Download the Vintage Turban Knitting Pattern

Cancer affects so many that I know I’m not alone in saying it’s a cause close to my heart. Having lost a mother and sister to cancer before old age had its way with them, then another sister and nephew contracting it recently, it’s been a hard one to ignore. I’m also not alone in finding knitting a consistent fallback for me in life, so it makes sense to use it to help a cause which strives to get rid of the reason why I’ve often needed that strength!

One in fifty women will develop ovarian cancer in their lifetime, so Target Ovarian Cancer are also asking you to inform fifty women of the symptoms of ovarian cancer and to raise at least £50. Check out their website for more details.

I’ll use this 1940s jumper with fair isle yoke that I’m working on at the moment as an example – as you can see you’ll obviously have a visual clue from the pattern picture so you’re not exactly working in the dark. It’s also fairly common for patterns from this era to suggest which colours you should use, although don’t feel you have to stick to their suggestions. This particular pattern suggests natural, black, blue and red which I’ve decided to stick to.

The fair isle pattern runs for 20 rows as follows:

1st row: K. thus, 2N, *3B, 2N; rep. from * to end of row
2nd row: P. thus, 2B, *3Bl, 2B; rep. from * to end of row.
3rd row: K. in Bl.
4th row: P. thus, 1R, (1Bl, 1R) 3 times, *3Bl, 1R, (1Bl,1R) 3 times; rep. from * to end of row
5th row: K. thus, (1Bl, 2R) twice, *2Bl,1R, 2Bl,2R, 1Bl, 2R; rep. from *, ending with 1Bl
6th row: P. thus, 3R, 1N, 3R, *1N, 1R, (1N, 3R) twice; rep. from * to end of row.
7th row: K. thus, 3N, 1B, 3N, *3B, 3N, 1 B, 3N; rep from * to end of row.

Now rep. the 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st rows in this order.

14th row: P. in N.
15th row: K. thus, 1R, 5N, *2R, 1N, 2R, 5N; rep. from *, ending with 1R
16th row: P. thus, 1R, 1Bl, 3R, 1Bl, *2R, 1Bl, 2R, 1Bl, 3R, 2Bl, rep. from *, ending with 1R.
17th row: K. thus, 3 Bl, 1B, *4Bl, 1B; rep. from *, ending with 3 Bl

Now rep. the 16th & 15th rows in this order.

20th row: P. in N.

I’ll assume that you’re familiar enough with knitting instructions to know that anything within two asterisks (* …. *) is taken as a group to be repeated. I looked at the rows with the most stitches per pattern repeat (row 5 for example), I could see that the pattern within the * … * spans a 10-stitch cluster, so I did a quick once-over of the other rows and sure enough they had the same amount. I whipped out the graph paper (actually I printed some out using spreadsheet software), marked out 20 rows for a single pattern set, plus a central panel of 20 squares (by charting two groups of pattern you get a better idea of what the overall pattern will look like), with a few either side for the intros & outros to the rows. Time to get out the colouring pencils and colour in each ‘stitch’ square per the instructions (apologies for the scruffy colouring and scribbled notes in my illustration). You’ll see I’ve not used any technical knitting chart symbols here, this is intended as a straightforward colour chart.

I’d decided to re-jig the pattern to size up the bust by a couple of inches (more on this another time) which in turn altered the rhythm of the pattern, so I needed to work out how many stitches I’d be left with either side of the main group and account for the colourwork accordingly. This is pretty straightforward to work out but you might need to take a couple of runs at it so have a spare sheet or two of graph paper to hand and don’t get frustrated if you don’t get it right first go. In some instances you might even end up with enough extra stitches to include an extra pattern repeat. If you’re making the size stated in the pattern and don’t need to make size alterations, you can stick to the patterning either side of the asterisks in the original pattern.

Of course you don’t absolutely need to do any charting at all if you’re not re-sizing, but it beats the hell out of working in the dark with a pattern you’re unfamiliar with, and if you make any mistakes you have a visual reference to see where you went wrong.

Like I say, strangely satisfying, and who knows, it might even encourage you to try out your own fair isle patterns …

The classic combination of 2-ply and 3.25mm needles was taken from Vogue Knitting No.35 (1949) and knitted up to a tension of 14 rows to the inch in a tiny moss-stitch … let’s just say it’s not the quickest thing I’ve ever knitted (although it still beats my 14-year-long pimped Vogue shirt), but it’s here in the world and I’m making the most of it.

My friend Sibilla took the picture round the back of a local ancient church where we then proceeded to have a crafty cig and a couple of miniatures before the vicar caught us.

Smug? Damn right.

In theory it looks pretty straightforward – the bottom half is knitted from left to right in a horizontal ridge (knit row, purl row, purl row, knit row), the back and front yokes are knitted vertically with increases on the front yokes to fit around the, fake (as I thought) pockets. I always do an initial sketch based on the measurements, tension and instructions from the original pattern, and from that I re-size it if necessary and create a new sketch … I followed my usual procedure in this case, but just couldn’t get my head around the top front yokes: the instructions show that a 3″ stretch on one side of both pieces is knitted in stocking stitch and I couldn’t work out from the picture where that should fit.

Writing it out now, it seems so obvious but I spent ages agonising over it, and was on the verge of writing this off as a pattern mistake and over-ruling it, creating my own version. Then I remembered one of my own rules – never forget to THOROUGHLY comb the ‘make-up’ instructions. I’d made the fatal mistake of assuming I’d find out all I needed to know about the anatomy of this jumper just by looking at the picture which meant I just quickly gone over the most vital part of how to actually put it together. Are you one step ahead of me? Yes my friends, the pockets weren’t fake, the stocking stitch edges in the top yokes were the pocket backs.

I’m feeling pretty stupid now I’m writing this as it seems so obvious, but it stands as a valuable lesson to other vintage knitters … don’t get complacent and make assumptions about the designs you’re knitting from, vintage patterns constantly amaze me with their little details and surprises. Read the pattern once, then turn down the music/TV/dog and re-read it without any distractions, make sure you’ve got a complete understanding of how the garment is put together.

Here’s another tip for free: don’t try and work it out at 9 o’clock at night, half a bottle of wine down, with Queens of the Stone Age shouting at you in the background (I mean on the iPod, they weren’t actually in the kitchen arguing with me). I’m writing this in the morning with a bit of Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle playing quietly and a clear head, and it seems blatantly and embarrassingly obvious now (heh, sheepish sigh).

As I uploaded a P&B Cap & Bolero pattern yesterday I had a nagging feeling I’d seen it before somewhere – then I remembered that I’d knitted the cap from it a couple of years ago.

Can’t remember what yarn I knitted it with (stupidly didn’t record it on Ravelry), but I think it was a straightforward angora, and used about 75g. It was pretty quick to knit too, although those bobbles can be a bit fiddly. Haven’t aired it in public yet – you need the right hairstyle for this and I haven’t got round to perfecting the whole look.

The bolero’s rather lovely too – fancy a go? You can buy the pattern here …

Excelana 4-ply

Choosing the right yarn to knit up your vintage pattern takes time and effort and most of the enquiries I get are about which wool to use, so I got geekily excited when I heard that vintage knit queen, designer and author Susan Crawford was about to launch her own brand of wool to accompany her Stitch In Time series of books. I caught up with her at its grand unveiling at Unravel in Farnham – she’d only received the first batch that week and was thrilled with the result. Me too when I got it home … I knitted up a sample to find that it combines softness with strength beautifully and lives up to its description: soft handling, great stretch and excellent stitch definition.

Excelana is produced in conjunction with Devon-based John Arbon of Fibre Harvest and is 100% British wool, spun from the fleece of the North Devon Exmoor Blueface and the Blue Faced Leicester (I love sheep names). At present only the 4-ply is available, but DK, Aran and a unique 3-ply are also in the pipeline, with the promise of more shades to accompany the existing vintage-inspired palette of eight colours.

You can read more about it and place an order through through the Excelana website or through Susan Crawford’s Vintage site.

Holstgarn Supersoft 2-ply

I came across Holstgarn Supersoft, a rather interesting-looking and reasonably-priced Danish 100% wool 2-ply, so I sent off for the shade cards and it turns out they’re rather lovely, excellent vintage shades extremely suitable for vintage knitting. Can’t remember how I discovered it but it might possibly be something to do with my ridiculous obsession with Danish crime thriller Forbrydelsen – I’m not alone in my fascination with the heroine’s minimalist approach to her wardrobe, ie: one beautiful Faroese woollen jumper. Anyway, the Holstgarn looks rather promising so I’m planning to experiment with it at some point in the future.

I’m thinking a trip to Copenhagen might be an essential part of my wool research too, you know, just to see it in the flesh before I sample it. Any excuse for a holiday eh?

Home Notes April 1935

I was lucky enough to come across a number of early 1900s and 1930s Home Notes magazines recently. Loathe as I am to part with them, I know they’ll just end up sitting wrapped up in cellophane in my vintage knitting/magazine collection, so I’ve loaded them up onto the site. Of course, that couldn’t just be the end of it … I sat browsing through them and realised the descriptions were getting longer and longer as I got lost in these fascinating snapshots of a complicated era, so my explorations have ended up here instead.

Home Notes was a women’s magazine including fashion features, stories, recipes, advice and knitting patterns … there’s not a lot of information out there, but from what I can gather it possibly ran from the early 1890s – 1960s, hitting its readership peak in the 1950s.

I’m presently lost in the April 1935 edition – the magazine flaunts its debs and celebs like the the 1930s depression had never happened and it’s an odd mixture of ‘ladies, know your place’ and female pioneering spirit. An advert for Ovaltine is endorsed by the actress Ida Lupino, who went on to be the only woman director in Hollywood in the ’40s. An article by Dorothy Crosbie is entitled ‘I Don’t Envy Today’s Debs’ with the byline ‘Miss Modern’s struggle for a good time is too much like hard work‘, and concludes ‘Now Miss 1935. I want you to look at yourself and take stock of your assets. Are you pretty, smart, well-groomed, intelligent and socially presentable? Yes? Well then, why in the world is it necessary for you to indulge in this breath-taking pursuit of anything male?‘

Leonora Corbett

Hindsight makes some features more poignant – this was after all the build-up to WWII – a picture of actress Leonora Corbett learning to fly at Brooklands, decked out in pilot gear, reminds you of the other society gals who learnt to fly for fun in the ’30s and then went on to serve in the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) in the ’40s (Diana Barnato-Walker and Lettice Curtis among them).

A witty article ‘Gardens & Gardeners’ written by Beverley Nichols sent me scurrying back to one of his books ‘Merry Hall’ – Nichols is a barely-remembered name now, but was famous society writer at the time best known for his gardening book trilogies, 3 of which were illustrated by Rex Whistler.

Lady Smiley (Cecil Beaton’s sister) endorses Pond’s face cream and is described as being ‘happiest in her garden, just playing with her baby son, cutting flowers for the house, and generally leading a care-free, fresh-air existence. In Town you may meet her in the Park, with her favourite dachshund.’ Could’ve been written about me ho ho.

Then, of course, incredible knitting patterns, the beautiful dress and vertical striped blouse from the cover being two prime examples. The earlier editions don’t boast any knitting patterns but do give a valuable insight into genteel journalism during World War I.

Home Notes July 1916

The July 1916 issue contains a regular feature ‘A Mother’s Letters To Her Son’, which are incredibly sad and moving pieces written from the perspective of a mother to her unborn son:

“When you are grown up, little unknown Son, all this will be history : the heat and passion and agony of these two years of conflict will have died away, and only the cold dissecting sanity of history will be left, and we shall be able to see where our national mistakes lay“.

Heartbreaking to think they had to go through two more years of slaughter before they were able to relegate it to that cold dissecting sanity.

An article called ‘Laughing In The Wrong Place’ is apparently written ‘for girls at the “awkward age” by a wounded soldier‘ … you’d be hard pressed to find a stiffer upper lip: ‘I’ve been in bed for ages with a rotten head-wound, but it’s nearly well now, thank you‘. You could quite easily substitute the word ‘head-wound’ for ‘cold’ and be none the wiser. Then a couple of small paragraphs about the crowds who come to honour and respect the war-wounded as they arrive at Charing Cross with red roses, a custom I’d never heard of.

My ramblings don’t do these magazines justice – they are incredible pieces of history and I’m almost regretting my decision to part with them as I write this … snap them up fast before I change my mind!

Heavens it’s parky, winter is well and truly here – who said you can’t keep warm and look stylish? With that in mind I’ve put together a small selection of my favourite vintage winter knitting patterns. No-one could accuse me of being a sporty type and I prefer the apres to the ski, so there are some cosy jumpers from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s which I can see looking very chic in that little cabin in Gstaad someone’s bound to invite me to one day (I can wait).

My favourites are the ribbed La Laine Lady’s Sweater complete with frolicking reindeer and the cheeky Reveille Snow Girls designs. The Viyella Skating Outfit’s pretty spectacular too, although I’d have to knit myself some kind of complementary fair isle rear padding – I’ve only sported skates the once and still bear the scars.

Looks like we’re in for a cold few months, so wander over to the Vintage Winter Knitwear section and help yourself to some winter style, vintage style.

There are 10 branches throughout France (and 6 in Japan) – I’ve only visited this and the one in Toulouse so I can’t compare with the others, but for me this particular shop has all the excitement and buzz of walking into a small hip record store. Customers excitedly discussing the possibilities suggested by gorgeous knitted garments hanging next to the vast array of yarns, rows and rows of buttons, beads, ribbons, feathers, accessories … a tricoteur’s heaven.

They solve the storage problem of large stock to fairly small shop ratio by displaying the yarn in skeins on the wall, then once the customer’s made a choice an assistant goes to the back of the store where the bulk of the stock’s kept to wind it into balls. I even managed to persuade my non-knitting friend Sibilla to buy some gorgeous powder blue alpaca for a scarf … now all I need to do is teach her to knit!

So this was my haul – 6 x 50g balls of yarn to feed my stash-monster. Haven’t got a plan for them yet but I love the cool tones and the yarn itself has got a great story behind it: it’s recycled (38% wool, 22% cotton, 40% ‘other’!) and came with a useful information card about the source – it’s made from  unwanted jumpers and knitted goods donated to charity which are sorted into colours and fibre, then unpicked and broken down. The fibre is then then re-spun, atomised and washed … no dye is used, the colour you see is a result of the broken down fibres. Fascinating stuff eh?

Paris has had a long love affair with all things vintage and there’s plenty to love – decades of top-notch elegant fashion and design to plunder, but typically Parisians have tended to aim for the top end, so it’s nice to see some jumbly vintage shops popping up. After a steer from Sibilla and much elbowing in Freepstar I surfaced with a couple of great vintage dresses for 10 euros each, a cute red vanity case from down the road (which is going to double up as a knitting or crochet bag) and a rockabilly red gingham shirt from Kiliwatch.

Our last morning found us at Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves where I picked up the excellent Marie France magazine from February 1952 (see post header) for 1 euro – special knitting edition natch.

Pretty good shopping overall, and my love intact – adieu till next year Paris.