1940 Valerie jumper - finished!

You might notice that I made these pics a while ago, in a session with my other jumpers. What I love about this jumper the most, is the fit! 

• It fits snugly, but not too tight
• the length is just perfect
• the placing of the shoulder line  is right
• I find the 3/4 sleeves very flattering
• besides that I'm charmed by the overall pattern and the tabs which add interest.

material & sizing:
I normally wear size small, the amount of yarn I used is 380g
This is just 20g short of 8 skeins of drops baby merino yarn, color 'electric blue'. Since the yarn was on sale I payed 2.60 euro for a skein instead of 3.60. This makes the total costs about 20 euros. Not bad!



For other posts of my Valerie jumper-series click here:

• introduction
• the not-so-easy tabs 
• the bodice 

Although I modified my version for a better fit below is the original pattern if you want to make it for yourself.




the original pattern:

1940 Valerie jumper - the (not so easy) tabs

Wel, I didn't expected the tabs being the hardest part of this project!
I've finished and ripped out the first one twice and had it right for the third try! Two mistakes I made: counting too much and calculating too little. I thought that the amount of stitches to cast on (96 sts) were way too many, so at first try I casted on way too few stitches. The second try I still didn't believe the original stitchcount could be right, but did it anyway. Sigh...thought so.
Below the third version with 74 stitches which worked perfect for me!
After assembling (left) and after steaming from the wrong side (right):
   

The finished tabs, after blocking - looking great!




One more to show you that (before blocking) my Valerie is slightly less wide than my Top Honors jumper:

1940 Valerie jumper - bodice, up to the armholes!

Just a quick catch-up before the weekend on the Valerie jumper:


Knitting in round this is what the sides look like. I increased by make ones, picking up and knitting the loop of the previous row. (more details on how to do this under the tab 'knitting hints'.


At the end of skein 3 (at about armhole height). I really love the 'dense'  structure and the 3-dimensional effect of the diamond pattern:




The front neckline, slightly altered. I widened it a bit but kept the shape which is somewehere between a V and a U




finished front:

Jumper plans spring 2014

I have already made plans for knitting a few new jumpers!
Moving a bit backwards in time, to the late 30's I choose the 3 patterns above. The 3 jumpers above have their individual challenges to me and all of them need to be resized a bit as well. Of course, I'm not planning to frog and re-knit them like I did on the Victory, so there are no lace stitches this time! Nice, solid knits with geometric patterns, mainly constructed with basic knit/purl stitches for an easy calculation of the gauge.

1. valerie
This pattern appeared in an 1940's AWW. Though it is a 1940 model we know that the AWW used mostly imported patterns which were released overseas earlier. I love the tabs and the all-over pattern which make this jumper special and very 30's. Actually, I already started knitting this one in 2013, but sewing up the pieces and the finishing took more than a month. In te meantime the Knit for Victory challenge started and I just didn't got round to share the finished jumper. Mine has 3/4 sleeves and is knit in a bright, electric blue color. I ordered the yarn (drops baby merino as always) when it was on sale. A short series of the knitting process will follow shortly.

• my challenge: to achieve the right fit and calculate 3/4 sleeves

2. trellis jumper
This is a Lincoln Mills booklet pattern, which is another free pattern from the internet. There is no exact dating possible, but looking at the hairstyle, the small shoulder pads and the button detail it must be released somewhere in the late 30's or very early 40's (though in the early 40's the shoulders 'grew' quickly bigger, like my Philippa's)
Again, the pattern looks rather simple, but very decorative, containing a small cable pattern in the yoke and sleeves. Most vintage patterns include some amount of increase along the torso to achieve a slight V-shape. This pattern instructs to increase in the last row of ribbing to the definitive amount of stitches at once. That way the visual lines of the vertical cables won't be disturbed.
I'm going to use the same drops baby merino yarn in bright blue-ish red, which I also used in my Victory jumper (yarn ordered when it was on sale)

• my challenge: cable pattern

3. easy stitches jumper
Guess what, another free pattern from the net! The main pattern of the bodice of this one looks similar to the trellis jumper, but the spacing between the vertical lines is filled up with moss-stitch here. Also, the jumper has a rounded yoke which is knitted in the round for the front and the back, including the top of the sleeves. raglan style sleeves. This will be a new challenge to knit! Interesting detail: the pattern instructs to cast on more stitches for the front than for the back. The color is going to be medium or light gray drops yarn which I yet have to order. I might try another quality of yarn to avoid too much calculations in the round yoke area. The drops cotton merino yarn is slightly heavier than the baby merino I use and is available in a pretty light-green color which I like very much!

• my challenge: to knit the yoke in round with the right fit

Similar patterns

source image

I came across this 1943 Stitchcraft cover today. The pattern used here is very similar to the Top Honors jumper pattern. There are probably more stitches in between the slip-stitch sections, but otherwise it is the same.
Knit in the Italian (or Hungarian) tricolor it would look very cheerful for spring!

1945 Top Honors jumper - proper pics at last!

I've realized that somehow I missed out on making proper pics of my finished Top Honors jumper (which is one of my favorites to wear right now!) So here they are! You find the project posts here.




Here is one more picture of the finished closure of the back neckline:

1945 Victory jumper - 5. the victory is close

The victory is close!!! Yesterday was a rather unproductive day. In a hurry I made a huge mistake when decreasing the armholes. Knitted a huge piece with decreasing at both ends of the back while I should have decreased only at the beginning of every row. The evening was again about frogging and re-knitting...sigh...

my armhole shaping
(already used 3 times and works perfect for me)
- cast off 6 sts at the beginning of the next 2 rows
- decrease 1 st at the beginning of each of the following 10 rows

My planning was to finish the bodice yesterday and start knitting the neckband today. But again...I don't give up! Luckily have 2 days off from work, so I should have enough time to finish the back today, block the pieces and knit the neckband. The original pattern instructs to do this in two parts, one for the front and one for the back but I'm going to stitch up the shoulder seams and pick up the stitches all around like I did with my Top Honors jumper. The neckband is going to be a bit wider this time. I like the neckline of this second version of my Victory better, though I did a partly 'freehand' decrease to shape it. The jumper must be ready by friday midnight If everything goes well I only need to set in the sleeves tomorrow and make pics of my finished project.

1945 Victory jumper - 1. an abandoned knitting project

You might have spotted By Gum, By Golly's 'Knit for Victory' banner in the side-bar. It seems like I've started this 40's challenge knitting project ages ago (somewhere in november 2013) but after a rather enthusiastic start I begun to doubt wether I liked the results...
It is another free jumper pattern from the internet, from the collection of the Victoria & Albert museum and there are quite a few gorgeous jumpers out there, made from this pattern. It looks so flattering on everybody, I just had to make one for myself!
   

I thought this 1945 jumper named 'Victory' would be perfect as my 'Knit for Victory' project! Back then (seemingly) I had plenty of time, so I thought I could easily finish it by the end of january. I choose to use the original 'national' colors: navy, red and white. I've ordered the wool (my fav: drops baby merino) a few months ago when it was on sale: 30 (navy)blue, 16 red, 02 natural


As usual, I started with my trusted 'blueprint'  pattern. Why would you change something that works? I thought that I would knit the lace pattern more loosely, normally I have that with repeated yarn-overs, so instead of a size 3.5 I started with a metric 3 needle. Of course, I didn't make a swatch and of course, the lacy pattern wanted desperately shrink in width, rather than stretching out...

By the time I started to realize I was going from zero ease to a negative ease I was too far progressed and almost finished the front and the back (knitted in round as always) And then...I just didn't know what to do and have put the jumper away. For quite a while...

And now, with only 2 weeks left I pulled it out to decide on it's faith. Frogging or finishing? When you observe the original picture you can clearly see that the lace pattern is supposed to be steamed open  (how could I missed that?!) so I decided to steam block the piece. Then I tried it on and it didn't look bad at all! Of course, it didn't look exactly the way like my Top Honours jumper looked like, it was just different. This might be the problem after all: the fit is just not the same.
Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but in my imagination it was supposed to look exactly the same, right? Have you ever had the same problem? The garment you were making appeared to be different from the garment you thought you were making?...
Let's hope I manage to finish my Victory jumper in the next 2 weeks!

Want to join this 1940's challenge?

Well, there is still enough time to join the 1940's 'Knitting for Victory' project, if you are planning to make something small! I'd recommend a few patterns from my blog, listed under 'free knitting patterns', going from easy to more difficult:

- 1940 pleated scarf

- 1943 servicewomen gloves

- 1942 lacy gloves

Top Honours jumper reveal!

edit: 
I finally managed to take proper pic of my finished jumper.
You can find them HERE.
total amount of yarn used: 290g (little less than 6 skeins of drops baby merino)



Hi everyone, a really quick and short post before the upcoming busy days, of moving in our new home.
I still have to make proper pics of my finished jumper, but don't have the time to do that these days. Here are two quick snapshots of my new favorite jumper which I've already worn one time, combined with a black skirt, thighs and pumps. As you see I didn't use any vintage styling.
The fit of the jumper is just as great as I expected and the finished texture is smooth and elastic like a good quality double knit fabric would be. The drops baby merino is definitely my favorite yarn to knit with!
Coming up: more pics and the pattern modifications I made, of course.

Top Honours jumper: 4. Neckline tricks

Finishing the neckline is almost always the last step in the knitting process. While the neckline of the Phillipa jumper is finished with a crochet edge the Top Honours jumper has a classic rib finish. While it seems easy there are a number of tricks that makes your neckline look prettier. Because I wanted the grey color closest to my face I used that for the neck band (the waist and sleeve ribbings are blue)

1. picking up stitches
Usually the pattern instructions tell you how many stitches you need to pick up along the neckline. Then you should divide both the numbers as the neckline in even amounts, place stitchmarkers and pick up the amount of stitches  distributed evenly between your markers. So what's wrong with that? Basically nothing, but in my opinion it is almost impossible, plus time-consuming to distribute the stitches evenly.
I prefer another method, which is picking up more stitches and reducing the amount in the first round. This way you don't end up with gaping holes and you get a prettier, smoother curve. I picked up every stitch evenly and corrected the amount in the first row by knitting (or purling according to pattern) together every 4th and 5th stitch. This methoprevents a stretched-out look too.

As you can see there were quite a few stitches!

Try to keep the same distance all around, also on the diagonal sides:


To prevent a really high closing neckline I reduced the width of the ribbing.

2. casting off
It is important to cast off very loosely! (=a trial & error experience)
Even when you don't need to stretch the neckline out to pull it over your head, tightly cast off stitches can deform the shape of the finished neckline.


3. how-to: finish with a button loop
I choose a decorative button to finish the ribbed edge and used press studs for the opening (trying not to disturb the pattern). Attach the button at the inner edge of your button band underlayment. A small silver colored rose looks great on the blue- and grey tones:
   

I finished castig off the ribbing at the side where I wanted to have the button loop. The ribbing pulls a bit inwards (left pic) so I filled that up with a row of double crochet (right):
   

Secure the last stitch with a slipstitch to make a neat and straight edge:
   

Make a chain loop for your button:
   

check that your loop is not too tight and not too loose before finishing the loop:
   

Previous posts about the making of this jumper: 
1. introduction 
2. pattern chart and pattern diagram 
3. sleeve caps + my modification: back neck opening