Baby Jacket from 1950

Baby Jacket, pattern from 1950

I do like old knitting books and traditional knitting. That is no secret to those of you who have visited this blog. The pattern for this baby jacket can be found in the (Swedish) book "Vi syr Vi stickar Vi virkar" (translated that would be "We sew We knit We crochet") published in 1950 by Aktiv hushållning.

Vi syr Vi stickar Vi virkar published by Aktiv Hushållning 1950

The book is made for (my translation) "the members of Sweden´s many craft groups and all those who in schools, homes and associations work with sewing, knitting and crochet". It strives to provide patterns and instructions for projects that are useful in everyday life. You will find patterns for children´s clothing, aprons of different kinds, sweaters, socks, mittens, blankets, table cloths etc. I like it because it is, in many ways, so very hands on.

Baby jacket

The baby jacket that I have knitted could be called a Swedish classic. You can still find the pattern with minor alterations or variations in recent published books. I have also noticed that it is, in Sweden, often mentioned in association with discussions regarding short-rows. The design is very clever. The jacket is not knitted bottom-up or top-down, nor is it knitted in pieces. It is knitted side-ways in one piece and all the shaping is made with short-rows. The entire description of this jacket takes less that half a page. It is impressing!

Short-row shaping

I wouldn't recommend this pattern for an inexperienced knitter though. That is because you really have to have control of the number of rows and the short-row shaping. The condensed instructions offer no help regarding how to do that. If you are an experienced knitter you will understand this when reading the pattern through and prepare for that. Also note that the needle sizes and yarns are not applicable today, nor are gauge or size given.

Grey hat in twined knitting

I have knitted a new hat in twined knitting. Not because it was needed due to the weather, but because twined knitting is the most relaxing form of knitting that I know of. It is a plain grey hat, tightly fitted. Instead of my usual beginning, with alternating rows of knit and purl, I used a "pattern" that is rather common on traditional mittens.

This hat is part of testing twined knitting in a rather thick 3-ply, s-plied yarn on needles 3,00 mm. Beside the "ridges" on the surface of the knitting, due to the use of an s-plied yarn, I find the result OK.

Planning to knit a lopapeysa (Icelandic sweater)

Pattern books from Lopi

These last years there has been an increasing interest in the Icelandic sweater.  I have always liked the yokes of these sweaters. But since I am not much of a sweater knitter I have never knitted one.  However, after encountering them over and over again on the Internet, Ravelry and blogs I have decided to knit one.
First I browsed images on Google, then I looked for patterns on Ravelry and the yarn company sites. I then decided to buy some pattern books from Lopi - I tried to find some with more traditional patterns and colours.

These sweaters are not as old as I first imagined. They date from around the 1950´s. Here are some links if you want more information about them:
Wikipedia - Lopapeysa
Plan Iceland - Lopapeysa, the Icelandic sweater
Contributoria -  The (knitted) fabric of society - The story of the Icelandic sweater

Swatch, knitted with needles 6,00 mm

After deciding which pattern I wanted to knit I realised that the main part of these sweaters is knitted on needles 6.00 mm. I had to search our house for needles that thick - I have never knitted a project the required needles that thick. I found a pair of plastic needles (don´t ask) that I could use for the swatch. I then realised that my knitting was tighter than the recommendations in the pattern. I probably could have solved this the easy way by changing to thicker needles and thus get the required amount of stitches that would correspond to the pattern. 7.00 mm - Hmmm .... No. I decided to recalculate the pattern adapted to my gauge on needles 6.00 mm. It takes a bit of thinking but it is not to complicated.

Alafosslopi, yarn from Istex.

I then turned my mind to that of colours. Alafosslopi now is available in a lot of different colours. I had learnt that the original sweaters were often knitted in bright and rather daring colour combinations. But I have always liked the natural colour scale, so I decided that my first lopapeysa would not be a brightly coloured one.

KniPro Zing

Yes, I also had to buy new needles for this project, both double pointed (I do not want to be caught using the plastic needles) and circular ones. I decided to try the new needles from KnitPro called Zing.

I am looking forwards to knit this sweater. but I have decided that I first have to finish some ongoing projects - otherwise they could turn into UFO´s. Hopefully I will get started before Christmas.

See the finished sweater here.

Revlingar - Vålbergsgarn

One more pair of revlingar. This time I used "Linnea" a Vålbergsgarn from Wålstedts.

A quick and nice knit.

... and of course very warm.