FO: Cigarettes will kill you (Jane Wyman’s sweater, c. 1950s)
At last, another vintage knit finished for this year!
This pattern is the Jane Wyman sweater from Hollywood Knits.
I feel in love with pattern after a friend gifted me the book – what’s not to like about a novelty sweater with a bizarre motif?
Pattern review:
I have very mixed feelings about this pattern and the book in general. If you knitted the pattern as written, it would look nothing like Jane’s original. On the other hand, I would have never come across this design without the book.
I appreciate anyone who tries to replicate vintage designs for us modern knitters – but I think the author may have missed the mark with this pattern. If knitted as written, you are asked to add a crew neck, and a ribbed band to the sleeve edges (which looks awful on a dropped sleeve design IMHO).
Yarn review:
Knitpicks Stroll in Everglade Heather, my new favourite yarn! It’s so soft and smooshy, and lovely to knit with. I bought a few different colours in their last sale, and can’t wait to knit with it again! I used Palette in Fawn for the cigarette butts, and some random white merino for the sticks.
So what did I do instead? Read on fearless knitter…
Mods
- I was only getting 7.3 sts to the inch so cast on 123 sts for the size 40, and increased up to 145 at the bust
- Raised the neckline by half in inch. Started doing a garter edged on half the amount of stitches indicated, and then cast off the neck.
- Worked the sides of the next in a 2 stitch garter edge (that is the 2 sts on the neckline are always in knit stitch). Did decrease on every row for 6 rows, then decrease every 2nd row for 4 rows.
- Went back and did a single crochet edge around the neck to keep it firm.
- Added a small button closure on each side of the neck so I can slip it over my head
- Finished the sleeve edges with single crochet, and aggressively blocked them flat. I may get some similar coloured ribbon to try and make the edges more pert.
Overall?
Very happy with the result! All my vintage-ista friends love it, and I feel like it’s pretty darn close to the original (despite not being able to get rayon boucle yarn).
There are definitely some more changes I would make if I was to knit it again, such as lifting and shifting the motif right to make it sit better on my bust. I doubt I would knit it again though.