Ordered

[atherleisure]

The yarn to finish the 1921 bathing ensemble is on order. So is yarn for a 1930’s bathing suit that I found while looking at 1920’s patterns. I’m hoping it will be more flattering than the very unflattering 1939 suit I made a few years ago. I couldn’t quite decide what color of yarn to buy so I bought two colors and will use the one that doesn’t become a bathing suit for a sweater.

I was looking at the gauge of 7 st./in. on size US1 needles and the pattern seller’s note that the Minerva Shetland Floss was a 2-ply lace weight yarn and seeing a disconnect. You could get that gauge on those needles with that weight yarn, but you wouldn’t want to wear it as the only covering on your body. I looked for a sport weight yarn, because even fingering weight would be light at that gauge for a swimsuit - perfect for a sweater but not a swimsuit. I couldn’t find the same colors and didn’t like anything particularly so I decided I’ll try holding the yarn double. Here’s hoping that works. Otherwise I guess I bought yarn for two sweaters.

Comments

[koshka_the_cat]

I'm using 3 ply sport weight on size 1s for my bathing suit. I just measured and I'm getting 8 stitches per inch. It's supposed to be 7.5. This is ok though because I thought I was going maybe have to have to take the bust in and probably the waist. And it's still stretchy enough for my hips. I've been doing the compare it to me instead of actual measuring. I'm optimistic?

Shetland floss is a fingering weight. I've used fingering weight for all but my first 20s sweater and it matches a 20s sample of Shetland floss that I have. I definitely wouldn't want anything lighter than sport weight!

I hope you like this bathing suit more!

[atherleisure]

So glad to have corroboration on all my musings and conclusions.

I'm planning to add a couple of inches to the hip and narrow it out toward the waist since I often have to go up a size from waist to hip. With sweaters it doesn't really matter, but with this, I think it will. I had to add extra space to the hip on the last 1930's suit.

[koshka_the_cat]

I have a more negative ease at the hips than the rest, but I think it's going to work. We'll see when it's done, right? If it's too bad, I'll split it and add some ribbing. Or if once this side is done it's obviously not going to fit, I'll make the other side a little bigger. The front and back are identical, so it would be easy to add an inch or two and make a different front and back.

My bottom half is two sizes larger than my upper half.

So many musings with vintage knitting...

[atherleisure]

Making the back larger through the hip certainly seems like it should work. It would be so nice if you could actually mock up knitting, but you're kind of stuck with what you've got. And lacy patterns and cables grow so much when blocked. At least we don't have to contend with those here. It's tough, but knitting is so much fun.

[koshka_the_cat]

Right?!

I held my bathing suit up to the knit jersey one I made. It was so much smaller that I decided to not even think about it.

But I love knitting and figuring all this out. And I think I'm getting a good understanding of vintage patterns. It helps that they're pretty good by the 20s. If one mysterious size...

[atherleisure]

It's not like Victorian knitting where the question is more where the error in the pattern is than if there's an error in the pattern. I certainly enjoy both Victorian and vintage knitting.