Overview
For a vintage pattern, it’s pretty straightforward; it is bare bones as expected but no vague instructions or muddy spots--easy to visualize the knitting just by reading through the pattern.

Pullover starts at front ribbing and is k up and over the shoulders, then down the back…which means the st pattern (and the ribbing) is k in one direction on the front and in the opposite direction on the back (if this really bugs you, you could stop at the top of the shoulder, CO again and reverse the rest of the instructions to k the back bottom-up as well, then seam or use 3NBO to join the two halves at the shoulder..but this would result in a seam all the way across the top of the sleeve--seems more distracting than having the st patterns upside down on the back).

Lots of st counts throughout to keep you on track.

Back neck is the same as the front (not raised, unfortunately).

Mods

• CO provisionally, k hem ribbing last so that front and back ribbing would match direction
• k body in stockinette instead of slipped st pattern
• added SRs to cowl to raise back neck
• k cowl, cuffs and hem in k1p1 instead of k2p2
• started cowl ribbing with US6s and inc’d one needle size every 1”, knitting the last 4” on US10s (instead of starting with US5s and switching to US9s after 1.5”)

Finished measurements (after blocking)

• waist circumference at ribbing:
• armhole depth at edge of body:
• total wingspan from cuff to cuff:
• cuff length:
• cuff circumference:
• body length from underarm to hem:
• body length from shoulder at neck to hem:
• neck width:
• cowl height (unfolded):

Tips

• if you want the direction of knitting of front/back ribbing to match at the sides when it’s seamed, CO provisionally and k the body/sleeves and back ribbing as directed, then come back and k the front ribbing downwards.

• to maintain pattern continuity in the hem ribbing, add 2sts to be used for seaming (these can be dec’d when beginning body, or just keep them for seaming body also) and start front ribbing with k3 and back ribbing with p3.

Resources
Rox Richardson demonstrates crochet provisional CO (with built in lifeline)…
And explains how to seam with mattress st, comparing using a full st vs half st to seam.
Also demonstrates tubular BO when knitting flat…
As well as ITR.
Joan Schrouder explains how she adds SRs to neck ribbing (scroll to bolded font)
Pick up and k calculator

Yarn
The pattern calls for a worsted weight acrylic and I just don’t do synthetic fibers…especially not acrylic--can’t stand the feel but it’s mostly the environmental impact of petroleum-based products that triggers climate anxiety for me (which I recently learned is a thing…like, other people experience it too!) and I’ve done my best to eliminate plastics from my life as much as possible.

So…after contemplating lots of possible substitutions, I came back to my favorite workhorse yarn. Nothing special, just 100% wool but it wears pretty well, comes in a decent variety of colors and is always available at my LYS (it’s pretty much identical to Cascade 220).

Settled on it because it’s close to the same weight as the suggested yarn--just 20y less per 100g (it’s a lot of fabric and I didn’t want to end up with a super heavy sweater) and seems like it has similar drape at 20sts/4”.

I wish I could afford a local yarn, because I also stress about the environmental impact of processing/shipping big name yarns like Cascade/Lanas/Berroco…but this is the best I can do right now.

19sts, 27rws/4” in stockinette on US8s
Didn’t swatch--I’ve used Lanas enough to know that I get 20sts/4” (more or less, depending on stress level/mood, weather, distractions, etc) on US7s but wanted a slightly looser fabric and was hoping maybe I could still squeeze in the 20sts…unfortunately not; had to adjust st count here and there to account for the 1 st difference in both st and rw gauge.

Color is one of my favorites--an elusive brown-gray, hard to say conclusively…depends on lighting and colors it’s paired with, so it goes with both black and brown color schemes. Unfortunately it leans cool so it can make my skin look ashy.

Notes
Found this pattern on Etsy a few years ago, being sold as a pdf that included one other pattern from the pamphlet. At the time, the ethics and legality of selling copyrighted material didn’t even occur to me (it wasn’t until later that I got into reading Rav forums and realized that it’s kind of a shitty thing to do)--I just saw the pattern, fell in love with it and bought it on the spot.

The design perfectly encompasses 1980s style and reminds me of my early childhood (I remember my mom’s oversized tops, giant shoulder pads and blue eyeshadow)…but I think it could also work today, depending on the styling--might look cute and modern with cuffed skinny jeans and high tops? Or mini skirt with ballet flats? Too 80s?
Maybe it’s pure nostalgia and I’m way off base and will look ridiculous in it but I don’t care--there’s something about it that I just love. It looks so comfortable! Like a big, baggy sweatshirt…but classy lol. Like a grown-up version of that oversized, worn-in hoodie that you sleep in but also wear to school the next day.

Created my project page and…that’s as far as I got…for three and a half years. The st pattern is really simple and the pullover is huge so it seemed like a slog to get through that much mindless knitting, but recently I’ve been craving mindless knitting--don’t have much energy or motivation to tackle complicated or challenging projects atm.

Made it even more mindless by changing the st pattern to stockinette--after swatching, the slipped st pattern resulted in a fabric that was just too stiff (I didn’t block my swatch buuuuut…i was pretty sure it wasn’t going to make a drastic difference). Tried going up a needle size but this only left bigger holes in the fabric. I really wanted that soft, drapey, sweatshirt feel and overall I just really like stockinette…for all of the challenging designs I usually enjoy knitting, I’m so boring in what I’ll actually wear (though I’m learning--my last few sweaters have been more realistic than aspirational).

Front
Underarm Increases
5/9
CO for Size M with CPCO on US8 needles.

Kept edge sts in stockinette (I find it easier to seam than garter).

Pattern starts inc’ing just 12rws (for Size M) above the ribbing.
As usual with vintage patterns, no specific inc is suggested; I decided on lifted inc’s--these look the least obtrusive in stockinette to me--and inc’d 2 sts in from edge so as not to interfere with seaming.
Used LLI on R side, RLI on L side.

5/10
As I k the torso/underarm inc’s, I started worrying that the front was going to be too long…decided to follow the Size S instructions (which call for fewer rws) from here, and I could always k the hem ribbing longer if necessary. I’m pretty short waisted and didn’t want the body to blouse so much that the it covered the ribbing…and again, the sweater is so big that I doubt the smaller size would be too small.
Unfortunately no measurements are given--only intended bust size.
Realized later that by casting on for Size M and then switching to Size S instructions, I inadvertently shortened the body by 2-3”…oops. Didn’t want it quite that short. Adjusted later by knitting extra “k straight” rws.

Inc’d to 148sts per Size S.

Sleeve Increases
Started sleeve shaping (following Size S instructions).
Used knitted CO.

To adjust for my 1 st difference in st gauge, I left off the last pair of sleeve inc rws. Intentionally overshot it by a few sts rather than match pattern gauge exactly to also shorten the sleeve length a little bit; hard to tell how long the cuff is from the one photo, but I wanted mine a few inches long to emphasize the balloon shape of the sleeve body.
Removing these two rws also helped to account for rw gauge difference.
258sts total; kept the same number of sts in the center body and took the extra sts out of the sleeve length--11 fewer sts in ea sleeve.

5/13
Knit across entire wingspan until depth of sleeve from first sleeve inc measured 5” (31rws, not including CO st).

Neck Shaping
Left side
K across 121sts (11 fewer than pattern), turn.
Leave remaining sts on hold.

Dec’s
Used right leaning dec’s (k2tog on RS, p2tog on WS) and dec’d 1 st in from the edge.
First dec on WS.
20 dec’s total, end on RS (first rw no dec). (101sts, 21rws)

K 37rws straight, end on WS (shortened here to account for gauge difference from first neck dec to last neck inc).

Inc’s
Used m1 inc’s (m1L on RS, m1Lp on WS)--the inc’s are stacked here so lifted inc’s wouldn’t be the best choice--and inc’d 1 st in from the edge.
First inc on RS.
18 inc’s total, end on WS. (119sts, 18rws)
Put sts on hold.

76rws total from first neck dec to last neck inc.

Right side
Rejoin yarn and BO center 16sts, k to EOR.

Mirror L side:

Dec’s
Used left leaning dec’s (ssk on RS, ssp on WS).
First dec on WS.
20 dec’s, end on RS (first rw is BO rw--no dec). (101sts, 21rws)

K 37rws straight, end on WS.

Inc’s
Used m1R on RS, m1Rp on WS.
18 inc’s, end on WS. (119sts, 18rws)

Back
Upper Back
5/24
Took a break for a couple of weeks to work on other projects.
Picked back up and joined L and R sides:
Pattern instructs to end R side inc’s with WS facing, pattern to EOR, cast on 20sts.
My last inc was at the end of a WS rw, so I just CO the back neck sts right after…then k across held sts to join.
(258sts)

Next instruction is to k until sleeve measures the same as from last CO to m (placed at halfway point of the “work even” section.
62rws from last CO to m.
39rws k from m to back neck CO = 23rws left to k.

After 62nd rw, k 1 more rw to end up on RS per pattern.
Start sleeves dec’s.

Sleeve Decreases
5/25
BO 11sts at the beg of next 10rws (BO purlwise on WS). (148sts--back to pattern st count here)

Underarm Decreases
Dec’d 2sts in from the edge to match front.
Used k2tog on L side, ssk on R side to match front (because back will be upside-down when sides are seamed).

So this is where I would dec to 104sts to match the front waist…because I CO for the Size M but then switched to Size S beginning with the underarm inc’s when I started worrying that the M would be too long.

Size S starts with 92sts and inc’s to 148sts through the underarm. (56sts and rws)
Size M starts with 104sts and inc’s to 168sts. (64sts and rws)

I was only looking at the difference in rws between the two sizes…and kinda forgot the obvious: by starting with the M, I was starting with a higher st count and therefore it would take fewer rws to get to the S st count of 148sts…which ended up shortening the pullover--2.8” shorter than the M was meant to be and 1.7” shorter than the S.

Realized this at some point while working on the front and thought about how to best deal with it as I continued knitting.
Finally decided I’d just k the back down to the S st count, k the ribbing and BO…and then basically restart the front: CO provisionally with S st count, k from where the front ribbing ends and stop where I started increasing (so CO 92sts, k 8rws straight, inc to 104sts), then cut the pullover right below the first inc (cutting off the 12rws that were k straight) and graft the new bottom front to the sweater…making it a S from start to finish.
It would be kinda tricky to graft because of the inc’s--there’s only one rw in between ea inc rw, and the inc’s require knitting into the leg of the st below…so it wouldn’t be as simple as a straight graft.

But as I got to the end of the back, I wasn’t sure I’d need to extra 1.7” I’d eliminated; the length seemed ok when I draped it over my body, but…
The neck opening was really, really big. Like, falling-off-my-shoulders big.
However, the cowl starts on US5 needles, so picking up sts and knitting the first few rnds on smaller needles should pull it in at least a little…shortening the body a bit in the process.

So…decided to stop working on the back body once I reached my front waist st count, k the cowl to get a better idea of where the waist would fall if left as-is and then decide whether to go through with the reknitting, cutting and grafting.

Decreased to 104sts (44sts dec’d, 44rws) and put sts on hold.

Moved on to cowl.

Cowl
6/8
Took another break because none of the pickup rates I tried looked right.
If I were to pu 1:1 all the way around, I’d end up with 190sts…needed 120sts to begin cowl ribbing.
Thought about picking up 1:1 and decreasing in the first rnd, but 70sts seemed like a lot to dec.
Picking up just the 120sts needed left big gaps (I know that the first few rnds of ribbing will generally close them up, but I still didn’t feel super comfortable with that approach).

Finally settled on a hybrid:

Using US6 needles, pu:
1:1 along front BO and back CO
3:4 along L and R “knit straight” sections and along diagonal inc/dec sections
156sts

To reach 120sts:
(k2, k2tog) 12x, (k3, k2tog) 12x, (k2, k2tog) 12x.

K 1rnd.

Short rows
As written, the front and back are identical (no SRs or any kind of shaping to differentiate the two)…and maybe it matters less with a large, deep and drapey cowl (I’ve never k one like this), but I was nervous about knitting all of that ribbing only to discover that the front rides up. I’ve made one sweater without SRs and never again--I couldn’t wear it for more than a few minutes without pulling at the front neck; felt like I was being choked (and it was a funnel neck, so not close-fitting).
So I decided to go ahead and add SRs to my cowl.

All patterns I’ve seen put the SRs in the body and this results in a swath of stockinette at the upper back before the st pattern/colorwork begins, and this really bugs me (only a couple I’ve read have managed to work them into the st pattern).
A year or two ago, I decided to start putting mine in the ribbing to kinda camouflage them and thought it was an odd, quirky workaround (I’d never seen anyone else do it)…so I felt kinda validated when I learned that Joan Schroeder also does it, though for different reasons (mostly the ability to personalize the SR and overall neck depth, I think).
She has a great, succinct explanation in the notes of one of her sweaters (linked above).

Ideally, I would have k a swatch to determine my 1x1 rib gauge so that I could calculate the exact number of SRs needed…or at least k the cuffs first and get my 1x1 gauge there…but i detest swatching, and knitting the cuffs would require sewing up the sides (at least a few inches, anyway), which I wasn’t ready to do…so I decided to guesstimate on rw gauge.

Divided neck into four quadrants, placing markers: front, L, back and R = 30sts ea.
BOR was at CB, so I k 20sts (meant to only k 15 but miscounted) to start of L shoulder, turn.
Make DS, p39, turn.
Make DS, k to 2sts past DS.
Continue working 2sts past last DS on both sides until 1 st before front m.
K around, resolving DS.
Ended up with 2.25” added at CB--perfect.

Pattern has you k the first 1.5” on US5s in k1p1 rib, then switch to US9s…the switch from US5s to US9s seemed like a pretty drastic change in gauge so I decided to go up one needle size every inch or so, measured from CF and starting with US6s (since that’s the size I was using for the cuffs and hem).

I’d almost finished the cowl before taking another close look at the photo and noticing that in the pic, it seems to be k in k2p2…checked instructions and realized I’d been so preoccupied with the sudden needle change that I’d overlooked the simultaneous change to k2p2 (In my defense…whyyyyy? seems odd and unnecessary to start with one rib pattern and then switch).
Was super annoyed with myself because I think k2p2 rib is a bit looser than k1p1 and I really wanted that drape and spread at the BO…but also really didn’t want to rip out 11” of rib +2.5” of SRs.
Decided to frog just the last 4” and reknit on one needle size larger (US10s) as a compromise.

So: pu sts and start cowl ribbing with US6s for 1.5”, change to US7s at 2.5”, US8s at 3.5”, US9s at 4.5”, US10s at 7” to BO.

6/18
Have been knitting a few rnds here and there and finally finished cowl ribbing.

Wasn’t sure how it would look at such a loose gauge and was a bit worried about being able to stretch it enough to splay out enough to cover the picked up sts, but decided to use tubular BO anyway--i just really love the look (turns out it looks fine--not as nice and chunky as would at a tighter gauge but still neat and plenty stretchy).
Pattern photo looks like the cowl is BO with a simple chained BO but it can read kinda…homemade to me for some reason. Not a fan.

Hem
6/19
So after thinking about it, I decided to scrap the idea of reknitting, cutting and grafting the front waist…the only real reason to do this would be to adhere to the pattern shape as much as possible; even though I did want a lil bit of extra length after trying the sweater on with the cowl finished, I could easily add it by just knitting straight for another 1-2”--both front and back waist--and this would only very slightly change the overall shape (and I doubt the difference would be at all noticeable given how voluminous the pullover is). I didn’t necessarily need to add the length in the underarm inc/dec section, just wanted to…but it really wasn’t worth the hassle in the end.

So…reattached yarn to back and k 12rws straight to match front, then another 12rws for an extra 1.75”.

Switched to US6s and k 3” (22rws) of k1p1 rib (since my cowl ended up in k1p1, I decided to k the hem and cuffs to match).

Tubular BO.

6/20
Repeated for front--placed held sts back on needle and k another 12rws to add 1.75”, then 3” of ribbing on US6s, tubular BO.

Started front ribbing with k1 and back with p1 so that there wouldn’t be an interruption in pattern when sides were sewn up.

6/21
The vertical curl wasn’t that bad so I didn’t block before seaming.

Sewed up sides with mattress st.
I don’t mind seaming but seems many people try to avoid it and most designers put out seamless designs…so I end up rarely having to seam…and again, while I don’t mind it, I forget how tedious and time consuming it can be.

Cuffs
6/23
Pattern instructs you to pu sts for cuffs before sewing up the sides and k them flat for some reason…then next rw halve the number by p2tog all the way around before beginning ribbing. But…
If you look closely at the photo, it looks like the sleeve body is pleated at the seam instead of having a high st count reduced. Also, I’m not sure how you’d achieve this while knitting flat.
Decided to stick with the instructions (except ITR rather than flat); the pleat seemed like it might be a bit bulky, and I just like the look of cinched in cuffs.

Instructed to pu 72sts; had

---

Final Thoughts