In 1995, in a wool shop outside Kingsport, Tennessee, an employee showed me an issue of Knitter's magazine and referred to it as a "book." Catching herself using an expression from the older local dialect, she quick-saved, "Really these magazines are as good as books!" She was right. There are some knitting pattern magazines that gain value over time because they're about yarns and techniques, not New York fashions or whatever-the-yarn-manufacturer-is-trying-to-get-rid-of. And this 1996 premier issue of Interweave Knits was one of those magazines, packed with patterns the editors had been saving up for years. The over-the-top color-picture sweaters on the cover were not published in the 1980s, but they'd definitely pass as Eighties Sweaters among non-knitters.
I bought the premier issue in 1996, cherished it, then lost it (and a box of other things) in moving, and tried to find it on Amazon for years. I finally found it, and am glad to report that copies are there for you. (If the photo doesn't work as a link for you, click or paste: https://amzn.to/38pxv8n ). Need I mention that if you're looking for a short but not cropped medium-weight sweater that won't scream "Eighties," you could knit the one on the left in the cover photo in just one color?
Because magazines are all about helping stores move merchandise, and craft stores often want to move small batches of things that will never be manufactured again, using pattern magazines nearly always requires some redesigning.
Here's a detail shot (the only kind the cell phone can do, in such a way that the thing photographed is recognizable) of my redesign of a pattern Helene Rush contributed to the magazine.
I followed the pattern stitch and shoulder shaping, but used my own stash of black and dark-colored, mostly acrylic yarns. As mentioned at the Ko-fi post, what makes it "November" is that it's designed as a crossover between the "Winter" and "Autumn" color palettes. About 70% of humankind are Winters, which is why Winter colors were such a fashion craze in the 1980s (stores that tried stocking things in all four "season" palettes found the Winter and Summer things vastly outsold the Spring and Autumn things). The 7% who are Autumns and the 3% who are Springs complained about being unable to find their colors, so in the present century fashion designers keep trying to bring warm-toned colors back as "fashion"--and most people keep buying black.
So, for Winters who want to wear brown slacks and Autumns who want to wear black, this jacket bridges the gap. Quite a lot of people are basically Winters who look sickly in the brighter Autumn colors but look normal in the darker ones. This jacket mixes black and dark colors, so it can cross over into either palette. If you're a Winter, wear it with a white, blue, or red shirt and brown slacks or skirt. If you're an Autumn, wear it with a red or green shirt and black slacks or skirt. (The shirt should, of course, match the stripes in the jacket.)
What's in between Autumn and Winter? November is.
What makes it a Work In Progress? I'll be posting more of these at Ko-fi in a less final form where the shopper gets more input into what something becomes, but the jacket is still a Work In Progress because it's unisex-size (40" around, 24" back, 18" sleeve seams, the kind of deep V neck that shows a man's casual tie). So, as you can see, it does not currently have the front borders where the buttons or snap fasteners will go. (I prefer snap fasteners or a belt to fasten cardigans, but you can order buttons with buttonholes if you want them.) Is it going to be worn by a tall woman or a slim man? (It would be a good choice for a couple to share.) Your call, shoppers.
Since most of the yarn is acrylic and the yarns that aren't acrylic are used in such small quantities, this jacket should never shrink and will probably take a lot of machine laundering. However, the glittering dark red and green yarns qualify it as a Subtle Holiday Sweater; eventually they'll break and qualify it as an Ugly Holiday Sweater. If you want to take the chance and buy it here, send $40 for the sweater + $5 for shipping (in North America, more overseas). It should arrive by Christmas.
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