Jacqueline Beret by Rebecca Kevelson

Jacqueline Beret

Knitting
April 2020
DK (11 wpi) ?
5 stitches and 7 rows = 1 inch
in Stockinette
US 6 - 4.0 mm
US 4 - 3.5 mm
125 yards (114 m)
One Size- Adult
English

JACQUELINE BERET

Kit includes yarn and PDF pattern.

A chic beret offering both style and warmth. This pattern uses smaller needles around the brim and a fast increase decrease section for shaping. You will enjoy knitting this as much as wearing it!

Materials: (not included in kit)

Size US 4/3.75mm, 16” circular needles
Size US 6/4mm, 16” and 24” circular needles (or size needed to obtain gauge)
Size US 6/4mm, DPNS
Darning needle
Yarn:
Bespoke Cashmere DK in Dark Navy - 1 ball
Gauge:
5 sts = 1” in Stockinette Stitch
7 rows = 1” in Stockinette Stitch
Measurements:
Small: 18” around at brim , 7” length (Steamed)
Size:
One Size

I would like to share the story behind the Jacqueline Beret.
A few months ago, I decided I wanted to make a beret out of Bespoke DK. As time passed, the idea kept resurfacing.
I sat with my mom and I mentioned again that I wanted to design a beret. She told me that we have a photo of my paternal great - great grandfather, wearing a beautiful Beret in France before World War II. Photos of my family before the war are hard to come by as my grandparents are Holocaust survivors.
My grandmother, 92, survived with her family while hiding in France during World War II. This photo was something that they were able to bring to America with them.
My grandmother, an avid knitter, whom I have been FaceTiming with every day in quarantine, always loves to follow along with my newest projects. I told her this week that I came out with a beret, she said “I love berets, how very French of you”. To survive the war, my grandmother and family were forced to change their names. Her birth name was changed to Jacqueline in order to hide her real identity from the Nazis.
As she was a child at the time, this name became the only name that she knew. And that is the name she has used ever since.
It felt so fitting to name this beret the Jacqueline Beret in honor of my grandmother and the name that saved her life.