Pretty as a Picture - Mark 2

A knitting post to share with you today.  A commission piece for a repeat customer who lives across the miles, over New Zealand. 

 

The piece is a knit that I've done before, a knit very aptly named "Pretty as a Picture" from a Stitchcraft magazine published in November 1936. 

 

 

The jumper is a really neat design, slim fitting with an oversized bow.  The bow in the original, as you can see, was knitted in angora, but it wasn't possible to match the base colour to an angora, so the same wool was used throughout.
 

                         

 

When I did the first version of the jumper, it was worked in Adriafil Azzurra 4 ply in a gorgeous shade called Bordeaux.  The lady who commissioned this version wanted to go with a finer wool, more authentic to the 1930's, and opted for Fenella, by Susan Crawford.

Fenella is a wonderful wool which has been specifically designed to knit up to the 3 ply tension that is often found in vintage patterns.  It is a 100% British wool which is grown, spun, dyed and finished in Britain.  The colour range is absolutely delightful, with some great vintage inspired shades and glorious names like Porcellana and Phthalo, which is a divine shade of green.  I got a little bit distracted by all the gorgeous colours and ordered some for my stash!

For this knit, Myristica was chosen, which is a really dark chocolate brown. 

The wool comes in 25g skeins, which means you have to wind it into balls, but the wool is so gorgeous to work with that it's no chore, and it gave me the perfect excuse to buy myself a wool winder, and employ the services of Miss C to help me wind it. 

Although the pattern is by no means hard, it has a nice regular pattern repeat across 8 rows, it is a slow knit, or at least I found it to be.  Because I work my commission pieces in the evening, I struggled in the winter to see properly for any length of time, so only managed a couple of hours a night, at best.  Because it was slow going, it took about 5 months to do, but the customer was wonderfully patient and happy to wait. 

Although you can only see two buttons, the design actually fastens at the neck with three, only one is covered by the bow.  I rummaged through my stash and found the perfect buttons to go with the wool.

I had to make the jumper slightly smaller, so didn't do all the increases that were called for in the original, but other than that, it was knitted exactly as per the pattern.  

Fenella was gorgeous to work with.  It took a little getting used to as I've never worked with anything quite so fine, and because it's quite an expensive wool, I was so worried I'd make a mistake and ruin it.

Thankfully it all turned out well, and the customer was really happy with the finished item.  It was obviously worth the wait!!

Wool - Fenella by Susan Crawford in Myristica

Weight used - 10 balls

Time taken - 5 months

Size - 32" bust

If you fancy giving this neat little knit a go, the pattern is available as a PDF in my Etsy shop, which you can find here.

xx

A Stripey Affair!

Well, it's been a while.  As we approach the last few weeks of 2015, I figured that if I didn't dip my toe back into the world of blog, I never would!!  So, here I am, and what better post to bring you than a neat little knitted number.  

Many months back, a fabulous customer of mine asked me to knit her a cardigan.  To my joy, it wasn't just any cardigan, it was one of the most pretty patterns I've seen in a long while, a pattern that had been on my rather long "to knit" list.

The pattern came from a Needlework Illustrated magazine from the 1930's. 

Pretty neat, don't you think?!  It was love at first sight.  The colours, the style, those sweet little buttons, I knew I had to knit it.  

The customer wanted it to be as close in colour to the original as I could make it. Luckily, Adriafil Azzura had nigh on the exact same shades, and a little colour test later, and we were sold on the design.  

When you look at the cover photo, it clearly shows that there are four base colours in wide stripes, with thin black rows and slightly thicker white, in between.  However, when I came to work from the pattern, it wasn't turning out the same.  In the pattern, the four strong colours were worked in equal thickness to the white, and the result just didn't have the same wow factor.

 

As the customer had seen the cover image with the thinner white stripe, I had to rework the pattern slightly, tweaking the thickness of the black and white rows and making it just a little bit longer in the body, for comfort.

The pattern isn't difficult, as the entire cardi is worked in rib, but the constant colour changing slowed the work down a lot.  That, and the fact that a made a mistake halfway up the back and had to re-knit it meant this one took nearly 4 months of on and off work. 

 

Thankfully the customer was unbelievably patient, which I always appreciate. 

 

Making up the jumper was a bit quicker, but oh so many ends to sew in.....

 

And the construction was different to anything I've sewn up before.  The top of the sleeve becomes the yoke, and there are two pleats in the sleeve, which take out some of the fullness and give it a neat finish.   

 

 

Crochet isn't one of my strong points, but the buttons were pretty simple to work.  Double and treble crochet worked round little button forms, they finish it off perfectly, I think.

 

 

 

 

If you fancy giving it a go, the pattern is available for sale in my Etsy shop, which she can find here. It's not a complicated pattern, it could certainly be tackled by a beginner knitter, but it does take a lot of patience running in all the ends, but it's worth it!

xx

Pretty as a Picture - 1930s Bow Jumper

Sorry it’s been so long since I last checked in.  My laptop threw a fit and refused to recognise blogger; what fun!!  I tried out the blogger app for the iPad, but I couldn’t get to grips with that, technology not being a strong point of mine, so Mr Y came to the rescue and ordered me a shiny new machine, so hopefully I can finally add some listings to my Etsy shop.

I hope you’re enjoying the bank holiday weekend.  I’m having a spot of peace and quiet this morning as Mr Y has taken the girls into town for a couple of hours while I pop a roast in the oven and do some knitting.  I’m working on a commission piece at the moment which is proving a little bit taxing on my brain!  I’ve mastered the actual pattern, all 36 rows of it, but I think there’s an error in the sleeve shaping because I’ve had to rip it back twice and no matter what way a look at it, the maths just isn’t working out right.  The phrase "a bad workman blames his tools" springs to mind, but I'm certain it's not me so am persevering, even if I have to re-write the sleeve shaping myself!  It’s being worked in a pretty dull gold shade, part of the Patons Diploma  Gold 4 ply range in a shade called golden; I love it.

Talking of woolly wonders, I said farewell to a rather splendid piece of knitting that headed overseas to Norway.  Another commission piece for a fabulous repeat customer, it was a slow knit, but a special one.

The pattern came from this Stitchcraft magazine from November 1936. 
 

When deciding on a pattern, the customer said they wanted long sleeved with a large front bow, something like Miss Lemon might wear in Poirot.  It’s never a chore to flick through the well-thumbed pages of my pattern collection, so, with the help of my mum, we set about choosing just the right design, and this one came out on top.

Knitted in Adriafil Azzurra 4 ply Bordeaux, it took a long time to knit.  Although it isn’t an overly complicated pattern, just an 8 row pattern repeat, it required my complete concentration so could only be knitted in the evenings.  The fact that I could only manage 1-2 hours a day on it, coupled with the fact that I had a 2 week holiday where I didn’t work on it at all, meant that it took three months to complete.  It needed just 3 buttons, but typically I didn't have enough matching ones in my stash so found these ones on eBay instead; a snip at £4.00
 

I’m really happy with how it turned out and the colour, although it doesn’t show that well in my photographs, is a really deep rich red.
 

I didn’t have to re-size the pattern, although it wouldn’t have been difficult to do so, and the only 2 changes I had to make to the jumper were to make the sleeves 19” under the arm rather than 18”, and to knit the bow in the same wool as the body of the jumper rather than the angora wool that was suggested.

Wool - Adriafil Azzurra 4 ply

Weight used - 7 balls

Time taken - 3 months

Size - 35" bust

Like some of the other patterns I’ve recently knitted up, I had some requests to make this pattern available as a PDF so, although it took me longer than expected, it is now finally available in my Etsy shop, which you can find here.

I’m on a bit of a mission to complete some of the work in progress jumpers that are languishing in various cupboards, bin bags and knitting bags!  When I last counted, I think there were 8 at various stages of completion, and I intend to remedy that, if I don’t get distracted by another pretty pattern, that is! ;-)

xx

Free Knitting Pattern - 1930s Fair Isle Pullover for Men

One of the 1940's re-enactors was looking for a Fair Isle pattern for men with long sleeves.  I have never seen a wartime one, but managed to dig out this 1930's one, found in an "Easily Made Woollies for Men" booklet.

 

Click HERE for the pattern.

 

1930's jumper - in record time!

There has been somewhat of a jumper drought on the blog.  The last woollie I showed you was back in August, tut tut, so I thought it was about time I remedy that! :o) 
  
I do my order knitting in the evenings when I have peace and quiet to concentrate.  I’m working on an order for 3 jumpers, which I can’t really show you until I’ve sent them to the new owner.  One is finished, one just needs the collar and the third, I’ve already finished the back, so we’re getting there!! 

Working with little Y’s by day restricts the level of knitting I can do.  In the past, I’ve tried, and failed, to knit complicated patterns and so have come to the conclusion that rib and stocking stitch are the way to go.

For over 12 months I’ve wanted to knit using a colour called mint from the Stylecraft Life 4 ply range.  It’s a 25% wool, 75% acrylic mix and is such a pretty colour, very feminine and delicate and very much suited to a 1930's jumper.  Having chosen the wool, I had a flick through my 1930’s patterns and decided on this very simple affair from the October 1937 issue of Good Knitting.

The pattern is incredibly easy.  There are 50 rows of k3, p2 rib which, although sounds a lot, is far quicker to knit than k1, p1 rib so wasn’t actually too bad.  The pattern says "the deep welt is a new trick and ensures a perfect fit", well, that remains to be seen but it fitted Doris nicely!  The entire jumper is stocking stitch over 120 rows with only 8 stitches added into the main body of the jumper. 

I started with the front because it was the most complicated piece with the colour change from mint to silver grey for the bow detail.  I wasn’t too happy with the way it suggested working the inserts of grey.  The two wools had to be twisted which gave an uneven stitch each side of the join.  I’ve managed to tighten it up a bit when running the threads in, but I think, if I knit it again, I’ll run the mint to grey colour change in a fair isle way where the finish will be a lot neater.

The bows were really quick to work and I can see me using the pattern for them on other items, a beret perhaps?  They have a little button hole in the middle and are knitted separately, obviously, and then sewn onto the ribbed band.  I stitched them down a little more than the pattern indicated because I didn’t like the way they flopped about because it made them look uneven.  Stitched on firmly, they look so neat. 

I chose original vintage buttons and opted for tiny white glass ones that have a pearlescent layer on them which means they look plain white from a distance, but have hints of colour when you look closely.

As to the record time?  Well, the jumper took only 12 days from start to finish.  Yes, you read that correctly, just 12 days.  I started the front rib in the car on Saturday the 13^th October when we were out for the day.  I like to knit in the car.  It gives my hands something to do on a long journey and it’s surprising how quickly the work grows!  I limited the knitting to day time only and, being such a simple jumper, it was very quick indeed.  I finished knitting it yesterday and spent the evening pressing and piecing it together because that, again, is something I can't do without total attention.

Another plus point is how economical it was to make.  It took just under 2 balls of mint with less than 15 grams of silver grey.  When I say just under 2 balls, I really mean just because all I had left was a teeny tiny ball which was smaller than a plum.

I think it has turned out really well and the pattern was very clearly written.  The devil, as they say, is very much in the detail.  It was so simple to knit but the bows and tiny buttons change an otherwise ordinary jumper into a classic piece of late 1930's styling. 

We’re off to Norwich this weekend for the Little Vintage Lover Fair being held at Dragon Hall and this jumper will be coming with us.  If you're in the area, why not pop along and say hello? :o)