October 1968: Lace Blouse

My project for October 2026 (October 1968 in Stitchcraft blog-land) was (is) the “Lace Evening Sweater” with falling-leaf panels and sleeves set against panels of plain stocking-stitch. It’s topped off with a Peter Pan collar and all the edges are finished with crocheted picot edging. Captioned “The Cool Look of White Lace” and modeled by a demurely seductive women holding a single flower, it heralds the “romantic” look that took hold a few years later in the early 1970s. “Knit a pretty frilly top to make you feel feminine” is the tag line.

Given all that, I am surprised to see this garment called a “sweater” in the table of contents! “Jumper” or “blouse” would fit its profile better. Stitchcraft used all three words in the later 1960s, with “sweater” becoming more prominent along with the rise of bulkier, looser-fitting designs. Sleeved garments without front buttonings were still generally called “jumpers” if they were at all fitted or made in finer wool, and items like this one, which were meant to be worn with just undergarments underneath (that were permitted to show through the lace) were generally called blouses. Thus I have decided to call it a blouse. In any case, it’s a very pretty design.

The pattern is written for Patons “Cameo Crepe”, a smooth, worsted-spun, fingering-weight 100% wool and a perennial favourite for lace garments. I had 300 grams of Grignasco “Regina” wool in stash that I had bought at the going-out-of-business sale from a little shop in my town. It is 100% wool and very fine lace weight. I made a couple of swatches over the years and was unhappy every time: the wool was fragile and broke easily, and was so fine that even lace patterns had no shape or definition. I finally had the bright idea to try using it doubled and voilà, it worked much better.

The lace pattern is easy, using basic k, p, k2tog, ssk, and yo stitches over an unchanging multiple of 12 stitches + 1 over 16 rows, and patterned on odd rows only. Stitchcraft even helpfully provided a close-up photo of the pattern, though as usual in this time period, there is no chart: the pattern directions are all written out in a sea of “k. 1, *wl. fwd., k3, k. 2 tog. tbl., p. 1, k. 2 tog., k. 3, wl. fwd. k. 1; rep. from * to end.” So I charted it myself. The yarn still broke a lot, but using it double meant I could overlap new yarn invisibly wherever needed.The colour (green, not white, I don’t wear white) is beautiful and the wool is quite soft.

Using doubled wool made my tension slightly larger than the 7 sts and 9 rows to an inch in the pattern, so I went down a size and knit to length. I made the body in the round up to the armholes. I also added a little bit of waist shaping to keep it from getting too sack-like in the middle body. The yarn is so extremely scrunchy before blocking that I feel like I can probably make it turn out any size and shape that I want. I just hope it’s not so lightweight that I can’t get the scrunch out.

It did go pretty slowly, so as of the end of October I have only finished the body and started one sleeve. As always, I will update this post when it’s finished, and get ready for an amazing “before and after” blocking experience!