top Honours' it is from the war-winning year of 1945, featuring the English national colors of red, blue and white. I really like this bold, strong combination! (fun fact: these are the national colors of the Netherlands as well)


The yarn I use is again my fav.: drops baby merino in the shades 30 (dark)blue, 16 red and 02 natural:


pattern chart


The pattern envelope says it is 'such an easy pattern', because  only two rows complete the pretty scalloped stripe pattern. It is truly easy to memorize.
The stripes are formed by altering 6 rows in blue, 4 rows in red, 2 rows in white, 4 rows in red (my camera seems to fight with the bright red, but you get the idea...)

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

Free vintage baby bootie & bonnet pattern from 1965

Okay, I'd take a short break, but then I remembered that I've already prepared this post a while ago, with items that could be made for the holiday season. They could make a great Christmas gift! It seems that free baby-knitting patterns remain popular on the internet. These small projects are quick to make, you can use your left-over wool and finish them just in a few evenings. I've already done a post on testing 3 free available baby bootee patterns from the internet here. Today I have another baby bootee and bonnet pattern from 1965, with a definite vintage air! Cute, isn't it?
 

These booties have shaped toes and heels. The original pattern uses the classic white/pink (pr white/light blue) combination. Unfortunately there is no contrast visible on the original, black-and-white picture below, it seems all white.

Actually the moss-stitch parts are knitted in the contrasting color (pattern instructions: pink) and the 'bobbles' are white. I think a bolder, modern color combination like bright blue and yellow or grey and yellow, grey and bright blue or pale green with pink could work just as great! Below details of the construction (made up a bootie) and a detailed explanation of how to knit the two-colored bobble-pattern! You find the original patterns at the end of this post.

stitches & patterns used


moss-stitch:
The edges and the sole of the booties are knit in Moss stitch (also referred as 'M-st.' in the instructions). Moss stitch is simply altering knit and purl stitches followed in the next row by purl above knit stitches and knit above the purl stitches:


two-colored bobble-pattern:
The main pattern is knitted in two colors. There are 'bobbles' in the main color (here white) and in between stripes in the contrasting color (here gray):


pattern chart:

One pattern unit is 6 rows tall and 3+1 sts wide.


bobble-pattern step-by-step:
1. the pattern starts with 4 rows in stocking stitch (knit on the right side and purl on the wrong side)


2. start the next row in the contrasting color. The pattern is formed by 3 knit stitches followed by a 'drop-stitch':
   

3. drop the stitch until the colored stitch and pick that one up (you will have 4 strands of wool above that stitch)
   

4. put your needle under the 4 strands, pick up the wool and pull it through as if to knit (now you have the new loop on your right needle and the original stitch next to that)
   

5 now pass the original stitch over the loop you just made: pick up the original stitch with your left needle and lift it over the loop
   

Your finished stitch (left) the wrong side of the work (right):
   

material and sizing:

• The yarn specified in the instructions (see below bonnet pattern) is a fingering weight yarn, with no.10 needles (metric 3,25) and 7 sts per inch. My guess is, the finished items should definitely fit a 0-4 month old baby.
• I used for my sample a slightly heavier, sport/baby weight yarn with metric size 3 needles. My gauge: 6 sts per in. My finished size from heel to toe: 9 cm (3,5 in). According to baby boot charts this should fit a 3-6 months old baby.

bootie-pattern:
   

These booties are knitted top down. First step is to knit the straight, patterned part above the ankle. After making a row of holes for the tie you separate the stitches in 3 sections. You continue working on middle section for the instep. The turn is made by picking up stitches at the sides, just like when knitting a sock. You finish after decreasing in an angle for the toes. The bootees have a seam along the length of the sole up to the back. As always, I suggest using a flat seam finish to avoid bulky seams inside. (See link under tab 'knitting hints')


   



my pattern modifications:
- instead of 'make one' (m1) by picking up a strand from the previous row I used 'yarn over' to make the holes around the ankle for the tie. A yarn over makes larger holes which are easier in use imo:

Warning: I'd strongly recommend to use a crochet chain or other elastic material instead of a ribbon for safety reasons. Though they look pretty, ribbons are not elastic. When pulled too hard they can be potentially dangerous!

bonnet pattern:
To make up: join back seam from fastening off to first decrease. Sew on ribbon.

Courtesy & source of all newspaper images: AWW through Trove.