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This is another beautiful 1940s pattern from my own collection and the third vintage knit I sized up for myself. Though the design looks complicated, the whole jumper is knitted in moss stitch, and the criss-cross pattern is achieved by threading the coloured yarn through the purl stitches. The pattern asks for UK no.9 needles which in metric 3.75mm needles, and originally uses 3 ply yarn, but based on the needle size and tension given, I bought a 4 ply cone of lambswool from

Ever since I made a turban from a 1940s pattern ( Sewing a 1940s turban from a dress ) , I thought it would look great as a knitted version for colder weather. This sparked the idea to write a knitting pattern for one, which in turn set me off on a journey researching stitch patterns, relearning the importance of gauge, tracking down a tech editor and organising my first ever test knit group. The original sewing pattern had the 'tails' of the turban double sided, so no matter

This beautiful 1940s knitting pattern is from my own personal collection and is the second vintage pattern I've sized up. The original pattern asks for white boucle yarn and embroidery wool in three different shades of fuchsia pink. I didn't have any boucle yarn in my stash, but had a discontinued slub yarn called Wendy Satin Look. It's a beautiful pale blue yarn with a satin sheen to it. The yarn is made up of 34% cotton, 32% viscose, 30 % acrylic, and 4% nylon, and I thoug

Like many knitters, I have a stash of yarn without labels with no idea what the ply is or how many yards or metres there are left, especially if its left over from a previous project. To work out the ply of your yarn, head over to my post https://www.ultimatepinupvintage.com/post/wraps-per-inch-how-to-find-out-the-ply-of-your-yarn This blog post has come about because I have set myself my own personal curriculum to learn how to write knitting patterns. Using Kate Atherley’s b

Like so many knitters and crocheters, I have a stashes of yarn squirrelled away in boxes and bags in multiples corners of the house. Inevitably, labels get damaged or lost and then you end up with a pile of yarn and no idea what ply it is. Ply is the term used to describe the thickness of the yarn, which can be very thin such as cobweb/lace weight, all the way up to super bulky thick yarn.

Mrs Sew and Sew's guide from the 1940's, reknitting with wool from old garments The other day, I managed to get 585 grams of cotton yarn for just £1.10. It took me several days to get that amount of yarn; it would have been quicker and easier just to buy the skeins from my local haberdashery or online, however at the time of posting, one 20g ball of cotton DK yarn was on sale for £1.08, so to get the similar amount would have cost me over £30. So how did I get it so cheaply?