One of our best selling patterns, The Jan Sweater is a wonderfully simple design incorporating a simple lace pattern with slightly blouson shaping, short sleeves and a boat neck. Dressed up or dressed down, this sweater fits perfectly into vintage and non-vintage wardrobes alike and is a great introduction to sweater and/or lace knitting for someone wanting to build their knitting skills. The Jan Sweater is a very typical 1930s design: the garment is designed to be worn with the ribbed welt sitting on the wearer’s waist, with a slightly blouson lower body created by increases being worked across the row directly above the welt. Minimal decreases at the armholes and sleeve heads are the only other shaping, making this a very simple knit. The sweater is knitted in flat pieces from the bottom up and then sewn together.

The Jan Sweater is knitted using Susan Crawford Excelana North fingering weight a soft, fingering weight 100% British wool, spun for us in nearby Yorkshire and dyed in-house by Susan and her team. Shown here in shade Powdered Egg but looks fabulous in any of Excelana’s stunning colours. Once you’ve knitted one you won’t want to stop!

Our model Lola is shown wearing the first size to fit 76-81cm (30-32in) chest.

The pattern includes instructions for eight sizes to fit chest measurements between 76cm (30in) and 157cm (62in) and contains both clear written pattern directions, together with charted instructions for the all-over lace pattern plus a comprehensive schematic diagram and sizing chart.

Yarn kits are available at Susan Crawford Vintage.

Yarn
Susan Crawford Excelana North fingering weight, 100% British wool, 75% Cheviot, 25% Bluefaced Leicester (159m / 174yds per 50g skein approx)
5 (6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10) skeins, shade Powdered Egg

Gauge
26 sts and 36 rows = 10cm (4in) over stitch pattern knitted flat, after blocking. We obtained this gauge using 3.25mm needles.

Suggested needles
1 pair 2.75mm (US 2) needles
1 pair 3.25mm (US 3) needles

Notions
Stitch markers (optional)

Techniques
Knitting a lace pattern
Following a chart (optional)
Basic increases and decreases
Sewing up and finishing a garment
Blocking Lace