Spot the difference

Look beyond the shape, colour and styling

Actually, it's a trick question. Barring one difference in construction technique, and one change which may have been a typo, they are exactly the same pattern.

I came across 1284 in a charity shop, and bought it as a perfect example of a fitted 1950s cardigan (according to Ravelry, it was published in January 1952). A while later I spotted 1415 online, and bought it as a perfect example of a looser, more boxy, 1960s cardigan (again, thanks to Ravelry for the publication date of May 1960). It was only when the latter arrived that I realised that they used the same slipped stitch pattern.

The first clue

The fact that both patterns could be knitted in the same wool should have been a bit of a hint, but when I looked at the measurements and wool requirements, I realised that they were exactly the same.

Different layout, but the same details

Intrigued, I then compared the pattern instructions line by line. They are identical for the back, fronts, and front bands. Only the sleeves differ. 1415 is knitted in the way I'm familiar with - the cuff ribbing is cast on and knitted on the smaller needles, then larger needles are used to knit the sleeve. (The number of stitches is also reduced at the end of the ribbing.)

Sleeve instructions for 1415

For 1284, the body of the sleeve is knitted on the larger needles first. Then the smaller needles are used to pick up and knit stitches at the bottom of the sleeve (knitting into some twice to create the extra stitches) and the ribbing is knitted.

Sleeve and cuff instructions for 1284

The eagle-eyed may have noticed one other difference. On 1415, the sleeve width is increased from 29 to 45 stitches by adding two stitches on every sixth row, for all three sizes. But on 1284 the increase is on every sixth row for the 34" bust version, but every fourth row for the two larger sizes.

The only real difference between the patterns

By my calculations, this means that whereas the 34" version of 1284 would reach 45 stitches wide on row 47, the 36" and 38" versions would get there after 33 rows, and therefore the sleeves would be a fair bit shorter! My guess is that this was a typo in the original, which was corrected in the new version.

I already knew that dress pattern companies reissued patterns if a style came back into fashion, but I wasn't aware that the same happenend with knitting patterns - albeit restyled to give a more contemporary look. However, none of this explains how the same cardigan looks such a different shape in the two illustrations. I wonder if there was some sort of peg or clip on the back of the brown version, pulling it into the desired fitted line? Photoshop, 1950s-style perhaps!