EDIT September 6, 2026: Still not finished!

First of all, please check out the finished project and edited post with the pink bikini from June 1968! We took the most amazing photos and it is a one-of-a-kind vintage knit.

My project from the July 1968 issue of Stitchcraft was less spectacular: the jumper from this “Paris inspired” set (jumper and skirt, I didn’t knit the skirt) in pink, white and navy blue stripes. Guess I’m in a pink phase?

The original pattern calls for Patons Cameo Crepe, a smooth, tightly twisted fine 100% wool. I wanted to make it in cotton for summer, but ran into the usual problem: it is really, really difficult to find fine, soft cotton yarn for knitting. I can buy heavy dishcloth cotton, or thread-thin crochet cotton, or shiny-hard mercerised cotton, or various mixes of cotton with wool, linen, synthetic, etc. I chose the last option and took a chance on Tynn Line from Sandnes Garn, a mix of 53% cotton, 33% viscose, and 14% linen. I realised after getting home from the wool festival where I bought it, that I had forgotten to buy the light pink colour! For that, I dipped into my stash of vintage Rot-Tulpe cotton, the only fine cotton yarn I have ever found.

The yarn is wonderfully lightweight and soft, with a silky drape thanks to the viscose, and doesn’t seem to stretch as much horizontally as I feared. Still, I made the top two sizes smaller and added a few stitches of 1×1 rib at each side “seam” (knitted in the round for speed and ease).

It was and is a long and boring knit with fine, splitty yarn on 3 mm needles in endless stocking-stitch and the striped band is miles away. Not surprisingly, as of the end of July, I had only completed the bottom ribbing and a few inches of the body.

Then I went to a wool festival, talked to the lovely seller at a stand selling Tynn Line and was inspired to re-make the top using the yarn double. That seemed to give it a better “hang” and of course, went much faster. I also bought some light pink Tynn Line, so as not to have to use the cotton, AND decided to make it from the top down, to use up the yarn efficiently.

Converting the pattern to top-down was not easy, since it has a compound raglan yoke. Also, i did most of the yoke during a long airplane flight. I guess that explains why I got the sleeve increases completely wrong, increasing every four rounds when I should have been increasing every other round and vice versa. I made it work somehow, but in the process got lost in the directions. It ended up being very wide at the sleeve-body split.

As of September 6, I am wondering if I should frog it and start over from the bottom up (with doubled yarn), finish it as is, or let it sit in the cabinet until next summer.