As a tip, steel frames can be cold set to accept wider read hubs. Or you can do what I did and just jam a wider hub in there and it'll self adjust (although that's not recommended, I was younger and not as concerned with convention)
Your rear end (ha ha) is 126mm and modern bikes are 130. So yeah, 2 whole mm difference on each side and that's why I didn't worry about it. 6 and 7 speeds are 126, 8, 9 and 10 are 130 for road bikes at least:
http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html
If you're going to go 8, you might as well go 10 when you do it.
Have fun, looks like you're enjoying gussying up your new ride.