Sunday 9 August 2015

Beautiful Bluebells - 1940's Jumper

Hello! It's been a while, I do apologise.  

Things have been a bit busy round here.  There's been the normal end of term shenanigans of frantic marking and box ticking; so glad school has finished for the summer.  I've been sewing some blouses, making lots of 2.5" hexies for my first ever quilt and doing plenty of knitting.  We've had family visiting us and then we travelled West to stay with the Mr's family for a couple of weeks.  I'm quite worn out!  

We're home now, returning to a boiler that wouldn't light.  The boiler repair man has been and gone and given our ancient old boiler a new lease of life, for now, and the Mr has just taken the girls to the local computer shop to see whether they can recover the data from the hard drive of his less than two year old laptop!  

So I have about an hour to myself, and what better way to spend it than showing you one of my top five favourite woollies.

This recent jumper is a commission piece knitted for the lovely Kitty Lou.  An Australian pattern from the 1940's, you can find the pattern here, the wool chosen was a gorgeous dull gold colour by Patons, part of their Diploma Gold 4 ply range.  


The pattern repeat is worked over 36 rows, and although the design looks quite complicated, there is a logic to the pattern.  However, for ease of working, I did type up the 36 pattern repeats into a word document which helped keep me on track.
 

Unlike the other bluebell one I did, which you can see here, the yoke on this one was nice and simple, so no pattern matching up and over the shoulders.  

Back and front knitted up well, albeit slowly, but the sleeves were a right pain in the rear end.  The shaping from the underarms simply didn't work out.  I tried and ripped them back 3 times before disparing and writing my own shaping instructions.  I won't lie, tears were shed.  Tears of sheer furry!  :)  I think there was an error in the pattern.  My mother in law mooted something along the lines of a bad workman blaiming his tools, but I don't think so.  


Following the picture on the front of the pattern book, I still managed to achieve the same look.  The boxy sleeves turned out really well, and the knitted shoulder pads finish the look off perfectly.


Although there was the slipup with the sleeves, this was one of my favourite jumpers to work on.  I'm really impressed with the quality of Paton's Diploma.  It's heavier than some of other 4 ply brands, so the jumper weighs in at just under 1lb, but the beautiful quality of the wool shows off the intricate detail perfectly. 






Wool - Patons Diploma 4 ply in Gold
Weight used - 9 balls
Time taken - 100+ hours
 

15 comments:

  1. The jumper looks gorgeous.
    Julie xxxxxxx

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  2. Wow, you are an amazing knitter! This pattern looks like it would be so complicated. Yay to an Australian pattern!
    Amber
    http://www.sweetwordsprettypictures.com

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  3. This is amazing, wish I could knit! x

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  4. That is a stunner! I loved the other bluebell you made, but this is almost better. The yoke is really nice and the sleeves are to die for (even if they made you cry:)

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  5. Ooh, stunning jumper, my favourite neckline to knit, too! I can agree to the quality of Patons Diploma, having used it quite a bit, though the quality isn't as good now as a few years ago (I've bought some discontinued colours).

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  6. Just lovely, and the colour is fab!

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  7. Words cant even describe how amazing this is. I have had such issues in the past as well with vintage patterns. It can be incredibly frustrating. You seriously conquered those sleeves and they look incredible. The recipient is one lucky gal.

    She Knits in Pearls

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  8. Another beautiful knit Lucy, well done for sorting the sleeves :-) xx

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  9. The jumper is so beautiful & sooo hard, you are very talented.
    Enjoy the last few weeks of Summer.
    Fondly Michelle

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  10. Oh my! What a beautiful jumper! I'm sorry to hear you had so much trouble with the pattern ~ when something's not working right, it can so be darn frustrating! I'm glad you were able to work it out though, the results are certainly worth it as this is a stunning piece. ❤

    xox,
    bonita of Lavender & Twill

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  11. Such a lot of work - but what a beautiful result.

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  12. This sweater is exquisite! The pattern is so detailed and really stands out with the yarn you used. I so admire your knitting skills. I have a few old patterns from the 1940's. You've inspired me to look at them. Have a great weekend.

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  13. This is a beauty! It has knitted up so gorgeously. Patterns do have errors and I would think that if you could not make the shaping work with all your experience then it must be wrong.

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  14. Beautiful! I love the 1940's! :)

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