If you've been following along with my stash busting project you'll know that
one of the patterns I've been wanting to tackle is this 1940s sock pattern. And what appealed to
me about this pattern is it's not only made of oddments in true make do and mend style,
but it's also knit flat and seamed up. Many of you were just as intrigued by this unusual
pattern as I was so I decided to dedicate an entire video to the making of these socks.
Here we are let's take a look closer look at the pattern. Cup of tea, naturally. Yes so "odd scraps
of coloured wools can be used most effectively for these charming, fancy striped ankle socks
on two needles." So materials two number thirteen knitting needles pointed both ends and amazingly
I um came across in a charity shop, well I didn't my mum did, but she has an excellent eye for these
things. A whole set 13, 14, and 15 and so these are original vintage Aero, stainless steel,
size 13 knitting needles. So not only is this an original vintage pattern we're using original
vintage needles for this. And I um it's one of those things about the, like the graphic design of
the packaging is just so beautiful. Got a little bit missing here but oh well "with specially
tapered points which will not injure the fingers." It's just a nice touch really that isn't it?
"Also obtainable Areo knitting pins in all the usual jumper sizes". I only need
two of these apparently so should we look at our specially tapered points?
Yeah I mean I guess? I don't know must have been, um it must have been a novelty in the
30s or 40s whenever these are from. So I've got my two number 13 knitting needles and then an
ounce of three ply fingering in main shade and one ounce in mixed colours. So I'm using the leftovers
from my rainbow cardigan [jumper] and I've already divided some of them into two because that's the
first step it tells you to do. And I did that... tell me that's not a moth! No it's a bit of grass,
phew! So I've already done that in preparation for casting on. So my main shade is going to be this
pink because I had the most of that left and then yellow green and then this, oh blue naturally,
and then this sort of tan colour. So I haven't really decided on an order yet. Oh well,
I have time because first of all we're going to cast on for the rib at the top in the main colour.
Really interestingly it gives you absolutely exact measurements, "when you work the multi-coloured
stripes two rows of knitting in each stripe remember that you will need approximately one
and a half yards of wool to work one stripe of leg part so that's two rows or three quarter yard to
work each stripe across instep. This will enable you to judge before starting a stripe whether you
will have enough wool to complete it." So they're that precise uh so this was a proper make do and
mend pattern you know they're anticipating you making it out of lengths of yarn that you've got
left over. So I think that's fascinating. Errr what sort of cast on should I do? I
should probably do a long tail cast on. How many stitches do I need? 60. So I think I'm going to do
the thumb method because I've seen that suggested in some of my like "how to knit" knitting guides
from the 40s and 50s and things. It's a logical choice for a historically accurate pair of socks.
[voiceover] Of course the issue with a long tail cast on is estimating how
much of a tail to leave. I got it wrong on the first try.....
and the second.....
Okay so third time's the charm. And I've got my stitches cast on. As you can see it's quite,
it's gonna be quite snug on this very short needle, but these are the only double pointed
needles in the right size that I have so we're gonna have to make it work. Took me three attempts
and I was getting really het up about it and then I remembered of course I will need to sew
these up so actually having quite a long yarn tail is is gonna be a bonus really. Um however,
it was... this is more like... this is more of an appropriate length rather than like a full yard
of yarn left. And I've also decided on the colour of my stripes. So this will be the main body, so
like the dark bit on the diagram, and so then it will be cream, green, yellow, blue and I thought
that would be quite a nice so you've got like the alternating between the the blue tones and
the yellow tones. I suppose this one's a bit pink but anyway. It says to do an inch and a quarter
of ribbing but I don't actually have enough of this it says an ounce, which is 28 grams,
and I have about 23. So I'm gonna make the ribbing shorter and hopefully that means I'll be able to
get to the the toe, but it's looking unlikely. In which case I might do a contrast toe. I'm gonna
make start on the ribbing and I'll check back in with you when..... [phone vibrates] I'm.....
Amazingly I was interrupted by somebody ringing me on the phone! Who even are they? I can't remember
what I was saying. I've decided on my colours, I'm gonna knit the rib and then I'll check back
in with you when I get to this point and we see what happens in terms of the construction.
[Music plays]
Okey-dokey. So I finished my rib it's now an inch long and I have to do an increase row next.
I'm guessing by purl twice it's like front and back?
That'll do.
Okay so I've done my increases. I've trimmed my yarn and it says now break off main wool
and start pattern noting that when slipping stitches in pattern they should be slipped
purl wise. So I'm going to join on my first colour with knit three slip one repeat to end.
So it looks like this is very similar to the stitch pattern in the rainbow jumper.
So let's have a look. One, two, three, slip purlwise.
One, two, three, slip purlwise and then yep, from the end, then knit one. And then interestingly
rather than it be like a stocking stitch slip stitch pattern it's a garter stitch, so knit one
bring yarn forward, slip one, take wool back, knit three. Oh okay I've got it. So you're just
making sure that, that on the right side you don't have that contrast yarn showing.
Okie-dokie so I have my first stripe, and now it says to break off and join on another contrasting
stripe but I think rather than do that and have loads of ends to weave in, I'm just going to carry
the yarns up the edge and hopefully that'll work. So the next colour I want is green, and so this
time we're going to offset it? Yeah. It's exactly
like the rainbow jumper that's interesting. Slip one, one, two,
three, slip one and then that way the slip stitches on the next row will be between.....the
previous row.
I really like these three colours together actually. So then that's that row,
and then the wrong side row.... Yup just as I thought. Basically the same thing again.
Knit three and then just bringing that yarn to the wrong side to slip the slip stitch.
[reading pattern]
"These four rows give you two stripes. Repeat them
from star to star until you have 16 stripes." Okay let's do that then.
Whooooopppp!
Aye! So I've got my however many stripes it was they told me to do 16? Yes [reading pattern] "16
stripes ending with the wrong side row." Good, done that. "Now slip the
first 16 stitches of row and the last 16 stitches of row onto two stitch holders."
[under her breath] Sh*t [awkward giggle]
[continues reading] "...leaving only the central 37 stitches." Tell you what I can do. I can put
them on my spare needles. So how many was it 16? Right, oh I see. Okay. So I'm going
to essentially keep the central stitches and they're going to become... this part. Got it.
14, 15,
16.
Ohhh, huum.
.....16. Errmm this is going to be annoying actually.
So I might put them all on one. I also need to cut these [snip].
And then I carry on as before just on this part this is going to be fun.
Welcome back to my messy desk. So I have now finished.... it's really difficult to
demonstrate this... I finished this top section of my socks. I don't know what you call that
bit. So you see I've got all these stitches on a holder and I've knitted the upper(?) I guess
it is? Err so now I have to trim all these yarns off and reattach my main colour and then do the
decreases for the toe. Let's trim those off, [snip] tidy these up. So I've got plenty of
yarn left. [Huff!] So it looks like I'm doing a very simple wedge toe but just on the top half.
Knit three...
knit two together .... Oh okay so I'm
doing a decrease row first. Fair enough. Knit five repeat to end.
After the decrease row it was a case of decrease at each end of every other row
as you would expect for a standard wedge toe. Then those last 16 stitches get left
on hold and the yarn is re-joined to the other half of the stitches ready to work the heel.
It was quite unusual doing a heel turn and gusset flat. It felt just familiar
enough that I could follow the instructions but at the same time it felt oh so wrong.
So it's been a little while uh because it's been so hot I just haven't been up to recording
basically, but I have been plodding along with this constructed flat sock. So I want to show
you where I'm up to and then we can finish it off together. Basically at the minute
it looks like this. So we knitted this part flat and it has to be seamed up the back,
the um the ankle, and then we joined the stitches to knit the heel flap,
or rather we divided the stitches and just carried on and knitted the upper(?) of the
sock. No idea what this is actually called. And then we shaped for the toe and left the stitches
on the needle. It did say you could cast off and then sew them up but I thought that's kind
of pointless let's just graft it instead. Then you go back to the stitches here that you left
and knit the heel, turn the heel as you would and pick up stitches as you would but rather
than working in rounds you're working flat. So that threw me a little bit to start with
and um I don't think I picked up my stitches in the right order but it worked so oh well. And then
same again shape the toe and leave the stitches on the needle. So we've got like a flappy sock.
So what I need to do is graft the stitches together at the toe and then sew up, firstly
like the centre back seam, but also then the top to the sole along there, and of course weave in
all the ends because there's quite a few ends what with the colour work, and had I not been carrying
the yarn with me there would be an end to weave in every two rows. So glad I did that. But I haven't
got a whole lot of yarn left so let's hope this is enough to sew it up and I've just thought I
don't think I even have a darning needle in here. I'll find one of those and we'll start on this.
So I did eventually find a darning needle. So if you've never done grafting before it's
kind of a way of sewing together stitches so that it looks like knitting basically.
I’ll be honest with you. I did try and explain grafting here but I’m not very good at it at the
best of times and I definitely am not good enough to be able to give you a decent explanation.
What I will say is that this style of grafting is also sometimes called Kitchner stitch as
it was supposedly a requirement of socks sent to soldiers on the front line in WW1.
So knit off, purl on, purl off, knit on. So you can kind of see because my tension's so bad,
you can see where those grafted stitches are but it can be, once you sort the tension out,
really invisible and obviously because there's no seam there less likely to give you trench
foot. Not that I'm anticipating trench foot being an issue. Although I do live in England so....
So now I've got my sock attached at the toe and this heel point. So I have to
sew up this edge to this edge, this edge to this edge, and the centre back. So I think
let's start with the centre back and weave in these straggly bits and then do these seams.
The sewing up was actually really difficult to get right as I was
sewing a garter stitch edge to a stocking stitch edge. It’s not really very pretty
and actually quite bulky on the inside which could be really uncomfortable.
And so I finished my sock. God that was a faff. Much easier to sew... to knit them in the round.
I also had a bit of a disaster in that my toe... I pulled on the yarn to tighten up my Kitchener
stitch stitches, the yarn snapped right at this point so it started to unravel. So I've kind of
done a bit of a ropey mend there. And I really love the way they look. I think they look so cute.
However, you might be able to tell, they're really small. I don't have massive feet and I followed
the instructions for the size in the pattern that I should need but still they're really
small and I don't know if it's partly because this pattern doesn't have as much elasticity
as the stocking stitch or something like that? I don't know or if I knitted it....? It's too small,
basically. So what I'm hoping is that I can gently block them to be a bit bigger. I also am not a
fan of this this toe like it's too bulky and yeah I... I'm not sure but it is very cute as socks go.
Errr obviously I've got to knit the next one. I think I'll knit the next one to be
the same size and then see if I can't block the pair of them to be bigger. Okay wish me luck.
The second sock went much smoother now that I’d had a bit of practice
and so I gave them a good soak to try and block them to be bigger.
As you can see though I didn’t quite have enough of the pink left to finish
the toe on the second sock so I used a bit of green. It’s all
very much in keeping with the Make Do and Mend look so I don’t mind.
[Jazz music plays]
As part of my vintage clothing collection I have a pair of CC41 shoes that I don’t
wear because they’re too fragile but I thought I’d give them a little outing
to try and recreate the look of the socks in the pattern illustration.
I’m so pleased with how these turned out.
If you’d like to try making these socks yourself there is a link in
the description to where you can find the pattern. And if you do make them I’d love
to see them. You can share them in the brand new Retro Claude Ravelry group!
Part of why I enjoy recreating these patterns from the 1940s is to get a better understanding
of what it was actually like living in the 1940s for ordinary people. We in the vintage community,
and I include myself in this, can be guilty of romanticising this era of history,
particularly when it comes to life on the British home front. And as much as I love
the design of the clothes and can marvel at the ingenuity of these Make Do and Mend designs,
when I actually make them I get a better insight into this era.
Thanks for watching, see you next time.