Well, don't be fooled by this picture! This was the case in the morning. Now the jumper is sleeveless again... Victory became officially my jumper from hell!
The story (or should I say, saga?!) so far:
As far as construction goes instead of following the original pattern I followed my own 'blueprint' pattern, both for the stitch-count and for shaping the armholes. (Actually for the third time, as I didn't share my second jumper between the TH and Victory.) The neckline was a bit of freehand work this time, I wanted a wider ribbing than on my Top Honours jumper, but didn't want a too high neckline (like the original) so I lowered it a bit.
Somehow, I just don't know what happened, it turned out a size smaller in width than my TH jumper. Instead to grow, the lacy pattern somehow shrunk. Sounds weird, right? After blocking the results were reasonable, but I couldn't say I was in love...
Anyway, learned my lesson, but still started out the sleeve the wrong way.
Thought to be smart, I added a row of increase after the ribbing, like my blueprint pattern instructs. Instead of the expected results, the lace pattern seemed to grow this time, adding too much ease with a blousy look, instead of the perfect fit.
Since I really want another perfect jumper decided to frog this sleeve (proudly produced past week - sigh..... and start all over again.
I must say, at this point I'm not completely sure that I'm going to leave the bodice as it is. I'd rather frog it and knit it up again than having something that's not perfect.
My plan for the next 1.5 week:
- start to re-knit the sleeves, this time using the stitch-count of the original pattern
- after finishing the sleeves sew it into the armholes, try the whole thing on and decide whether it looks good or not. (worst case scenario: frog and re-knit the bodice)
- try to finish the whole thing by the end of this month?!
- Yes, I am definitely knitting for victory!!!!
the pattern
Since I didn't share much information about the pattern yet, here is a little introduction:
'Victory' is a pattern from the collection of the English Victoria & Albert museum. Among other patterns from magazines and a couple of Bestway leaflets it is available as a free download. How about these other jumpers from the Woman's Weekly Magazine? I wish all editions of those would be available online!!! There is 'Neat and feminine' and the 'When you're off duty':
There is also 'A new design in cable stitch' or a 'Waistcoat for warmth':
My choice was the 'Victory' jumper, and as it is the 'Top Honours' it is from the war-winning year of 1945, featuring the English national colors of red, blue and white. I really like this bold, strong combination! (fun fact: these are the national colors of the Netherlands as well)
The yarn I use is again my fav.: drops baby merino in the shades 30 (dark)blue, 16 red and 02 natural:
pattern chart
The pattern envelope says it is 'such an easy pattern', because only two rows complete the pretty scalloped stripe pattern. It is truly easy to memorize.
The stripes are formed by altering 6 rows in blue, 4 rows in red, 2 rows in white, 4 rows in red (my camera seems to fight with the bright red, but you get the idea...)
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