1960s Fair Isle beret

I have mentioned before that I’m a fat robot. This limits the vintage clothing available to me nowadays (when it is available, it’s more Mrs White than Miss Scarlett), and as lovely as many reproduction dresses are, I simply can’t afford to buy myself a repro wardrobe. In the spirit of making do, I’ve decided to knit myself some things. For garments it's going to be tricky as most vintage patterns come in sizes much smaller than I do (usually around a 34-in bust), so I'll probably be relying on Susan Crawford's book A Stitch In Time for a bit – she's already done the hard work of resizing patterns. Accessories will be easy, though, and will really help create unique outfits.

This is the first thing I’ve knitted from a vintage pattern, although it was actually done in the spirit of experimentation. Yarn weights have changed over the decades and I wanted to try yarn substitutions, so decided to do a small pattern in odds and ends of yarn from my box. I’m not particularly into the 1960s, although Fair Isle berets were around from the late 1940s, and the colours are simply what I had to hand. That green, especially, is completely inauthentic. Nonetheless, I’m very pleased with how it turned out.