Old made New Bernat Klein/The Roberta Vest

Late last summer/early fall, a friend, Roberta, brought me a sack with lovely vintage sixties/seventies wool/silk fingering blend start of a sweater her mother was making, long before she passed on. This yarn, Bernat Klein is named after Bernat Klein, woollen and synthetic textile manufacturer of Galashiels, Scotland. Wow, I read this is the guy that came out with these funky wool/mohair spaced dyed woven into tweedy plaids! I used to make matching a-skirts and vests with wool like this in the sixties! I bet he was alot of Kaffe Fasset and Brandon Mabley's influences/inspirations. Hmmm, Bernat Klein really needs a comeback! So now I am trying to find out if Barry and Myrna Klein of Trendsetter Yarns are related to Bernat? There is a Begonia named after him! I am naming this newly designed vest, The Roberta Vest.

Well, the story on the sweater goes: The sweater was being made by/for the mother, who was a size three. Roberta is a bit larger than I so I put on my largest, baggiest shirt to model the remake.

I had to rip out the top and side seams of a sleeveless boatneck. There were five extra skeins that I am sure were for sleeves. Their were only seven repeats of the pattern to the top, so I added an extra one on the front and shaped a u-neck for a vest. I finished the back by having ten repeats of the leaf pattern to the top and shaped a neck. I added two side gussets of five lines of the leaf and four of the stockinette lines having to remake because I forgot to add an extra stitch at each end for seaming. I used the same finish on the neck and armholes used on Nora Gaughan's Knitting Nature U-Neck Turbulance Sweater. I loved and coveted this piece of work and so desired to keep it.

This is a cool, classic look and I am thinking about making a pattern to sell? Would you be interested in it? Please let me know!

A Water Theme - Green Turbulence

The Turbulence U-Neck Pullover from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature of Queensland "Katmandu" DK back side is complete and the front is started on today. Three days, and a whole lot of other stuff going on. One reason or another, I didn't get back to the lacy summer sweater. My aim is to finish it tommorrow, but I am really on this Turbulence.

A friend who's mother passed on, brought me this luscious silk and wool "Bernat Klein" (from Scotland) sweater which her mother had worked up. Gosh, I think the project may be forty years old by the looks of the intact label. My friend would like me to remake it, saving as much of her mothers stitching as possible. The shoulder seams were back-stitched with 1/2 inch seams, which I found to be rather interesting. So I went into my cedar chest and pulled out this vintage 1983 sweater I had designed to see how I had done the lace yoke. I couldn't help myself and just had to document it. I still love it, and wonder how I was ever that skinny, I tried it on and it is barely loose, it used to hang on me, oh the years of youth are slipping by, at least I could get it on! I really loved it and had a matching pair of jeans in the blue color. I can't remember the yarns, but the ribbing and yoke look like a heavy pearl cotton, and the slubby stuff is definetly viscose and maybe a little cotton. I would buy these yarns and make it again. So I am thinking to go from a 5'3" petite to an XL, I will frog the upper armholes out and apply the eylet lace to the top. I will then extend the sides by adding gussets.

Here's a jewelry set I made up a few months ago. I custom dyed the mother-of-pearl(mop) beads in the microwave. I also dyed the mop in some other pastel colors and have made a few bracelets. I think the green will appropriately be worn with the Turbulence, I like the whole idea of a water theme.

All that dying made me desire to try my hand at painting some merino. That is on the calendar this year for sure, and being taught to spin.