2009 has been a year with big dreams, goals and breakthroughs.
One such goal was knitting a sweater that fits. Yes, a simple goal, but one I had failed to achieve until this year. How embarrassing to admit!
I've cast on and frogged dozens of sweaters in my life. There was always a Problem. Sometimes it was the yarn, sometimes the pattern. Often it was the knitting. The story is nearly the same every time.
It was three years ago I attempted to make a simple cardigan.
I wanted a raglan style cardigan that I could fall in love with. A sweater that I would end up wearing every day. A simple, natural, old fashioned, plain-and-tall hand knit cardigan. Alas! It was not meant to be.
If I could pinpoint where the sweater went wrong I would say it was in the expectations phase. I wanted the sweater to be what it could never be. I was looking for the stuff only dreams are made of... cozy, soft, perfect, timeless, classic, flattering, etc. I may as well been hoping to knit a unicorn. That was the first problem.
I had enough natural wool to make the project, but there were many questions. Could a girl my size, shape and complexion look okay in a bulky knit shapeless, colorless sweater? Probably not. Was my gauge consistent? Not especially. Did I knit the whole thing anyway, including seaming and weaving in the loose ends perfectly? Of course. I'm no amateur.
Put kindly, the sweater could have fit a small horse. More honestly, it would have fit a full grown alpha-male gorilla. I wore it around the house for a day or two, in denial. I kept checking the mirror to see if it looked okay, and it never did. I posed like they do in knitting magazines when the shaping on a garment is bad. I hugged myself, I reached for an apple in an imaginary tree, and I twirled around, laughing. It helped a little, but the sweater was hopeless.
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It was The Stupid Sweater. I undid everything and returned the wool from beast to balls, which now live in a rubbermaid container in my closet. In January I made leg warmers out of 2 of the balls:
Knitting the yarn into something new helped erase the memory of the ugly. But what about some new yarn, a new pattern, and a new start?
Pattern:
Glee by Zephyr Style.
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Socks That Rock Heavyweight in color Mossay.
Strong start:
I started this new sweater in January. I cast on for the medium size but eventually I discovered it was too big, so I switched to making the small size partway through with some creative decreasing. I convinced myself this was a smart decision, considering my personal shape and curve locations.
So, it fits me funny, which totally my fault.
It’s roomy, and that’s fine. It will be nice in the winter over a long-sleeved shirt. If I make this one again I’ll make the small. I have a hard time knowing what size I am.
If I had made the small all along I would have had enough yarn to make it longer; that would have been nice too. I just knitted until I ran out of yarn basically.
I learned a lot on this sweater. In fact, I have since made two more sweaters (yes, I'll show them off too) and have the 4th on the needles right now. I know, it's really fantastic!
2009 was a very big year for me in many ways big and small, including the breaking of a life-long specific knitting curse. I'm going to dream a bigger dream in 2010:
designing sweaters... Stay tuned!
