Greetings my dear viewers! I am delighted to bring this video to you that discusses
my interpretation, as a beginner knitter (yes, I only learnt to knit this past summer), of the 1897
Butterick Cycling Sweater, otherwise known as the Met Museum Sweater. Knitted in repurposed yarn,
I figured that this warm pink number would be perfect to share with you on Valentine's Day.
While not a full-blown tutorial, I sincerely hope that the details contained in this video
will empower other beginner knitters to take on this Victorian sweater.
As a left-handed person in a predominantly right-handed world, I have always struggled
with grasping the concept of knitting. I remember vividly at primary school one of the dinner ladies
taught a bunch of girls in my class how to cast on and knit… but unfortunately, my dexterity being
opposite to all but I think one other in my year, resulted in me not having this early introduction.
My mother wasn't a knitter, though she did crochet, so I certainly didn't learn from her…
and as recently as maybe even 10 to 15 years ago, when I was very kindly given a large collection
of knitting needles, I still was unable to get the hang of it. After being inspired by all of
the lovely creations on the Engineering Knits channel, and after finding a 1940s instruction
book belonging to my late grandmother last summer which had a section for left-handed knitters,
I finally took a determined plunge and soon knit a few lace sample squares as my starter pieces. At
that time my goal was to ultimately knit some lace stockings similar to those of my schoolgirl days
However, knowing that warmth would soon become an issue
due to my recurring winter battle against numb fingers and toes,
my first proper project was a pair of cable-knit leg warmers that I made over the summer.
Come November, I started unraveling a pink oversized acrylic blend button-up sweater
with the mind of trying to knit the 1890s sweater on page 167 of Butterick's fancy and
practical knitting book. You'll find the link to this in the description. Often referred to as a
cycling sweater, this pattern offers two sleeve styles. Most knitted examples I have seen of this
show the tubular sleeves (option 2) which I didn't particularly care for,
so I immediately had it in mind to use sleeve option 1, which was more like the sleeves of
the various shirts that I’ve up-cycled for myself these past two years. As is so often the case with
my projects, I did not carry a video camera around with me. So this semi-retrospective record and
explanation of my understanding and interpretation of this pattern is presented in the hopes that,
at some point, another beginner knitter like myself can feel relatively comfortable in
using this original pattern. And yes, I consider myself very much to be a beginner knitter with
next to no experience whatsoever knitting, much less interpreting historical patterns.
Please understand that I don't consider my interpretations
as anything more than my own opinions. Let's have a look at the instructions and pattern.
The beginning of this chapter, which covers sweaters and stockings for sports,
states that if a person wishes to make sweaters larger or smaller than the ones described,
they are to add or decrease eight stitches for every inch.
Therefore I took this to be as close to a gauge as I would get: Eight stitches per inch.
The section then goes on to define the term ‘fancy pattern’. I got this part quite wrong. But
thankfully, after defining the pattern, the text does state that any fancy stitch preferred to the
one described may be used so I guess I can just rebrand my error as artistic license - it sounds
a bit better than a mistake don't you think?! The fancy stitch starts as a row of knit two purl two.
The second row instructions state to work back, knitting the purl stitches and purling the knitted
ones. And where I went wrong, was that I took it to mean that on the back (i.e. the reverse side)
anything that you previously knit was to be purled.
Of course, as the back of a knit stitch IS a purl stitch, anyway,
this resulted in 2 by 2 ribbing which was most definitely not what was intended.
I’m going to recommend that you research this a bit as I cannot profess to be confident in
my current appraisal … but if I work it out I will try to make a very short explanatory video
and link it both in the video above and also in the description.
We then read the definition of 'rib', which is simply 1 by 1 ribbing of knit one purl one.
Construction suggestions are then offered stating that the shoulders can be bound instead of sewn,
and that instead of knitting the front and back pieces separately,
the experienced knitter can knit front and back in one piece. I’ll explain why in a moment,
but I ultimately did something in between:
Knitting the front and back pieces separately, but simultaneously, on a pair of circular needles.
The header of this sweater section states it as being designed for a 34 inch bust measurement
which was perfect for me. As such, I was able to follow the pattern without the need for adding or
removing any stitches. As alluded to, the book provides two variations on the same sweater
with the body, or torso, being identical, but the sleeves bearing a different design.
According to the guide, you need 14 ounces of worsted white knitting yarn (I used pink!!!),
16 buttons, fine ivory needles number, 12 steel needles, and fine steel knitting needles.
As a brief overview to how these needles are used, it then states that the upper part of the sleeve
is knitted with the ivory needles, the lower part of the sleeve, the neck, and the central
waist area with the fine steel needles, and the remainder of the torso with the number 12s.
I didn't have a clue what the comparable needle sizes would be in modern equivalents,
but took a guess that the number 12s would be approximately a U.S.1 (or 2.25mm).
I knitted a small block to see if I could get approximately eight stitches in an inch
and it seemed to be suitable. Truth be told, my knitting style did change dramatically
during this project and I’m very thankful that my sweater fits me as well as I could have hoped for.
Having established U.S.1s as my main needles, I read that the ivory needles would have been
thicker (so anticipated using a U.S.2 (or 2.5mm)), and that the fine steel needles would probably be
a U.S.0 (2mm) or U.S.00 (1.75mm). I used size 0 for the waist area but used a 00 when I came
to the neck - I like my neck being warm, thank you, and wished to avoid any possible gaping!
Looking back I have now learned that according to the Bell Gauge, which was a popular knitting gauge
of the era, a number 12 then would have perhaps been more along the lines of a U.S.2 (or 2.5mm)
and it's very possible that, especially given the weight of my repurposed yarn and the fact that I
didn't put it through any sort of preconditioning treatment prior to use, that a U.S.2 might
have been more appropriate. Live and learn, I guess. Your own yarn choice and knitting style
will change your resulting product but hopefully these suggestions provide a good starting point
If you, like me, are new to knitting ... and your style is a bit up in the air,
I heartily recommend that you knit back and forth using some long circular needles, knitting both
front and back sections simultaneously. I started with straight needles, but when I
realized that my stitch sizes were changing as I progressed, I figured that in order to avoid any
huge discrepancies between the front and back, I should really be working on both at the same time.
Another reason for using circular needles is that the weight on the ends of my straight
needles really got quite noticeable, and making my stitches with the straight needles once this
weight increased became quite laborious. The only difference between the front and
back sections is from the shoulders up: The front piece has button holes whereas the back
has buttons and a piece of underlapping to avoid these buttons distorting the stitches.
The torso design is with a fancy stitch at the bottom,
ribbing with side decreases to shape the hips, a waistband area (using the smallest needles,
remember) with fancy stitch on the top and bottom of that, and then a large section
of ribbing totaling 11 inches or so and spanning from the top of the waistband up
to the shoulders. This distance is going to change depending on your bust size, so do keep checking!
The join of the shoulders running towards the neck is knit with 8 rows of the fancy pattern, with
buttonholes being specified for the second row. Now, I took this second row to mean the second row
as it is knitted, rather than the second row from the finished edge, which I would have
labeled as the seventh row, But I have seen some similar sweaters where the buttonholes appear to
be in that second row from the finished edge so I wanted to share this just in case I got it wrong.
The top shoulder edges are bound off to the point where the neck begins,
listed as 14 stitches or so on each side, and then the collar is knit using the smallest needles.
Buttonholes are placed at the edges of the collar on the front piece, specified as being two
stitches from the edge, and 3/4 of an inch apart. Bear in mind that the first buttonhole actually
starts 3/4 of an inch up into the collar section and not on the first knitted row as I mistakenly
did! Thankfully, erroneous knit buttonholes are easily stitched back up. The very top of
the collar is knit again in fancy stitch with a hole on either side for the final buttons.
With the front and back pieces finished (including the ribbed underlap to be placed under the buttons
for stability), the sides get stitched together from the base to a distance of 15 and a half
inches, which should be at underarm level. The top outer, overlapped edges of the shoulder
get tacked together, and for stability, the edges of the buttonholes are given a whip stitch
treatment (though I personally opted to use buttonhole stitches on mine).
The two sleeve patterns are very similar in design, with the largest needles being
used for the puffy gigot portion, and the finest needles being used for the remainder.
Focusing on sleeve option no. 1, which is what I made, 16 inches of ribbing are to be "very
loosely knitted", followed by four rows of fancy pattern. You switch to the fine needles and knit
with single decreases on either edge until 30 stitches have been narrowed off of each side.
8 more inches of ribbing is then instructed, but be sure to check your arm length at this
point! The sleeve will join to the underarm 2 1/2 inches above the section knit in fancy pattern,
so you need to be sure that the distance from this underarm join to your wrist is going to
be long enough. When I tested mine, it was a good inch and a half too short (like just
about every other knitted top I have!!). Also note that the pictures show the wrist section
doubled over as if for a cuff, which would take even more rows. I personally decided to forgo
the cuff (as the bulk will get in my way) but even so, instead of 8 inches I knit 10.
Working out how to attach the sleeves to the torso really messed with my head. The
instructions simply say that the top of the sleeve is to be put in a box-pleat(plait?),
and that the sides ought to have four additional pleats turning away from this box pleat. I did
video the culmination of my attempt to understand this part, but please take it with a pinch of
salt. I really have no idea if this is what the author meant, and I just tried to match the text
with what I was seeing in the pictures to provide as full a sleeve cap as I could. Here goes that
The instructions say to box-pleat they don't say how many pleats.
So I box pleated to the topmost corners (I’ll take this apart in a second), and
then you can see the four pleats running down the side here.
After connecting the underarm, the side of the sleeve runs up here ... and then,
the top of the sleeve, which I have pleated like this right now.
Whether it's right or wrong, I have no idea. But this is done along the top edge of the sleeve.
Now, ordinarily, if you consider one box pleat as you might find on a skirt,
you would pleat into the center a bit like this.
And it is possible that it should be like that,
but looking at the picture in the guide, there appears to be much more density or fullness
at the top than you would get from just a single box pleat.
So I made the decision to make more pleats at the top.
The other question in my mind was whether the pleats were supposed to be
this way, joining here ... or whether they were supposed to be this way,
with the flat part facing outwards.
So I went back to the pictures, and it definitely seemed like
it was flatter at the top and then pleated down the sides from there,
allowing for more fullness, and less separation at that top edge.
The reason I have these corners at the sides, is because when it comes to the side pleats
having that edge - that outer edge - easily accessible for pleating,
makes things, in my opinion, a lot easier.
If it were underneath like this, you would have to double back to access that pleated side edge.
I guess there's always a way, but that was my understanding of the instructions, at least.
While working on the sleeves, I wore the torso as a vest, which would probably work
really well worn without a shirt underneath of a jacket type bodice. But with sides seamed,
sleeves seamed, and sleeves set in place, my delightfully warm sweater was finished!!
In all, it took about three months from start to finish for me to complete this cycling sweater
as a beginner knitter ... and with the weather due to be cold for the next two months at least,
I expect that this will make a regular appearance in my daily Victorian wardrobe.
As always, thank you for coming on this journey with me and I hope the information has been
useful somehow to you. Stay warm and I look forward to sharing again with you very soon