Sweater for Wool-Aid

Here's a project I've been working on in the background. I had a good quantity of wool raveled from a sweater. I believe I purchased it from someone on Ravelry, but I can't find any record of it.

If that memory is correct, what I actually purchased was a half-finished project. I raveled it and ended up with a lot of different balls (about 25) from large (182 grams) to small (7 grams).

It was a nice colour of red and quite a bit of yarn so I thought I would make a garment for myself with it. But after a few years of not doing anything with it, I let that idea go. It was enough that I could make a sweater (or two?) for Wool-Aid.

In February I finished my last vest for Wool-Aid and when I went to post it in the group (we all like to share finished projects), I saw their posted theme for February:

We have a special request from the Kyegu Monastery in Gamrau, India, for turtleneck or high mock-turtleneck sweaters for next winter (maroon, brown, red, and gold items are appropriate). The young monks in Gamrau are between 12 and 18 years old (I’m figuring sizes 32” to 40”). Perhaps we can get a good start on this special request, so we have enough sweaters in their sizes to ship by early fall.

This seemed like a good way to use this red yarn--it was the right colour, I had plenty for a sweater, I like doing the larger sizes, and my favourite shawl colour Vneck style would work great.

So I cast it on and worked on it for the following three months. Then it sat waiting for buttons until the week before the fair. (I entered it in the Pullover-Child category.)

Since they asked for high necks, I adjusted the shawl colour so that it didn't angle in from the lower point. The collar was worked straight until I increased for the upper collar portion.

I had thought I might be able to put a button near the top so that it could be a full turtleneck if the top button was done up,

but decided it was too tight around the neck to actually wear that way.

I also thought about putting the top button further up (see finger below) and spacing three buttons from there to the bottom of the collar. (The top button would not be done up most of the time.)

But in the end, I went with just two. You can still pull the collar up if more warmth is needed on the back of the neck.

Once I had the position of the buttons, I crocheted some loops on the one side.

I slipped stitched from the bottom, working just inside the selvage stitch (along green line). When I got to the place for the button loop, I chained 10, and then continued slip stitching in the next stitch.

After both loops were done, I slipped stitched twice and then pulled the end to the back through the last loop to finish. I thought about doing the trim all the way around the collar because it was a nice finish, but decided not to because both the top and bottom of the collar are seen and the slip stitch looks good only on one side.

I did a 4x4 basketweave stitch for the main part of the back and front (the texture makes it warmer) with stocking stitch on the sleeves. I did my usual garter stitch edge for the hems of the sleeves and body.

I tried it on to check the collar fit but you can see the sleeves are way too short.

Wool-Aid likes the sweater body to be longer than usual for extra warmth, but it makes the sleeves look really short. I try to make the sweater into "realistic" proportions, but in the end, I figure anything close to reasonable will fit someone!

Project Stats
Started: 27 Feb '19
Finished: 21 May '19 (the knitting; buttons not until July)
Pattern: Based on the Steppe Ahead Sweater by Irina Makarow
Materials: wool (485 grams); raveled from unknown sweater
Ravelry project page: Wool-Aid Sweater 2019-1 (4)

Then and Now: Vogue Vintage Flashback

This here

is a picture of woman pretty pleased with herself. And the blouse she's wearing.

You may recall, this was a "flashback" pattern from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 1984. (Original pattern from 1948.)  I was inspired to make it as part of a then-and-now knit-along in the Ravelry Vogue Knitters group.

In mid May, I (finally) had all of the pieces knit. I blocked them all before seaming.

I usually don't bother and just block everything afterwards. But the experts say that you get the best results blocking the pieces first and I decided to listen to them. The edges of the pieces were very curly and I wanted to make the seaming easier. It also helped to fold over the hems on the cuffs and collars so they wanted to stay in place while I sewed them down.

You can see I didn't work in any of the ends before blocking either. I decided to wait to take care of them until after it was sewn together. It turned out to be a very good decision. I had kept all of the ends to the edges, and it was simple to work them into the seam allowances after the seams were sewn. I was worried about being able to anchor the slippery white silk but it wasn't an issue at all working them into the seam allowances.

The first seam was to sew the back and front sections to the yoke.

Since I was sewing the ends of one piece to the sides of the other, I couldn't just match stitch for stitch. Despite having to adjust the gauge and stitch count, the length of the pieces I was sewing together were the same. (Yay!) I used safety pins to match centers and quarters and added a few more.

I made sure the yoke began and ended so that a garter ridge ran right along the top of the front and back pieces, making it consistent with the rest of the stitch pattern. (Each tan stripe is edged with a garter ridge.) You can see I also  matched up the white stripe from the front and from the sleeve. (The pattern planned for that so that's not all me, but it is nice when it works!)

The next seam was the long underarm and side seam, done in one shot. I normally sew with the same yarn that the piece is knit with, but for this one I used thread instead. I wanted to minimize bulk. It didn't feel right to use regular sewing thread, though, so I used top stitching thread which is thicker.

Next was the hem around the bottom:

It's so neat and simple!

The pattern said to fold over four stitches, but I just curled a little bit that seamed to naturally want to roll, closer to two stitches. I sewed it down with the thread, just making sure that it stayed even and straight all the way around.

Next the cuffs. The reworking of the pattern in 1984 changed the cuffs so the stripe pattern was different from the original. I modified the cuffs and from what I can see on the picture, it matches the original. It just seemed a lot more balanced and in tune with the rest of the sweater to arrange them as shown.

The sleeves are gathered into the cuffs quite a bit, so I ran a length of the tan yarn around the sleeve bottom. I used it to gather the sleeve width to match the length of the cuff and tied a knot to keep it there. I intended to pull it out after I sewed on the cuff, but it wouldn't come out when I tried. Apparently I sewed through it in places. That's alright, it will just help keep it from stretching out.

The cuffs had a knitted hem. The pattern had the hem the same width as the cuff, but I followed Elizabeth Zimmermann's formula of making the part you turn under about 10% smaller. I sewed it down just above the white stripe. Putting all the extra bulk under the white stripe camouflages the extra thickness of the hem.

Next was the collar. I modified the hem so I could knit it in one piece.

Under side of the collar.

The pattern had you knit the hem for the long edge, cast off, and then pick up stitches on the short sides to knit the hem there. I picked up the stitches before starting the hem and knit the long side and short sides all at once. I decreased stitches at the corners so it would lie flat.

I really wondered how to sew it to the body. I didn't want to do a regular seam where you put right sides together and the flip it inside right--too much bulk in the seam and I didn't think the collar would fold over neatly.

Then I noticed that the top edge of the collar (the cast on edge) was neat enough to show to the outside. So I laid the collar on the body in position and just sewed the top edges together on the back side. I made sure the collar rode a little higher than the body and kept all the stitches on the back.

And it turns out that once it was on, the weight of the blouse pulled the collar to the inside and produced a nice folded edge. (Except at the front and back center, as you'll see.)

The back includes a slit finished with buttons. The pattern called for the entire back seam to be open and fastened with three buttons. This seemed very open to me, so I sewed the seam shut from the bottom to half way, and put the buttons on the top half.

The ends of the opening are finished with crocheted slip stitch, including crocheted loops for the buttons. The buttons were from my button jars and definitely do not look brand new. Let's call that a design choice to reinforce the vintage look of the garment. :)

It looks like the back of the collar isn't quite centered after the buttons were fastened. We'll see if I think that's worth fixing. (I doubt it.)

And finally, here's the entire piece:

It came out exactly as I wanted. It's comfortable to wear and I love the fit.

There's flexibility in the fit of the shoulders since there is no set shoulder seam. Despite the all-in-one construction of the yoke and sleeves, there is shaping in the underarm so that it's not just blocks of rectangles put together. (Always a recipe for weird bulk under the arms.) I was happy to have a pattern to tell me how to do it because there was some unusual geometry going on.

The waist shaping worked out well too. It was hard to know for sure when the pieces were knit side to side, but again, the pattern did not steer me wrong.

To cap off this wonderful finish, I found two brown pants at Goodwill in the last couple of weeks that will match!

Project Stats
Started: 15 Mar '19
Finished: 20 May '19
Pattern: #42 Close-Fitting, Striped Pullover with 3/4-Length Sleeves & Collar from Vogue Knitting (Spring/Summer 1984)
Materials: Raveled Linen/Rayon from Coldwater Creek shrug; ColourMart Silk 36/120nm DK wt.
Ravelry project page: Striped blouse with collar