1945 Top Honours jumper: 1. introduction

As promised, here is the next WW2 jumper project. I'd like to show you that there are a lot of free online resources for knitting patterns, so this one is not from the AWW like the Phillipa was.
This jumper pattern was published in a 'Charm' knitting booklet. I spotted it online and liked the simple but decorative yoke pattern. Actually, I don't know if this pattern is really from 1945 but by the end of the war patterns often had names referring to  the victory. Also the hairstyle of the models and the smaller shoulder lines suggest this was a pattern from the end of the WW2 years. Think of the Phillipa jumper: the 1940's started with significantly wider shoulder lines and puffy sleeves supported by quite large shoulder pads.

choosing a pattern for the yarn
The yarn I choose is a fingering-weight merino yarn: 'Drops Baby Merino' turquoise which I also used for the Lace gloves.
I mail ordered this yarn and it turned out to be quite bright. First I planned to make a lace patterned jumper but I thought this bold color wouldn't really suit a sweet and delicate looking pattern. I decided that the bright teal needed another color to tone it down a bit. I choose a dark grey shade of the same yarn: left turquoise (color 32) right dark gray (color nr 20):


Now I only needed a two colored jumper pattern. First I was thinking of making thin stripes in combination with a plain yoke, but then I found this 'Top honours' jumper pattern on the internet. Smaller puff in the sleeves and again a simple but decorative yoke pattern.

did you know that...
often, we don't realize how much old color pictures fade! Don't be fooled, according the pattern description the original colors were navy and light blue though the original pictures faded to some kind of greyish-khaki and cream.

Below I Photoshopped the picture and enchanced colors. This is how the original picture must look like. Much better, right?


A mental note: always read a pattern description carefully instead of jumping right into it. Since I had enough of the bright teal I decided to use that as the main color and anthracite grey instead of the light blue.

In the detailed Phillipa series I discussed a lot of the essential steps on how to knit successfully from a vintage pattern. In the next few posts more on the pattern-specific decisions and how to 'mould' a pattern to make the finished garment fit perfectly. In other words, let's put to the test what I've learned when knitting the Phillipa!