Don't Touch This
Here's a lovely vintage knit outfit, brought to you by Spinnerin, in 1964:
Isn't that gorgeous?
I want this outfit. Nice top, very cool giant plastic beads, great sandals, killer skirt to die for. Just the thing to wear, apparently, when hailing boats off some Mediterranean coast. I could end up on a Mediterranean coast at some point; best be prepared. Must have this. Must make.
Just for the hell of it, how troublesome do you think it would be to knit the killer skirt?
Well, I'll tell you.
It's 7 stitches to the inch, on #3 needles (a circular 36" is what's called for). For the medium size (waist 29"), one casts on 210 stitches. Right after the waistband, one increases in EVERY STITCH, so as to produce "Dirndl Skirt fullness," ending up at 420 stitches. Over the course of the skirt (which is 27 inches long), one increases some more, after about every pattern band, until one ends up with 704 stitches.
Now, the problem, as far as I see it, is not that the pattern is difficult -- no, no, it's pretty easy and straightforward. Nor that it's tedious -- there are many little pieces of the day when one can get a bit of mindless knitting done, and very restful and calming it can be, too.
No. The problem is that this thing is, as far as I can tell, going to take YEARS to make. Years, I tell you, during which time babies are born and grow up and go to college, jobs are won and lost, and whatever darling Mediterranean coast this picture is taken at becomes some terrorist haven and we break off diplomatic relations.
What I really wonder is, did anybody other than the original knitter paid to make this design ever knit this skirt? Please write and tell me if you know of someone who did.
And how long did it take?
And did they ever wear the thing? Wasn't it completely out of fashion by the time they got it off the needles?
Though, come to think of it, if I'd started this thing in 1964, I could have finished it by now -- and it's been back in fashion at least three times that I can think of since Spinnerin first thought it up.
Isn't that gorgeous?
I want this outfit. Nice top, very cool giant plastic beads, great sandals, killer skirt to die for. Just the thing to wear, apparently, when hailing boats off some Mediterranean coast. I could end up on a Mediterranean coast at some point; best be prepared. Must have this. Must make.
Just for the hell of it, how troublesome do you think it would be to knit the killer skirt?
Well, I'll tell you.
It's 7 stitches to the inch, on #3 needles (a circular 36" is what's called for). For the medium size (waist 29"), one casts on 210 stitches. Right after the waistband, one increases in EVERY STITCH, so as to produce "Dirndl Skirt fullness," ending up at 420 stitches. Over the course of the skirt (which is 27 inches long), one increases some more, after about every pattern band, until one ends up with 704 stitches.
Now, the problem, as far as I see it, is not that the pattern is difficult -- no, no, it's pretty easy and straightforward. Nor that it's tedious -- there are many little pieces of the day when one can get a bit of mindless knitting done, and very restful and calming it can be, too.
No. The problem is that this thing is, as far as I can tell, going to take YEARS to make. Years, I tell you, during which time babies are born and grow up and go to college, jobs are won and lost, and whatever darling Mediterranean coast this picture is taken at becomes some terrorist haven and we break off diplomatic relations.
What I really wonder is, did anybody other than the original knitter paid to make this design ever knit this skirt? Please write and tell me if you know of someone who did.
And how long did it take?
And did they ever wear the thing? Wasn't it completely out of fashion by the time they got it off the needles?
Though, come to think of it, if I'd started this thing in 1964, I could have finished it by now -- and it's been back in fashion at least three times that I can think of since Spinnerin first thought it up.
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