I actually got a project finished on time this month!
Admittedly, it was a smaller project: the „Cabled Bonny Beret“ to match the longline waistcoat from the August 1968 issue of Stitchcraft.
1968 seems to have been the start of the late 60s-early 70s long waistcoat/slipover fashion, often accompanied by a matching accessory and sometimes as part of an entire matching outfit with „slacks“, a hat, a scarf, caridgan jecket etc. This issue featured a waistcoat-and-beret combination in Patons „Fiona“, a blend of Shetland wool (hence the use of „bonny“ and frequent descriptions of the designs in misty-mountain stereotypes.)
The pattern is originally intended to be knit flat and sewn together, but I made it in the round, omitting to two extra seam stitches. Other than that, I followed the pattern. My wool was a 100 gram skein of Felice Fingering Puro, a yarn that I do not like, as it stretches out immensely with blocking, but I had it in the stash drawer and figured a beret would be OK even if it were floppy. I used the yarn double to match the tension and knitted it up tightly to try and counteract the inevitable stretch. (Spoiler: it stretched anyway.)
The cable pattern is a pretty variation on the standard 6-stitch twist cable, with two twists right after each other and spaced alternately row-wise. They come together at the top of the beret via the very simple method of decreasing between the cables. So simple, in fact, that the designer didn‘t think to combine the cables or criss-cross them at the crown; half the cables just stop and get knitted over with reverse stocking- stitch. There were forty-two stitches left over at the end to get drawn up and fastened off! Strangely, it worked and didn’t leave too big of a hole.
The amount of yarn worked out perfectly and the hat had a great feel before blocking, but it was necessary to wash- block it to get it into beret shape and of course it stretched a lot. I put it in the dryer tomtry to get it back down to size, with limited success. Still, it‘s nice, and does match the size of the original! I tried to capture the dreamy back-of-the head pose of the original photo.
That‘s it! Quick and easy. I am still slogging through the June 1968 T-shirt top and will update that post when it‘s finished.
The Stitchcraft Sixties 