Out of Order: Fair Isle Country Cardigan, January 1967

The September 1967 issue of Stitchcraft had three fantastic projects in it that were all too time- and labor-intensive to finish (or possibly even start…) in September, so I concentrated on finishing up this cardigan from the January 1967 issue.

This was one of the projects that I had been looking forward to for years, since I have a 1960s vintage dress from my grandmother that would match it perfectly in colour and style as pictured in the magazine. But for some reason, this project was cursed.

It started with the wool — I wanted to be authentically Fair Isle and make in in Shetland wool, and Jamieson’s of Shetland has a DK wool in a perfectly matching shade of turquoise. There’s a yarn store in a nearby city to me that carries Jamieson’s, so I wrote them an email to order… only to get a phone call saying that the wool couldn’t be ordered at the moment due to international customs negotiations (Damn you, Brexit!). So I thanked them and asked them to cancel the order, ordered some Rauma 3-ply from a different supplier instead, which was fine, and started with that. I chose a more rust-orange instead of “Red Hackle” for the stranded yoke, along with natural white and anthracite.

The cardigan is meant to be knitted in pieces from the bottom up and has a very interesting sleeve and shoulder construction: set-in sleeves but with a round yoke over only the yoke part of the front and back (not a true round yoke as one would find on a “real” Shetland-style garment.) Interestingly, the men’s pullover version of the same design has a traditional round yoke. In any case, I started with the sleeves, to check how the tension and pliability (Rauma 3-ply is sturdy, but can be rather stiff) would work out. It seemed fine.

Then it was time for the fronts and back, which I made in one piece back-and-forth (no steeks, since the only stranding is on the yoke.) I was concerned that the straight-up-and-down, oversized style would look dumpy on me, so made it a size smaller than indicated for my bust measurement and added in some waist shaping. Also, I made the button bands along with the fronts even though they are supposed to be made on a smaller needle, since I hate making vertical button bands and sewing them on afterwards.

It was very boring knitting and mostly sat around in the cabinet while I worked on more exciting projects. (On that note, please excuse the wall of text — I never though to take photos of the work in progress, since nothing interesting happened.) Then, somewhere around this time, I got a call from the yarn shop in the nearby city. “Your order of Jamieson’s DK has arrived!” What? I thought it wasn’t possible to order it? It turned out there was a misunderstanding and they hadn’t cancelled my order, just put it on “pending” until whatever regulations were changed. Well, you can never have too much yarn, I guess…

Back to the cardigan… It seemed fine while knitting, but it was hard to check for fit, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the wool, although pleasantly lightweight, seemed to stretch more and more width-wise the longer the body got. The real problem came with the yoke. Because of the weird set-in-sleeve-plus-stranded-yoke construction, the stranded work starts a few inches in from the shoulder seam. The seam is unavoidably a bit bulky (DK wool…) and the way the stranded work starts resulted in a weird tension difference that made the shoulder seam stand out in an ugly way and also made the sleeves “balloon” at the top for an almost Victorian leg-o-mutton look. Not a good look for me! Not at all! Also, the stranded part is too long and the neckline very high, making the shoulders too wide. And the rest of the fit wasn’t good either — it continued to stretch width-wise and even having made a smaller size, it was all just huge and baggy. Even the sleeves were too long. To top it all off, in spite of making the button bands along with the body, I didn’t get the spacing right. (I did find nice buttons, at least.)

I tried blocking it into shape, but there was only so much that that could accomplish, and now I don’t really know what to do with it. I thought about removing the sleeves and re-positioning the shoulder seam as one would with a sewn garment, and just cutting down the sides and sewing side-seams, then getting rid of the excess fabric. That would be pretty brutal, and also a lot of work, and I don’t like machine-sewing and cutting hand-knitted garments. I thought about giving it to a friend who has wider shoulders and a larger size than me. I thought about wearing it in the winter and just living with the oversized style, even though it is not my style. I made a matching tam while I was contemplating all of this, and even the tam turned out too big. I considered putting the tam through the washing machine and/or dryer to see what happened (would it felt too much, or just get smaller) and if successful, doing the same with the cardigan.

As of this post, I have still not decided what to do, but if it fits my friend, I think I will give it to her and knit myself another version from the Jamieson’s wool. Perhaps with pink instead of rust for the contrast yoke colour, and not following the pattern, but just making it in a size that fits me the way I want it to fit, and with a traditional round yoke. We’ll see! I do still love the design.

September 1967: Overview

It’s time for a “Fashion Switch” over at Stitchcraft! 1967 is the year where knitted dresses really start to feature, and as far as I can tell, the “switch” part means you can either make a dress or a skirt combo and mix and match. The cover designs fit in well with the trend: high necks, short skirts, deep raglan armholes, A-line shaping and big patch pockets. Note, too, the huge hats — they will only get bigger in the months to come.

The centrefold photo shows a slinky variation on the theme with a dress and/or skirt combo featuring a pretty beaded and textured design. Like the chevron dress from April 1967, the designs pick up some elements of 1920s and 30s fashion, while keeping a distinctly late-60s shape.

Other women’s knits include a bouclet blouse for the fuller figure with a very neat and pretty “soft-roll” neckline, a casually elegant afternoon suit with cable trims, a striped skirt combo in “colour brilliance” (tangerine and violet!), and a “Golden Glow” bright yellow pullover.

“Colour brilliance” applies to men’s fashions too, for once, and this green and yellow slip-stitch cardigan is a masterpiece. The model looks a bit like a colleague of mine — should I knit it for him? The other men’s garment, a chunky but streamlined pullover, echoes some of the design features of the women’s “fashion switch” combos. like the big patch pocket and contrasting-pattern sleeves. The photo is black-and-white, but the suggested colour is “Curry”, which I assume will be some kind of dark gold-brown-orange (so 60s). For children, there are two nice, sturdy, basic raglan pullovers in a more classic colour scheme — dark charcoal with red trim for the boy’s and “Cloud-dust Pink” with “Aztec Gold” trim for the girl’s.

There are some fun homewares for all styles and abilities, starting with some very easy sewn and embroidered aprons with whimsical kitchen designs. I’m not interested in the aprons, but I love the top that the “teatime” model is wearing! You can make a tapestry panel of an Irish homestead in Rosguill, Donegal or a cushion or chair-back in a gorgeous traditional-inspired design updated “for a modern setting”. Both are done in tapestry wool on furnishing linen.

It’s not too early to start on little gifts for Christmas, and here’s a little bag “for a friend” and a knitted tortoise toy “for a toddler.” Baby gets a thick, squishy pram cover in fluffy “Ariel” wool and a raised cable trellis design.

Or you can make a Florentine-pattern workbag or cushion for yourself. The colours — gold, green, and yellow — will match nicely with a lot of the knitted designs from this month.

In the “Readers Pages”, we finall have a new comic: Sue and Samuel Squirrel run the Woodland Wool Shop. Their adventures start when Sue finds a loose thread of yarn in the woods and winds it up — only to find that she has unraveled an elephant’s vest and needs to knit it all up again! Poor Sue. The only full-page advert is for Bri-Nylon. I imagine the dress in the photo is quite hot and impractical, especially if knitted in synthetic nylon wool, but what a lovely photo.

That’s it for this month! There are so many great projects that it’s hard to choose, especially since the ones that call to me are all big projects and I just finished the chevron dress from April 1967. I love the orange cover dress and the men’s slip-stitch cardigan, particularly, as well as the fancy embroidery design, which I think would look lovely going around the hem of a full black skirt. Or maybe even the Florentine needlepoint? I don’t have much time in September to knit, though, and even less to adapt an embroidery or tapestry pattern. We’ll see!

Out of Order: Chevron Dress from April 1967

EDIT: Now with photos!

The April 1967 issue of Stitchcraft had many great designs in it and my favourite was this pink and purple chevron-striped dress on the front cover. And since the August 1967 issue didn’t have any projects that particularly inspired me, I worked on the chevron dress all summer and got it finished just in time for the August blog.

The “easy-line dress is fashion styling for all age groups” and claims to be in “the 30’s Look” — interesting, considering that dresses in the actual 1930s were still much longer, of course, and this dress, while not a mini-dress, falls at least a little bit above the knee. Also, this dress has a typical mid-60s A-line shape and not the typical long and willowy 1930’s silhouette. But the chevron pattern was very popular in the 1930s, as was the dropped waist and the flowy shape.

The pattern is written for plain Patons Beeehive 4-ply (fingering-weight) wool, but I decided to use sock yarn for easier washing and wearing. DROPS Fabel is easy to knit with, inexpensive, and available in a huge range of colours, including an almost-perfect match for the original “Wine” (purple) and “Radiant” (pink). I decided to make it a little bit shorter than in the pattern (third size should be 37 inches), as I expected it would stretch with weight and wearing. That was my only modification.

The shaping is mostly done in the chevron pattern itself — it starts off at the hem with 5 stitches in between the zig-zag increases and decreases, then reduces at intervals to only 2 stitches between at the waist. All further increases and decreases to the bust and after the armhole point are done by increasing and decreasing at the edges. (Contrary to my usual modifications, I knit the dress flat in pieces for more stability, as called for in the pattern.) The sleeves are made entirely in the 2-stitch chevron pattern. There are small knitted-in pockets with flaps on the right side. All the edgings, including the V neck, are made with folded-over and sewn-down stocking-stitch hems.

The chevron pattern makes the fabric quite nubbly, so it wasn’t clear exactly how long the dress would be before blocking. I was afraid I might have made it a little too short (I took 3 inches off the pattern length by adjusting the spacing between skirt decreases) because it fell quite a bit above the knee before blocking and the proportions seemed off. Also, the sleeves were a bit shorter than “bracelet” length and a bit tight at the hem. Blocking smoothed it out well, though — maybe even a bit too well! I didn’t pin it or anything, just hand-washed and laid it out flat as I usually do, and it is now actually 37 inches long and the sleeves are long sleeves. The fit in width is fine.

I’m guessing it stretched so much because the wool is superwash. The only solution I have ever found for the problem of superwash-stretch is to put the garment in the dryer (maybe a nice reader of this blog has a less dangerous idea?) I didn’t dare to do it with this dress at the very first blocking after putting so much work into it and being so happy with the final result, but I might cautiously try it next time I wash it. I’m happy with the fit the way it is, but it would look snappier and more authentic if it were just a bit shorter and if the sleeves were truly bracelet length.

As always, we had fun with the photos! I don’t know how the models were able to twist their backs up so severely and still look relaxed and pretty.

August 1967: Overview

“The LAST of the SUN” is the headline of the introductory page of Stitchcraft’s August 1967 issue, and there is no blurb about the latest fashions or designs: just the subtitle “fashion for late holidays and the first smoky days.” (That the first cooler days of the year were called “smoky” is presumably meant quite literally, seeing that a good portion of family homes in the UK were still heated with coal fires in 1967.) The late-summer fashions in this issue are warmer, but still sunny and colourful, with layered and mid-weight garments that can be worn indoors or out.

Case in point: the cover design, a twin-set of sleeveless “shell” and lightweight cardigan with elbow sleeves in cheerful, sunny yellow and blue. Note how short skirts have gotten! I think this might be the first Stitchcraft cover photo that features a true miniskirt. My copy of this issue was clearly used — according to the handwritten notes on the cover, the previous owner was interested in the crochet runner, the felt panel, the knitted tea cosy, egg cosies, and bed socks on page 16, and the handbag on page 17.

The other women’s fashions include a lacy top in larger sizes (to fit 42/44/46 inch bust), a two-colour shirtdress in a slip-stitch pattern, two short-sleeved knitted jumpers, and a heavier saddle-shoulder cardigan to work as a jacket on those cooler days. With the exception of the larger-sizes jumper in pastel “Camelia” pink, bold colours prevail: yellow, pink, red, or blue tones. (The saddle-shoulder cardigan is navy blue with white.) There are more colour photos in this issue than in previous issues.

A micro-trend for contrasting yokes that encompass the sleeves and the upper bust area can be seen in both the “Fuzzy-Wuzzy” (that is the name of the wool, an angora blend) jumper for adult women and the little girl’s way-too-short-to-actually-play-in tunic dress featuring a smocked effect made by dropping an extra-long stitch and then picking it up a few rows later and a few stitches over. It is designed to be made in the very 1960s colours of “Spark Gold” with “French Mustard” and white. Men are unusually well served in this month’s issue with both an “Autumn Stroller” V-neck pullover with cable panel and a “rugged for the outdoor life” racing-stripe pullover “designed for slim chaps”. Here as well, late-60s brown and gold tones are on trend.

Housewares are either quite complex or easy enough to dash off quickly for a church bazaar or quick gift. On the more complicated and difficult side, there’s a large wall panel made in felt appliqué, designed after the “Children of Other Lands” serial comic that winds up in this month’s issue. Like the comics, the wall panel is sweet and well-meant (and well-designed from a technical standpoint) and the fictional children are not portrayed negatively in any way, but of course their depictions and their comic stories draw very, very heavily on outdated stereotypes. The previous owner of my copy of this issue seemd to be a fan and presumably made the wall panel: she cut out the extra photo of the finished panel from another page in the magazine and pinned a small page with additional instructions into the first page of the pattern. I’m guessing the additional instructions came with the embroidery transfer, which readers had to send away for by post.

There’s an ambitious stitched rug in a very modern pattern, and a crocheted table runner (also on the list that the previous owner wanted to make) that looks quite intricate to me.

The cutwork chair set and breakfast tray set with Celtic-inspired design elements seem to be of average difficulty. Finally, there are quick and easy cosies and a crocheted handbag that promise to be “easy knitters” and “top sellers” at your next church or charity bazaar.

That’s all for this issue! I have to admit that there is nothing in it that particularly inspires me, so I will use this month to hopefully finish up the spectacular chevron-striped dress from April 1967 and the “Fair Isle Country Cardigan” from January 1967. I should be prepared for any kind of late-summer weather then.

July 1967: Baby Talk

My project from the July 1967 issue of Stitchcraft was the “matinee jacket” from this jacket-and-dress set for a baby.

I had some nice Slow Wool Lino (sadly discontinued but alive and well in my stash drawer) that worked well for it — fine and soft, all-natural and machine-washable. I was a bit ambivalent about making baby clothes in such a drab shade of greyish-brown, but I hear that parents these days prefer neutral colours for babies? It will certainly match with everything.

The tension is supposedly 9 3/4 stitches to an inch over pattern (!) which is supposed to correspond to 7 sts/inch in plain stocking-stitch. I can get 7 sts/inch in stocking-stitch with Slow Wool Lino but the stitch pattern stretches. It is not difficult in itself — basically an eyelet rib on a reversed stocking-stitch background — but was unusually tricky to work increases and decreases in, even though it keeps the same number of stitches in each row, and it was clear that the tension would be completely off even before blocking, so I reduced the number of stitches.

I was so frustrated with the comparatively easy decreases on the “skirt” part and increases on the sleeves (which also ballooned out in an annoying way) that I decided to make the yoke in plain stocking-stitch, similar to the dress from the same pattern. I considered making a round neck like on the dress, or possibly embroidering the yoke afterwards with some little flowers in a contrasting colour to offset the drabness of the brown.

After consulting with the good people on the All Things Vintage forum on Ravelry, I kept the v neck, and when it was done, I didn’t think embroidery was necessary. I had already decided to add a couple of buttonholes at waist/armhole level instead of the unpractical ribbon tie from the pattern, and I found some little white fabric-covered buttons (possibly vintage? maybe just look like it?) in the button box, which perked up the colour with a bit of contrast and looked very sweet and old-fashioned. Here are some photos from before and during blocking:

I was not so impressed by this pattern and ended up making a lot of changes. But the finished product is soft, warm, practical, will match with everything, can be worn in all seasons and will “grow along with” a baby, so I think everyone, including the baby, will be quite pleased with this gift. The recipient is a colleague whose baby should arrive in November, so it was finished well on time for that, as well as on time for the blog. So all in all, a satisfactory project.

In other July 1967 news, I still want to make this dress from the same issue and even bought wool for it! If I ever make it through the “naughty pile” of WIPs, I might be able to start it sometime…

July 1967: Overview

Welcome to Summer! Is it hot where you live? It is supposed to be 35 degrees C today here and I already feel like a delicate wilting flower. Luckily, Stitchcraft‘s July 1967 issue brings us “Colour for Holidays” “in a gay easy-going mood with simple designs that are pretty and young looking, in lively colours to mix and match as you choose.” Here we go!

Our cover photo shows two “Little Sweaters for Holidays”: a mock-cable-and-lace jumper in synthetic “Nylox” yarn and a striped-and-ribbed “shell” in lightweight “Purple Heather” wool. Stripes are big in this issue, either via typical colour bands or the use of stitch pattern elements to create vertical lines. The dress on the inside cover uses coloured stripes in a dramatic way, with bold horizontal bands of red, gold and orange, while the thick “Capstan” wool jacket uses narrow bobble and cable panels to create a textured vertical-stripe effect. Horizontal colour stripes are contrasted with plain-knit sleeves or body on the shell and cardigan twin-set. Finally, rib panels and colour accents highlight the narrow silhouette of a zipped cardigan “for the extra slim.”

The men’s cardigan “in Classic Mood” is quite plain, but the “Viennese design” saddle-shoulder sweater incorporates some of the fun design elements that we see in the women’s garments: narrow rib panels to create vertical lines and plaid stripes for a splash of colour. The colours, by the way, are “French Mustard” with charcoal grey and white in the plaid stripes. (All in all, there are more colour photos in the 1967 issues than previous ones where only the covers and possibly the centrefold were in colour, but of course many designs are still only photographed in black and white.)

There’s a cute matinee set of dress and jacket for a baby and a cardigan for little girls with a slip-stitch colour pattern on the yoke. Of course, the little girl is pictured playing with her doll indoors, whilst the boy model gets to “play it rough in a shetland cardigan” out of doors (though the photo was obviously taken in the studio…) At least he’s not wearing a shirt and tie, only a turtle-neck shirt and a warm-knit cabled cardigan — which he might well have needed to stay warm on the day of the photo shoot, since according to the daily weather reports of the UK Meteorological Office, it was probably quite cold for summer, assuming the photo was taken in June!

The homeware projects are fun, with an impressive embroidered wall panel inspired by Chinese designs and a tapestry design adaptable for either a little pincushion or a church kneeler.

Adaptabiity is a key feature of the children’s homeware designs as well: the playful kittens or picture of “Mary, Mary” making her garden grow can be stitched into a rug, stitched as a picture or a panel on a toddler’s pinafore, or, in Mary’s case, worked as a little decorative picture in filet crochet.

The Readers Pages don’t disappoint, with a simple pattern for a crocheted belt and ads for a book of handmade tie patterns, crochet “snowflake” designs, and crochet for brides. The 70s are on the horizon! The children’s comic continues the “Children of Other Lands” series, which is cute and well-meant but of course, heavily stereotyped and not the right tone for the twenty-first century. The full-page ads feature Patons Brilliante yarn and another ad for that fabulous sewing maching that folds down into its own chest of drawers.

That’s it! My July project will be the jacket from the baby set. Stay cool!

June 1967: Daisy Motif Peg Bag

My project from the June 1967 issue of Stitchcraft was a “peg bag” adorned with simple embroidery.

“What is a peg bag?”, some of those who dry their laundry on a rack indoors or in an electric dryer may ask. As you can probably tell from the photo, it is a bag to hold laundry pegs a.k.a. clothespins so that they are close at hand while you are hanging up your clean laundry on a line to dry. The design from this issue had a folded-over top into which you insert a wooden coat hanger to hang it up while you work, as well as a matching apron for maximum laundry-hanging style which I didn’t make this time, but will keep in mind for later.

The base fabric is supposed to be orange or gold coloured — I used leftover dark grey from last month’s “crab” cushion. It is supposed to be lined with gingham — I used leftover green fine corduroy from last month’s “fish” cushion. The only thing I had to buy was more embroidery thread — I had enough white and black, but not enough yellow or green.

Not having a transfer as usual, I just drew the daisy on a piece of paper freehand and copied it onto the fabric with carbon transfer paper. For the chevron-and-loop-stitch borders, I drew two parallel lines with V’s in between for the chevrons. The embroidery was not quite as simple as the design would lead you to believe. The white outlines of the daisies are done in couching stitch — laying down a thread and tacking it down with tiny stitches along its length. Easy in theory, but tricky in practice. In retropsect, I could have glued down the outline threads with water-soluble glue before couching them, to make them stay in place better. (Do any of you do this?)

The yellow centers are also couched, or actually woven — you put down slightly loose satin stitches in one direction and weave cross-threads through in the other direction. It gives a marvelous texture, but I was working with 6 strands and the cross-threads were prone to either split or skip over the ones they were supposed to be weaving through. The outline around the centers is black chain-stitch and the leaves and stems are satin and chain-stitch — except that I didn’t read carefully enough and did the stems in stem stitch. Also, I think two different shades of green got mixed up in my green thread stash? But it gives a nice subtle shading effect. The borders are chevron stitch with loop stitches.

The difficult part of this project was the construction, particularly the lining. I had to rip out the top-pocket seam more than once and re-position it to make all the right and wrong sides come out correctly. When I finally got it right, the lining did not stay in perfectly smoothly, but i will live with it. Also, the corduroy-ish fabric is not really a good lining choice, as it picks up every tiny bit of fuzz floating around while also producing its own. The colour is good, though!

I inserted an old-fashioned wooden coat hanger and noticed that the lining “caught” on one side, so did some more adjustments until it fit better. Voilà. It looks better in real life — the camera makes weird shadow patterns. My only complaint, besides my inability to sew straight lines, is that the finished bag is quite big — how many pegs / pins are you really going to put in it? But it can also be useful for hanging in the hallway / coat rack area to hold gloves, accessories, cat toys or whatever.

I have both an electric dryer and a drying rack, but no outside space to hang up laundry, so I will give this bag to someone who has a garden with a clothesline. The intended recipient also wears hats and fingerless gloves and has two cats, so the bag will find a use in any case.

Not the most exciting project I have ever made, but fun, cute and useful.

June 1967: Overview

“Knit for the SUN” is the theme of the June 1967 issue of Stitchcraft, and our cover model gives us the best example of that in her striped and sunny yellow outfit.

“Stripes and Colour” show up in different ways in this issue, combined with stitch patterns and stranded colourwork for novelty and texture. The pullover on the cover has normal stocking-stitch stripes on the front and back and a novel mini-cable pattern on the sleeves which mixes the four-row colour repetition with a two-stitch cable every four stitches on every fourth row, alternating left- and right- leaning cables for a zigzag effect. Another short-sleeved pullover has striped ribbing, but a plain body and sleeves. The “feathery lace” dress has vertical stripes implied by the ribbed lace pattern combined with plain horizontal colour stripes that look scalloped due to the stitch pattern. Love those sunglasses, too! And a sleeveless shell uses a slip-stitch pattern to make stripes with toothy ridges.

Fun stripes show up on the children’s garments too. There are shirts for boys with the same striped ribbing and collar, plain body and sleeves idea as the women’s top, and a dress for older girls with a stripe of colourwork flowers at the hem. “Junior” girls can “splash and paddle” (i.e. not really swim effectively) in a supposedly stretch-proof knitted bikini in vertical stripe stranded work — the strands should keep it from stretching too much horizontally in the water, but I’m not sure I’m convinced. The top is just two rectangles sewn together.

Stripes can be vertical or zig-zagged as well — either worked in colour as with the top on the cover, or in monochromatic stitch patterns. There are his-n-hers pullovers “knit to match” in a pattern similar to the sleeves on the cover design, but worked with 2-stitch twists instead of mini-cables, and a sleeveless polo in “Shetland mood” with a cable pattern on the front. (The caption says, “Janet sports her own jaunty beret, but Booklet 9775 is an easy one to knit — details on page 37.”) The two remaining garment designs, a cardigan and a blazer, have neither stripes nor zig-zags, but continue the theme of fun stitch patterns and this month’s trending colour of bright sky blue.

Homewares dive deeply into the Jacobean era, with an amazing wall panel that integrates complicated, historically-inspired stitch work and floral designs with a bold and oversized 60s aesthetic. Not Jacobean-inspired, but equally colourful and exotic, is the cross-stitch tropical bird. You can work it on a cushion or use it to cover a cake tin (appropriately, the name of the background colour is Biscuit.) For a real historical flair, you can make a cross-stitch wall panel adapted from a brass rubbing of Sir John Harsick, anno 1384, in Southacre, Norfolk. According to Stitchcraft, embroidery in the style of a brass rubbing “has become very popular over the last few years.” Interesting!

For an easier project, you can embroider sea-horses on a beach bag and matching deck-chair cushion (love the little aspirational illustration.) Or you can sew up a practical, and also cute and sunny, laundry-peg bag and matching apron and embroider them with big, cheerful daisies — “quick and gay to work on kitchen linens or for a bazaar.”

The Readers Pages reprint a striped knitted rug from the September 1964 issue, and the single full-page ad gives us another example of brilliant, yet meaningless, 1960s advertising copywriting and exceptionally 1960s colour combinations: the “Sunflower” Orlon-nylon jersey ensembles is available in olive/cyclamen, olive/burnt orange, midnight/avocado or burgundy/cherry. (A midnight avocado with olives, cherry and a nice Burgundy doesn’t sound half bad, if you took care not to burn the orange.)

I am tempted to make the brass-rubbing embroidery just for the weirdness of it, but realistically, my project will be the daisy-embroidered peg bag and apron. Have a sunny June!

May 1967: Fish and Crab Cushions

Ahoy! It’s springtime at the Stitchcraft Sixties and what could be more appropriate than some accessories for the garden? I don’t have a garden, or even a balcony, but I do love appliqué and these May 1967 designs with “modern shapes in brilliant colours of felt on crash” that “make practical and gay deckchair cushions.”

The shapes are a fish and a crab, and the “brilliant colours” unfortunately don’t show up in the black-and-white photo. The fish is turquoise, dark green and lime green felt on lime-coloured “crash” (heavy burlap-type linen) and the crab is orange, magenta and light coral on light grey crash. Both use black fabric for the backing. I used the colours from the pattern with the fish on a somewhat more lightweight almost-corduroy cotton, and the crab on a darker grey heavy upholstery/decorating cotton. For the backing, I used upcycled jeans in light blue (fish) and dark blue (crab), and I lined both cushions with upcycled shower curtain to better damp-proof them in the northern European summer.

The shapes were suprisingly difficult to trace and cut out without a transfer — hard to get the fish pieces to line up perfectly, and the seemingly random-shaped crab leg segments to come together properly. I drew the fish outline on the backing-fabric paper pattern, then cut out the entire fish as a paper pattern based on that, then cut out the segments.

I love that some of the pieces on both cushions were cut out with pinking shears, but then I forgot to do it and had to buy more fabric and cut all the pinked pieces on the fish out again. Sigh.

The actual appliqué was very fast and easy. In the pattern, it says to do it on the machine, which of course would have been even faster, but I like working by hand. I used a small running stitch instead of and over-edge whipstitch, which I would normally use.

I flat-lined the finished appliqué and back pieces with the shower curtain material (I did use the machine for that) and made them up into cushion covers with zippers — not specified in the pattern, but I wanted the cushion covers to be removable for washing.

The finished size was about 17.5 x 14.5 inches, as in the pattern, which is about 45 x 37 cm. I didn’t want to make up cushions, so I bought two 45 x 45 cm ready-made cushions, which adapted themselves to the rectangular shape well enough.

It was an easy, fun project and I absolutely love the bright, 1960s colours and friendly, cartoon-like “modern” shapes. I also like sea animals, so perfect. Sadly, I have nowhere to put them and so cannot keep them for myself, but will give them away to friends for birthdays and/or housewarming gifts. Then I can visit the friends and the cushions.

Hope your Spring is going swimmingly!

Excursion: Short Skirts Serial Story (1929)

Remember this project from a couple of years ago, which I made in conjunction with a 1920s serial story posted on the All Things Vintage forum on Ravelry? Short recap: one of the group’s wonderful moderators transcribes serial stories from early twentieth-century newspapers into a dedicated forum thread, one chapter a day, and she and the readers comment and discuss it and add everything from fashion photos to other newspaper headlines to silent film links for historical and cultural perspective (and fun, obviously.)

Well, the current story is… drum roll, please… the 1929 novelette “Short Skirts” by Rob Eden (the pen name of the husband-and-wife duo of Eve and Robert Ferdinand Burkhardt.) It recounts the thrilling adventures of Sue Allan, who crashes Daddy’s car in the first chapter, gets both arrested and disinherited, and spends the night in jail. There, she makes the acquaintance of Nell Bannister, a girl who has been around the block many more times than sweet, innocent Sue and takes her under her wing.

It’s thrilling, it’s exciting — and it enjoyed an incredible promotional campaign by the newspaper, including an essay-writing contest:

a “find-the heroine-on-the-real-life-street” contest (I really hope no women were actually “captured”):

and my favourite, a theme song written especially for the story and performed live in a moving DeSoto motor-car by singing twins Laverne and Lorene Cady, accompnying themselves on ukeleles:

The sheet music to the song was printed in the newspaper too, so you could cut it out and “Try it on Your Piano”:

Of course, I had to sing it! Here’s a little living-room recording, featuring the wonderful Willy Schwarz on the accordion:

What does any of this have to do with Stitchcraft, the 1960s, or knitting, you ask? The answers: 1) nothing, 2) the 1960s were also a decade of short skirts, and 3) I’m knitting a shorter version of a retro-1930s chevron-pattern dress from the 1967 issue of Stitchcraft for both this blog and the accompanying All Things Vintage “Short Skirts” knit-along. That will have its own blog post, so this post is just a fun excursion. If you’re on Ravelry, definitely check out the All Things Vintage forum and the “Short Skirts” serial, and say hi to me (onkelscotty) if you’re there! Many thanks to lavs on Ravelry for posting this story, and giving me the sheet music, and for all the promotional photos and extra information.

May 1967: Overview

Ahoy! It’s May 1967 here at the Stitchcraft Sixties, where “Cruise Mates feature the fashion for Crepe”, and we are “Holiday Bound.”

What fashions come to mind when you think of spring and summer holidays? Light and lacy tops? Airy dresses? Halter tops and swimsuits? If so, you obviously don’t live in a Northern European maritime climate. Stitchcraft knows what British “cruise mates” need on their summer holidays: multiple layers of thick, damp-repellent wool! Our cover ensemble of nautical blazer and striped “shell” top to go underneath will keep even the foggiest cruise mates warm, dry and fashionable. The double-breasted blazer (“from Paris”, which is not particularly near any large body of water, and also quite a bit warmer than coastal areas, just saying) is made in Totem Cameo DK wool with metal buttons, knitting piping trim and big patch pockets. The sleeveless top is made in the finer version of the same wool, Cameo Crepe. The “crepe twist” (tightly worsted-spun) in the wool makes for smooth, even knitting and good wearablility. You can cover it all up with a gigantic traveling coat made in thick, undyed “Capstan” wool.

Onshore fashions include a sleeveless mini-dress in DK-weight wool (“perfect for holidays”), a short-sleeved jumper in a cables-and-lace pattern, two more sleeveless “shells” for warmer days or layering, and a “classic sporty sweater” in a simple, but effective striped slip-stitch rib pattern. The light green “shell” has a slip-stitch pattern, too, and horizontal texture lines appear more subtly in the easy ridge pattern on the yoke of the dress.

It’s a good issue for menswear too, with a lightweight slipover in a reversible (!) textured pattern. I thought the stitch pattern would be some sort of fisherman’s rib, but it is is utterly simple: knit 1 row, then k1b, p1 for one row. It looks like fairly normal 1×1 ribbing from the “right side” and a sort of starry waffleboard pattern from the “wrong side”. How lovely to never have to worry about putting something on inside-out! The “Continental pullover”, on the other hand, is too wide and the cables on the lower half give a strange “skirted” effect. Perhaps they knitted the wrong size, or should have put it on a larger-bellied model.

There are some wonderful garments for children of various ages in this issue, starting with a comfortable bobble-trimmed top for a school-age girl and a warm sweater for a boy (make sure he’s wearing a proper shirt and tie to go under it while sailing his wooden boats at the beach.) Here too, the stitch pattern looks more complicated than it is: k1, p3 for one row, then p1, k3 back makes a interesting offset rib with minimal effort. Little kids can “paddle and splash” in a tunic, t-shirt top and/or shorts for beach wear. The horizontal stripes are knitted in and the vertical stripes are crocheted on later with chain-stitch. A note in the tunic pattern says, “We have allowed 1-inch extra in length on back and front of dress as chain-stitching tends to contract the work.” Smart!

Rouding out this excellent issue are some wonderful homeware designs, starting with a set of garden cushions in a seaside “fish” and “crab” design. Love the use of pinking shears to illustrate the fish’s scales and the crab’s pincers! Way back in the “Readers Pages” is another, versatile appliqué design, this time with crocheted flowers instead of felt cut-outs.

For cross-stitch enthusiasts, there’s a coffee-tray set with matching deep-pocketed apron, or a tea cosy featuring wool stitching on tapestry canvas. Beginning rugmakers can make an easy runner in chain and soumak stitch.

The most magnificent design, though, is this Chippendale-inspired rug and piano-stool set, rightly featured in full colour over the two centrefold pages. The stool cover is worked in tapestry using tapisserie wool in trammed tent stitch and the 36×62 inch rug is worked in cross-stitch in Turkey Rug Wool.

Even the ads are great in this issue! The model wearing Patons Fiona is happy rain or shine and look at those amazing swimsuits from the Scotch Wool Shop! I would wear either of them today. And don’t you love the Singer sewing machine that can be folded down into its own practical storage cabinet when not in use? Did any of you have one of these? I think it’s brilliant and would have loved to have one.

My projects from this issue will be the garden cushions and the crochet appliqué on a useful-for-whatever little bag. I somehow have lived my entire adult life without a garden or even a balcony, but I know people who have those things and would love to have a fun cushion as a gift.

Happy Spring!

April 1967: Check pattern Shell

EDIT May 26, 2025: Finished! I had to wait for the photos but it was worth it. Scroll down to see…

My April 2025 project was this “shell” (sleeveless top) in a stranded chequerboard pattern — one of three “summer shell” patterns in the April 1967 issue of Stitchcraft, along with a polo-neck bouclet and a crochet lacework design. (And shells. Listening to shells, because shell, get it? Yes, we got it, thanks.)

The wool in the pattern is Patons Cameo Crepe, a very smooth, twisted fingering-weight wool. I chose Lana Grossa Ecopuno, which I used for this “shaded blouse” and this sleeveless cardigan a couple of years ago. Though not as smooth as a crepe-twist yarn, it’s soft, light and not too warm, and available in many very pretty colours. I chose a dark green and pale, slightly seafoam-tinged blue, similar to the original colours but with more contrast.

The tension in the pattern is 8 stitches to the inch in pattern, which I can’t get even with fine yarn, so I made the smallest size (for 32-33 inch bust) to fit me (38 inch bust) and calculated that it would come out with around 36 inches in the bust, i.e. two inches of negative ease instead of the 1-2 inches of positive ease in the pattern. I hear you out there saying “Never, ever knit a stranded pattern with negative ease!!!” but it can and should sometimes be done! The yarn is loose and drapey, even in a non-diagonal stranded pattern like this one, and even two inches of negative ease doesn’t look the least bit tight.

Which brings us to the shaping question: all three “shells” in the issue show the new longline silhouette — hipbone length and unshaped from hem to bust. If you look closely at the photos, you will notice that the poses often involve a hand on the back waist, a hand on the back, arm behind the back, elbow pointing at waist level… the things you do to make you look like you have a waist in your long, unshaped garment! I never make unshaped tops for precisely this reason — they look like a sack on me, as they tend to do on all but the skinniest or curviest figures. Having had good experiences with longer tops shaped from hip to bust, I started the top with even fewer stitches at the hip and increased up to the number in the small pattern size after the waist. I also made the top in the round from hem to armhole shapings.

To test the check pattern, I made a little phone cosy in a different wool (DK weight), Since the pattern has no diagonal lines, I was afraid it would pull together awkwardly . That was a concern with the DK sample, so I was very careful to strand loosely with the Ecopuno (another reason for sizing down) and had no problems. I did, however, make a mistake in the pattern, to be fixed with duplicate stitch because I’m too lazy to rip back that far.

It went wonderfully up until the front part above the armholes, where in spite of my careful calculations, I ran out of the light blue yarn. No problem, I had bought it at my local wool shop right in my neighbourhood, so popped over to buy another ball… But no! The shop is changing management and has been selling off all the inventory before the first of May! They still had some Ecopuno, but not in the right colour, so I had to order more online. Argh!

The new wool arrived and I finished the top easily enough. Of course, the new wool was a different dye lot and the one time it makes a difference… and it was on the front piece, too. The change line got less noticeable after blocking and letting dry. Also, the pattern tricks the eye into not seeing it.

My knit-night friends and I recreated the magazine photos. Here’s the black-and-white one:

And here is the magnum opus, where one knitting colleague photoshopped me into the original photos. Is it me, or is it the model?

I am very, very happy with this project — and the photos!

April 1967: Overview

“Spring into Summer” with the April 1967 issue of Stitchcraft — one of my favourites. According to “editress” Patience Horne, the latest fashion trends include longer-bodied “skinny” sweaters (i.e. slightly less bulky than the previous oversized look), “still figure-fitting” (they aren’t, though) and “belts with everything” (none of the models in the photos are wearing belts.) Make what you will of that. “Fashion is very dashing — still young and gay in ideas — but slanted to a feminine look — pretty and flattering.” In other words, whatever you want it to be! Colours are definitely bright and fun, with interesting textured stitch patterns and colourwork.

Our cover design picks up the trend for the retro-1930s look which will really take off around 1970 (could Stitchcraft actually be fashion-forward?) in bright, 1967 shades of pink and purple. The brilliantly orange pullover on the inside cover has an intriguing “pineapple” pattern. The summer “shells” (sleeveless tops) strike a nice balance between bold colour and crochet-lace patterning and more subtle, neutral bouclet. Love how they’re listening to shells in the photos! (Though sadly, the crochet model looks like she’s getting bad news.) Rounding out the adult women’s fashions is an understated and elegant fine-knit crepe blouse for larger sizes.

This issue has some great designs for school-aged children, starting with this “outdoor cardigan for rough-and-tumble wear” for a girl. Who is wearing leggings! That cover her legs and which she can actually move around in without flashing the neighbourhood! Finally! The model looks like she’s about to have a great time, too. Our more feminine model sports a pretty panelled pullover that looks like a buttoned-up cardigan. It’s just as practical as the more rustic design, but with elegant details. Her little sister gets a tunic top with a striped yoke and cuffs.

Oversized garments in neutral colours and vertical cablework patterns are still on trend for men’s fashions, represented here with a V-neck pullover in cable-and-rib pattern and a “country cardigan” in undyed “Capstan” wool with a crunchy Aran pattern on the fronts only.

It wouldn’t be Stitchcraft without “Bazaar items”, and the ones in this issue are actually really cool. There’s a knitted nightcase that looks like a fluffy duck thanks to a loop-stitch pattern that is then brushed with a teasle brush to felt and fluff it up. The knitted doily is quite intricate and the “Dutch girl” tea cosy (holding a cluster of felted tulips!) is amazing.

The regular homewares are also more creative than usual. Check out this embroidered “tropical fish” wall panel! (In non-tropical 1967 colours of brown, rust, and burnt orange.) I love it. The fantasy-animal theme continues with a tablecloth and/or table mats and/or cushion in Assisi design. The Victorian stool or cushion ribbon design is quite normal in comparison.

The back pages have the usual ads another nice one from the Scotch Wool shop, but not as dramatic as in the previous issues. in the “Children of other Lands” serial comic, Fifi the French girl takes a baguette home under her arm, only to have it eaten by birds on the way home. I told you this wasn’t the best comic of the Stitchcraft collection… Then there’s a nice extra pattern for a crocheted collar and cuffs in “bell” pattern to perk up your plain dresses.

I’ll be making two larger projects from this issue — the cover dress and the check-patterned “shell”. Neither of them will get done in April, but I’ll post something and update it with progress. Happy Spring!

March Excursion: Snow Daisies

Welcome to Spring! Is it snowing where you live? The March 1967 issue of Stitchcraft had some nice designs, but nothing that was fast, easy or practical enough for my knitting life at the moment, so for this month’s post I’ll write about a cardigan I finished in mid-February: the Snow Daisies cardigan from the Spool Cotton Company’s issue No. 189: “Women’s Sweaters: America at Work and Play” from 1942. The booklet with all the patterns is available for free here.

The “Snow Daisies” cardigan is touted as a “heavy cardigan for outdoors”. Knitted somewhat oversized (esp. for 1940s sweater standards) in thick wool, it has “plenty of room for a sweater underneath.” What you don’t see in the magazine photo is the fact that not only the sleeves, but also the back is made in 2×2 ribbing. This was an excellent design feature on many “sport” garments from the first half of the 20th century, allowing for generous movement without extra fabric to flop around and get in the way of your golf swing or ski poles or whatever. The front is made in reverse stocking-stitch with an open cable on each side, and decorated with embroidered daisy flowers. It’s a nod to all the “Bavarian”, “Tyrolean”, “Alpine” etc. traditional southern German and Austrian styles, though of course an American pattern from 1942 doesn’t use those words as I imagine they did not want the association.

I made my version in Hjertegarn New Life, a very interesting recycled wool — if I understood correctly, it’s reclaimed from older knitted items. Mine was 65% recycled wool and 35% recycled “other” fibres (synthetic, I guess?). It felt like strong, nice wool, tough but not too scratchy.

My tension was a little larger than the pattern and I wanted the cardigan to not fit too loosely, so I adjusted the stitch counts. The sleeves were fine, though the ribbing didn’t pull in as much as I thought it should. I guess that comes from wool that is only 2/3 actual wool and 1/3 mysterious “other”? So I made the back even narrower than I had calculated. It was too narrow. I made extra panels on the sides to make up for it. On the front, I placed the cables slightly differently to couter-balance having fewer stitches. I forgot to do one extra cable twist in the center twist part, but if you can’t see it in the photo, I won’t tell you where it is. The daisies were easy to embroider on.

I was not so happy with the final result. The overall look is quite square — the ribbed shoulders add bulk in an area where I am plenty wide enough. Worse, the ribbing just doesn’t pull in at all — it expands horizontally, especially after washing and with wearing, as ribbing is not supposed to do. I took out the extra side panels, which helped a little. I’m just not happy with the wool, though. It’s too bulky and not springy enough. Also, the button band is “wavy”, though I think that might be a design feature, since it looks like that in the photo, too?

(Not having any winter sports gear, here I am posing with a croquet mallet and ball…)

I’ll see what I can do with it, but I might end up giving it away.

March 1967: Overview

The March 1967 issue of Stitchcraft promises us „new fashion looks for Spring knitting“. March weather being notably unpredictable, there are warm, bulky knits for colder days (or to wear as sporty outerwear) and finer knits for Spring. The former are mostly made in „Big Ben“ to knit up quickly and warmly, but slightly less bulky in shape than before, the latter in smooth crepe wool with or without glittery accents. The „skinny“ „mini“ jumper makes an appearance as an alternative to the bulky look for young folks, and the crochet look in knitwear is still trending.

Our cover duo sports (heh) matching bulky V-necks in Big Ben wool, knitting up quickly at 3 1/2 stitches per inch. The cable panels down the front give it a little bit of vertical line to counteract the bulk. The cable-and-V-neck combination show up in a slightly less heavy-knit casual cardigan for larger sizes. The „Sweater with flower trims“ on the inside cover looks bulky, but is merely oversized and actually knitted in fine Cameo Crepe at 8 stitches to an inch. The flowers are made with intarsia with crocheted motif centres sewn on and the buttons are covered in fabric knitted from the same wool as the sweater — a cute extra touch. The crochet look in knitting continues with a high-buttoned cardigan in a sort of arrowhead-shaped slip-stitch pattern. It too is knitted in fine crepe wool, but looks bulky due to the oversized design and three-dimensional stitch pattern.

Teenage girls can knit themselves a „Little Shetland“ cardigan or pullover with an easy stranded pattern at the yoke or hem, or a fine-knit „skinny rib top“ which would be just as much in fashion nowadays as then. Whatever the girl behind the skinny rib top model is wearing is not part of this issue and will remain a mystery.

Finally, there‘s a glamourous sleeveless cocktail dress with matching jacket. The lacy pattern panels get a little extra glitz from knitting with the base wool (Cameo Crepe) and Lurex thread held together.

There are so many women‘s fashions in this issue that there apparently wasn‘t much room for men‘s or kid‘s designs. What there is is great, though: a three-piece baby set for spring outings in the pram and a hard-wearing cabled Aran pullover for a school-age boy.

The homewares in this issue are less interesting than usual and feature versatile designs that can be adapted to different furnishing needs: a woven design for a rug or cushion, grapes and leaves to embroider on an apron, mats or cushion, etc. Ambitious crafters could make an entire set for a room that way.

There‘s a cute breakfast set for a child‘s Easter morning and a crocheted mat for the adult‘s afternoon coffee table. Really ambitious embroideresses could make an elaborate and very pretty flowered tablecloth.

There‘s a new comic series in the Readers Pages which is cute and well-meant, but also fairly eyeroll-y for modern sensibilities: „Children of Other Lands“, featuring well-trodden clichés about cultural practices etc. in non-British countries. This month features Jan, a Dutch boy whose wooden shoes get stolen by mice, who use them as a boat on the canal. You get the idea. The ad for the Scotch Wool shop manages to be at least as much fun without any stereotypes.

That‘s all for this issue! I don‘t know what to make. I love the cocktail dress combo, but the ratio of time and effort in making / actual use I would get out of it doesn‘t add up. The larger-sizes cardigan is practical and nice, but I have multiple larger projects on the needles and don‘t want to start a warm cardigan in Spring. I might make another project from the January 1967 (the Fair Isle cardigan! Finally bought the wool for it!) or February 1967 (Lacy knee socks!) issue instead, or start ahead on the April project (chevron striped dress.) I promise to get something done sometime. Happy Spring!

February 1967: Crochet-Knit Cardigan

EDIT March 18, 2025: Finished!

The February 1967 issue of Stitchcraft picked up the trend for knitted work that looks crocheted with a “mini-cardigan” featured on the back cover. Interestingly, it bucks the other, longer-lived trend for oversized and shapeless garments, being more close-fitting and just above hip length. (Though more on that later…) The construction of the cardigan is quite basic, with no shaping in the body (the pattern makes it conform to shape nicely… though more on that later) and a plain, high neck. The edgings are actually crocheted.

It’s designed to be made in Patons Totem Double Crepe, a very smooth, worsted-spun 100% wool that shows the pattern well. A merino wool or something like Lana Grossa Cool Wool would have be the most appropriate modern equivalent. but I was still trying to reduce my stash and I had 200 grams of Drops Lima that I could add to that and hopefully buy just the right amount to use everything up. Lima is less smooth than it “should” be for this cardigan, since it’s 35% alpaca, but it’s spun tightly enough and anyway, I like it and it works. The color is more “loden” green than it appears in my photos. For some reason it doesn’t photograph very well — I’m guessing that the three-dimensionality of the stitch pattern messes up the automatic light sensors.

The pattern is sort of based on 2×2 rib, overlaid with twisted stitches and double yarn-overs to give a trellis effect. It was also very slow to knit, with twisted stitches on both RS and WS rows and a fairly large number of stitches per row, as it pulls together quite a lot. The fabric it makes is both stretchy and clingy, and quite warm in a thermal-blanket type of way, as well as being very heavy. I calculated it out from the Totem DK yarn weight and started with 600 grams. That started to look like it wouldn’t be enough at all, and I was on tour and hadn’t packed all of the wool, so I bought another 150 grams while on the road. That was, of course, more than necessary and now I have almost 150 grams extra. So much for destashing!

Apropos pattern, here it is:

  • Tw2L = k into back of 2nd st, then front of 1st st, slip off tog
  • Tw2R = k into front of 2nd st, then front of 1st st, slip off tog
  • Tw2M = p into front of 2nd st, then front of 1st st, slip off tog
  • Row 1: p2, *k2, p2*
  • Row 2: k2, *p2, k2*
  • Row 3: p2, *Tw2L , p2*
  • Row 4: as Row 2
  • Row 5: p1, *k2tog, bring wool forward to front of work, wrn, sl1-k1-psso*, k1
  • Row 6: k1, p1, *(k1, ktbl) into the two new loops, Tw2M* to last 4 sts, (k1, ktbl) into the two new loops, p1, k1
  • Row 7: p1, *Tw2L, Tw2R*, p1
  • Row 8: as Row 4

For whatever reason, I couln’t make Row 6 work the way it was supposed to. There were two “extra” loops from the yarn-overs in Row 5, but the way they lay on the needles made it impossible to knit the first and then ktbl the second. I tried making the yarn-overs in the other direction on Row 5 and that didn’t work either. What did work was k1tbl, k1 on Row 6. I’m guessing the designer held her needles differently or did the yo / wrn from another direction.

After the ribbing (on 3.5 mm needles), it is supposed to be knit on 4.5 mm needles. I started with 4 mm needles, since I didn’t want to yarn to stretch out too much. That seemed too tight, so I switched to 4.5 mm needles after a couple of inches on both the sleeves and the body. I finished the sleeves at the end of February and the rest on the long tour with many plane and train rides, making the back and fronts in one piece.

Somewhere near the end of the fronts, I re-read the pattern and realised that I had been knitting it wrong all along! After one pattern repeat, you are supposed to repeat rows 3-8. I repeated the whole pattern, rows 1-8. So my stitch pattern was slightly elongated vertically. It honestly didn’t look much different from the pattern close-up photo in the magazine, though.

The jacket seemed to be knitting up a bit larger than I wanted, but I couldn’t try it on properly until it was finished. It was a little bigger and floppier than I wanted (so heavy!) but the pattern would make it pull in tighter… right? right? No! I made the (crocheted) borders nice and tight in the hopes they would rein it in… not enough. After blocking, it just ballooned in all directions and ended up too big for me — I don’t like the “oversized” look. I decided to sell it or give it to a good home, and luckily a fellow knitter from my knitting group liked it and bought it from me.

Sadly, this project was more frustrating and less successful than I wanted. The sizing did not work out, the wool was too heavy, I made the stitch pattern wrong… there were just too many problems. On the up side, I love the pattern and the colour, the wool is warm and soft and cosy, and I even found incredible buttons that match the colour and style perfectly. Most importantly, my knitting friend is happy to have the cardigan, so I guess “all’s well that ends well.”