Vintage Knitting Pattern: Campus Compliments Cardigan

Hi everyone! Today I have a free vintage knitting pattern to share with you before I jet off to San Diego for my cousin's wedding over the weekend.

It's a great basic cardigan that should easily fit into any Fall/Winter wardrobe!

Don't you just love that photo? It's from a 1944 knitting booklet called Campus Classics for Knitters (one of my favorites!). It's rather unusual for that decade, as it's written in four sizes (34, 36, 38, 40) in two weights of yarn, fingering weight and sport weight. Which gives you a nice variety of options, and makes it pretty easy to resize smaller or larger. It also features drop sleeves and makes use of a technique common in traditional Shetland (and I believe some Scandinavian) knitting patterns, which is picking up stitches for the arm directly from the armhole and knitting it down from there.

While in the booklet it's called pattern #407, I think it's much more fun to call it Campus Compliments Cardigan, from the header at the top of the pattern!

It's a classic boxy style, something I mentioned in my post on campus-inspired vintage fashions for fall that was popular in the 1940s for juniors and women. I'd recommend knitting it with zero ease (knit to your actual bust size), or one or two inches of positive ease for a slightly roomier look. If you have a long torso, simply knit it a little longer than the pattern calls for, as there's no shaping in the body to worry about.

It's such a great basic pattern, I hope you enjoy it! And you'll be hearing more from me about this cardigan soon. :)

Download Campus Compliments (#407) Cardigan (pdf), or find on Ravelry

Vintage knitting pattern: Date-Maker cardigan

In my post on campus-inspired vintage fashions, a number of you expressed that you really liked the Date-Maker sweater pattern that I showed! Here it is again...

It comes from Columbia Style Book vol. 108, a 1946 knitting booklet in my collection. I like the striped sweater on the cover, too. Even better, the original owner signed her name on it!

Since so many of you liked the pattern, I thought I would share it. At least a couple of you asked about a knit-along, so it's something I'm contemplating for fall or winter. What do you think? If there's enough interest, I'd definitely consider it, even though it would be a somewhat challenging pattern to talk about resizing as it's primarily knit in ribbing that angles diagonally. However the good thing about ribbing is it's pretty forgiving.

The interesting thing about this knitting booklet is that the original owner, Ms. Jesky, appears to have only knit Date-Maker out of all the patterns! It's the one pattern in the book that's marked up. In fact, she marked up the pattern in the same way I do (although I always do it on a copy of course). Here's a bit of what the original looked like:

Not very easy on the eyes! I debating between transcribing the pattern or just cleaning up the original scans. I ended up opting for the latter as I felt you'd probably all prefer to work from the original pattern. So I tried to clean it up as best I could.

It looks like a great pattern and should be a quick knit, in worsted weight yarn at a gauge of 5 stitches an inch, with a short overall length and no button bands. You'll also need a crochet hook along with basic crochet skills to crochet around the buckle and opening edges of the cardigan. The pattern as written is for a 32-34" bust and calls for 12 oz. of worsted weight yarn.

A really fun vintage cardigan pattern from 1946! 

Download: Date-Maker cardigan (pdf)

Cardigan twins?

Today the funniest thing occurred, and something rare in the life of a knitter, I think.

A new reader to my blog, Miss Margarita, left me a comment this afternoon, and when I went to her blog I discovered an adorable photo of her... wearing a sweater I've actually knit for myself! Miss Margarita, I believe you and I may be cardigan twins! From her blog, it says it was knit for her as a gift (lucky duck!). To add even more intrigue to this story, she lives halfway around the world in Norway.

I had to run right to my drawer and put it on to snap a few photos of the sweater before my brief window of after-work sun faded. So don't mind the tired face.

This sweater was one of the first major pieces of colorwork that I completed, my first time resizing an entire sweater by changing my gauge, and one of my first cardigans. I knit it in the summer of 2009. I changed the gauge from sport to fingering weight, knit bracelet length sleeves and used 13 vintage moonglow buttons that were a perfect match.

 
It's not a vintage pattern, but I feel it's reminiscent of vintage Nordic knitting patterns, which I love and collect. It's a DROPS Design pattern. DROPS is a Norwegian company that writes patterns and manufactures yarn. They've translated most if not all of their patterns into English, fortunately for those of us non-Norwegian knitters.

Now I once saw a woman in downtown Chicago wearing a hat that I've also knit, but it was a pattern that was extremely popular on Ravelry (4,200 people have knit it), so while I was surprised, I wasn't that surprised.

But what are the odds of finding another vintage-loving blogger, halfway around the world, with the same modern hand-knit sweater as I knit myself?? (That, incidentally, Ravelry says only 79 people have knit. And several of those, including mine, were knit during a knit-along with that pattern the summer I knit mine.)

So Miss Margarita, if you read this (you're probably in bed right now in your time zone, lol), you'll have to tell me if this is indeed the same sweater, or just looks similar. Cheers!

Finished project: Olivette cardigan

Today I finished a cardigan that I knit entirely to match one blouse. Yes, one blouse. Last fall, I bought a lovely short-sleeved silk blouse at one of our favorite antique malls. There's one booth that is always filled with clothes that fit both Mel and I. They aren't always our style, but when they are, the odds are in our favor that they'll fit. It's really weird. I love that booth.

So I bought this blouse. I don't really wear much silk, and I don't really wear big flouncy bows. Yet this blouse is both. With polka dots thrown in to boot. It's not really that me, but I love it. The polka dots are navy, and I'm pretty sure this blouse is responsible for my navy kick. (Notice that navy is one of my palette colors in my handmade wardrobe challenge.) Only at the time I bought it, when it was already cold out, I didn't own a navy cardigan to wear with it. Now I do.

The pattern is a modern pattern, Olivette by Sandi Rosner, which is available from Twist Collective. It's knit in worsted weight, and if I hadn't put it away for over a month it would have knit up really quickly.  It's knit in one piece from the bottom up to the armholes. The only seaming is setting in the sleeves. I  modified the size to have a little bit of negative ease as I didn't plan to wear it buttoned very often, and wanted it to be fitted when worn over a dress. I find when I wear cardigans that have zero or positive ease with a dress, I look like extra short and squat.

I chose to make a few modifications. Because I wanted a bit more of a vintage feel I knit the bottom ribbing plain instead of in the cabled pattern as written, and I worked 40s style box pleat caps. Having worked some variation of that on my last three sweaters, I'm putting that technique to bed for awhile. I may still work knit shoulder pads for this cardigan, I'm not sure yet. I know the style would probably benefit from it, but I'm always kind of iffy about shoulder pads. And since it's knit in worsted weight, the seam at the top of the shoulder is already rather pronounced, so I don't really want to enhance that which a shoulder pad might do. Oh well.

(An odd thing to mention about this blouse... the peter pan collar is tacked down all the way around. I have no idea why! Hence why it's inside the cardigan and not outside in the photos. I need to bite the bullet and unpick part of it to see what's going on under there.)

I love the dark navy vintage buttons I used. I got them from Etsy. I always feel vintage buttons add that extra bit of oomph to a new cardigan, don't you think?

I did a little trick I like to do with cardigans when I have an extra button. I borrowed this idea from a few of my own vintage sweaters. I sewed a spare button onto the inside of the sweater (careful not to let the stitches show through to the public side). Now in a few years if I lose a button, I don't have to try and (likely unsuccessfully) find it. Nifty!

I would highly recommend this pattern to other knitters. It definitely has a nice vintage feel to it, and produces a cardigan that can be dressed up or down. The lace and cable pattern is easy to work and easy to memorize. I am a constant pattern tweaker and as I went along, sometimes doing my own thing, when I compared what I was doing to the pattern, I was doing the same thing. No kidding! It really was perfect.

And the sizing is generous! She includes bust sizes 37" to almost 54". And it was easier to make it a little smaller by omitting a few stitches in the stockinette portions. You could also knit it in DK weight to make it even smaller.

One thing I particularly love about the pattern is that it uses a common vintage technique for button bands, which I've worked before, but is rarely found in modern patterns. You knit the bands along with the cardigan, in 1x1 ribbing, slipping the first stitch on each row for a nice selvage (though that part isn't usually mentioned in vintage patterns, but is definitely the best way to go). This produces a lovely and tailored band that holds its shape well. Unlike bands that are picked up and knit, which is annoying in its own right, you don't run the risk of the bands flaring or puckering. And unlike bands that are knit as you go in garter stitch, these bands have no tendency to flip to the inside. It's also less fiddly than another popular vintage technique that involves sewing grosgrain ribbon on the backside to prevent flipping. So really, it's pretty much the perfect button band technique in my book!

All in all, I'm very happy with this cardigan. It should be a great staple that will be useful in winter, spring and fall. But after three worsted weight sweaters in a row, I'm really ready for some finer yarn! Thank goodness for the knit-along. I got my yarn in the mail yesterday (yay!), so expect my post about swatching tomorrow or over the weekend.

And hey—one day into my challenge and I have my first garment complete. Sure, it was a bit of a coincidence, but no one needs to know that... oh wait... guess I shouldn't have said that out loud. ;)

Ivory sweaters

I've been trying to decide what color and brand of yarn I'd like to use for the Briar Rose Knit-Along. And I've come to a decision on color. Well, it's sort of a color. Potential stains be damned, I'm going with: ivory.

Because I really need a versatile short-sleeved sweater. And apparently, ivory is a good go-to color for me. As I sat thinking about colors, I said to myself, "Yes, I have a vintage ivory cardigan, for the same reason. This is a good idea."

"Actually, I have two ivory cardigans."

"Oh... actually, I have four ivory cardigans."

Yes, there they are, hanging in my closet, sandwiched between a yellow cardigan on the right and a probably-60s-era stranded yoke ski pullover on the left. (And yes I admit, I do hang most of my sweaters for lack of drawer space, but I don't hang my hand knitted ones.) Each is similar yet different, all with their own perfect uses.

The bottom one has a completely sequined yoke, so it's really only for fancier occasions. The next one up is actually a shrug, and gets the most use out of them all (and is a batwing shape that my friend Elisa and I have studied so we can knit a similar one someday). The one on top of that is a lovely beaded one that works nicely over blouses or buttoned all the way up. And the top one of the bunch is also beaded, but a tighter fit, so it goes well over dresses without making me look dumpy.

I know I'm not alone out there with multiples of wardrobe favorites. Fess up! What do you have multiples of (and for very good reasons as well, naturally) in your closet?