Timeless Tyrolean Knitwear
“Timeless Tyrolean Knitwear: Recreating the vintage style” by Linda Ivell (2022).
Figured I’d start the new iteration of this site off with a review of a new(er) knitting acquisition! It’s been a while!
One of the first knitting-related Instagram accounts I followed is knitting4victory. Run by Linda Ivell, the account focuses on re-creating vintage knitting patterns, often using the original yarn if still available. She also does commissions and occasionally sells patterns that she has adapted from the original vintage pattern to include more size options and consistent abbreviations. It was a pretty exciting day for me when she announced her first book about the style and patterns back in 2022.
Historical Tyrolean knitwear (named for the Alpine region of Tyrol) is characterized by densely patterned garments, often using cable patterns, colored edges and trims, and floral surface embroidery. Cardigans are usually cropped at the waist to show off the voluminous dirndl skirts.
“Timeless Tyrolean Knitwear” contains an informative section on the characteristics of vintage yarn, which is especially helpful if you are hoping to use vintage yarns or are looking to substitute them with a modern yarn, which is generally much easier to achieve. Personally, as much as I love the idea of knitting with vintage yarn, there is no way to tell what kind of enviroment the yarn has been stored in, and what kind of condition it might be in until you’ve invested time and effort in your project. While I prefer vintage items in many circumstances, like furniture, it’s modern yarn all the way for me! I would hate to be halfway through a cardigan and the yarn gives up on me, or for holes to develop before their time or for the whole thing to fall apart after a handwash.
One of the best parts of this book is the array of patterns that are directly inspired by vintage Tyrolean knits. The pattern introductions often include vintage photographs of the original knitwear that the pattern from which the pattern is derived. There are fourteen patterns in total, mostly cardigans which I adore! My only real quibble about this book is the lack of charts for the cable, and lace patterns. There are charts for color-work, but the instructions for the textured sections are written out line-by-line. I know that a substantial amount of knitters prefer written instructions, so this isn’t a legitimate flaw, just a personal thing for me! I am a huge fan of charts! I find them easier to follow than written instructions, and I find them more likely to be correct. There are plenty of detailed photographs of the textured sections, which does help to balance out the lack of charts. There are also no schematics included so you have to rely entirely on written instructions for assembly; choosing what size to knit; finished dimensions, etc. Having said that, as long as you are really good about following written instructions (and even if you have to follow along with your finger like I do), this book is a complete treat and I’m looking forward to my next vintage-inspired cardigan!
Looking forward to Ivell’s next book, as of this writing titled “Recreating Vintage 1940s Knitwear” this coming July!
Hey, what gives?
Welcome to At The End of My YarnS! Plural! 2.0. ATEOMYS.com/final/reallymeanitthistime/finalfinal
What had happened here was I switched domain hosts and migrated everything to the platform that let me edit the site, add posts, etc. instead of paying two separate businesses. All was well and good for about a month until the old domain host, which I didn’t know was still tied to the editing platform (should have, but this is how we learn) blocked my old website for ‘non-payment’ despite the fact that I had switched domain hosts before the renewal period was up and no longer owed them anything. The domain host was unsurprisingly unhelpful in helping me unblock it. Full tea split on the Facebook page. I’ll admit I was a bit capricious and dealt with it initially by cursing, staring at the screen in disbelief, refreshing a dozen times, and being all ‘you wanna be like that? Fine!’ and packing up my marbles and heading home.
Blocking the old website and not letting me in to fix anything drove me to throw caution to the wind and start fresh! Hadn’t intended to lose access to all my old content and start THIS fresh but so it goes. Six years of knits, book reviews, general knitting BS down the hole! Escaped into the ether. Welp.
So the new domain is attheendofmyyarns.com with that tricky ‘s’ at the end. All the branding, etc., is going to stay At The End of My Yarn for the sake of continuity.
On the topic of REALLY SIMILAR domain names, if you’re a ‘90s kid like me and have the mind of a 14 year-old boy you might recall the scandal of looking up the White House (the one in Washington, DC) pre-google and typing in .com instead of .gov and getting more than you bargained for as a prepubescent kid. I’ll admit I never tried it (back in those days of wooden ships and steel men my primary internet access was through the blocky computers at the school computer lab and I was a little goody-two-shoes) but nothing would bring me greater joy than if once my old domain is for sale again someone turns it into a niche porn site.
The cool thing about this new site (thanks for saving me, Squarespace!) is that I have more options available for publishing PDFs and things like that. I plan to finally write up the wedding wrap cardigan pattern from YEARS ago and publish it here for download, and for free. If I get a good reception I might start drafting some paid patterns as well with expanded sizes, etc. My usual content will stay the same, with details on finished projects and some in-progress posts as well as reviewing books again, as the reviews generated most of my traffic and I’ve now lost the content. My writing style has changed over the years so it should make for more interesting reading.
See you all soon!