P&B bolero - without ravel

The title of this post is the title of the garment in the pattern booklet. It is a play on words referring to the piece of music bolero by the composer Ravel. A knitting joke I guess?!

This pattern is in a booklet of 3 designs using Patons double quick knitting. I was excited to find this as it is one of the few 1950's patterns that I have found that is knitted in the equivalent of a chunky wool. I normally prefer to knit with double knit or 4-ply but once in a while it is nice to find a project which is going to knit up quickly and yet still be period correct.

I chose lovely festive red in Wendy merino chunky. It is 100% merino wool and is so soft and squidgy. I don't think any of the photos quite do the colour justice, though the one below is close. It is a soft crimson red rather than an  harsh orange red and is just lovely.

So here it is knitted up. It fits about a 34-36 inch bust, the pattern, like many of the time, just comes in one size. The main bulk of the garment is knitted in stocking stitch. It has a border and sleeve cuffs which have a cable pattern on them. I love knitting cables, I was scared of them for such a long time, thinking they would be difficult. Once I got started though I found I really enjoyed knitting them, as long as you concentrate until you get the pattern repeat worked out in your head.

These are the cuff band in close up, waiting to be stitched on to the end of the sleeves. They make the sleeves fit really nicely around the wrist.

This is a close up of the border, I think it is such a pretty effect. It was fun to knit but a little daunting as it required knitting a strip more than 55 inches long! Good job that was only over 10 stitches.

I really like this style, cropped at the waist, fitted, accentuates curves that are already there and creates curves where there are none. Also, the bolero wouldn't detract from whatever beautiful dress you were wearing underneath.

Sometimes it is nice to have full length sleeves, especially at this time of year to keep you nice and cosy. The border comes up around the back of the neck, keeping the drafts out there too!

Here is a view of the back, it has some nice shaping to it.

This shows the shaping at the back of the neck, making the collar sit closely around the neck.

So, there we have it. A lovely, chunky festive bolero, just waiting to be paired with the perfect dress to make a gorgeous outfit.