Progress

I have all the seaming done on the green cardigan, just have to knit the bands. I had a hard time finding buttons for this color, but eventually found a shell type button that picks up the color of whatever it is placed on. This yarn is Caron Simply Soft, which is a nice soft yarn that will work well for a girl who likes to throw everything into the washer and dryer, and it is very affordable. The total cost for this sweater, including the buttons, will be about $10.

I went to the library yesterday and got a few videos or DVDs, so I am going to watch movies and work on the bands today.

I got all the parts knit for the fuchsia pink sweater and ended up putting two thin cables down each front. It is the same general shape of the green cardigan, but the neckline is a little higher. The neckline for the green cardigan started at the same height as the armhole bindoffs.

My stash busting is progressing nicely, but suffered a setback yesterday when I came home with 4 big balls of yarn in a lovely yellow color.

Fuchsia Pink

I have done the back and two sleeves, and I am trying to decide what kind of fronts to do. Plain sweater? Cabled fronts? Crew neck? Decisions, decisions. I am listening to Under Orders, a Dick Francis book, while knitting. I take the sleeves off on knitting needles, visible in the picture, and cast off loosely by hand. This gives me a nice flexible top for seaming. I set the sleeves in with the Japanese method of crocheting a seam. I find that this makes a smooth, attractive seam. I often split the yarn for this so that the seam is less bulky.

I am a little behind in the finishing. I now have two sweaters waiting for seaming and bands, the Fiesta pullover, and the green, lace-panel cardigan. I also have about a bushel of apples waiting to be turned into applesauce, but I am not feeling the apple-peeling vibe. And the peaches are getting ready to be ripe. The older daughter got home from her trip to Disneyland and immediately went into the back room to see if her green sweater was done, but she was doomed to disappointment. Maybe in a week or two.

Retro Knit Saturday!

I knit the green sweater in two days of morning knitting. The back and one front were done on one day, and the other front and two sleeves the next day. Now I have to put them together and do the bands by hand. Meanwhile, I have been planning the next cardigan, this time in fuchsia pink. As you can see, I have knit the ribbing and made the yarn cakes. The green sweater is for M, but the pink will be for me.

Yesterday I went to a local thrift shop and found these old knitting pamphlets. Most are from the sixties, but one is from the fifties.

I love the Bernat Handicrafter booklets and have quite a few of them. Some of them have pictures of other volumes on the back cover, so I keep looking for the ones I don't have yet. This one is Book No. 41 from 1954. It has "Jumbo Knits for The Family".

The cover shows a version of the boxy jacket popular in the fifties. The most popular version has turn back cuffs on elbow length sleeves, but this version has longer sleeves with standard ribbed cuff. It is knit at 3 sts/inch with a bulky weight yarn.

I particularly like this shrug, and may make one for my younger daughter. It is knit in knitting worsted weight on size 10 needles at 4 sts/inch. The little girl version is cute, too.

This jacket has 3/4-length sleeves and two colors of bulky yarn knit at 3 sts/inch. The pockets are real pockets, not just for show, and there are no buttons.

Two more classy jackets, one short and boxy and both with cuffs, and one in a pattern stitch. Both are knit of the bulky yarn, Bernat Cuddlespun at 3 sts/inch.

Today is much cooler, so I am planning to listen to a murder mystery and knit on the fuchsia pink sweater. M is off to Disneyland with friends, and joked about seeing the green sweater all finished when she returns in a few days, but this is not going to happen. It will be months before it is cool enough to wear anyway, unless she goes into the City, which is famously cold during the summer.

Back at the Knitting Machine

On my first day back at the machine, I planned out a new cardigan for M, seen in the sketch. It will have lace panels on the fronts, deep 'U' neckline in front, and 3/4 length sleeves. I was able to knit the back and one front before we had to go off to the 4th of July BBQ at the brother-in-law's place way out in west county.

These next two days are supposed to be hot hot hot, so I will only be knitting in the morning before the heat gathers strength.

Here is the second front started on the machine. I like to listen to books-on-tape while I knit.

Tuesday, my sister came over and brought the used knitting machine I had gotten for her. She and her husband had been unable to get it to knit, but we oiled it and fixed a bent needle latch, and then it knit like a charm. It is an Elna Standard. I will soon have introduced both sisters and one daughter to machine knitting.

Retro Knit Friday!

This booklet does not have a date on it, but I'd have to say that it is from the early to mid sixties with no sign of mod fashions at all. Almost all of these sweaters are knit at worsted weight or sport weight, the day of the fine gauge having waned. The cover sweaters are classic in style with high crew necklines.



Though the cardigan body of this sweater is nice, the neckline has one of the silliest looking collar treatments I have ever seen on a serious sweater. The ends of the collar ties are just too narrow.




These sweaters are classic early sixties collegiate-type sweaters knit with a sport weight yarn at about 6 sts/inch.













Here are two placket-front sweaters done in sport weight.
The white sweater has a ribbed collar and placket and an attractive cable pattern. The sleeves look like 3/4 sleeves, but since the pattern says to knit 17 inches to start of sleeve cap, I would say that the model just pushed them up. The blue sweater has a wide collar on a V neckline and true 3/4 sleeves.

I think these sweaters were also offered in kit form, since I sort of remember seeing them in an ad in an old magazine. I like the green cardigan with its skirt out of dyed-to-match wool fabric. Some companies at that time offered yardage for sale that matched the yarns. In the early sixties, the straight skirt was very popular. I only wore one once in junior high, and forgot the skirt was so restrictive, but I remembered rapidly when I tried to kick something and ended up throwing myself to the ground.
These evening sweaters are fun, especially the off-the-shoulder model. Fashion blinds you to realities only apparent in hindsight, especially regarding hairdos. The bouffant with the little flip on the off-the-shoulder girl is just funny. I remember the girls ratting (back combing) their hair then smoothing out the top, and the urban legends of the time about girls who found spiders living in their seldom-combed-out hair haystacks.

Here is the progress I have made on the sherbet socks. They should be done in a day or two.

Last night, M and I went to a class at the local yarn shop, Fash-ion Knit, given by Joan McGowan-Michael. I thought the class was very worthwhile. She covered measuring yourself, and fitting knits, and discussed short rows as a help in fitting garments. I enjoyed the class very much, and M got her new book autographed.

Retro Knit Friday!

Now we enter the era of knitting without TV, since widespread TV ownership was still in the future in 1938. The silhouette was long and lean during this decade, but in this late 30's booklet we see the beginning of the 40's shoulders. The instructions for the cover dress, like all the other garments in the booklet, only has Size 16, so the knitter had to adapt the instructions to her own size. A lot of these patterns had a very dressmakerly look to them, like this dress with puffed sleeves and collar. It is knit at 8 sts/inch with a dress yarn called 'Chantilly'.

This dress has a 'soft neckline' made by alternating double moss stitch with increases, then stockinette, then decreases, and repeated to make a ruched looking band.

The ribbed dress has a placket and sleeves bordered by picot, and a very interesting yoke. The decreases are kept in line so the ribbing forms a sunburst pattern. The description says that the dress is "cleverly designed to make you look pounds thinner" and that it is a fast knit. Though at 8 sts/inch, I don't see how that is possible.


The ribbed detail on the bodice of this two-piece dress forms an attractive pattern that leads the eye to the face. It has sleeves with tucks on the top and a small collar. Look at how the gores are highlighted by ribbed detail.


This syle is called "the new silhouette" with banding on the bodice and gathers under the bust. It is knit at 7 sts/inch of a nubbly dress yarn called "Miralaine". The skirt has mock gores formed by purl stitches. The V-neck and sleeve cuffs are faced, and the sleeves have tucks at the top.










The top of this two-piece dress is very interesting. It is knit up to the top yoke, then the patterned yoke is formed by short rows in a stockinette, reverse stockinette pattern. The skirt is a ribbed, mock pleated design.



Here's another dress with the "new silhouette". It has puffed sleeves, flared skirt, gathers at the bust, and a nubbly texture. She is wearing a seashell necklace and bracelet

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning cutting up apricots and making two batches of jam. Now my jam making is done, though I am still swimming in plums. I was proud of my opportunism yesterday when we were out front picking apricots and some hapless dude with various piercings walked by listening to his I-Pod. I asked him if he wanted some plums, and though surprised at being addressed, he agreed, so I brought out a whole grocery bag full. His eyes about popped out of his head, but he took them with many thanks. He had to reverse his course and carry them back home, yelling his thanks down the sidewalk, but I was so glad to have gotten rid of some of them.

Pink Sock

I thought that this sock would go swiftly, being plain and all, but it is just trudging along. This is Lorna's Laces, Sherbet (color), and for some reason, I am having a hard time maintaining a consistent tension on the yarn, and it keeps twisting up on itself. The color is muy yummy, however.

I asked the oldest daughter to send me a few sketches for sweater designs that I could use to adapt the 3/4 sleeve sweater. Here are some of her ideas using both the raglan version and the set-in-sleeve version. I especially like 'C' with a decorative border on sleeves and hem and a deep 'U' neckline.

I am supposed to be resting my injured hand this week, so not much hand knitting going on, but on the plus side, the weather cooled off a mite and the fruit trees are ripening fast. A and I may make several batches of plum jam and apricot jam for her to take off to her new apartment. This tree has several different fruits grafted onto the same trunk, and has never before in its long life had so much fruit on it. I don't know what is so different about this year, but I am glad.