This panel sweater appears in the May 1919 issue of the American magazine "The Delineator," available online at the Hathi Trust, via Google and the University of Iowa. Note the model's fashionable post-war "corset-less" figure! quite a difference from her mother's rigid silhouette twenty-some years earlier.
Five Elsa Barsaloux patterns appear in the all-too-brief blog "Elsa Barsaloux Patterns" posted in 2014. They appear to be from one of Barsaloux's self-published books, probably Knitwear De Luxe of 1919.
A selection of photos from Sweater Style (1921) has been posted here.
One of the more vivid patterns in the "Corticelli Yarn Book No.18" (1922) is the Indian Slip-On No. 13A, pictured here. The body is knitted, with the collar and sleeve cuffs in crochet.
This slip-on, one of the newest of the Indian designs, is made of Corticelli Flosola in Sand, with the odd designs in Red, Goldenrod, Marion Blue and Black. The slashes at bottom of sleeves, the collar made of square tabs, and the bone rings worked in the girdle all add to the charm of this slip-on.
There is also a matching tam-like hat pattern. The complete booklet is available at Antique Pattern Library.
Ravelry user Rox has knitted up this garment, and her notes can be found here (membership required to view).
FAIR ISLE COAT.MEDIUM SIZE.DESCRIPTION.This effective coat is worked in jazz knitting in stocking-web stitch (i.e., one row plain and one row purl), with collar, and borders in garter-stitch (i.e., every row plain). The front and back are made separately, and afterwards grafted together on each shoulder. The sleeves are also made separately and sewn into coat.MATERIALSShetland Floss.-10oz. putty, 1oz. blue, 1oz. cherry, 1oz. brown.Four bone needles No. 8 two button moulds, l¼in. across.MEASUREMENTS.Shoulder to lower edge, 25in.; round lower edge, 49in. (back 21in., fronts 14in.); sleeve seam, 18in.Do not slip first stitch of any row.RIGHT FRONT.Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 80 stitches, and knit 20 rows garter-stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking web [i.e. stockinette].Next 5 Rows.-Work according to chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web.Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Work 3 rows stocking-web.59th Row (1st buttonhole row).-K. 5, cast off 6, knit to end.60th Row.-P. 69 cast on 6, p. Knit 2 rows stocking-web.Next 5 Rows.-According to Chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web.Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Knit 7 rows stocking-web.Next 6 Rows -According to chart. Knit 3 rows stocking-wcb.107th and 108th Rows (2nd buttonhole rows).-As 59tth and 60th rows. Knit 2 rows, stocking:web. Next 17 Rows.-According to chart. Knit 4 rows stocking web.132nd Row.-Cast off 6 for underarm, purl to end. 133rd Row (here commence slope for front).-K. 2 tog., knit to end. 134th Row.-Purl to end. Now work according to chart, decreasing at commencement of every knit row until 42 stitches remain on needle, then finish front, according to chart, and leave stitches on needle, ready for grafting. -Break off wool, leaving long end.LEFT FRONT.Commence at lower edge. With putty cast on 88 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to right front chart, but omitting buttonholes, until the 132nd row is reached (this being 1st row shown in left front chart).132nd Row.-Purl.133rd Row.-Cast off 6 for underarm, knit until 2 remain, k. 2 tog. (this commences decrease for front slope). 134th row.- Purl to end. Now work according to chart, decreasing at end of every knit row until 42 stitches remain on needle, then finish front according to chart, and leave stitches on needle ready for grafting. Break off wool, leaving long end.THE BACK.Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 120 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch, then knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to chart until armhole is reached.131st Row.-Cast off 8, knit to end.132 Row.-Cast off 8, purl to end. Work 2 rows stocking-web.Now continue according to chart until 3 more patterns are completed, then work 3 rows stocking-web.Next Row.-K. 42, cast off 20 for neck, k. 42. Break off wool, leaving long end. Now graft shoulders together as follows: Thread wool into wool needle place the 2 needles containing stitches together, right side outside, hold work so that end of wool is at the back needle, pass wool needle through first loop of front needle purl ways, but do not slip loop off the knitting needle, pass needle through first loop of back needle, as if about to knit, but do not slip loop off. * Slip off first loop, as if for plain knitting, in front row, but keep loop on wool needle [sic] until next loop is worked, pass needle through second loop as if for purling, but do not slip loop off knitting needle. In Back Row.-Slip off first loop as if for purling, keeping on wool needle, pass needle through second loop as if for knitting, but do not slip loop off knitting needle, repeat from * until all loops are worked off.THE SLEEVES.Commence at lower edge. With putty, cast on 100 stitches. Knit 20 rows garter-stitch, knitting into back of each cast-on stitch. Knit 6 rows stocking-web. Now work according to chart until 6 patterns are completed, break off coloured wools. Knit 7 rows stocking-web. Cast off.THE COLLAR.This commences with the facing up right front. With putty, cast on 10 stitches. Knit 44 rows stocking-web.45th Row.-K. 2, cast off 6, k. 2.46th Row.-P. 2, cast on 8, p. 2. (These 2 rows are buttonhole rows.)Knit 44 rows stocking-web, then repeat the 45th and 46th rows for 2nd button hole. 93rd Row.-Knit.94th Row.-K. 2. k. 2 into next stitch (by knitting into back as well as front of stitch before slipping it off needle), knit to end.95th Row.-Knit. Repeat last 2 rows until there are 40 stitches on needle. Knit 188 rows garter-stitch.Next Row.-K. 2, k. 2 tog., knit to end. Next Row.-Knit. Repeat last 2 rows until 10 stitches remain on needle. Next Row.-Purl.Next Row.-Knit. Next Row.-Purl. Knit 92 rows stocking-web. Cast off. Covers for Buttons.-Cast on 10 stitches. Knit 16 rows garter-stitch. Cast off.TO MAKE UP.Press well on wrong side under a damp cloth with a moderately hot iron. Sew up side-seams. Sew up sleeve-seams, sew sleeves into armholes. Sew on collar, continuing stocking-web facing down each front, placing buttonholes over button holes in coat. Cover the two button moulds, sew on left front to correspond with buttonholes.-(From "Weldon's Jazz Wear.")
Because Ransome was so vague about the style of cap that Nancy and Peggy wear, we have more leeway in choosing a pattern. In 1920s England, a watch cap pattern would be a logical choice, and would certainly have been available to a knitting mother or grandmother who had a relative in the merchant marine or the Navy, who had knitted for servicemen during the recent War as so many women did, or who simply had sailors in the family, as do both the Walkers and the Blacketts.
One could also get a bit more elaborate than a simple watch cap, as the costumers did for these two filmed versions -- the 1974 Blacketts wear a longer version more like a ski cap with pompom, while the 2016 Blacketts' caps look very like the voyageur style.
Elsa Barsaloux first appears in print, so far as I can tell, in 1915, with both The Priscilla Baby Book no.1 and Utopia Book of Filet and Venetian Crochet, no.2. A veritable spate of books followed in the next few years, some of crochet but mostly knitting.
She had been born in Germany in 1875, and immigrated with her parents and younger sister in the early 1880s, settling probably in the Bronx, and married David Barsaloux around 1897. He had been born in Colorado also to immigrant parents -- his father from Canada and his mother from Ireland -- and by the time of the 1900 and 1905 censuses, the young couple was living in the Bronx with Elsa's widowed mother, David working as a cashier in a hotel. Elsa sold design models to several major department stores, and made her first foray into knitting pattern books in 1915; these first books were mostly published by various yarn companies, but towards the end of the Great War the Barsalouxs had opened their own company and were publishing under their own imprint. Although 1917 was her glory year -- with at least six pattern books published -- five more were published in the next few years, but sadly Elsa died at the age of 49 in 1924, and David just four years later.
This article from the "Dry Goods Economist" highlights a Barsaloux innovation -- "the newest thing in the way of a retail store ... a shop devoted exclusively to yarns". As hard to imagine as that is nowadays, in 1917 there was no such thing as a bricks-and-mortar yarn shop! Mrs. Barsaloux's establishment -- The Yarn Shop, mind you!-- was located at 400 5th Avenue (where the Langham Hotel is now), was tastefully decorated in up-to-the-moment gray and lavender, and included tables and comfortable chairs "for those who are receiving instructions," and, with an admirable knowledge of her prospective clientele, a children's room with child-sized tables and chairs!
*According to Leigh Martin, Richardson's didn't publish the names of the designers, so it's interesting that Barsaloux's is known -- perhaps she insisted on it?
1917
