As promised, here’s a post about a sweater knit a while ago. First, let’s talk about the pattern. I used The Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan. I think it appeared in Threads magazine once upon a time and you can find it online now. It’s less of a pattern than a formula, so it can be used for any size of person and any yarn. Here it is on Ravelry with links to the Wayback Machine. It looks like you can download it from Rav, too.

I used this formula a couple of times to make sweaters for Mr. Math, including the Elrond Sweater. That’s the link to my Ravelry project page, and here’s my blog post. Below is the sweater. Ha. I knit it in 2009 and he still loves it. 🙂

The sweater I wanted to write about today, though, is this one, which was knit so long ago that it doesn’t even have a Ravelry project page.

My No. 9 sweater reminded me of it, so I dug it out. This sweater was knit from a huge ball of yarn that I bought at Lewiscraft, probably in the 1970’s. It was called A Pound of Mohair or something similar. (How fun. I found an article on Knitty about Lewiscraft upon its demise in 2006.) As you can see, it was gradient-dyed.

This is not the mohair of KSH but the older variant, which is more prickly and thicker, blended with a bit of synthetic. Hayfield 80 (80% mohair, 10% nylon 10% acrylic) which is an aran weight is more similar to this one. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The scary thing is that I have another 1 lb. cone of similar mohair in graduated tones in my stash, which I bought in NYC, but that’s another story.

So, this cardigan was knit maybe 40 years ago. I was so proud of myself for getting the gradient on the sleeves to match! That was only possible because I used a contrasting yarn for the ribbing, although I don’t remember what it was. It doesn’t have any detail on the ribbing increases – like the one for the mister, the increases are just made on either side of two stitches that define the raglan line. It would be easy to increase the stitch count there and do a little cable, or the P2K2P2 of the No. 9 sweater.

The other cool thing about this sweater are the buttons. They’re clear with bugle beads inside. They’re very sparkly and special – I bought them from a little button shop on Queen Street West in Toronto, which was gone the last time I went looking for it. It was one of those places with all the boxes of buttons, and you bought buttons individually. (Yes, I have a button stash. Don’t you?)

I used similar gold buttons that have metallic threads inside, bought at the same time, on my felted Stripey Noro messenger bag. (That link goes to the pattern page at Ravelry. This design of mine is a free pattern download.)

This button place reminded me of excursions with my mom when I was a kid – she would make the trek from suburbia on public transit to Dressmakers’ Supply on Avenue Road for notions like buttons. I thought it was an amazing place – all those boxes of buttons, sorted by colour! I also thought it was about six million miles north of Bloor St., but really it was maybe three blocks. We always walked that bit. Dressmakers’ Supply moved down to Queen St. West at some point and has since closed down.

There is another button store on Queen St. West now called Trillium Button – or maybe it’s the same place but on the other side of the street now – which I’ll have to check out the next time I’m downtown. Ha! I found a blog post from 2012 about the button store and it IS the same store, but moved west and to the north side of the street. Definitely worth a trip. (Here’s that blog post, which has some pix.)

And hmm. Now I’m wondering what to do with all that mohair in the stash…