1940s slip stitch jumper - FINISHED!

Wasn’t this 1940s sweater a quick knit? From cast-on to put-on, just three months. That’s super-speedy for me.

Weaving in all the ends was a real faff (I felt the gap between stripes of the same colour was too great for me to carry unused colours up the side of the knitting), but the stripes did make it very easy to sew the seams up evenly. I adapted the sleeve placement slightly to match the stripes too. The original pattern said to place the sleeve seam about a quarter of an inch in front of the side seam, but I put them together.



When the jumper was finished, I did find it came up a fraction too short, despite me putting extra width in the front to stop it having to stretch too much. I think my body must be slightly longer than I realise (or perhaps my modern trousers are lower-waisted than I thought and I should buy some proper 1940s repro ones.) To remedy the shortness I picked up stitches all around the hem and knitted an extra inch of ribbing. You can see a faint line a couple of inches up from the hem. I think I'd have preferred the coloured section to be longer, so that's something I'll need to bear in mind if/when I knit another top with a contrasting midsection - I need to add a couple of inches to the body.

Unlike most of the vintage clothing I buy, which is usually a tad too fancy for everyday things, my knitted tops are ever so easy to wear. Along with my jewellery and handbags, they’re the easiest way for me to get a vintage look for work. Because of this, and the fact the accessories I wear for work are usually late 50s/early 60s, I did briefly consider knitting something from that era for work... but then I found a really nice 1940s Fair Isle pattern.  I have no idea what I'll knit next!