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Sunday May 21, 2006
Boudoir Bedjacket
I managed to knit "River" for my friend Diane's birthday - and, if you don't know what that is, do take the opportunity to see: "River" at Ferretworld for Alison's version. Since then, I have discovered that Diane is about to embark on a long spell in hospital, so I decided that a bedjacket might have been more appropriate, and embarked on the project right away.
This is an obvious opportunity to explore all those vintage magazines that I love, looking at the bedjackets. There are a great deal of patterns for them but overall they conform to the same standard, which is a bit dull or a bit overly fussy (I know - probably a reason for that - they are bedjackets).
Here are two from my Mother's collection showing how little things had changed from the late 1930's to the late 1960's. Further, this pattern seems to have been much reproduced among all the recent proliferation of shrugs**.
In the end I decided to knit this (probably 1960s) pattern, in a modern synthetic baby wool.
Now I can see that some of you will already be questioning my taste in choice of pattern. In my defence, I was also trying to apply all kinds of criteria to avoid irritating wool, and anything too impractical, like flappy sleeves and so on - and I want it to be quick to knit. However, after I had knitted a few rows, I really was not enjoying the result. I tried several times to get something that looked the right size (Diane is very small) and finally gave up in disgust.
Alison then helpfully confirmed that I should go for pretty not practical; so I kept some of my criteria, and, using the same "practical" basic pattern (three quarter sleeves and no frills), I am devizing my own design. I'm using some ancient stash wool purchased in Germany in the 1980s.
Doing my own thing is very unlike me - which is why I had the stash for 20 years in the first place I think - but the wool and knitting, so far, is proving to be very inspiring.
**This likeness between shrugs and bedjackets has not gone unnoticed
(Skank
Shrugs and Other Useless Items); I am currently knitting a
shrug/cardigan from the latest Rowan magazine which is precisely the
same design as a vintage bedjacket pattern that I have, (although in a
rather nicer wool, the recommendation for the original being Bri-Nylon).
Posted by Christina at 11:12 AM. Category: Knitting
