Vintage Purls

One of the difficulties with working with vintage patterns is working out what materials one should use given the original pattern was written for something that is no longer produced and about which it is not easy to find information. Most of the vintage patterns I have specify a weight for the amount of yarn required for a project. I learnt long ago that these specifications are incredibly unreliable. 

I came across a little pattern the other day which proudly announced itself to be a “half-ounce scarf”. When finished it would measure 36 by 7½ inches. I was thoroughly skeptical and because it’s a little project I decided to do an experiment.   

The original pattern calls for “Copley’s Cobweb” wool sold by Messrs. Bourne and Hollingsworth of Oxford Street, London. I figured that both Mr Bourne and Mr Hollingsworth are probably far too busy being dead for me to bother them about “Copley’s Cobweb” and if not, they probably wouldn’t honor the advertised price of just over a shilling per half-ounce skein anyway. I searched my stash for something that might make a suitable substitution. I found almost a full ounce of some fine baby wool, wound it into a skein (taking note of how many metres it contained), threw it in the dye pot to make it a little more interesting a colour then began to knit (well I let it dry first, but you get the picture).

Before long I knew that I wasn’t going to get a 36 inch scarf from the yarn I had. I knit up everything I had and measured the result: about 12 inches, not even close to half-way on almost twice the weight of wool specified. Granted I wasn’t using a proper lace-weight yarn (but it wasn’t that far off), but I now knew it took 95m of yarn to get to that point, so to complete the scarf I’d need about 285m. Off to the Internet to see if indeed anyone produces lace-weight yarn that weighs just half and ounce per 285m. After a rigorous ten-minute investigation I couldn’t find anything that came close, the best I could do was about 155m per half-ounce. [Edit: If I'd looked up "cobweb" yarn I would have come closer (about 195m per half-ounce). You can get the right yardage for the weight with a gossamer yarn but the pattern is knit on 5mm needles. Hardly an appealing combination to me and not what the accompanying picture looks like either. Maybe I'm missing something - let me know.]  

So, either wool was astonishingly lighter than today’s products or many pattern writers were “overly optimistic” about the abilities of the wool they specified. Either way, don’t trust those weight specifications! I find that through experience you get a “feel” for how much yarn you need for a type of project. And if you don’t have that feel then find a modern pattern of similar type (e.g. compare apples with apples not knee length cardies with waist length jumpers) that has a yarn you can find the yardage of - use that as an estimate (and it never hurts to have a little extra for security).  

(Not Really) a Half-Ounce Scarf
From Needlework Illustrated No. 210, 1952.  

Using 5mm needles cast on 48 stitches.
Knit 5 rows.

Start pattern:
Row 1 K.4, p.4, * put wool twice round the needle, thus making 2 stitches, p.4, rep from * till 4 stitches remain, k.4.
Row 2 K.4, (k.2 tog) twice, * k.2 by knitting into front of the first made stitch of previous row and into the back of the second made stitch, (k.2 tog) twice; rep from * till 4 stitches remain, k.4.
Row 3 K., p.1, make 2 stitches as per 1st row, * p.4, make 2 as before; rep from * till 5 stitches remain, p.1, k.4.
Row 4 K.5, * k next 2 stitches as per 2nd row, (k2 tog) twice; rep from * till 7 stitches remain, K.2 as per 2nd row, k.5.

Repeat pattern until scarf measures 36 inches.
Knit 5 rows.
Cast off.
Wash and block.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 5:57 am and is filed under Free Pattern, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.