#sontag

I used the Ragged Soldier pattern that's a modern addition to a pattern from Godey's Lady's Book from 1860. I recalculated the whole thing according to my gauge and added a row in the patterning (6 rows per basketweave block instead of 5) and had to re-do the whole increase ratio, and changed the size according to my grandma's measurements (more than 18 blocks on the shoulders)... I messed it up quite a bit around the neckline / shoulders - the un-decreased shoulder section of the flaps is longer than described in the pattern because I forgot myself knitting and couldn't be bothered to undo it, and I also counted wrong for the neckline. I wanted to make it larger than in the pattern (7 blocks instead of 5), thinking my grandma had a relatively thick neck and it might work better. But then I made one side larger than intended and the other smaller than intended, so I ended up having to add to the smaller side and having the neckline be 5 blocks after all. I think ultimately that ended up being the right size after all, so, phew. But now there's that added section, and I messed up the decreases in there, too, so I think it ended up being uneven and you can maybe see that in the photo. Fortunately, this yarn hides a multitude of sins!

The yarn is one of many I rescued in my previous job when the old stores of unused industrial yarns were being cleared. I got sooo greedy and was only encouraged in it by my older more experienced coworker. :P No one else wanted these thin wool / wool blend yarns, other knitters just took a little bit of the thicker ones that surfaced, and I, a lover of historical knitting, went... probably very overboard. How could I not, when this one is, for example, 92% merino 8% cashmere??!! I got it in a number of colourways, and it's soooo soft (when the parafin is washed off).

Grandma fell in love with this particular yarn when I knitted a blanket for my little niece out of it for Christmas 2024, and asked for something out of it for herself, and we settled on a sontag because it occurred to me as the perfect thing to solve her complaints of often being cold / disliking drafts. Being in her 90s now (still very sharp and capable, but she has her lows now), she forgot about it in the meanwhile, but when I gave it to her, she immediately clocked why I picked the design, again.

I debated various border options, and finally settled on a scalloped crochet edge along just the outer edges, as a way to help grandma find her way around the admittedly slightly confusing garment!

It's a BIG knitting win for me, even with the mistakes, because I started knitting one of these back in... was it 2010?... out of lower quality yarn, on lower quality needles, and struggled, and never finished it, and then it sat in my memory as a debt to myself. I FINALLY FINISHED A SONTAG!!!