Sunday, July 14, 2013

Crochet Ripple Baby Sweater with Vintage Pattern

Hello my friends.  I hope you have had a great week and that you had a chance to enjoy your weekend.  It's been a fun week here at Lilly My Cat.  I hosted a craft day this past Thursday at my home, went to a birthday party on Friday and had people over for dinner on Saturday.  It's nice to have friends and family.

I mentioned in my post last week that I would share with you my latest finished creation.  It's a crocheted baby sweater from a vintage pattern dated 1950 (before I was born)!

  

As you can see, it's made up of 14 ripple panels; three for each sleeve, four for the back and two for each front.  The instructions were not so clear and originally I ended up with 13 panels and had to unravel all my work!  But, it was OK since according to my children, "what do I do with all my time"!



I used just over two skeins of Rowan cotton glace' yarn.  Now, here's where the problems occurs - the pattern is written for 3 ply baby yarn.  I think it would be equivalent to our fingering yarn.  This Rowan yarn is much thicker and hence the sweater came out much larger.  I used a size F crochet hook and tweaked the pattern.

  

This is a photo of the back of the sweater.  Once I had adjusted the pattern so that the sizing would look correct, it was a fun project to crochet.

I have had this pattern for years and years.  My dear Mother's friend gave it to me like 37 years ago.  It was in her pattern collection.  When I googled the pattern, I found that it is online and there's also a you tube video showing the same problem I had with the sizing.


So, here's how I tweaked the pattern:
Row:
 1.  I cast on 72 stitches but I only had 3 dc between each 3 dc cluster stitches (instead of 4) so that the neck opening would not be too large. (Note:  check and make sure you have a total of 14 3 dc clusters at the end of row 1)  When I completed the first couple of rows, I unraveled the unused chain stitches from the original 72 chain.
2.   Same as written
3.   Same as written.
4.   Same as written.
5.   Same as written .
6.   Same as written.
7.   Same as written.
8.   Same as written.
9.   Separate for sleeves (use separation instructions as listed in Row 11 but keep stitch count/instructions as for row 9)
10. Repeat row 9
11.  Do row 10
12.  Do row 11
13.  Repeat row 11
14.  Do row 12
15.  Do row 13
16.  Repeat row 13
17.  Repeat row 13 (This is the last row for the body of the sweater)

When I worked the  edge "trimming" for the bottom and the sleeves, I made the single crochet through the back loops so that it will  match the pattern ridges of the body.

Remember, this is the guage I worked out using a size F hook and the cotton yarn described above.  If you use fingering weight yarn and a size #3 hook as shown in the pattern, you may not need to do any adjustment.

Here is  the pattern I found online.  It's identical to my pattern.

I hope that you will give this pattern a try.  It was really fun once I got the guage straightened out.  And, you can make the sleeves short or long, depending upon your taste.

Please remember to stop by Handmade Harbour and see what lovely ideas my blog friends have been creating.

Wishing you all a wonderful, blessed week,
Pat :)







14 comments:

  1. The sweater is just beautiful. My grandmother used to knit, crochet, and tat all the time. I had lovely sweaters of crochet when I was a baby. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. You are most welcome. My Grandma too crocheted and knitted but my dear Mother did not. I guess it skipped one generation and came to me! Have a wonderful week!

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  2. Thanks for linking up to Sunday Social at Call Me PMc ~Paula

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    1. You are welcome. Thank You for hosting a great site!

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  3. So you're telling me, you did 13 panels and had to unravel ALL of it? That must have caused some huffing and puffing!

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    1. Yes, my son, it did but thank goodness I have all the time in the world......:)

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  4. My mom makes almost this exact sweater! My grandma used to make them and when she passed on my mom took over. My mom's sweaters do not have as long a sleave as the pattern shown. Hers are more like the one you make. Such a cute sweater!
    pam

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    1. Hi Pam, that's amazing....it shows that it's an old, old pattern. Thanks for taking time to visit my blog. I hope you have a great week! :)

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  5. Such beautiful work - it is really gorgeous. I admire your patience, if I had had to unravel it, it would have stayed unravelled. Hope you have a good week.

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  6. It looks really great - not sure I'd have the patience to unravel all of my work and start again though!

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  7. Oh er! A lot of tweaking and redoing to get this pattern right. Well done for persevering. The final outcome is well worth it :)

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  8. It lovely to see you've used an old pattern. The end result is beautiful. The pattern looks very intricate.
    Ali x

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  9. Cute sweater, but I find your directions incorrect. Row 2 can not be 'as written' if you are working with less stitches between the clusters. There must be some kind of adjustment in at least that row and then you'd have to start with row 2 after the adjustment rows, right?
    Carol

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