1930's style jumper and a winter challenge (say no to black)

Here is a little something to shake off the drabness of the cold season: a 1930's inspired number that will do more than keep you nice & toastie in winter - uplift your spirit whilst having you clad in style. Real style. Remember, elegance does not have to be black! The wool and silk mohair yarn makes this knit light and frothy, and the paprika/denim colour combo is guaranteed to improve your mood. 

...It also cooks you breakfast!!

Seriously, advertising talk aside, this is a rather beautiful piece of clothing, hand knitted by mother, whose work I sport regularly on this blog. As some of you know already, she does not take commissions, so this is a one and only purchase opportunity, with the garment now available in my etsy store. 

Furthermore, I am offering a 10% discount on this item to followers of my blog from now until Christmas, simply convo me via etsy to this purpose should you be interested.

What to do? - part 2 -

Today I played some more with the problem jumper: joined the sides higher up, straightened the buttons in a vertical line from that point, added a belt and a scarf. This is what I do when I'm confused: add stuff, rather than follow the principle of less is more.

To what result? Well, I think this might work provided that the belt is finer and of a colour that actually matches the buttons. This one belongs to a chunkier jacket and that shows. The bow in the scarf could sit lower and be slightly smaller. It is rather a fluffy bow too, but then a scarf of a stiffer fabric would show through the knit...

As you see , I am still looking for ideas and exploring possibilities, and I haven't made my mind about what to do...
Let go, it doesn't fit - it's been suggested in the comments section of the last post. Maybe, if I decide there's nothing that can be done about it. It could well be the less painful option on the long run. 

On the other side, the obvious sadly eludes me sometimes, and I have a propensity towards sweating a lot at trying to make something work before I do give up. Which means waste of time and energy...but what can I do if I'm a mule!

However obstinate I may be, the shoulder/underarm area clearly needs work and perhaps of large enough scale...so a chat with mum is coming next, to see what the options really are.

What to do?

What you see is the - so far - result of a rather less successful knitting attempt in the series of projects I keep boring you with, made in the same mohair and silk blend as used in my last post. Going a long way, this yarn proved to be more than enough for the blouse you've seen previously and a jumper that I am yet to show. The one shown today was made from spare yarn, and there is still enough left for a skirt, all this from less than1 kg of yarn.

And now to the troubled bit: I wanted a cardigan along the lines of the one worn on top above, so a very simple knit I thought, so simple I didn't think necessary to be very specific when discussing it with mother. So much for not taking the trouble! I ended up with this (ignore the buttons for now, they are an afterthought):

To say that I don't like it is an understatement... It's looks too big everywhere, it falls all wrong, it's too bulky as it was knitted in 3 - mum wanted to make sure it wasn't too flimsy!!! And it is a lot worse when it it's fully open. Such a shame, as the knitting itself is nice and even with lovely yarn definition on the basic stitch employed. It feels lovely on and very light - but looks heavy and shapeless...arrgh!! I am wearing it here with a vest and long sleeve t-shirt underneath, but even over something more consistent, it still doesn't look right.

So I started fooling around with it and wrapping it more around me into the shape below. With the ad of a set of buttons I tried to create a feature where there was none, and went for the asymmetrical fastening so popular in the 30's. At first I wanted to use some butterscotch yellow buttons for a typical 30's contrast, but I only had 3 of those, so settled for the ones you see, and put on lots! Perhaps too many?...It's all for decorative purposes of course, as the actual fastening is hidden underneath.

examples of various asymmetrical closures

Then the thought occurred of rearranging my plentiful buttons so they go around the neck and perhaps ad a belt matching the bronze-grey of the buttons to help further shape this jumper in the way I crudely attempted to draw here.

Yet apart from these cosmetic issues there may be a need for proper intervention as the underarm area still looks bad regardless of how much the sides cross over...Perhaps a re-work and narrowing of the back? Unless I manage to sew - invisibly?!- the excess in all around the arms to make the shoulders fit better and pull up the sleeve too..

Let me know your thoughts and ideas.

Red seams

This is how my cardigan from the previous post was supposed to turn out.
Only that it didn't :).  It turned out like this:

Not only is it a lot longer but it forms an unfortunate gap in the middle of the bust. I will try and resew the buttons to see if I can overcome this problem.

Here I have folded it in on the inside to get closer to the wanted length.

I have actually taken these pics in order to prove to my mother, who has knitted it for me, that things are not really that bad (she wasn't chuffed when she saw it first time around) but I'm afraid I'm falling rather flat.
Mum is still not happy with it at all, and will redo it for me in the summer when I go home.

 

Since it seemed that I needed a little bit more than funny faces to "work" this, I thought I'd try these seamed tights I bought a while back but never gave a go. Not at all authentic, I know, but fun nevertheless.