HSF '14: #21: Re-Do: Tri-colour Knitted Sontag

I kind of really love the Re-Do challenges. They give me a chance to look back on what I've done and be re-inspired by previous challenges. Sometimes, quite literally.

I decided to Re-Do the Inspiration challenge -- Or rather, I started making something, and then realized that it was perfect for the Inspiration challenge, because the item I was making was inspired by another participant's item.

I'd never heard of a sontag (or bosom-friend) before, but it was so intriguing when Danielle of Stepping Into History posted hers for the HSF '13: Outerwear challenge. What a strange and interesting item! The pattern seemed easy enough, but I hadn't given it much serious thought until this past month or so. My cousin and I want to meet up some time soon and flounce around the mountains of British Columbia in Civil War-era gowns, and since I live in a place where winter can last 6 months and the air sometimes hurts my face, a torso wrap seemed like an awfully good idea. So when I finished my Christmas knitting, I started on the sontag.

I hadn't planned on submitting it as a challenge item at first, of course, until I remembered the moment when I first saw one. I don't think I ever would have made one without that inspiration, so it's only fitting that I should do so anyway. So I've Re-Do(ne) the Inspiration challenge: A knitted sontag.

I mashed up a couple of patterns, using the majority of instructions from this Peterson's 1862 Magazine as the basis. And for one of the first times ever, I kept detailed notes from when I started, partially because the instructions seemed awfully vague. These historic patterns were of course written in a time of different language patterns and when a person might reasonably be expected to know what the directions meant.

I started with 232 grams (including the bag and wrapper) of a 454 gram ball of Red Heart Comfort acrylic worsted-weight yarn. I used 5mm (US Size 8) needles, partly because that's what I have multiple needles, especially cabled needles, of, and thus that's what I had in my knitting bag the day I started. Now I'm going to get a bit confusing in measurements -- I also used about 4oz of copper worsted acrylic yarn. It was easier to read the ounces weight on my scale, whereas I weighed the blue on a postal meter, and the copper at home (lol). I also had roughly half of a 50g skein of white acrylic worsted yarn. I went with a dual-colour edging because the three colours are the same as the local hockey team's official colours (ahem, why no, I haven't been a fan since Gretzky played with them in the 80s... And also, the blue is not the same shade, but no one but us needs to know that, right?) I ended up with 51 grams of blue, and the leftovers of the white and copper barely weighed 4 grams together.

I did start with the Peterson's instructions, casting on 31 stitches. They go on to tell you to "widen and narrow" for one row, which the best approximation I could find was a Ravelry post that the poster took to mean yarn over and then knit 2 together, which would create a series of holes along the bottom. I quite like this design element as it leave a space for the waist cord to be threaded through. Doing this somehow created an extra stitch too, which made a great base for the pattern. I did like the row of purling every fifth row, sometimes I needed it to remember where I was in the pattern.

Perhaps a different weight of yarn and smaller needles would change the size somewhat, but I went with the Godey's instructions of widening the body every row until I had 18 blocks before separating one side, binding off the middle, and continuing with the other side. I went back to the Peterson's instructions then, narrowing every other row when I started the row on the inside edge. At first I worried this wouldn't narrow the "wings" fast enough, but they turned out fine. You need fairly long wings to wrap over the shoulder and around the body anyway. I went with a crocheted border instead of a knitted one, and then made some twisted ties and tassels. The result is a delightfully warm bosom friend :)

The Challenge: #21 Re-do (re-did #19 Inspiration)
Fabric: 100% Acrylic yarn
Pattern: A mash-up of Peterson's and Godey's magazines
Year: 1860-1862
Notions: a button for the back (not attached yet)
How historically accurate is it?: Pattern is 100% authentic! Acrylic yarn most certainly is not.
Hours to complete: 30 or so
First worn: Not yet
Total cost: new yarn would run $8-$16, but it all came from stash, so free-to-me

HSF '14 #23: Modern History: A Purple Princess Royal Scarf

What a whirlwind month it has been! I'll give you the shortened personal overview, and then get on with the textile adventures :)

Shortly after my second-last post, my car died. It was at least third-hand new-to-me, a 2005 Kia Rio. Manual shift, which I had to learn how to drive (I ended up loving it). I had it for just over two months. It ended up not being worth it to me to fix (a broken timing belt, which a good estimate was running $1400 to fix, assuming there wasn't a lot of damage. The belt was crucial to the engine's operation, and since it broke when I was doing 100km/hr [60mph], I wasn't hopeful at all that it could be repaired on the "low" end) and I decided not to hang onto it. I haven't heard about it since last week, so hopefully it has gone to the pick'n'pull lot to be happily salvaged for parts by someone else. Then, in a moment of what I'm still not sure was brilliance or madness, I bought a new car. Brand spankin' new, 44km on the odometer when I drove it off the lot, 2014 Kia Rio. It's only been 2.5 weeks but I'm pretty happy with it :)

And now, on to textiles!

Admittedly, I "borrowed" the idea for this HSF challenge from Quinn, who knitted a delightful scarf for the same challenge. I hadn't thought about the challenge in such a way, but there it was. Then, as I was blog-browsing, I saw that Katherine had started a Princess Royal scarf (look at those darling needles!), and I was struck with inspiration. I pulled out some needles (the longest straights that I had in a small gauge) and some stash yarn, and got to knitting.

I am a terribly slow knitter. I started it in early December, and finished it well after the challenge was over, on Christmas Eve morning.

But I gotta say, the pom-poms are my favourite part :) I wrapped yarn around my fingers 30 times or so, cut the loops, and then crocheted a tail to attach them too. They make me smile. Yay pom-poms!

The scarf would be absolutely useless in the way that I wear winter scarves in somewhat northern Canada-land (it would need to be much longer), but perfectly fine to keep one's neck warm if it's not too drafty.

The Challenge: #23 Modern History
Fabric: 100% Acrylic yarn
Pattern: Princess Royal's Scarf
Year: 1856
Notions: None.
How historically accurate is it?: Shape is, but modern everything-else.
Hours to complete: roughly 3 weeks...
First worn: Christmas
Total cost: Needles and yarns were both from my aunt's estate, so free-to-me. It would cost roughly $8 to buy new yarn, with lots leftover for another project.

POMPOMS!!