Swatching the shawl

I have tried a few bits of sewing this week, but of course whenever I automatically reach for my phone to take a snap to show Mum, it brings me up short. So it has felt safer to concentrate on knitting for a while. Even then, I don't fully trust my powers of concentration (drying a plate and putting it away - in the fridge - is just one example of why!) so for now I'm sticking to the low stakes effort of swatching a new knitting project. As this is going to require a few samples, it is keeping me occupied for a while.

I have picked up my historical knitting project, a shawl from this 1915 booklet.

Shawl and booklet

It is described as having a border of plain knitting and a centre "worked in a simple vest pattern". I have no idea what a vest pattern might be, but it is definitely simple - only four rows long, and worked in alternating blocks of three knit or purl stitches. What there is not, however, is any indication of tension. It's knitted on size 8 needles, which equate to 4mm/U. S. size 6, and was to be knitted in 'Capstan' wool.

4mm needles suggest DK yarn, and I found this 100% Blue Faced Leicester in my local wool shop, in a shade which seemed suitable for a teens era shawl.

Emu Gold in shade Slate Fell

Supplies were very limited, so I bought a skein in a different shade for swatching experiments. First, I knitted a stocking stitch swatch, just to check the gauge. It came out a little bit large once blocked, but that's not a problem for a shawl.

First swatch - almost no concentration required

Next, I knitted a sample using the stitches for the actual shawl - a plain border and a patterned centre. It soon became obvious that when I changed from knit to purl stitches, there was a gap.

Laddering to the left of the knit blocks

I found this article on how to fix the problem by knitting the first purl stitch with the yarn passed opposite way round the needle than normal.

Examples

It fixed the laddering, but seemed to transfer the problem from the first purl stitch to the last knit stitch instead, so I'm not sure if it's worth pursuing.

Wonky knit stitches instead of laddering

The stitches did even out a bit when blocked. I wasn't aiming for a specific size, I just stretched it what seemed a reasonable amount but not excessive.

This is the only shot which shows the wool colour accurately

The vest pattern is the same on both sides, just the columns are reversed.

Both sides of the swatch

The finished piece feels quite thick, especially when folded double like the illustration of the shawl. The yarn also feels thicker than any DK I have used previously, but that might be because it is wool rather than synthetic or mixed fibres. I couldn't find any information about Capstan yarn as far back as 1915, but it does seem to have been an Aran weight yarn from at least the 1960s. Certainly the name suggests sturdy knitwear for seafarers! Aran yarn on 4mm needles would surely have produced a very dense knit.

Having drawn a blank on 1915 yarn, I turned to Ravelry to see how other people are using my own yarn choice. There are currently three shawls knitted in Emu Gold on there, one knitted on 4mm needles and two knitted on 4.5mm. So my next step is to knit another patterned sample, but this time on 4.5mm needles. I can also try to improve my vest pattern knitting while I’m knitting it. Thank goodness I bought that extra skein!

Mum

Readers who are kind enough to visit this blog regularly (thank you) will know that my mum has been unwell for some time. She defied expectations by surviving the double pneumonia she developed in February, but it left her very frail and she had to move into a nursing home in April. Sadly, she died last week. I had visited her during the day, and she was weak but able to chat a little. It seems to have been very quick.

Mum, aged 21

Mum made the dress she is wearing above, and it was clearly a firm favourite - it appears in lots of photos in the family albums. That this blog exists at all is down to her. I would say that she taught me to sew but, apart from how to thread her (now my) Singer 99, I don't recall her ever sitting me down and teaching me something. Mum making clothes for herself or me was just part of my childhood, and I seem to have simply absorbed her skills by being around her as she sewed. There are no photos of Mum sewing, but this image which I found online brought back happy memories.

This will be familiar to anyone who had a mum who sewed

My interest in vintage dressmaking began with one of her old patterns, and her knowledge was invaluable when I was first navigating the world of unprinted tissue pieces and terrifyingly scant instructions.

My first vintage sewing project, many years ago

Mum always took an interest in what I was working on, and more than once I threw a troublesome project onto the back seat of my car and drove over to ask her advice. It always helped. Even when she was in the home, she was still asking about my sewing plans. It seems odd that my 1915 ensemble will be last project that I was able to discuss with her.

She did knit a few things for me when I was very small, but she wasn't really a knitter. However she absolutely loved the cardigan that I made for her, and wore it almost all the time. It’s good to know that I was able to pay her back even a tiny amount for everything she gave to me.

With Mum in (clockwise from top left) 1986, 1991, 2020 and 2024

Mum was 95 when she died, lived independently until last summer, drove until she was 93, was happily married for 66 years, travelled extensively, and remained interested in life and the world pretty much to the end. It was a good life, well lived, and I was hugely lucky to have her in mine for so long. I shall miss her enormously.

Remodelling

Much as I like my 1986 dress, I don't like it enough to need two of it. It was a complex pattern, and I had to regrade it by several sizes, so I made a mock-up before I started on the real thing. This turned out to fit reasonably well, and just binning it goes against what I’m trying to do with my sewing. Instead, I've decided to lean into the existing 1940s-ish elements of the design, and tweak it to make it even more retro.

Because it was only ever tacked together, it's easy to unpick where needed. The first change I want to make is simple, in fact I've already done it; replace the right-sides-together waist seams with a forties overlaid seam.

The new waist seam

Next is the waist fasten. The wide, elaborate, half belt at the back is a striking feature, but not remotely right.

Eighties yes, forties no

1940s dresses often had self-fabric tie belts.

Self fabric belts

Or ties attached in the side seams, like Simplicity 4463.

Just visible on view 2

Because the dress has its mini-eiderdown centre front panel, this is the style I'm going to use.

The area which needs most work is the sleeves and shoulders. Yes, 1940s dresses had defined shoulders, but not this defined.

You could rest a teacup on those shoulders

The only forties pattern I have with anything like such an extreme line is this one.

Sleeve flanges ahoy!

1930s and 40s sleeve heads sometimes had small darts.

The darts are visible on the plain version

But whether darted or not the effect was nearly always a smooth sleeve head, again like Simplicity 4463.

Not a gather in sight

The sleeves themselves were narrower as well.

A selection of sleeves on 1940 Vogue patterns

The new version will take some working out, but the sleeves of Butterick 3794 are so large that I should have plenty of fabric to play with.