Tag: mock-cable

September 1996: Cover Cardigan

EDIT October 22, 2024: Finished!

My September project was the cardigan from the twin-set in “crepe look” featured on the cover of the September 1966 issue of Stitchcraft.

The original version is made in Patons 101 Courtelle Double Crepe, a “new” (in 1966) 100% synthetic yarn. I prefer real wool and chose Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 120, a smooth, tightly-plied merino that gives the “crepe look” very nicely. It seems to be a bit thicker that the Patons 101 Courtelle — the wool is supposed to have a tension of 5.5 stitches to the inch on (old UK) number 8 needles (4mm / US 6) and I got 5.25 stitches to the inch. I didn’t want to use a smaller needle, as the 4mm needles felt right for the wool and gave a good texture, so I made the smallest size (35-36 inch bust) instead of the otherwise-correct second size (37-38 inch bust) in the longest length (22.5 inches from shoulder).

I started with the sleeves, which I prefer to do in order to 1) check how size, tension and fit are going and 2) get the boring part out of the way first. The sleeves are made in plain stocking-stitch and I made them in the round to work faster and avoid seams. The sleeve length from underarm is supposed to be 16 inches for all sizes and judging from the photos, hits at about “bracelet length” i.e. not quite long to the wrist. I prefer long sleeves to go all the way to the wrist, but I have also made sleeves longer than required and had them turn out too long after blocking, or because the underarm depth was larger than expected. These finished sleeves fit before blocking just above the wrist at the expected underarm depth, and there was enough width to adjust if necessary.

The body of the cardigan features an interesting twisted-stitch pattern both on the fronts and back between hem ribbing and low waist, and at the top of the yoke.

The pattern is

  • 1st row (RS): p3, *k3, p3* to end
  • 2nd row: k3, *p3, k3* to end
  • 3rd row: *p3, take wool to back, sl1 knitways, k next 2 sts tog without taking them off the needle, then k 1st of those sts, slip off needle and pass sl st over 2 rem sts*, rpt to last 3 sts, p3
  • 4th row: *k3, p1, pick up horizontal loop below next st and purl it [i.e. m1 in the lower horizontal “bar”], p1* rpt to last 3 sts, k3
  • 5th row: K
  • 6th row: P

The twist rows are much easier to do than the description makes it sound. When you see the stitches on the needle, it’s quite clear. The background makes horizontal bands of rib and stocking-stitch and the overall effect is pleasantly squishy and nubbly.

After seven patterns, you switch to stocking-stitch, and that is where I found myself as of September 27, 2024, when I first wrote this post. I made the fronts and back in one piece and had a few long train trips since then, so it went quickly enough.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough yarn of the right colour in the store when I bought it, so I had to order more and of course, the new balls of yarn were from a different dye lot. I hardly ever have a problem with that, as many brands have very consistent dye lots, but of course the one time it’s a problem, it’s a problem! The new yarn had a much yellower-browner tinge than the old. I planned ahead to make the ribbing and collar in the new yarn and hoped to have enough of the old to make the complete body and sleeves minus ribbing. That actually worked, after unraveling the original swatch, and I had only a tiny little ball of the old yarn left over.

The ribbing and collar are mostly made separately, picking up stitches on the back neck for the back collar part only. The ribbing is knitted in vertical bands and sewn on, the collar horizontally and then you sew them together “with a very neat seam”. Hahahaha well, I did my best. The back collar has a couple of short rows at the end, to give it a nice roll. I added facing bands to the ribbing to help it keep its shape, and found some nice matching buttons.

(N.B. The real colour is more like the photo on the upper left. My computer and I are not good at colour correction).

The finished cardigan fit OK after blocking, just a little stiff and scrunchy. It stretched way out with blocking. The yarn is not labeled “superwash”, but it says on the band that it can be washed in the machine at 40 degrees C, so I’m guessing it is superwash-treated and they just didn’t say so. It certainly behaves like superwash in its stretchiness. I actually liked it better when it was a little stiff, but as it is 100% wool, it will always shrink a little with subsequent washings. And it is nice and soft, I’ll give it that!

The finished fit was fine. I prefer more fitted clothes, but that’s not the 60s style. The colour is beautiful — hard to reproduce in a photo, but a nice woodsy green. It will match many dresses in my closet. And the two-tone effect from the different dye lots worked out fine — I mean, you definitely see that the colours are different, but it looks deliberate. The sleeve length was just a little bit on the long side, but that will change with subsequent washings, I am sure, and I can always fold the cuff back. So all in all, I am quite happy with this project.

As always, we tried to reproduce the photos… with neither a real park by daylight, nor a dog. I think I nailed that sultry look from the black-and-white photo, though!

That’s all for this project! Time to start the October one…

October 1964: Totem Dress

EDIT November 20, 2022: Finished!

My October project was this fantastic “slim-line dress to flatter your figure”, designed in “a classic style with Aran panels and fancy rib yoke to give the fashionable textured look.” It’s written for Patons “Totem” Double Knitting, a very smooth, tightly plied crepe-twist wool suitable for the mock-cable pattern panels running up and down the dress body and sleeves.

Not having any Patons Totem on hand (of course, it has been discontinued for some time), I chose Drops Karisma, an easy-knit, easy-care DK wool. It’s also superwash — I don’t generally like superwash as it tends to stretch and sag after washing, but the advantage of not having to hand-wash a knee-length, DK-weight knitted dress won out. I chose to make it in brilliant grass green instead of “Spanish Rose” (medium pink, I assume), which is still quite appropriate for this month’s issue — it’s very close to the bright green of the men’s cardigan in the colour centrefold photo.

I made it in the second size with a few alterations: four inches shorter, to start. The finished length in the pattern is 40 inches, or just past knee-length, but this is a heavy garment and I am sure it will sag with wearing and washing. Also, I prefer skirts to be a bit shorter, so I aimed for 36 inches total length. To speed up the knitting, I made the dress in the round, with 3 stitches of ribbing at each side to make a stabilising “seam.” There’s a hem at the bottom edge, to which I added a purl-on-the-RS folding row. I wasn’t sure about the elbow-length sleeves and thought about making them long, but decided to stick with the pattern. (Ideally, I would have knitted them from the top down and just made them as long as I wanted, but the twisted-stitch pattern doesn’t really work upside down.)

Other than that, I stuck to the pattern. The pattern panels (2 on each of back and front, one on each sleeve) have traveling stitches in the middle, flanked by twisted stitches (k into the back of the second stitch, then the front of the 1st stitch on needle, then take both stitches off the needle together.) You are supposed to make the traveling stitches by twisting them as well:

Tw.2R = knit into front of 2nd st. on left needle, then purl into front of 1st st. and slip both stitches off needle together.

Tw.2.L = purl into back of 2nd st. on left needle, then knit into front of 1st st. and slip both stitches off needle together.

I could not make that work! I tried and tried. The stitch on the right side was usually twisted the wrong way, and the stitch on the left sat correctly, but was stretched out. I thought it might help to hold the wool in my right hand, “English” style (I generally knit “Continental” style with wool in the left hand and “pick up” the thread), but that was awkward and didn’t help. I tried ye olde “cable without a needle” trick where you basically drop the yarn and just hold it in your fingers, which worked but was no fun. Finally, I just used a cable needle, which was faster and neater. If anyone can tell my what was going wrong with the directions from the pattern, I’d be happy to hear it, though.

The knitting went quite quickly and by October 29 (date of this first post), I had finished the back and front, and one sleeve up to the sleeve-cap shaping. The total length before blocking was 34 inches, which, if my swatch is any indication, will stretch out to the desired 36 inches (and if not, that’s fine too.) The “fancy rib yoke”, by the way, is a simple rib/welt pattern: p1 row, k1 row, then k1, p1 for two rows. It makes a very pleasing, stretchy waffle effect.

I painstakingly calculated out the total amount of wool I would need, based on the yardage of the original Totem wool (from Ravelry, I didn’t have any of the real thing) and the meterage of the Drops Karisma, converting yards to metres and ounces to grams. Were my calculations successful?? We will see! Supposedly I will need about 730 grams, and I only bought 800, because I like to live dangerously. EDIT: The finished dress used exactly 737 grams of wool. Am I good at math or what?

I finished the dress mid-November, but had to travel for work right afterwards, so didn’t get around to blocking and photographing it until a week or two later. Finished measurements after blocking were about 37 inches bust, 32 inches waist, 40 inches hip and 34 inches long — perfect. The hem falls just above the knee and if it stretches a bit, that’s fine too. The wool is superwash, so I could always dry it in the dryer to make it snap back into shape.

I made a little belt out of green cord and pleather cord with baubles on the ends, to match the belt in the photos. We didn’t quite get the same poses as in the magazine, but we had fun.

The dress is warm and soft and fits perfectly. It is fun to wear and it is bright green. What more could I want? It’s glorious.