Surprise Sunday - 1940s Fair Isle Gloves

 

Since this was the scene that greeted me this morning, I thought that we could all do with a quick and pretty pattern  to help keep the cold away so I came up with gloves and mittens (all fitting an average hand, whatever that is). They are all made with quite a tight tension to keep your hands nice and warm. 

Each pair use only an ounce (about 28g) of the main colour with the pattern being made up from oddments. Model A uses white, clover, lilac, rose, green, and peach as the contrasts. You can use what ever colours you have about as I think that it's probably only a few metres of each that you'll need for both gloves. Although the originals use 3-ply one of the thinner 4-ply wools would work equally well as long as you get the tension of 10.5 stitches to 1" using 2.75mm US 2 needles. Model B are the mittens and have this lovely toning patterns across the back of the hands in a light, medium and dark shade. The tension of these are a little bit tighter: 11 stitches to the inch using 2.75mm US 2 needles. Model C has brown, green, red, white, lemon and yellow and are worked as a tension of 10.5 stitches to 1 inch using 3mm US 2 needles.

To down load the pattern just click on the pattern and it should take you to the pdf.

New Year, New Project

 In the Sheffield group on Ravelry we're having a 12 in 2015 Challenge. It's simple, just knit 12 things over the next year using your stash as much as possible. Some of the projects are themed but most are a do what you like. It can be any size project but the crux is to use as much of your stash as you can whilst making marvellous things. For January we are having a deep stash sub-challenge so you have to use the oldest yarn in your stash. It can be oldest as in years, or oldest in terms of one of the things you recorded on Ravelry. I've gone with a ball of 320g or 11 ozs of roughish wool that I bought in 2004 in the Yorkshire Dales and a pattern from my vintage collection.

It's always tricky marrying up unknown quantities of yarn to unknown patterns and this one seems to be going very well. It starts on 3mm needles then jumps up to 3.25mm, then just before the bust jumps again onto 3.75mm. But I realised after I had knitted about 20cm that I wasn't going to make it to a full jumper as the 3mm section ate so much of the wool that I knew that I wouldn't have enough to finish and with no chance of getting more I had to find something else

So I am now working on this lace cardigan worked on 3.75mm needles so it's nice and open without being loose. I'm still a bit worried about running out of wool but figure if I can get the back, fronts, and button band sorted, I'll work the sleeves together from the top down so will stop when I run out. What could possibly go wrong?

Sirdar 1085 - Lady's Fitted Jacket

Sirdar 1085 - Lady's Fitted Jacket

Wonderful double cable cardigan in a 34" bust. This is a great style and could easily be added to another cardigan if you needed to up-size the pattern
 

Date: early 1940s
 

Measurements: bust 34"; length 21"; sleeve seam 17.5"
 

Materials: 3-ply or light fingering; 2.75mm US 2, 3mm US 2.5 and 3.75mm US 5 needles; cable needle; 7 buttons
Original used 9 ozs Sirdar Majestic Wool 3-ply or Sirdar Kasha Wool 3-ply
 

Tension: 7.5 stitches to 1 inch using 3.75mm US 5