Knitted Sweater for a Boy by Butterick Publishing Co.

Knitted Sweater for a Boy

Knitting
Four-thread German yarn
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
US 3 - 3.25 mm
Boy aged 10-12
English
Out of print. This pattern was available for free.

This pattern from Butterick was published in both Fancy and Practical Knitting, 1897, as well as in the May 1898 issue of The Delineator. The Delineator source can be found here:

From the pattern:

This sweater is for a boy from ten to twelve years of age and is knitted from four-threaded German knitting wool. One ounce of white and 12 ounces of crimson are required. Six No. 13 steel needles and four very fine ones are required to knit this sweater.

Four-thread German yarn refers to a “single Berlin” yarn, which was a merino wool of fingering weight-ish. No. 13 steel needles equates to about a US 3/3.25 needle. For gauge swatching purposes, a stockinette gauge of about 26 sts over 4’’/10cm would be about right. A boy of 10-12 years would have a chest measurement of 28-30’’.

This sweater construction is unusual. It starts at the bottom and is worked in the round to the underarms. No sts are bound off for the underarms. The front and back are then separated and each are knit flat for 60 rows (about 7’’) The two halves are then re-joined in the round and 4 decreases are worked every 3 rounds at the shoulder “seam” (column of purl sts running up the shoulder).

The sleeves are worked top down, starting at the top of the shoulder, where a few sts are picked up and as each row is worked, an additional st is picked up at the end of the row, with the final 32 required sleeve sts picked up all in one go. The sleeve is then worked in the round with gradual decreases until the cuff begins, which is worked on the smaller needles.