Today I finished a little teddy I’ve named Albeart. (pronounced like French with a silent t) I knit him from cashmere finished with antique shoe button eyes and a silk ribbon. He was made up from an Iva Rose.com bought pattern, Weldon’s, No. 233. “Easy Toys to Make” which looks like it’s from the 1920’s. He was a pretty easy knit but the seaming was tedious. The bear is lined so no stuffing shows through. I slowly sewed on a piece of him here and there over the week. I used little wood cut outs stuffed in his feet for stability. I just love this little bear and hope my baby will too! I think he will stay on a shelf up high though till I know baby won’t try to chew off the eyes.

Hello everyone! I know I have neglected this blog for the last year or so. I have finally found some time again to knit. I have taken off time from making doll clothes so I can make clothes for my little baby boy that still lives inside me. In about 20 weeks he should make an appearance! Of course when you are pregnant the pregnancy police come out in full force. My step mom and own mother think that I shouldn’t be knitting for babies as they are allergic to wool. I googled and found little information. I did read that the quality of the wool and softness makes allergies less likely. I knit with cashmere which is a goat, so does that even count? Anyone have any input?

Well anyways, the first thing I knit for baby was a diamond pattern blanket from a 1950’s pattern from the Bear Brand Baby Book, Vol 339. It has a very classic elegant look to it. I thought it appropriate for either gender of baby. I can’t believe a real little baby will be snuggled in this shortly!

The Blythe world has sucked me up into a vortex, brainwashed by these large eyes. I have only been knitting for dollies all this month. I have cranked out 8 sweaters, 4 for Lulu and 4 for sale on etsy! Well at least these were knit from a vintage patttern. Check out my lil’ etsy shop I opened up: BlytheDolluxe.etsy.com

I am hoping to be a good girl and bring my husbands grey cashmere sweater pieces with me on Thanksgiving holiday to visit family. All I need to do is seam it up! I thought I hadn’t picked it up for almost a year but I’ve only been knitting for a year!!

Yarn Used: 3 ply sapphire blue 100% cashmere hand twisted from 1 ply cashmere from ColormartUK for me. I believe I used about 100g but don’t quote me on this. I had two large balls of cashmere either 50g each or a little over.

Gauge & Needle Size: Ribbing on size 3 needles, lace on size 5.

Time Spent Knitting: Though I procrastinated the finishing of picking up stitches for the kneck and sleeves, I doubt this was more than 3-4 weeks work. Lace knits up really fast when it is a simple pattern like this.

New Skills Learned: The sweater was knit basically in one piece. You start with the back ribbing, work up the back, cast off for the neck, add some for sleeves, cast those off, add more stitches around the neck again and down the front you go. One weekend day I really got going and finished the whole front in one day! Pattern was pretty easy that I think someone who wanted to make this larger could keep the proportions and just add repeats of the pattern tot he width and height after swatching.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: Lace pattern selvage edge was incorrect in instructions. Luckily earlier in this pattern book there is instructions for this lace pattern. Another problem was once you cast off for the neck you are left with no selvage edge on the lace. (The selvage edge is garter stitch.) Now that could be fine but there is yo’s at the end of the pattern. Basically I improvised with a odd way of increasing by putting yarn forward as if I were to yo at the end of a row but knitting into it on the next row right away. It made a long string of knitting but was fine to pick up stitches into for the neckline.

Another improvisation was doing the sleeve ribbing by picking up stitches on double pointed needles, though the pattern did not specify to do so. Unfortunately I only had alluminum needles around in the size needed. I quickly noticed though the same size, I knit tighter on alluminum. I adjusted by knitting a bit looser and everything came out a’ok. The sleeves maybe took an hour each side. It really made me less fearful of circular knitting on dpn’s. I’m almost ready for my first pair of socks!

One other note. If anyone ever knits this up and finished off the sleeves, when they say “cast off loosely” , they sure mean it! I cast off with size 8 needles and no pulling at all. The sleeves just fit and worked better after blocking. I learned this after casting off once with size 5 needles. I had arm holes the size of baguette! Live and learn!

In the future: I learned I hate aluminum needles. I did the lace on aluminum. They seemed so slippery, heavy and the paint finish was chipping off on a new set of needles. In the future I will try to stick to bamboo needles for knitting.

Also, I think for this airy of lace with so many yo’s I won’t use such a softly twisted cashmere. I’m not disapointed with the finished product though. It’s soft as a babies butt and the color is royal.

Yarn Used: 3 ply cashmere, approx. 3.5 (50g) balls, on size 1 & 3 needles.

Time Spent Knitting: Started 1/16/06, Ended 2/22/06

New Skills Learned: This is the first time in a pattern I have been asked to increase stitches along the last rib row. It’s a great skill to learn since so many sweaters ask you to increase stitches after the rib row.

Another first was seaming up sleeves that are not raglan but seam up cast off areas or decreases to each other as well as shoulder area having knit rows being sewn to knit columns. I actually was a little gusty and started into it with out directions. Intuition in knitting is a great thing because I figured out I was doing it right all with my own inclination.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: Pattern again is very vague about decreases made in the sleeve and shoulder areas. The patterned wanted me to decrease by “k2tog at begining of every row”. I found it much better to make paired decreases on the knit rows then do purl rows even. It came out to the same amount of decreases in the same amount of rows, just neater looking.

I’m pretty amazed all in all this sweater came out and fit me exactly. Some things I notice about vintage patterns from this cardigan is that the waistline falls higher than we’re used to with modern fitting clothes. Also the sleeves are a little snug, though comfortable. I streached them out on a toilet paper roll and they are comfortable now. I have heard that women of old days have very little arms due to little excersize.

I am so thrilled with the buttons I ended up with. They are 1/2 inch dark silver with a geometric flower design. The beige oatmeal cashmere really called for a muted color button. Even black seemed to bold when testing around buttons.

All I can say now is, Marc Jacobs, Rebecca Taylor & Nanette Lepore; eat your heart out!

To see close up photos of this sweater, click here and here.

Well folks, here it is. I am very proud of the finished product. I think the yarn color is a perfect dusty rose. It looks as it if was knit up seventy years ago but here it is today a product of my vintage hands. I displayed this on an adorable vintage childrens hanger with a painted cat on it. Can we say awwwww!

Yarn Used: 3 ply pink 100% cashmere hand twisted from 1 ply cashmere from ColormartUK for me. This loose twist works A’ok with stockinette stitch.

Time Spent Knitting: Started 12/23/05, Finished 1/8/06.

New Skills Learned: This item starts with a mitre edge which is basically an increase in sts at bottom front corners. The edging also has a mitred edge. This allows the edge seams to come together neetly at an angle.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: I notice that vintage patterns do not have decreases one stitch before the end of a row. K2tog’s are often at the very end of a row. When seaming items you don’t have a neat row of slanting decreases to pull my mattress stitch from. You seam from a pretty raw edge, if you get what I mean. I modified this edge in this pattern. What I have learned with knitting is that sometimes you have to be gutsy and go with intuition. Here are the changes I made. It worked out great I think, through the neckline almost looks like it has small darts since I seam further in from the edge. It’s just so much easier to seam this way though that it’s worth it.

For anyone doing a pattern with scalloped edges, brace yourself to be patient while heming all the edges. It took me all night after work to hem. I hemed using a duplicate stitch but picking up a purl bump from the opposite side of the work ever few columns.

This bonnet is part of a matching set that goes with a baby cardigan. Comming out of the same 1941 Monarch magazine as the booties done earlier this month, they match pretty well. Bonnet ties closed with silk ribbon. Though I am no expert at ribbon work, I basically learned how to tie ribbon like this from vintage “Ribbon Art” magazines. There is reproduction book on this subject called Old-Fashioned Ribbon Art . I reccomend them highly to learn how to accent vintage garments with ribbon and lace.

Yarn Used: 3 ply pink 100% cashmere hand twisted from 1 ply cashmere from ColormartUK for me. Bonnet took roughly a little less than one 50g ball of cashmere.

Gauge & Needle Size: 8 stitches per inch on size 2 needles.

Time Spent Knitting: I believe this took about a week working off and on mostly evenings during the busy holiday season.

New Skills Learned: I had never made a scalloped edge on a knit item before. I love it so much. It is such a delicate accent. Basically it is just a row of yo holes. Then you fold and seam across that line of yo holes. Bonnet was done on two needles then seamed up the back. From the shape of the bonnet before seaming, I had no idea what I would get as a finished project. Every new item I make I learn more and more about how garments are constructed.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: Decreases again were done on the exact edge of a row. I did a perfect job of seaming though. That decrease edge is one of the spiral decreases at the back crown of the bonnet.

Though I am still young and am waiting to have a baby for a while, I am still hopelessly attracted to cute little vintage baby items. (Yes, call me crazy) The nostalgic feeling these little clothes give is so cozy. I rationalize that I will have more time now to knit these things up then years down the road when pregnant. When I found endlessly wonderful baby knits in a 1941 Monarch baby pattern magazine, how could I resist? I also have a penchant for luxury. Cashmere gives these vintage baby clothes heirloom quality, liable to be passed down through generations. (Well, I can hope at least!) I trimmed this off with cream colored silk ribbon that I bought spools of once. I sewed a zig zag stitch on the edge to give it some accent color. I have quite the ribbon fetish lately thinking of all the ways it can accent knit garments.

Yarn Used: 3 ply pink 100% cashmere hand twisted from 1 ply cashmere from ColormartUK for me. Booties took roughly a little less than one 50g ball of cashmere.

Gauge & Needle Size: 8 stitches per inch on size 2 needles.

Time Spent Knitting: Each bootie took a day. I roughly estimate about 5 hours each.

New Skills Learned: I have never made a sock or bootie ever. This was a great introduction. Bootie is knit on two needles. You basically knit down to the ankle, turn work knitting back and forth in the center of the bootie. This turned area becomes the top part of the foot. You then pick up stitches along the sides of this long middle part working down the sides of the foot. When done you seam down the back.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: I acutally had no big problems with this pattern. I do wish the decreases made in the heal were not done at the very edge of the row. This made seaming a little more frusterating. Perhaps my next bootie project I can modify this area in the pattern.

My first real garment was done in October from the “Vintage Knits” book by Sarah Dallas. I was imediately drawn to this lacy camisole. I picked up the specified yarn from Rowan at an online yarn store. I bought yarn for two of them, though so far I have only completed one. Since it was October I was in a fall mood with yarn colors called “Spice” accented by “Mocha”. When I started this projected I started regretting yarn color. I vowed to never go “yarn crazy”, picking out unique colors that have no real place in actual clothing. I was thinking I was going a little “yarn crazy” for a while till I finished. The accenting brown picot edge with complimenting brown silk ribbon brought the piece together. Unfortunately I discovered cotton is not that warm for Fall. This piece has sat in my closet these last months. I guess all new knitters live and learn! Cotton is for spring garments with spring colors! Well, I’ll just have to rock the “Spice” in March.

Yarn Used: Rowan “Cotton Glace” in colors “Spice” & “Mocha Chocolate”. Yarn used was 4 and 1 ball respectively.

Time Spent Knitting: This garment took about two weeks to complete while not working a day job. I spent a good four hours a day knitting. I think I finished quickly because I was anxious to have my first garment knit up. I was also thrown off a few days because my picot edge frusterations.

New Skills Learned: The mocha picot edge was a challenge. Pattern asks you to bind off sts., then cast on some more. These extra cast on sts. result in a bump or picot at the edge of your work. At first I used a cable cast on. This resulted in a bulkier picot that still curled my stockinette stitch edges. I tested on another area using single twist cast on. This worked much much better and resulted in a smaller more delicate picot. I had to take out some picot edging and catch my live stitches. I think this helped me learn both how to do the edging but also work with live stitches. I very well could have ruined this piece if I didn’t catch them correctly. The picot edge looked much better after some gentle ironing.

Frusterations or changes / clarification made to pattern: I wish the pattern would have told me which single cast on method to use for the picot edge. When doing straps, I also gave up on single cast on as I just could not knit the first row from them neatly. I broke yarn and basically did a double cast on, then picked up knitting from middle section of bust. Another slight change in the pattern was that there was two to many yo holes in the under bust area. It would have been fine if I did not choose to add ribbon. The pattern did not call for ribbon under the bust but I thought it looked much better with it. With ribbon going in and out, the ribbon would have ended up exiting on the outside of the garment. Two yo holes were so close to the seam I just sewed them in when I seamed up the garment.