As you can see, I’ve finished the back and front. I have sewn them together, and done the bit of ribbing around the V-neck. I’m now working on the bits of ribbing around the armholes.

The sleeve area on the right looks constricted because it’s on the needle right now. The ends of that circ are out of the shot. That’s also why the lower edge on the right is drawn up.

Seaming and picking up along garter stitch edges can be problematic, with the texture of the final stitches in the ridge and valley rows being difficult to pierce evenly. I cheated by using selvage stitches, both on the to-be-seamed edges and on neckline and armholes where ribbing stitches were to be picked up. This allowed me to do a more even pick-up, although the K2P2 rib texture off of garter stitch at this gauge will never be totally smooth.

In this detail of the neckline you can see the pick-up edge, plus the center front decreases that form the V:

When I did the side seams, I used mattress stitch on my selvage edges. I also did one cheat that made the waist ribbing a bit more even. In my stitch count, the ribbing for the back began and ended with a K2 section. When time came to work up the front, I made sure that the ribbing on the front began and ended with a P2 section. That way when the two were seamed together, the ribbing at the waist is not interrupted.

One more evening of sleeve ribbing, plus another to end off and another to do a light post-finish blocking (yes I was bad, and didn’t block my pieces before assembly).

Technorati : knitting

I’m tooling along on the vest. I’ve got the front completed up to just a row or two below the point where the stitches at the bottom of the armholes are ended off. I’ve also looked more closely at the width of the shoulders and back of the neck. I’ve decided that at this point I really don’t want to make the back of the neck wider, nor do I want to make the armholes deeper. Therefore the shoulder pieces are going to remain the width they are now. Of course, if I get the thing assembled and TRM doesn’t like the fit, the possibility of ripping back and reknitting both pieces still exists. But for now I will carry on just carrying on.

Now, my original shoulder and back of neck widths are predicated closely on the width of the original pattern’s V-neck. Although I’ve sized up the rest of the sweater, doing the math indicated that the original opening would be adequate. Were I making this in an even larger size I would probably play with these proportions, but for this quickie redaction, I’m keeping the neckline’s progression of decreases more or less the same. I am however moving the entire unit down just a tad. Since that makes the thing deeper (but not wider) there will be a little bit of plain knitting with no neckline forming decreases at the top of the opening near the shoulders. If you look closely at the original pattern you’ll see that it also sports a similar coping strategy. My extra .75 inch isn’t going to make a huge difference here.

So I arrive at my pre-armhole point. Poised to begin the simultaneous shaping of the shoulders and the V-neck; well on my way to finishing this project in about 2.5 weeks. Pix tomorrow when there’s something more interesting to see.

Technorati : knitting

As you can see, I’ve made a fair bit of progress on my 1941 man’s vest. Here is the completed back:

The color is a bit darker and more heathered with a touch of gray than is the virulent cranberry reported in the photo.

Now to go from the original size 30 to my customized 46, I did a couple of things. First I measured The Resident Male and one of his favorite store-bought vests. Then we sat down and discussed what he liked and didn’t like about the historical vest. We came to this set of observations

• He liked the ultra simple garter stitch texture
• He liked the wide waist ribbing in contrast with the narrow armhole edge and neckline ribbing
• He liked the K2 P2 ribbing texture
• He liked the close fit
• He wanted a deeper V because he’d be wearing the thing over golf shirts, and not over dress shirts with ties.
• A closer look at the dimensions of the original rather than the photo revealed that the piece was longer than we originally thought, so no adjustments there were necessary.
• He didn’t like the straight edge at the back of the neck, and preferred a tiny bit of contour there

So comparing his measurements and the original I come up with

So I plugged my measurements into the original pattern, multiplying by the original gauge (which I achieved), and came up with the piece above. I knit the back first so I could become familiar with the armhole and shoulder shaping before adding the complication of the vee neckline. I also knew that because it has no vee, the back would take more yarn. If I consumed more than half of my yarn while knitting it, I’d know that I needed to buy another skein. As it was, I used two and a quarter skeins out of five, so I should have enough to finish.

To confirm my noodling (and because I had the tool at hand), I pulled out Sweater Wizard and typed my measurements into that, too. I came up with a pattern that was very close to my own hand-tinkered one – minus the erasures and bogus false starts. If I end up sharing the redaction, I’ll use the Sweater Wizard product for clarity and ease of use.

One lingering worry – the shoulders. They seem wide although they are comparable to the target store bought favorite vest’s measurements. I may go back and rip them out, increasing the width of the back neck and decreasing the width of the shoulders to about 4.5 inches. More thought here is required.

Technorati : knitting

Another historical knitting project is in the works. Yes, I’m also still working on the leaf pullover and am almost finished with the back. But rare special requests from wiseNeedle’s technical wizard take priority. The Resident Male (TRM) has requested a particular vest from the 1941s vintage Minerva troop knitting folio he gave to me for the holiday.

This is a very plain garter stitch vest. It has slightly set in armholes, and K2, P2 ribbing. He’d like the V-neck opening to be a bit lower, but other than that, he likes the slim fit and style.

Now knitting this ultra simple thing will not be a straightforward as one might think. For starters, the leaflet offers up only size 40, and TRM is a 46. On top of that, the pattern is particularly sketchy, and not in a format used widely today. (More on this tomorrow). I could just look at the picture and then come up with something from scratch, fobbing it off as the real thing, but that wouldn’t be as much fun as trying to redact the original, keeping as close as possible to the 1941 instructions.

Let’s begin by looking at the materials specified – Athena Noninflammable Needles size 6 and 7, plus Minerva Quality Knitting Worsted – 6 skeins. I am delighted to report that this pattern DOES include specific gauge – 4.5 stitches = 1 inch, 10 rows = 1 inch. Gauge is not always included in these older patterns, and having it makes a huge difference.

The size 6 and 7 needles are about right for the stated gauge and are probably comparable to modern US 6 and 7, but an exact match is irrelevant. I need to use the needles I need to achieve the stated gauge. The sizes suggested in any pattern (not just this historical one) are supposed to be starting points for your own swatching purposes, not absolute dictates. It doesn’t matter a whit if you actually end up using 4s and 6s or 7s and 9s – so long as you achieve the specified gauge, your garment will fit as the pattern author intended.

Why “noninflammable” in the name of the needles? Prior to the early 1940s time early pre-plastic needles were either Bakelite or cellulose based. Cellulose needles were easy to ignite and burned quite hotly. The Athenas were probably either Bakelite or a new material (possibly nylon based), that melted rather than ignited when exposed to flame.

Now, “Minerva Quality Knitting Worsted – 6 skeins” is a bit more problematic. How much yarn is that? What would be a modern equivalent? How much do I need?

From the look of the picture, it’s clear that the yarn is a plain, smooth finish multi-strand yarn. If this pattern was knit in stockinette, I’d guess that it was a heavy worsted yarn, But it’s in garter stitch, which enlarges gauge somewhat, so I suspect that the yarn used is lighter than that, perhaps a true worsted with a native stockinette gauge of 5 stitches per inch. Possibly even a DK, with a native stockinette gauge of 5.5 stitches per inch. (True DK might be pushing it, as I’m not sure I can get 4.5spi with garter in DK without the fabric looking limp and loose).

More noodling is needed here. To start, I have a rough idea that a man’s sleeveless vest in size 40 should take approximately 900-1000 yards of worsted weight yarn. I base this on my Nancy’s Knit Knacks yardage estimator card, plus confirmation from Sweater Wizard, and from personal experience. If the original pattern called for 6 skeins, that would mean each skein would be around 150-166 yards. My absolute textbook standards for worsted weight yarns are Brunswick Germantown and Cascade 220. Both clock in at 220 yards per 100g (3.5 oz) or 110 per 50 g (1.75 oz). By contrast, DK weight smooth finish classic Rowan yarns tend to be between 240 and 255 yards for 100g (120 to 127 for 50g).

A web search on “Minerva Knitting Worsted” brings up an article on translating a 1934 vintage pattern, which calls out a yardage of 152 yards for 1.75 oz. Now 152 x 6 = 912 yards – within the target range, but 152 yards for 1.75oz (50g) sounds much lighter than worsted. I also find Columbia Minerva worsted on the Vintage Knits yardage chart. There it’s listed at 280 yards for 4 oz. That works out to 245 yards for 100g (3.5 oz), or 122.5 yards for 1.75 oz. Still more than Cascade/Germantown’s 110 and closer to DK than I expected when I started looking.

So to sum up my yarn weight findings, I’m now leaning to the light worsted/DK end of available choices, but without truly solid confirmation. Obviously intensive swatching is the next step. I want to make this vest out of stash-aged yarn. I’ve got a couple of choices on hand which I will detail in the next post.

Technorati : knitting