With Spring nearly here . . Marriner's 443

. . . what better thing to do than start planning your spring and summer wardrobe? And this lovely should take pride of place.

This pattern from Marriner (No. 443) is such a pretty summer blouse and comes in 4 sizes so can be easily sized up a couple more inches either by altering the weight of the wool and or needles sizes to fit a larger size. If you do go this route, make sure you don't use a yarn that's too heavy as it could alter the drape of the blouse and you'll just get left with a saggy mess (ask me how I know). 

The original wool was a relatively lightweight 3-ply and the tension 7.5 stitches to 1 inch. Increasing the tension size to 7 stitches per inch will give you approximately 1 inch gain over the width of the jumper. 6.5 to 1 inch will add 2 inches or 4 inches overall but I think that this might make the yoke huge and you'd lose the lovely ribbing at the neck so perhaps it's time to grab your adventurer's pants and crack out the calculator and grade the pattern up to the size you want.

With muti-size patterns it's easier than you think and using a spreadsheet programme to get the calculations right means you can see across the whole range to see if anything look wrong. To start you need to read through the whole pattern and mark where numbers change. Rather than write out all the figures, here's the link to the google doc I used with some notes to hopefully explain better. I've used the established numbers for bust sizes 32" to 38" to take the pattern up to 40", 42", 44", and 46"

For the purpose of this, I've assumed that most larger women are larger overall, so bigger waists, bigger arms and wider necks and bigger busts. If you are slender but have a large bust, you could use the smaller sizes for the casting on and then increase to the larger sizes or use bust shaping to get to the required number of stitches for the yoke.

Like most knitting, the proof is in the making and I have not made this up so please use the figures with caution and if you see any glaring errors please comment so I can update the chart.

To download the pattern, please click on the pattern cover above.

Happy Valentine's Day

Code is valid until 17th February so you have the whole weekend to find something that gives you a thrill

A Hat for A Head - Patons 814 Free Download

Turbans are part of our shared memory from the box of 'things that make the 1940s' but they have a longer history in the UK. The well-to-do of Britain first got turban fever in the late 1700s along with the fascination in all things oriental but it was a relatively short lived fad soon to be replaced by other exotic items. Working class women had used a practical head covering that kept their hair away from their face and out of their work for centuries. It's likely that a simple remnant of cloth wrapped about the head was used but painting and photographs show that these could be quite fancy. It could be the connection to working class that made the turban fall from high fashion and suffer an image problem and it was not until the 1920s that it rose again.

The fashion for shorter hair styles and less frou-frou paved the way with film stars and socialites needing something to keep their locks sleek. Mass media gave everyone a chance to copy the trend and the place of the turban in British fashion history was set. By the 1940s they were everywhere: in films, fashion, newspapers, adverts.

When rationing slowed, and then stopped, the availability of millinery supplies, women got creative with their headwear and took the turban to new heights (quite literally) as there was still a need for a good, warm, and practical hat that was easy to wear, required no pins to hold it, and could be made with the supplies at hand. And knitting stepped up. Some patterns were no more than wide strip of loose knitting wrapped and tied but others became a little more elaborate. The pattern here has 3 versions: a plain wrap, a twisted wrap and then one with a crown which makes a more formal hat.

The crown one uses 2 strands of 4-ply worked together, or you could use an aran weight yarn as I have done here. It takes less than 100g, this one took 79g of an acrylic and wool mix and works up very quickly, in fact you may spend longer arranging the knot that actually knitting it.

To download the pattern please click on the link below
3 Turbans in Carin Rimple Wool

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Knitting shops now gone

I've long been intrigued by the number of knitting shops that used to populated the UK. Talking to older people has made me realise that just about every town had somewhere to buy wool no matter how small so last year made a start on logging them on Google Maps.

The locations come from the stamps that shops put on the patterns, usually on the front cover, but sometimes on the inside. There are a few that I can't find, the red dots, but hope that by the time I've gone through my entire collection I might have worked out where they are.


This is a work in progress so hopefully the map with gather more pink dots and show just how widespread wool and craft shops were. My dream is to find a shop that is pre 1969 and still open.

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?

Birthday Sharing

Happy New Year Lovelies and thank for your support since I opened the shop in February. To celebrate my birthday on the 13th I am giving everyone a discount of 25% on anything for the whole of January. You can use the coupon as many times as you like and I plan on adding lots more patterns, both downloads and originals so there is bound to be something that you like. I might even get round to adding some sewing patterns.

Just use the discount code BIRTHDAYSALE25 at the checkout and please pass this offer on to anyone you think might be interested.

Pretty Old Patterns

Wonderful Things

A few days ago I was looking through some of my vintage knitting books (I have a few) and a slim packet slipped out from between the dust jacket and the book. I've had the book for well over 10 years and have never seen them so it was a bit of a surprise. A wonderful surprise as they were a small collection of hand written knitting patterns. They are in different hands, at least  three but since hand writing used to be far more formalised and strictly taught it's difficult to know for certain.

I started to look through them: Soldiers Mittens, Lemon Pattern, Gimlet Pattern, Stockings Eric aged 5, Easter Chick, and others. There was even a sample of wool pinned to Balaclava Helmet with flaps. It made me smile that this little relict from a previous knitter had found a new home. I think they may have been copied from different sources but I can't tell for sure.

Some of the instructions are basic, but this is common among vintage patterns, none give a tension, a few don't even give a needle size or wool weight but I have decided that I am going to make them up and re-write the patterns to see if anyone recognises the patterns.

There are 12 complete patterns and 3 which are no more than a schematic, so they might take a bit more work, so this is going to be a year long project with one a month so keep coming back and see how I'm getting on.

Sunny Saturday Free Pattern

This is just what every woman should want for winter - her own pixie hat.

This great pattern is from the early 1930s and originally made from angora. You could try alpaca or even one of those bonkers fun yarns for a modern twist or stick to the beautiful yarn that is angora.

I know that some people have a bit of  problem with angora since there are some issues, in some places, with production standards but there are so many beautiful angora yarns out there from artisan suppliers who have the highest standards of animal welfare so is you get the chance have a fondle of this fibre.

This is so quick to make up as it's basically a rectangle with a neck band but it's such a fun hat that you could production line them and one for every person you know

Click below for the pattern and have all the fun making the classic Pixie Hat

Will it never end?

Of course it will. But only when I have run out of yarn.

This week has been a busy week at work (not the nice side of work which is my patterns and archaeology but the dull office side I have to do to pay bills) so haven't really done that much in term of adding things to the shop: but there are lots of lovelies being sorted and scanned and ready to go in soon. I've also decided to get rid of most of my vintage sewing patterns so they will be making an appearance too.

Knitting wise I still seem entrenched gleefully in vintage. I have finished the back for my Making Meshy cardigan and have nearly finished one of the sides. I was going to knit them both at the same time but forgot (c'est le vie). At first I was a bit worried that I was going to run out of wool but it's loose and meshy and the pattern carries a small amount a long way so looks like I'll be fine.

 It does look a bit short but it is very stretchy and hopefully I can block another few inches into it.

The Sheffield group on Ravelry are having a K/CAL for September: kind of part of a year long set of projects where you have to (if you can) knit from stash attained before December 31st 2013. Our theme for September is Winter Warmers so I have decided to go with another vintage pattern but in a decidedly un-vintage colour.

This is the cuff of  glovey gauntlet type of thing: part of a beautiful Fair Isle Skating Outfit but for the moment I'm just concentrating on the gloves. I might do the hat if I have enough time but you know what it's like - there is never enough time to knit vintage without coming across another amazing pattern.

Friday Freebie - Lady's Jumper Cardigan

 Hurrah it's Friday and to get everyone in the mood for the weekend I have this wonderful free pattern for you.

It's a classic of 1950s design: all tight waist and unusual stitches and what's more it's in double knit (or light worsted) on big needles so shouldn't take long to knock out. It has 2 sizes: 33" to 35" and 35" to 37" bust but with the stitch I think that it might even fit someone a bit larger without any modification.

I've already added it to Ravelry so you can start immediately. 

Click on the link below to get the pattern
Lee Target 1235 - Lady's Jumper Cardigan