Free Pattern Friday: Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I’ve been rather busy this week, so busy it wasn’t until attempting to post this week’s free pattern I noticed my site was down. Well, not ‘down’; I share server space with Mr. Angry Jim and due to some hierarchy glitch his site kept popping up whenever folks attempted to visit mine. Some kind person on Ravelry sent me a note about it, indicating the issue’d been going on since at least Thursday (and due to silliness on my part I accidentally deleted the message; do write back please!).

All is well now, and I certainly hope those who were redirected to Angry Jim’s site poked around a bit and enjoyed themselves. Also thank you to Site5, the server host who I will now plug after answering my frantic questions, LIVE, at 2 AM like it was perfectly normal. I probably interrupted someone’s Warcraft raid but they jumped right on fixing the problem.

I’ve often wondered if it’s not fear of technical difficulties that keeps many people from knitting vintage. The idea of looking at a pattern that assumes you have proficiency in intermediate knitting skills or will adventurously plunge into the unknown and potentially incomplete could make many a novice knitter nervous. Man, the alliteration’s been out of control this week.

There’s also the ‘trade-off’ of time invested in a garment vs. the satisfaction of completion. Most vintage patterns with their wee gauges and fiddly attention to detail scare away all but knitters who love the process and history nerds (a fine Venn overlap in my opinion). It’s true that finer gauge is part of the ‘vintage look’ of many knits; these garments were intended to be worn until the wearer outgrew them and the initial time creating them reflected the long-term investment in usage. However, the past has always had room for frippery and fad, from the ultra-balloon sleeves of the Regency period to the Hammer pants of the 90s and….uh, today apparently.

So it makes sense there were beginner, quick-knit, and chunky patterns of every era. In an attempt to get everyone to knit more old-timey goodness I’ve posted chunky knits from the 20s (2-Hour Sweater), 30s (3-Hour Sweater), and now the 40s (one guess how long this one will take).

(Pattern given for the one on the left.)

It’s sort of like seeing an 8-bit version of the period’s fashion- blockier but still holding the era’s basic shape. This pattern uses a twisted stitch to give the appearance of a lacier fan stitch without the wide repeat pattern fan stitches usually require. Neato! This would be an excellent project to start now and have ready for the end of August, and the best part is you wouldn’t have to be a speed knitter to have it done by then!

The shoulders on this baby are out of control, but no pattern is given in the entire book for shoulder pads. As this is a cardigan, it’s quite likely the shoulder poofery comes from the garment underneath and not the cardigan itself. Still, if the shoulders aren’t fluffy enough for your liking, several other patterns on this site have knit-in shoulder padding, and a sewn shoulder pattern can be found at Casey’s Elegant Musings.

You can also take grosgrain or another heavier ribbon about 1″-2″ wide, cut a piece 9″-12″ long (depending on how ruffly you want it; longer = rufflier) and fold it in half lengthwise, sewing the ends together to form a loop. Turn the seam to the center bottom. You have a rectangle approximately 1″-2″ by 4.5″-6″. Sew a running stitch through both layers at one long end of the ribbon and pull to approximately 4″-4.5″. Sew the edge firmly, and sew the shoulder pad to the armhole with the center of the pad at the shoulder seam. Voila! A variation on this is folding the ribbon into knife pleats, but I think you’d need 16″ of ribbon or longer for that to end up with 4″ of shoulder pad.

As usual, click on the images for a larger version and let me know if you have any questions/issues.