It’s that time of year when you get to wiggle your toes in beach sand, which means it’s an excellent time to start working on those Christmas presents you plan to knit. How about knitting up a 1960s raglan cardigan? Although the pattern is for men, I know I would be delighted to wear it.
It’s a challenge to find pre-1970s vintage knitting patterns that are not knit on minuscule sized needles, but this beauty calls for a pair of No. 8 and No. 10 1/2. A short rant: there are tons of awesome patterns, but they are knit of No. 1s and No 2s. Who has time for that? Starting in the late 1970s and 1980s, we all bought into the idea that fast was good. There are oodles of leaflets from that era for things knit on needles with the girth of a telephone pole. How did knitters cope with all the tiny needle projects back in the day? Did people have more time or were they willing to put 15 years into knitting a vest on size 2 needles? Did people knit faster? My brain always wonders about this.
This 1960s raglan cardigan, from Coats and Clark’s Book No. 132 Knits for Men (1962), has a main color and two accent colors. White and black as specified are absolute naturals for the accent trim. The pattern calls for gray for the body, but really, any color would be fabulous. Though our sweater is not featured on the cover, the blue color of the sweater on the left would be awesome. And can we appreciate the cover for a couple blinks? A man and his son (son-in-law, nephew, junior accounting assistant) discussing the merits of a blunderbuss or whatever they’re holding. That there is a manly piece of modeling, that is.
The pattern calls for worsted weight 4 ply yarn, gauge 4 stitches =1, 6 rows =1. Always check your gauge. It rarely ends well when you don’t and then only by luck. You know that, but I personally always need the reminder.
We hope you enjoy this cardigan pattern. If you’re knitting at the beach, allow time to wash all the fried clam grease, sunscreen and sand out of your finished sweater before you gift it at Christmas. And if you do knit this up, let us see how it came out!
