A knitted keyhole scarf from 1948

Despite its modest size, the scarf of today’s post is quite a big milestone, as it is the first knitted item I completed for myself in many many years. As far as I remember, the last time I actually wore a garment I knitted myself was in secondary school when I made a couple of grungy sweaters using the thickest needles I could find. This time I set out to make an elegant scarf to wear with my long black winter coat. All my other scarves are too bulky or too bright-coloured to match a 1940s princess coat, so I figured that a scarf pattern from the same time period would be the solution.

A pattern for a keyhole/ascot/bow tie scarf from 1948. I omitted the small embroidered bobbles.

As so many times before, I initially set out to knit something else, in this case the Angora Leaf Scarf by Lise-Lotte Lystrup. Soon it turned out that I did not have enough yarn, so I picked this smaller scarf that is somewhat similar in design. The pattern is from a Swedish knitting magazine entitled Stickat från topp till tå, which was published in 1948. I am not sure if this magazine was just a one off or published regularly like Stickat and Femina Stickbok. As the title implies it contains patterns for a wide range of items, as well as for all age groups. The designs are less glamorous than what I have seen in Stickat but very functional.

“Knitwear from head to toe”, with designs for the whole family.

This was my first time knitting in the seed stich, which was surprisingly simple. I felt a bit silly when I realized that it requires nothing fancy, just single knits and purls. I still have a lot to learn about knitting! Anyway, I really like the texture it creates and would like to knit a matching hat or beret using the same stich.

The yarn I picked up at Myrorna (a charity shop) not too long ago as part of a larger batch of similar fluffy yarn. This was the only skein in this particular colour, all others are a lighter shade of green. None of the labels were left, so its exact contents are a mystery. It feels quite pleasant, though, and judging by the scarf’s smell after washing, it contains at least a certain amount of wool. It was quite a big skein and I ended up using almost all of it.

I have been trying out different ways to wear the scarf, but only managed to take a couple of pictures before my battery died (and now it is too dark).

I started knitting the scarf shortly before Christmas. As I used 4mm needles, progress was fast. The first “leaf”, however, became much longer than what it looked like on the photograph in the magazine, so I think that there might be a mistake in the pattern. After the holidays I reknitted most of the first leaf, using the frequency of decreases that I thought fitted best. While it is not the most spectacular scarf, I am quite pleased with the result and think I will get a lot of use out of it.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to complete five ongoing projects before starting a new one and this is #2/5.

Materials
Mystery yarn: thrift store

Lagre