knitted: striped yolk jumper (SC1957)

Ah, late autumn sunshine how you dazzle and partially blind me… Moving on, I don’t know how long it takes an average knitter to make a jumper (sweater, whatever) but i imagine it is less than 14months? (And that is probably with sleeves too!!)

So the pattern came from a 1950s Stitchcraft magazine shared by Liz of Zilredloh (cheers liz!) and I mostly stuck to what it was telling me to do. My ravelry notes tell me I cast on for size 34 to fit hips and then knit up following size 32 for the rest. That decision came after about 3 or 4 attempts at the start to get a decent size that I thought would work. In the end its not a tight squeeze – quite the opposite infact as when i first seamed it up & put it on i was worried it was a bit shapeless and sack-like. Turns out holding bits up against yourself and sort of stretching them out to where you think the seam might hit isn’t the best indicator of size. I’m knitting straight 32s in both of the tops that are currently occupying needle space.

The pattern is written to be shaped in at the natural waist and then swing way out for those kimono sleeves. It could possibly do with being a smidge longer, although that could just be part of its vintage charm, i don’t think 50′s ladies wore their jeans at the same level as me! I mentioned before that i left out a few rows in the stripes to account for the increase in length gauge when i switched to the lighter yarns. The only other changes i made to the pattern was to rib the bottom hem – the foldover and knit together hem directions were beyond me. Ribbing is also more forgiving if you’re wary of the vintage waspish fit sometimes comes with old patterns. While I was at it I ribbed the neckline to mirror the hem (and somehow managed to do a different rib pattern on front and back – sshh, don’t look too close!).

Despite the somewhat quirkesque fit I like it. It keeps me lovelily toasty despite those short sleeves, I’ve worn it with and without a long sleeved tee underneath (incidentially man is that a gaping canyon in my wardrobe, other than a base layer for training in and a couple of race tshirts, one of which is luminous yellow, i own one rather sad and faded long sleeve tee), and both have been suitably temperate.

This is knit up in 3 different yarns (with different content and weights) and even with that I didn’t have enough to carry the main colour through the stripes. The navy and pink stripes are both softer and lighter than the more wool-centric main yarn which works well because i have the nicer yarns where they are more likely to come into direct contact with my skin. No one wants to spend over a year making something and then be hit with the scratch factor…

And last but not least let me leave you with a “real” pic – this is me off out to run the usual weekend errands of picking up wood for floors and various hifi parts! Throw in a mildly clashing pattern and i’m happy. Oh and speaking of pattern/print-wearing, Steph was talking about it a while ago and I might take her up on her suggestion to do a post on it so there may be some chat on the matter shortly.

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• things i make
• vintage knitting patterns