sweater dating

ep89_lovevintage

Registered Guest
I need help dating a sweater. The shape indicates the 1940s, but I know it could be a good reproduction. It's handmade so no tags... The fire test showed that it was wool. The same yarn as in the sweater was used to sew the seams and sew on the buttons. I will be grateful for tips :) and sorry for my poor english ;)
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What a gorgeous sweater. And your English seems good to me!

It is hand knitted, and it's near impossible to date hand knits because people still knit from vintage patterns today. If it had synthetic fibres that would mostly rule out 1940s, but it being pure wool doesn't really tell you anything, as people still knit with pure wool today.

However, a few things point to this being older, or if modern, made deliberately in an authentic way, by following a vintage pattern. I don't think it's a commercial reproduction - I think it's home made.

Firstly, buttons to open the neck are not so common in modern sweaters. It used to be common for some hand knit sweaters to have a tight neck opening, and then have buttons at the back, or along the shoulder line as yours, to aid getting it over the head. I think this became less common from the 1960s or 1970s.

Secondly the buttons themselves look older. They also don't exactly match the sweater in colour, which suggests homemade and the knitter using what ever buttons they have in their button stash.

Thirdly the button loops are skilfully done using blanket stitch over a thread - again this isn't something you often see in modern sweaters. I suspect is a skill that many knitters would have known in the past, and is now less common.

You can never rule out it being made recently from a vintage pattern, but it certainly looks authentic.

Agree could be 1940s, it's quite a classic style, maybe someone else could comment on the decade.
 
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