For granny

Last winter, my grandmother knitted a sweater for me. Since then, she's made garments for my mother, my father, my aunt, a niece and a nephew. And then I'm probably skipping a few projects of hers... She really enjoys her knitting and especially if one of her relatives will enjoy the result. 

Although my brother and sister are still without granny-made clothes, I'm all set to get another one.

This lovely sweater was published in Dutch women's magazine Margriet in the autumn of 1950. It is sort of in my size (and described as being for 'the eldest daughter. They mean to say it's for a teenager, but hey, I'm the eldest daughter of gran's eldest daughter...). At first, my mom was going to knit it for me but since she's only knitting to fill the time until she can go back to doing all the other things she likes better, she has passed it on to her mom. 

So, my lovely grandmother has agreed to knit a sweater for me which was sort of designed for her. After all, she was a young woman in 1950...

I hope she'll like it.

Like nearly all 1950's knitting patterns, this one asks for rather thin yarn. So thin, in fact, that most yarns avaible in the desired thickness are intended either for baby clothing or for socks. I picked this one, which is ever so slightly thicker but gran said that shouldn't be a problem. At least in this stuff, I could get a really nice colour.

I think it's so sweet she wants to knit this for me, and I'm so curious to see how it turns out!

I did not make this

But I want to show it to you anyway.

I have been known to knit (I've got two perfectly wearable items in my wardrobe to proove that point. One of them, a little black cardigan, I wear quite often) but I'm slow. I didn't learn until my late twenties, so if I ever want to use knitting as one of my major methods of garment construction, I'll have rather a lot of practise ahead of me. Which doesn't appeal that much, I must confess.

This lovely turtleneck sweater was made by my grandmother. She's in het eighties now and obviously belongs to a generation in which girls were taught how to knit from the age of four. Needless to say, she's very good at it.

She's taken on a big project now: She is going to knit an item of clothing of their choice for each of her children (4), grandchildren (8) and children's spouses (2) (not sure about grandchildren's significant others yet, I guess she'll see about them when she gets through the rest of us ;). She did tell us not to pick any very fussy designs like cable knit or multi-coloured intarsia, but that still leaves a lot.

I picked this sweater from a Phildar brand knitting magazine which I bought last year. It was written for, and executed in, their 'tweed' yarn. My grandma said (confirming my earlier experience) that using the yarn the pattern was written for, the first stitch sample was perfect and the whole thing was easy to knit. And, as you can see, the fit is spot on as well.

Obviously, I offered her to let the other female grandchildren (so far, I've only bought ladies' patterns, of course I would be more than willing to pick up one which includes men's patterns for her) pick patterns from my (rather modest selection of) knitting magazines as well. That way, I can find her the right yarn for them and help her, in that little way, with her project.

Sew so tiny

My boss's baby boy was born last week, so I thought be nice to make a gift. The amount of baby-boy-appropriate fabrics is my stash is rather limited, and I wanted it to be both nice and practical.

I made this (hopefully) baby-sized hooded sweater (I put my fabric scissors in the picture as a size reference).

The dimensions for the sweater itself came from the book 'Babydol' (the title is an untranslatable joke in Dutch, refering both to 'babydoll' the garment and 'fun for babies') by Pieke Stuvel (a Dutch writer and illustrator of DIY fashion books, one of which appeared in English translation)

The hood was my own addition. I drafted it using instructions from my normal pattern drafting textbook but I had to guess at the basic dimensions of a baby's head. At first, I thought it would be too big, now I worry a little if it isn't too small for the rest of the sweater.

Anyway, I hope little L will enjoy it.