May 1965: Shaded Blouse

I actually got two projects finished this month!

This one (the second of two) was a light, summery blouse in three graded colour blocks and an easy lace pattern. The original is made in medium „Powder Blue“, lighter „Beau Blue“, and white. I found three shades of wonderful Lana Grossa „Ecopuno“ yarn (72% cotton, 17% merino wool, 11% alpaca wool) ranging from a sort of brick orange to light peach. The yarn is beatiful, very lightweight, soft and fluffy.

The yarn is also very tricky as regards to finished size and tension. I got 7 stitches to the inch working back and forth on a swatch with 3 mm needles, which matched the tension and needle size given in the pattern, so I started with the second size (for 36-37 inch bust.) The pattern doesn‘t give any finished measurements or a tension in the pattern (just „equivalent to a tension of 7 stitches and 9 rows to an inch on No. 10 needles“).

I made the top in the round with a fake side-seam to save time, which sometimes makes my knitting looser, and was worried about the yarn stretching horizontally, which oftens happens with lightweight and/or cotton yarns. And indeed, my first try just stretched and stretched and was huge. I also forgot to do the stranded peaks at the first colour change, so decided to cut my losses and start over.

After measuring the first-try piece, I decided to make a size one size smaller than the smallest size given in the pattern, but with the length of the largest size. That seemed fine and it was smooth knitting from there. The pattern has a bit of shaping with increases from hem to bust, which is a bit unusual for a 1965 design – at this point, most garments are made straight up and down. I kept to the increases as written, made the raglans in the round and adjusted the neckline to sit one pattern repeat lower in the front.

It fit comfortably loosely before blocking and I was worried it might stretch out in the blocking process, as lace generally does. Ha ha, surprise again! This wool actualky shrinks during blocking (hand-washed very gently in cool-cold water) and the stitches cozy up to another, which explains my 7 st/inch swatch. I had to pin it out in a „hard“ block to make it large enough.

The finished top fit snugly, but not too tight. It‘s the way I like tops to fit, but you can see that the original design is meant to fit more loosely. The smallest size would have worked, or even if I had stuck to my first-try version in the second size, it would have had that casual, loose 60s fit. Whatever, I‘m happy.

As always, we had fun re-creating the original photos, especially the one with the open-mouthed model wondering at her magazine.

I also have a lot of leftover wool, which I could combine with some other leftover wool to make a striped cardigan in June. Stay tuned!

P.S. It was brought to my attention that there is a looper pedal with exactly the same co,our scheme as this jumper! Obviously we both have great taste. https://www.chasebliss.eu/mood

Also, in trying to make that edit in the nightmare that is the Jetpack app, the app un-published the post instead. I was luckily able to revert back to the original and re-publish, but now the posts are in the wrong order. And editing the post now via WordPress on the iPad, the link button doesn‘t work, so I can‘t link directly to the picture of the pedal. Get it together, WordPress!