Hedy Lamarr Sweater Inspiration

Here is today's proof that the cocoon is still underway.  Go, work in progress, go!  I know it looks a little odd, that's because I've joined it in such a way so as to make a foot pocket.  I also discovered that the ripple pattern may not have been the best idea for this idea but I'm continuing on anyway.  Stubbornness is fun like that.  (-:

Staying in the yarn vein, for once, the other day I was watching TCM movies (as usual, I do love them so) and there was Hedy Lamarr wearing the most lovely sweater (in H.M. Pulham Esq. from 1941).  I immediately did what any good knitter would do; I grabbed my camera and set to taking pictures.  That was actually a lot harder than it probably should have been.  Electronically speaking I live in the dark ages.  My main TV is about 16 years old and so not only does it not have anything like HD it also isn't flat and it feels like it weighs well over 100 pounds. As you can imagine taking pictures of a screen that old leads to some interesting things.  Like this, for instance.

No photographic trickery involved, just a plain digital camera and a really old TV.  Don't ask how I managed it, I really have no idea.  It's the only photo I took that day which ghosted.  The others turned out mostly OK but some of them had a line with a darker region.  It's not something you actually ever see on the TV but the slow moving line is something those who grew up on non-plasma, non-flat TVs are quite familiar with. The better "newer" tube TVs were good enough to not actually see that line, but it is still there and digital cameras can pick it up.  One of these days I'll get bored and look it up, I'm sure there's a technical term and an explanation as to what and why it is but I have no idea what they might be.

Isn't it cute?  I got a number of detail shots because, as you may have guessed, I want to try to make it at some point.  It looks quite warm and cozy.  I especially like how they made the collar.

I just love the way the collar pattern connects over the shoulders.  I just wish I had been able to get clearer images of the stitch pattern.  I don't think it's normal ribbing, there isn't enough contraction in the fabric, but I'm really not sure.  Naturally, I hadn't recorded this particular film so there's no going back and watching it again.  I plan to compare the best shots of the stitch pattern with some of my older knitting books and see what I can find.  I almost wonder if it was made with pairs of alternating rows of regular and reverse stockinette instead of traditional ribbing.

Hard to believe that the sweater is from 1941.  This is how you know when you've found a classic look.  Anything to which you go "OMG I WANT THAT" and which is over 70 years old is bound to be a keeper.  Now all I have to do is figure out how to make the thing.  Hopefully it goes better than my feeble, and failed, (multiple) attempts to make the crocheted dress that Heather Graham wore as Felicity Shagwell in the second Austin Powers movie.