Some more knitting for children (HSM '25 Pink, and a baby hat)

 I don't really do new year resolutions, but I do happen to have several for this year. To wit:

1) Finish more projects than in previous years.

2) Use more of my already extensive collection of sewing and knitting patterns / books.

3) Post more of my projects on this blog.

I'm happy to report that one of the two makes I want to share in this post now checks all three boxes! Well, not quite the "more projects than in previous years," yet; but I'm coming close to finishing with more projects, so I expect by next week I'll have surpassed 2025, and that's a good start on that one.

But first, the pink singlet / vest for my little niece which was my one lonely HSM entry for 2025:

 

I've decided that from here on out, my niece shall be referred to on this blog as Kitty. Not at all her name, not even close; just a public consumption pseudonym based on the fact we keep joking that she's like a little kitty - always aware of what's going on, always needing to be aware and present at whatever's going on and putting her nose into things. :-)

So. This thing I knit for Kitty was intended to be a singlet, to be worn as underwear. But the colour turned out to be such a perfect match for her that it ended up being used as an outerwear vest. And since I still have quite a bit of the yarn left, I think I might go ahead and knit a sweater for a future Kitty...

I intentionally made the whole thing in ribbed patterns, so that it could grow with her a bit. Originally, I thought I had a suitable pattern in one of my 1930s German magazines, but, alas, it turned out to be a pattern for a knitting machine and thus useless for my handknitting purposes. I didn't really see anything else I liked quite as much online, until I found a picture of a little girl in a singlet, and thought, yep, that's roughly the style I'm after. Unfortunately, no pattern, just a photo.

And then I lost the link, and found out I had very unconscionably failed to Pin the image, so, my apologies, I have no idea where it came from! It was a blog post featuring more 1930s knitted styles, if I remember correctly. The file name says "child in a singlet 1936" but, alas, that has also not helped me find it again. Neither trying to replicate my original search terms nor straight up reverse image search has been any help either... So all I know now is that it falls into the latter half of the 1930s where so many of the styles I'm drawn to now come from. :P

 

As you can see, the original garment actually used some sort of brioche stitch (?) in the body, and had crocheted borders around the armscyes and neckline. I had no idea how to begin with the more complicated stitch, and didn't like the idea of the added bulk crochet would add to the very lightweight single yarn I used in the knitting. So I ditched both. (I still don't fully understand crochet borders on knit using the same thickness of yarn. Must be me.)

The yarn is the same as in the blanket I knit for Kitty previously, just a different colour, and not held triple. (Also I have an update on the blanket that it's now clad in a duvet cover and used for Kitty to sleep under regularly!)

I messed up the armscye / neckline shaping and calculations a bit. Learning by trial and error, here! 

Just the facts, ma'am:

What the item is: A child's singlet

The challenge: 2025 #5 Pink 

How it fits the challenge: It's very pink!

Material: Linsieme Kirman, a cone yarn that's 92% merino 8% cashmere

Pattern: My own.

Year: 1930s (c. 1935-1936, based on my inspirations)

Notions: 2,5 mm knitting needles (circular)

How historically accurate is it? As I already said, it's not based on an actual period pattern. I think the construction and gauge are perfectly plausible; I'm less sure about the material.

Hours to complete: No clue!

First worn: This January.

Total cost: I got the yarn for free as industrial remnants!

 

Further knitting facts:

Yarn weight: Lace, at Nm 14/2 (700 m / 100 g), but I think it fluffs up into more of a light fingering style yarn.

Gauge: 8 stitches per inch. Forgot the row count.

Amount used: 43 g

 

And then I whipped up a quick project to be sent with a bunch of fairly random things we put together for Ukraine - I just hadn't managed to finish the blanket by the time my sister went to Prague with the things. So by the time I realised as much, in the two days I had left I made a quick baby hat, following instructions in a 1950s knitting book by Helena Dutkiewicz. I have a Slovak translation, but the original is Polish - it says Dziewiarstwo ręczne, but one copy of that I found being sold online only has children's clothing while mine has all sorts of things, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on there. (Also one of many examples of the ways I can kind of switch between all the Western Slavic languages in passive usage. Well, the three state languages, I have no experience with Lusatian. Polish is the hardest, but I can still glean a lot.)

Anyway, this one was labelled as a hat for a 6-12 months old, though I'm not entirely sure whether the sizing still holds up for today's babies. It tells you to use 3 mm needles and cast on 90 stitches for 30 cm, or whatever works for your gauge. I used 2 mm needles and cast on, IIRC, 80 stitches for 29 cm... Sooo. It's extremely yarn and personal knitting style dependent, and the "patterns" in the book all basically work like that. I actually like that about old Central European vintage knitting, although it also often involves a great deal of wild guesswork.

The yarn I used is a soft acryllic I bought years ago in a church charity sale. So this is a charity project through and through. :D

 

The construction is extremely simple. It's just, basically, a large Dutch heel in garter stitch. Then you pick up stitches around the face opening, increase in every third stitch, and knit a border / brim / flounce (it's not very flouncy). It's supposed to be a bit bigger, but I ran out of my ball of yarn at that point, and figured that I liked it as it was and that I did not want to attach new yarn at that point where it would inevitably be visible. Then you string a tie through the bottom - mine's just a crochet chain.

The knitting facts:

Yarn: A German acryllic no-name. Seriously, there's no name on the label, it just says "Garn" (yarn)! (Then a bunch of other languages, including Czech without diacritics...) JES Collection by J.E. Schum Würzburg, colour 130 (white). My guess is it's from the 90s or early 00s, but that's just a guess.

Yarn weight: 130 m / 50 g, i.e. 260 m / 100 g, based on a Ravelry entry for a similar-but-not-the-same yarn from the same manufacturer I'm assuming DK. Recommended needle size 3-4 mm, recommended gauge swatch 22 stitches and 28 rows for 10 cm. I didn't follow this.

Gauge: I forgot to actually measure it, I just winged it based on my mitered squares from this self same yarn, but it comes out at 7 stitches per inch in garter stitch.

Amount used:  38 g.

Spring, Once Upon A Time In The West, and so on: a wrap-up post

The recent weeks were... I don't even know what. Frustrating for sure, because it's April already and there had been no Spring to speak of until about Monday. I also missed Easter Sunday service. That's really frustrating, and I thank everyone who wrote wonderful Easter posts on their blogs, because I fairly lived by those in these recent days, even if I did not comment. I think you'll know who you are...

As I said, though, Spring's finally, finally here. The sun's shining and the blackbirds are singing their syrinxes off.


I've been to the National Theatre. The National Theatre is a perfect example of squeezing as much as possible from as little as possible. It was built from money raised by popular collections, on a plot by the river that looks very romantic nowadays but was probably a low-rate spot back then. And small. It seemed to us as if the stage was bigger than the auditory, and we sat high above it and it gave my sister vertigo.
My Little Black Dress got another outing, the excitement of which was kind of ruined by the heinous weather and badly fitting shoes (a case of "they fit all right when I bought them, and never since").

The play was awesome, though.


In other news, my ooold computer finally died on me (as in, it kept hiccupping while doing the most basic things, and finally certain things stopped working), so now I have a new computer that Father's had in works for a long time now. The new computer is so, so much faster. And so, so much quieter. The old one was somewhere between 8 to 12 years old, though with upgrades...


I finally, after a very, very long time, made it to an editorial meeting of our youth magazine again. Nearly everyone in the "editorial board" is from Prague or studies in Prague, except me, so I have not been able to attend for a long time, and it was another frustrating thing, being in touch with these people only through the internet.



The last post still remains unfinished. And I realise I must have forgotten to inform some of the last blogger awards nominees...


Best school quote of the week: "You should not be surprised by American hypocrisy. America has the greatest ideals, and therefore also the greatest hypocrisy."

Apologies to my American readers. The man who said that is American, too.


And I have only finished a single Historical Sew Fortnightly item so far, and that one a bit late. Item to come.


The most exciting thing for now: Once Upon A Time In The West in cinema! Sunday evening. I had not been able to just let something roll for a long, long time. I needed that. I love the music. I cried at the end, as always. (It's beautiful in that very raw Western way.)

Here's an iconic costume-related scene that may explain at least part of it.

The buttons my grandfather made

My grandfather is a dental technician. Don't freak out just yet; it means he had always had easy access to resins.
That means he could make these:

Resin and ink shank buttons he made for my mom years and years ago. I don't understand the details of working with resin, but it basically sounds like something very easy (if you know how to work with resin) with very impressive results.

They were originally not attached to this bright blue jacket. The buttons that came with it looked like this:

It looked worse in real life than it does on the photo. This very bright, very blue jacket was fitted with greenish-greyish blue buttons; a very wrong colour that made it look shabby, while it is actually so bright and shiny and cool.

I pronounce my grandfather's buttons a big improvement.

(Bright and shiny and cool against a very shabby backdrop.)

I've always wanted to take one of these

These.

Yesterday, I found myself in Prague again (that's a good beginning). More importantly, I found a free Metro newspaper in the metro, with one of those elusive (so far, to me) fabric coupons for a certain fabric shop.

So I thought, if I have enough time let's go and see if I can find something that I actually need (that's the important part) and get it with a discount.

So I went, in the end; and could not find anything I needed. I wanted nice white lightweight cotton for the 1848 skirt. No luck there; I only found brown lightweight cotton, which was very nice, but not what I needed. I wanted cotton shirting, with the idea of maybe making my father a shirt for Christmas. No luck there at all.

So I thought, I don't have enough lining in my stash, let's take a look at the linings. While searching for linings (the shop was rather crowded, probably because more people have found their coupons in the Metro newspaper), I found a remnants rack with satins and the like; mostly the evil polyester stuff. I went through them, just in case. I noticed a burgundy red that could go as a lining with a fabric in my stash...

I touched it, and fell in love. I looked at the label. It was 100% silk.

Not very surprisingly, it went home with me.

Now, the question is, do I really turn it into a lining for that fabric? I'm not quite sure there's enough of the silk. And: It's not so apparent in the photo, but in real life, the colours are not quite the same. The fabric in my stash is a little bit more yellowish than the silk. And it's a mystery fabric (I got it from my friend's mother) and putting a luxurious silk lining into it feels somewhat incongruous with it; I haven't put it through the burn test yet, but my bet is it's not natural fibre.

I want to make a very classic blazer out of it; something like this:

(That's from Mrs Style Book 2006/11)

Silk lining would go well with that, admittedly.

But holding the silk fabric, I also became convinced that it had to become a gift for my mom. I had promised her a blouse... something like this, though worn sepearately:

(The same book. I suspect it's actually a pattern for a stretchy fabric, though.)

But I'm not quite sure if it's my mom's colour, either. The problem with gifts is, you can't check without telling them... I could, alternatelly, turn it into a camisole for her (she deserves a silk camisole; I already have one; it's featured among my "Remake the RTW" plans, though, and maybe I could squeeze two out of the fabric anyway), but then, isn't this fabric too beautiful to be restricted to underwear?

Oh, the troubles a lucky seamstress goes through! If I become convinced enough it's mom's colour, I'll go with the blouse. I promised, and it looks like the sort of style this fabric would shine as. Now, aren't I glad I found a shop that carries silk thread? Oh yes, I am.

Off to read about stylistics. That's a linguistic term, not a fashion one.

Oona, you made my day

Yesterday was a cloudy, rainy, cold (17 degrees Celsius? What a summer!) day when I felt like doing nothing but sleeping.
Then my sister went to the mailbox and said there was some fabric for me.
Fabric? I thought.

Fabric indeed. Oona, you may claim to be a selfish brat, but your Pay It Forward is fabulous!

Fabric bangles, as promised. Just the thing to wear with my orange T-shirt. Or my beige T-shirts. Or my blues. Clever.

The aforementioned fabric. The roses look familiar - or is it just me? They demand to be a lacy dress overlay, somehow. The other fabric, an embroidered shiny blue fabulousness that cannot be as well seen on the photo as I thought, probably wants to be a fabulous shiny blue embroidered skirt. Together, the fabrics reminded me of my beloved Latvian mittens.

And then there's the CD, "Oona's Jumpin' July".

Oona, have you been peeking into my house the last ten years or so? Because that's exactly what I do. Jump around.
I must admit not all of the songs are my cup of tea, but others are very much so, so it balances out. The last one? Wow.

Now I must finally gather my wits and courage and material and everything and do my PIF. I like that acronym, don't you?

How to knit a stocking instead of a sock?

By casting on 12 more stitches than necessary and being too lazy to unravel it and start again when you figure out it's too big.

It's actually perfect size for an under-the-knee stocking. At least for me, because I'm using my leg to figure out the fit as I go.

It was meant to be warm socks for my sister (part of my "payment" for the green saree). Either it will fit her, and she'll like it as a stocking, too - in that case, it's still for my sister. Or she will not, and I'll keep it and keep warm on cold winter evenings. Either way, not so bad.

Oh, and it's another thing I made from my joyful aqua yarn, which I bought in a thrift store. In retrospect, it probably wasn't so much cheaper than it would be in a normal shop. But it's fun. Maybe too bright for me. But fun. And very soft and pleasant to the touch.

In other news, I received my first ugly anonymous comment. I deleted it.

Very short, too. I wonder why do these people bother. I'd set up the word verification thing on my blog comments. The word verification might have been longer than what that person wrote in the comment. Really, why do they bother? *sigh* (I actually think I know, and it's rather sad.)

And peace on earth...

This is not an explicitly Christmas-related tradition, but it's connected, as you will see.


Once upon a time (most probably in 2001), my sister asked for a story for her birthday. "So that it is beautiful."
I used an idea that'd been lurking in my head for some time and started writing that story on the remaining empty pages in an old school notebook. (And that's from where I deduce it was in 2001, because the notebook was for the schoolterm 1999/2000).
I filled eight more notebooks with the story. And I finished it about three years after that particular birthday.
But every time I wrote a considerably long part, we sat down on one of our beds in the evening, and I read to her what I had written.
It is her story. Written by me, and very much mine; but written for her, and five of the characters in it are her own.
I missed writing it after I had finished. A lot. I still miss it. There are many silly parts and many mistakes now that I read it after the years, but overall it's a very good story, filled with things I like and would like others to know and like. The characters are very important to me, too.


Reading it as I was writing it was one of the traditions connected to it, but soon another one was born - as I did not finish the story for the birthday, or for the Christmas afterwards, not even for other birthdays and Christmases, I started giving my sister illustrations to the story instead.
The first two were made, I guess, before we had scanner. So I cannot show you, and given the quality of the pictures (compared to the latter ones), I guess that's a good thing.

This is, I believe, the third illustration I've made for my sister. Showcasing two of my favourite characters - the main character, Vladyka, a 15-year-old boy who's discovering there's more to the world than he thought, in the front, and his new adult friend and advisor Joshua in the back. Admiring the pure blue skies and musing about purity.

(I kind of want Vladyka's t-shirt.)

This is the last one so far. "Smelling the Spring". Vladyka and a number of his friends on a spring hike, enjoying the pleasant weather.

I actually started this whole post because of a part of the story I re-read last night...

Vladyka comes back from the pre-Christmas celebration with his new Christian friends and finds only his elder sister at home.They lead a more serious conversation than usual, which leads to them sealing a peace of arms - they had been fighting and teasing each other a lot before.

"...You're going back to the religion of your ancestros, bro."
"Parents are not at home, are they?"
"Why?"
"You wouldn't be talking like this otherwise."
"No, they're not."

(...)

"Hey, what's that you're wearing on your neck?"
"I got that from Kněžna."
"Wow!"
"Isn't it? It's a fish. The symbol of the first Christians, and Christians on the whole."
"I thought that was the cross."
"Well, that too. This was kind of a camouflage. It's ICHTHYS or something in Greek - like an abbreviation for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. Kind of a confession of faith."
"Yours, too?"
"Mine, too."
"Bro, we've always been arguing and fighting, haven't we?"
Vladyka graciously remained silent.
"We've been stupid. Do you want peace?"
"Certainly."
They shaked hands, thoroughly and earnestly.
"Wait, we have to drink to that," sister had an idea - oh, wait, sister Kateřina had an idea. She has a name, too. "There's some wine left."
"Hey, I'm not of age yet!"
"Doesn't matter. It's just a little bit, look."
Vladyka admitted he can't get drunk by that amount. He got another idea and cut a slice of bread.
"Bread and wine..." Katka said. "That reminds me of something."
"That's the Communion," Vladyka explained.
Katka's brow frowned in thought. Then it finally clicked into place.
"Well, but I'm not Christian."
"And I'm not baptised yet. I don't mean it as seriously as in church anyway. More like a symbol." He broke the slice of bread into two and gave her one half. She didvided the wine into two glasses.
"So - to our peace. Let it last," she said. "Until death."
"Even further," Vladyka dared.
"You Christians are crazy," she concluded.

Good pair of woolen mittens

Few things are better in winter than a good pair of woolen mittens/gloves.




This pretty pair I got from my sister a week ago (I had birthday last week). She had bought them on a market in Riga, Latvia.

They're probably knitted on a machine, but otherwise this type of mittens is apparently traditional in Latvia (and other northern countries). Although maybe usually in more earthy colours. My sister picked these blue ones for me, because blue suits me better.

I love how bright they are - they pop out among the blacks most people wear in winter around these parts! Plus they have two layers and are really just luxurious...




These are handmade by my grandma. I got them... years ago. Which would explain why they wore through at one thumb:


I bought woolen yarn in the same colour and carefully strengthened the worn-through thumb and sewed the hole together. So hopefully they'll last for many more years.

I personally haven't got to this level of knitting yet - although I'm already able to make fingerless mittens, even with the thumb. On the five sock needles.
But if you cannot knit on five sock needles, you can quite easily cheat around that:



I wanted to make a pair for a lady I occasionally buy magazines from in the street. I had noticed she didn't have any gloves. But last time I got a glimpse of her, she had already been provided with a good pair of gloves, so this joyful aqua pair of fingerless mittens will go to somebody else.