Super Sporty? Or An Evening Sweater? Sirdar’s 1930s Knitted Navy Pullover
This sweater is part of the re-issued collection that the yarn and pattern company Sirdar is offering as part of their Heritage Collection. These patterns are copied just as they are from old pattern books, so they have vintage sizing and vintage yarn. Sirdar offers some tips from using them, and I would suggest two things to do especially.
First, since a schematic or sketch of the shape of the pieces making up the garment is almost never offered in vintage knitting patterns, work one out by checking on the original gauge and multiplying as need by and taking a pencil to sketch it. Do this, so that you can figure out what size you will be. Vintage sizing is so different that I am a size 18 in 1930s sewing patterns and a 14 in today’s sewing patterns.
Second, create a gauge swatch and decide if you like the knitted fabric that results. Vintage garments were almost always made in what today we call fingering or sock weight yarn. That means they looked finer and often more sophisticated than our garments today, which are often made of worsted weight or bulky eight yarn, and they also take more time and effort. Once you have a schematic, you can recalculate the stitches and rows per inch if you want to change the size of the yarn, recognizing the final effect will be a bit different.
I picked this sweater because of the interesting collar and cuffs with their large buttons with v-shaped openings which echo one another. Otherwise, this is a simple enough V-neck pullover with some vertical ribbing which creates a slender silhouette. The choice of navy yarn indicates the original designer thoughts of this as daywear, and knits were then thought of as sportswear and essentially informal public clothing. But with the right large buttons, color, and yarn, I see this as an evening sweater and one that could keep you warm while looking glamorous on cold nights.
You can find the pattern here: https://sirdar.com/en/products/0143-0145-30s-womens-sweater-or-top?taxon_id=1855
And their tips for using vintage patterns here: https://sirdar.com/archive-how-to-read-vintage-patterns?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=Module&utm_campaign=How+To+Read+Vintage+Patterns&utm_id=Sirdar+Archive
Notice that their “tension square” is our gauge swatch.