The Great Knitted Escape

Check out this recreation of the motorcycle chase scene from the 1963 movie, The Great Escape, in which a woolly-headed Steve McQueen tries to escape to the Swiss border on a crocheted Triumph TR6. This tribute was produced by K1P1.com in association with Baker-bunch to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the release of The Great Escape, which in turn was based on Paul Brickhill's book about the March 24th, 1944 escape of 77 British airmen from the high security Stalag Luft III POW camp.

It's All About the Men Day

When I was casting about looking for a topic for a special Father's Day post, I soon hit upon the idea of doing a post consisting entirely of men's patterns, only to immediately realize it's the kind of thing I ought to do more often without the impetus of a holiday geared toward men. Which brings me to a matter I ought to address, namely that I know that in writing this blog I am often guilty of speaking past my male readers.

I often write as though I am assuming I'm speaking solely to female knitters, and when it comes to selecting patterns I focus almost entirely on women's apparel. I try to be conscious of it and to improve on using inclusive language, but I keep falling short. I'm not saying I'm aiming for a truly equitable playing field here. The analytics for this Facebook page tell me about 4% of my Facebook page followers are male, and it seems reasonable to assume the male subset of my blog's readers is also 4% of the whole. The reality is that I will wind up catering to the majority of my readers. But even so I need to make sure that my male readers don't feel ignored and unwelcome if I want them to keep coming back. So guys, whether you're a father or not, this post is for you. I've selected 14 menswear patterns from Ravelry for your perusal and possible use, and have written the accompanying commentary based on the assumption you'd be the one wielding the needles and wearing the finished product.

I don't know how included looking at menswear patterns selected by a woman are going to make you feel, but I've done my best to come up with some attractive options. Far be it from me to presume to know what men want, of course. In the past I generally have been successful at making or selecting gifts of clothing my male family members and friends liked and wore (sometimes to rags) when they got them, but then in those cases I knew the men well and had had a chance to learn what their tastes and individual preferences were. I don't know you, and just had to fall back on my lady brain's best judgment. As I scrolled through something like 85 pages of Ravelry pattern thumbnails looking for candidates for this post, my criteria was first, did I like it, and if I did, could I picture a man of my acquaintance wearing it voluntarily and happily? The knitted jock strap and knitted union drawers I found didn't make the cut. Here's hoping you find the patterns that did worth a look.

The Eddard sock pattern offers a bit of a twist on cabled socks — normally the cables aren't this pronounced in men's socks. This pattern is a free download.

The Émilien hoodie is fairly basic, but the simple strip pattern is effective and the excellent workmanship of the design really caught my eye. The whole sweater sits so perfectly on the body. This pattern is available as a $6(USD) download.

The Chicane would be a basic zippered cardigan, but the ribbed cuffs and contrasting horizontal ribbing at the elbows really give it a distinctive touch. This pattern is available as a $7(USD) download.

The Alberta is a basic vest lent some visual interest with the use of variegated yarn stripes. This pattern is available as a $6.50(USD) download.

The Brigade is a classic design with the zippered neck adding a modern touch. You will need a long neck to wear this one as is, although shortening the neck is probably an option. This pattern is available as a $7(USD) download.

I've tried to avoid including sweaters with stripes across the chest in this post because I know they're so ubiquitous in menswear, but I couldn't resist putting the Hacky Sack Hoodie in. Love the colours, and lowering the body stripe to the ribcage did help a bit. This pattern appears in Son of Stitch n' Bitch: 45 Projects to Knit and Crochet for Men, by Debbie Stoller.

Love the Handsome Scarf, which could be taken in either an old school or more outré direction depending on your choice of colour, as most of these patterns could. This pattern is a free download.

Most knitted ties tend to be less than successful from what I've seen, looking like some skinny, limp sixties-era artifact, but I do like this Bias Knit Tie. It's probably successful because it is bias knit, as fabric ties are cut on the bias. This example is obviously too short, so do be careful to get the right length. It always looks a little Freudian when men wear their ties too short or too long. This pattern is a free download.

If you found the Eddard sock pattern above too bulky for your tastes, you may prefer the Dude sukat design, with its more subtle cables. The ribbing should ensure a good fit. This pattern is a free download.

The Whitfield Jacket really does look like a jacket — that is, like something that you'll tend to wear only outside. I also can't help but notice that it has two chest pockets. My dad much prefers shirts with two pockets, though most shirts are made with one or none. This pattern is an $8(USD) download.

Love the Coal Springs scarf, with its simple yet striking design and which could be worn with just about anything in most male wardrobes. This pattern is a free download.

I very much like the Latvian vest, though I suppose it won't be to every man's taste. I think changing the colourway would go a long way to making this design something you'll want to wear. You can dial it down by making it more subdued or dial it up by making it brighter. This pattern is a free download.

The textured cross pattern on the Ridgeway Pullover keeps an ordinary turtleneck pullover interesting. If you want to give it yet more visual interest, you could do the textured pattern in a second colour. This pattern is a $7(USD) download.

And I can't wrap up a post on menswear without featuring a design by that alpha male of knitwear design, Kaffe Fassett, whom I bet has never in his life been guilty of designing a chest-striped sweater. Here he is modelling his own Stone Circles pullover pattern that I can imagine working on nearly every man I know, depending on the colourway. This pattern is a free download.

Knitty First Fall 2013, Issue 13: A Review

Knitty has released their First Fall 2013, Issue 13. Let's have a look at it, shall we?

This is the Sinnesfrid Vest, and it's a good, wearable, useful piece that can be worn on its own or over a number of pieces in the average woman's wardrobe, although it's not showing to advantage here. It is perhaps a half-size too small for this model (who is also the designer), and I can't say I think those buttons are doing it any favours.

The Arguyle gansey pullover is a classic men's sweater with a bit of a twist in that the designer has incoporated an argyle pattern in it. I like it — way to marry two knitting traditions from neighbouring geographic regions.

The Vertical Ridge vest design grew out of the designer's frustration with the inevitable horizontal lines in hand-dyed yarns. I like the concept very much, and the yarn is beautiful, the texture interesting, and the piece carefully shaped, but it does seem to need a little something, such as front fastenings, to give it a little more style.

I love the Lewis pullover. It's simple yet has great detail, it should be comfortable and flattering for most women, and a woman can wear it with jeans and a t-shirt or over a camisole and trousers to the office.

The Jackaroo cardigan is a nice little piece. The designer intended that it should be the perfect fall cardigan that to just slip on over everything, and it is indeed that kind of jacket. The cropped sleeve length won't suit every woman as well as it does the designer, but they're easily lengthened.

This is the Canoe pullover. It's not bad, but it's just so bland and basic, and it does have that just-above-the-elbow sleeve length that doesn't flatter anyone. There's just nothing at all that's distinctive about this pattern except the yarn that was used, and a beautiful yarn like this deserves a better setting.

The Squirrels hat is really cute and well-rendered. It made me laugh that there are also acorns on the adult version.

The Rabbitty pattern is really cute and they're intended as a "stash-busting" project, so they'll be an inexpensive toy to whip up for baby showers. I find the bulging eyes a little disturbing, but one could easily make them smaller or just embroider the eyes instead.

I quite like the Sugar Stick cowl pattern. The twisty bands colour motifs lend themselves well to an item that's meant to be worn twisted.

The QRkey scarf is a good-looking item, with a geeky payoff: those codes on either side can be scanned to read "My Scarf" and "Love Mom", and there are instructions included in the pattern for creating your own code if neither of those appeal to you. I'm so impressed by this innovation that even if there were anything else to criticize in this pattern (there isn't), I don't think I could.

The Glitz at the Ritz shawl is nice enough. I like the beads. Don't take my lack of enthusiasm to mean that there's anything wrong with this pattern, because there isn't. I've just seen so many shawl patterns that I'm hard to impress.

The Peri's Paradox shawl is very nice. The basketweave stitch would be a challenging one for a delicate shawl, because it's not an elegant texture, but this designer seems to have done very well with it. I like the teardrop shapes at the border.

The Solidago socks are cute, although if I were making them I wouldn't include both the coloured heel and toe with the fair isle ankle pattern, as I don't think they quite work together.

Very much like the Matsudana socks. I especially like that the lace pattern at the ankle doesn't continue over the foot, because I find lace patterned socks can get a little chafe-y on the feet.

The Flying Geese socks are based on a traditional quilt pattern of the same name, but the first thing I thought when I saw them was that they resembled a pair in a very old sock pattern book I have that has a set of smaller triangles on the ankle. Everything old can be made new again.

Legwarmers are baaaaaack. Or so I'm told, and the Nozky legwarmers are at least one piece of evidence that they are. I actually don't mind this pattern. I appreciate that they're so well crafted and not baggy, and they're very well styled in these photos. But I tend to follow that "if you were old enough to wear a trend the last time it was in, don't wear it this time" rule, and while I think legwarmers can be quite fetching on little girls, teenagers and very young women, at my age I'll be giving this reborn fad a pass, and sticking to the kind of legwarmers that are always in style; they're called pants.

Franklin Habit's Moufles Marque d'amour (or "Love Token Mittens") design is based an old design from Sajou, a nineteenth-century French needlework company. The mittens are pretty and the accompanying article is as funny and worthwhile a read as Franklin Habit's articles always are.

The Vino fingerless mitts are a nice design. You won't get the uncomfortable gap between coat sleeve and mitten in these, though you might get cold fingers. Sorry, I can never resist snarking on fingerless mittens, though I know they have their uses.

The Ginger + Wasabi pattern is a very basic glove pattern knitted up in two colours (yes, only two). If you don't care for this particular colour pairing you can easily come up with your own.

I very much like the Adventure Rucksack, and as someone whose current backpack is on its last legs, got all excited about possibly making myself one until I remembered why my backpack is disintegrating: because I stuff groceries and knitting and books and my laptop and all kinds of other stuff into it (oh and at 14, it's nearly as old as the teenaged designer of these rucksacks). Knitted backpacks won't stand up to that kind of abuse, but for more casual purposes such as holding the kind of things that ordinarily go into a shoulder bag (i.e., a wallet, lunch, a notebook or novel), these would be fine, and they look really good.

Hitting the Beach With and In Your Knitting

Almost a month ago, I traumatized followers of the Facebook page for this blog by sharing this 1922 photo of a dripping wet Winston Churchill in a knitted bathing suit. I'm including it in this post to make sure all my readers see it, because that's the kind of blogger I am. Now that you've seen it (and can't unsee it), you know how it was that Churchill could vow so stirringly and memorably to "fight them on the beaches". The man knew whereof he spoke.

Slightly more seriously, the sight of this picture got me interested in knitted bathing suits, and after a little research to decide to do a post on knitted swimwear, which of course had to lead with that picture of Churchill. In this post I'm going to stick to the knitted bathing suits of the 1900-1960 period rather than include the more contemporary ones. Although there are plenty of knitted and crocheted bathing suit and bikini and monokini (don't ask) patterns available, believe it or not I found the Google results for "knitted swimsuits" more scarring than the sight of our Winston fighting them on the beaches. Too many of them look like they should be accompanied by a coordinating pattern for a stripper pole cosy, is what I'm saying. Although admittedly there are some really cute ones out there. I might do a post on contemporary knitted swimwear at some later date. But for now, let's delve into the evolution of knitted swimwear during the first half of the twentieth century.

Swimsuits were generally made from wool until the mid-1930s, because wool will keep a swimmer warm even when wet. When swimwear companies began manufacturing some suits out of the then newly invented elastic materials that were the predecessors of lycra and spandex in the thirties, swimwear manufacturers continued to incorporate some form of elastic into wool bathing suits, but the use of wool in commercially made swimwear steadily declined to nearly nil over the next two decades. The Vintage Fashion Guild has a pretty good, brief run down of the history of swimwear if you're interested in the topic.

Let's look at the typical swimwear by decade.





These are typical swimsuits from 1900, or as they would have been called, "bathing costumes". Neither are hand-knitted but both are wool. At the turn of the 20th century, women swam in not only dresses and bloomers but in wool stockings and canvas-soled shoes and also some kind of head covering: a scarf, a mobcap, or a hat. Though today we'd never dream of trying to swim in all that clothing, much less in shoes, these costumes probably seemed freeing and even daring to people used to wearing much more fabric in their daily costumes. At least until they were soaking wet.





A man and two young girls in their swimsuits in 1915. As you can see, bathing costumes haven't changed a lot in 15 years, though the man's pant legs are now past his knees, and for the women, sleeves may be shorter and the skirt is now optional. The black stockings are still required for women.





In 1910 a company named the Portland Knitting Company began producing knitted swimwear on sweater cuff machines and daringly offering them in their catalogues. In 1918 the Portland Knitting Company became the Jantzen Knitting Mills. These Jantzen swimsuits, which likely date from about 1920, look much more practical than any of their predecessors, though even so they could weigh as much as nine pounds when wet. Men's and women's bathing suits looked very similar all through the twenties, with the exception that women were still wearing stockings with their bathing suits well into the twenties, though they were no longer full length but could show the knee. The police patrolled the beaches and measured women's suits to be sure they weren't more than nine inches above the kneecap. Even men could be charged with public obscenity for baring their chests.





Three women's bathing suits from the early 1920s. The swimsuits of the twenties weren't all in black by any means. How cute is that navy and yellow number? I'd wear that now in a slightly longer version, as a dress. All three of these designs could easily be worn today over a swimsuit, as beach cover-ups.

As the twenties wore on, the top of the bathing suit became skimpier and more fitted overall, with lower necklines and thinner straps. The upper part of the suit became cut-away or racer back for the men, and manufacturers began to attach the trunk to the top part of women's suits.

This picture is of Marlene Dietrich and her daughter Maria Reiner on the beach in 1928, with Dietrich sporting the typical 1920s bathing suit. She's carrying it off much better than Winston Churchill, but then she's accessorized her look like the consummate performing artist she was, she isn't soaking wet, and oh yeah, she's Marlene fucking Dietrich.





This is a knitted swimsuit pattern from the 1930s. The skirt has become a "modesty panel" over the legs, and the stockings are finally gone. This pattern is available for free on Ravelry.





During the 1930s, it very gradually became acceptable for men to go bare-chested on beaches. This is a swimsuit from this transitional phase, made with a "topper" that was fastened to the trunks with a zipper, giving the wearer the option of taking it off.





These three patterns are for authentic thirties-era women's bathing suits, republished in A Stitch in Time: v. 1: Vintage Knitting & Crochet Patterns 1920-1949, by Jane Waller and Susan Crawford. You can get a better look at and more details about these patterns on their respective pattern pages on Ravelry.





In the 1940s, men's swim trunks became standard. In women's swimwear, the modesty panel was removed from their suits (though of course it's still possible to buy a panelled or skirted bathing suit even today), and the two-piece bathing suit was introduced. The pattern for the blue and white striped one-piece is available for free on Ravelry. The man's swimming trunk pattern can be bought here in the event that you really want it, but I trust that you don't want it. Knitted swimwear for men just isn't a good idea. I can't be thankful enough that at least that pattern is belted and would have stayed up when wet.





Swimwear in the 1950s didn't look all that different from that of the 1940s, as the one-piece suit had more or less reached the form it still has today. The two-piece suit did gain some ground and become a little smaller, though it wouldn't become the bikini until the sixties. These swimsuits are from the June 1957 issue of Everywoman's magazine which offered the patterns in its pages, and I would totally wear them if I could be sure they wouldn't sag to my knees once they got wet.

If you'd like to try creating your own vintage swimwear, you might like to check out The Retro Knitting Company or Vintage Visage for patterns. There also do seem to be a number of vintage bathing suits, such as those made by Jantzen, on eBay.

I don't believe I'll be knitting anything for the beach but a cover-up or beach dress myself. There's a reason why swimsuits aren't made with wool any more, and as much as I love vintage styles, I expect my vintage-style creations to have the comfort, practicality, and convenience of contemporary clothing design. If you decide to try knitting your own swimwear, please feel free to tell us about us in the comments, though I must ask you to please use some discretion when it comes to linking to pictures of you modelling your creations, fabulous as I am sure you look in them.