Back to the Fifties (or earlier?)

After my mum died, I found her knitting patterns in a neat pile.  Many of them were from the eighties, when she had recently retired and had time on her hands, so did a lot of knitting.  I found the pattern for her favourite jumper, which she knitted for herself at least four times.  I found the patterns for jumpers she had made for me, including an aran jumper that I remembered so well.

I also found some patterns for boy's jumpers which date back to the 1950s or beyond. My brother was born in 1946, and there are lots of childhood photos of him in hand-knits.  I was very taken with this pattern:

I love the happy looking boy with his goalie's jersey and leather football!  The black and white photos and the price make it likely that this was printed in the 40s or early 50s (the price of 3d is just over one penny in today's money).  I remember a school photo of my brother around the age suggested by the pattern wearing a button-necked jumper with a collar, so I chose "Tich" (although my brother was 6 feet 5 inches, so I don't suppose he was ever a 'tich'):

So this is my latest boy's jumper on the needles:

The pattern is designed for Bairns-wear Heather Mixture which of course no longer exists.  I googled it to no avail, but as it was knit on size 9 needles (that's 3.75 in metric) I chose a thinnish Hayfield DK from my stash which is 80% acrylic and 20% wool.  I went with 4.00 needles, and, as expected, it is coming up slightly larger than the pattern suggests.  But it is a very satisfying knit, garter stitch with purl ribs.  Let's hope I finish it quicker than I finished the previous boy's jumper!