9 Dec 2020

I made a four-strand knotted cord (“A Wide Flat Cord with Diagonal Stripes”, from the chapter on Cords, Tassels and Fringes in my 1930s book of needlecraft) from scrap DK wool to tie the waist, as I didn’t have any suitable ribbon. The book describes it as being “especially suitable for girdles” as it is flat - it’s stretchier and less stiff than a woven braid, and makes a surprisingly good belt.

The neck is supposed to be tied with ribbon as well, but I inserted a snap fastener, as I suspect that modern health and safety advice flinches at the thought of knotting a ribbon round the baby’s throat where the baby might catch its fingers and tug at it…

You definitely can’t detect the colour change between the collar and bodice fronts (which were knitted in the two different wools), let alone between the bodice front and back.

29 Nov 2020

Right, I think the sleeve fits. A few notes as to which line of the pattern repeat you ought to be on when you reach which line of the decreases would have been helpful here (as would stitch counts for the decreases, but to be fair when the pattern is increasing and decreasing too and you end up leaving the pattern stitches at either end of the row worked plain to make things simpler, any stitch count for any given line in the pattern might not agree with what I was doing in any case Anyway, it all lined up in groups of 2 and 3 for the final row, so I assume I did it right…. on my second attempt.)

Presumably the sleeve head is a little taller relative to the armhole than the original (as we took 6 rows out of the armhole), but it doesn’t seem any too large; the pattern pulls in horizontally quite a bit.

28 Nov 2020

I knitted all the way up 4 inches of sleeve, cast off three times at the beginning of three successive rows, then checked the number of remaining stitches and found that I only had thirty-something when I was supposed to be reducing down from 47!
After ripping all the way back to the cuff, I found that the increases there were fine, and that after working the start of the pattern I still had 47 stitches, and that the sleeve still looked mysteriously straight (despite the cuff only being 31 stitches wide). So I have no idea what went wrong. Possibly I was simply counting the number of stitches on row 11 of the pattern, which is the slipped-stitch row that is followed by an equal number of increases?

At any rate, I now have to knit the entire sleeve again.

26 Nov 2020

I re-knitted the right front several times (confused by the impression that I was working on the left front) and eventually had to knit it all again from the waist up. This would of course have been my opportunity to redo the bodice in the new wool, but I didn’t….

I re-knitted the shoulder decreases on the back in order to insert some ‘wraps’ into the turns, because they were leaving too large holes. This would of course have been my opportunity to insert an extra couple of rows into the back before the shoulders, but I didn’t; I came to the conscious conclusion that because the back shaping takes place over six rows instead of two/three for the front pieces, it must inherently start sooner.

After all that, I could have embarked on really re-knitting the left front, but I decided just to make up the garment with the shoulder seams falling to the back of the neck anyway.

I hadn’t realised you were actually supposed to thread ribbon through the collar and knot it round the baby’s neck to close the jacket; I assumed the holes were decorative!

24 Nov 2020

The new ball definitely is slightly creamier in colour, but, at least by lamplight, if you had to guess where the colour change took place you’d probably assume that it was the waistband, given the existing difference of intensity between the twisted stitch pattern on the skirt and the moss stitch….

I completed the back, trying to apply the same height modifications that I used on the front, and discovered that it seemed to be at least four rows too short when compared to the left front when I tried to fit them together - much to my confusion, given that if anything I’d probably omitted the final 2-row reduction before the shoulder shaping.
I went over the pattern calculating overall row numbers (which restart in the final part of the bodice pattern as written) in case the fronts were intended to be longer than the backs to ensure the shoulder seam aligned with the back of the neck, but as far as I can make out both front and back should have the same row count.

Then I had the idea of checking the back against the right front, which appeared to fit, implying that the two fronts are different lengths, and probably that I omitted one of my ‘edits’ when knitting the second (left) front piece. Except that they seem to be the same up to the neck opening, and there really isn’t an awful lot of scope for reduction above that row (row 44); there are hardly any straight sections in the remaining front!

Edit: the back piece is 5" from the start of the waistband to the top of the shoulder (plus 6½" in the skirt giving the required 11½). One front piece is perhaps 5 1/8" - the other is a good 5½".

22 Nov 2020

I can probably finish the waistband using the current ball of wool, but haven’t a hope of doing the back bodice as well. I’m not sure how much the colour change will show.

I suppose theoretically I could unravel the front bodice pieces (which only take about a day each) and re-knit in the ‘new’ wool….

20 Nov 2020

I switched to the full-length size 9 needles for the back section (122 stitches). Which is ridiculous, because after all this is only half a baby-sized garment!
I probably could have kept cramming the stitches on to the short needles, but it really shows just how much extra width there is in this gathered/pleated skirt.

19 Nov 2020

Second front complete with same modifications.
Omit 4 rows in straight section between 11th and 20th rows (at row 16, reset counter to 20)
Omit 4 rows in straight section between 31st and 44th rows (at row 40, reset counter to 44)
Omit 2 rows in the ‘work without shaping’ section before top of shoulder (I think that is row 51->53, but I messed up and lost row count while reknitting both times, so am not absolutely certain!)

The slow part of this is definitely knitting the patterned skirt; the bodice can be done in an evening, especially with ten rows out of 55 omitted….

Only 20g of wool left. The sleeves may have to be done using a different ball of not-too-dissimilar white 2ply - I’m sure I can find one.

16 Nov 2020

Completed up to top of right front. Total height is 12½" instead of 11½" required by pattern; I get 10 rows/inch which implies that I need to lose 10 rows from the bodice, preferably spread out throughout the straight sections.
I note that the sleeves are set in gathered anyway, so reducing the sleeve head may not be required…

Width at underarm is 5" for 38 stitches, but this includes overlapping fronts; width of back is 70sts at underarm, which gives predicted width of 9.2". That should be on target for an overall chest size of 19".

15 Nov 2020

Completed up to waist of right front. It may be a bit big (tension is fine over pattern but moss stitch border is crinkled), but goodness knows when the baby is going to get it, so maybe that’s just as well.

Thirteen holes - 14 pattern repeats?