Pattern Review: 'Under jacket' jumper from Stitchcraft Magazine's July 1946 edition

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The first vintage knitting pattern I tried to knit was Stitchcraft's short-sleeved lace jumper, pictured above. 

Modern versus Vintage
It took me a while to become accustomed to how vintage knitting patterns are written.  Whereas modern patterns are quite explicit in how they write their instructions, vintage patterns are much more economical in style: what would take half a page to describe in today's patterns is summed up in a few words in a vintage one.

The economy of style leads you think more about the purpose of each instruction and how what you're knitting fits into the garment as a whole but there are times when just a few words more are vital.

'Increase to 128 sts.'
It took me several attempts - and quite a bit of unravelling - to work out how to increase the number of stitches.  The pattern is a 6 row repeat with the final 2 rows creating a lace pattern.  'Increase' can be translated as 'increase in pattern', so keeping the lace holes aligned to form an overall decorative grid of stitches.  But what it really means is 'increase in pattern by adjusting the number of knit stitches at the beginning of the 5th and 6th rows accordingly'.

I have found this impossible to do by sight - experience is only taking me so far - so, in the end, have written row by row instructions, ticklists that I can tick off methodically for both the increases and decreases in the jumper's shapings. 

Summary
It was a tough pattern to choose for a first attempt at a vintage knitting pattern and I needed all my knitting experience (plus a bit more) to understand the pattern and complete the project.  If you would like to knit the jumper, the pattern is available to buy in my LilySteeple Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com) as a .pdf digital download. 

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