Thursday, July 17, 2014

A vintage Rowan knit

Last week when I was on Closet Clearing duty I came across a cardigan I knit back in the very late 80s, while I was living in England.


It is incredibly tiny - we'll just get that remark right out of the way - and apparently I was not shy about showing off my correspondingly tiny waist because whoa, that is a lot of ribbing.  I don't enjoy ribbing now, so I must not have been super crazypants about it then either.  But I really, really loved this sweater in the Rowan pattern book where I found it, and I really, really couldn't wait to have one of my own.

As I recall, I wore this thing a lot well into the 90s, with a bright red pencil skirt and a pair of navy suede high-heeled mary janes, very 30s-style, that I'd bought in London.  I loved that outfit so much.

The lace is very basic - feather and fan? - but it got complicated once the shaping came into play.


And if you overlook what 25 or so years of storage will do to the lump factor in a sweater, I think I did a pretty good job.


After I found this sweater again and remembered making and wearing it, I dug out some of the needles I used to use back then.  These needles became kind of an obsession for me.


I bought as many pairs as I could afford while I lived in England, and after I moved back to Canada a friend whose wife was a flight attendant often bought me more on layovers there.  Eventually a department store in Toronto started carrying them - hard to believe now that department stores here used to have yarn and fabric supplies!

Today?  I'd never knit in that scratchy wool yarn, in that colour, with those needles - and I would never choose such a fitted pattern either.  Funny how textile love evolves, isn't it?

Hope things evolve well for you today and I'll see you tomorrow.

No comments: