My Mum bought this pattern I think in the 70s or possibly very early 1980s though 1970s are most likely.
She never got round to making anything from this book and until recenty its held no interest for me either but I kept it just in case - as we do!
You can see the mens jumper here and the womens cardigan - I made the womens jumper which is not pictured.
I decide though I have never knittted a full jumper in the round - I really hate circular needles - so perhaps this would be a real challenge for me. So thats it then. Had to knit an Icelandic style jumper.
I actually thought it would be very difficult to do the plain bit that makes up the body and most of the sleeves but I knitted it late into the evenings when I needed a rest from the white lace and later the purple cotton jumpers. So the plain knitting did not get too boring and tedius.
I would knit a couple of rounds a night and so it got done. Also something I never considered is being in the round you can stop anywhere so long as you use stitch
markers this is easy to knit alongside something else more interesting. And being able to stop where ever makes it so easy when you are doing it at the end of an evening and sometimes cannot easily get to the end of a row and need to force yourself to stay awake!
Possibly it turned out a little too long but then I tend to deliberately make longer winter jumpers. At least with jeans and over knee boots it will be very warm!
Its a bit hot worn when these photos were taken with shorts on a sunny day in July!
When I finished the purple cotton I was at the point where I needed
to just join it all together to do the yoke so really it go knitted sort of in the background with no real effort until the final yoke bit. This was heavy! I tried to
do a few rows each night but there are lots of stitches because its the
top of front, back and sleeves and you need to concentrate to stay in
pattern. I ended up just doing one row some nights. I actually do have one extra row in this to what the
pattern said and decided not to unpick but to carry on - I forgot a
decrease so did the extra row to do it meaning I have one more row than
the pattern in the bottom purple bit, but otherwise its perfect with no errors. And surprisingly
straightforward to knit! The hardest bit for me was getting my head
round the bit where you must leave X stitches for under arms on each side
and then make sure the front and back are correctly lined up so the
pattern works properly on the yoke. Its not difficult. I just cound not
get my head round it but next time it will be easier.
In fact I am about to begin a second one in a more modern design from Ravelry. Its first language is not english meaning its been translated, so I decided I needed to do my first version with an english pattern with good instructions so I could understand the construction.
But I am happy with how this has turned out:
Its far too warm for today but will be brilliant come winter and will possibly even be good for a "Christmas Jumper" - something I am actually not in favour of since its such a waste to have a jumper for one day of the year or even a week, and not wear again - many people really do just throw them out every New Year.
The one part I have yet to master is continental ribbing. Its much faster once you get the hang of it I think. But having tried to get the hang of it, since the pattern directed me to use it, but for me, as a learner its not as easy as english knitting, so I ended up with a mix along the body hem/ ribbed edge - which if you look closely you can see the difference. But then its a dark colour and so I think doesn't matter because this is a massive learning curve for me. Also I am rubbish at grafting - done under the arms - and I need to learn this for the next one I do in this style so have some YouTube watching to do in the next few weeks of lunchtimes I think, and also I needed to darn in the ends where you start in the round - again rubbish at this. My end result is amateurish and messy - I am used to leaving a long cord and using it for sewing up the side seams but of course there are none when you knit in the round. But I will get better and I love the fact I spent an hour at most sewing this up round the fold over neck edge, under each sleeve and the ends of the yarn you cast on with. Fast!
The yarn is all second hand mohair from various sources - charity shops and Ebay. All meant to be knitted on 5mm - 6.5mm needles and this pattern uses 5mm for ribbing and 6.5mm for the body so is ideal but its meant to be in some sort of Alafoss Lopi wool yarn. They are still going too so you may be able to buy the actual recommended yarn for this but mohair is lighter and nicer ( for me) to wear. I had to buy a new 6.5mm needle because my current circulars were all too short for this. Its also a great way to use up odd balls of yarn left over from other projects which the yoke has made use of. So all I had to buy for this was the circular needles. The rest came from the stash and the dark french navy blue has been in the stash since 2014 before I even returned to knitting, so its time I used it.
Have a good day and thanks for visiting my blog,
Take care
Bracken
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