Sweater Weather

I took up knitting (for the second time) while writing my masters thesis in chemical engineering (for the first time).  I needed a soothing, screenless hobby.  That I had finished a couple of sweaters before I defended is a beautiful illustration of the heights of procrastination that characterize graduate school.  

Those days are mercifully behind me, melting into my memory like some bad dream.  But I've still got the sweaters, and I still knit. 

I'm getting better at it, too.  The book of patterns that was once coded gibberish to me, now unfolds in a logical progression of knits, purls, twists, and wraps.  I learned to knit on youtube.  Really.  On youtube.  I had ordered a book of patterns, but found that I could not read it.  At first, this hobby broke its own founding rule of screenlessness.  Every five minutes I had to consult the knitwitch, techknitter, or some other generous and anonymous pair of able hands for expertise and the infinite patience of a 2 minute video played on constant loop, 5, 10, even 20 times in a row if that's what I needed. 

"Isn't this supposed to be relaxing?"  Hub would ask as I sat, cursing, fiddling, undoing hours worth of knitting to get back to a mistake that needed fixing inches down my project.  

"Shut up."  I barked back, through clenched teeth. "This goddamn thing!"  

I'm pretty sure I once threw my whole work on the floor in a minor hissy fit.  Nice relaxing hobby for you. 

Like so many things, it got better with practice.  It's now downright contemplative.  Or mindless, depending on the occasion.  I can knit and talk, knit and watch a movie, knit in waiting rooms.  I take it with me everywhere I go.  I love it.

I knit only sweaters for Elsie.  Knitting your own is not particularly economical.  High quality wool does not come cheap, and it takes a whole bunch of it to make a project.  You've got to do it for the love.  Little sweaters are things I knew we'd actually use.  They're challenging enough that they don't get boring fast.  And little is the most gratifying, because the end is always in sight.   I want to share a gallery of some of the sweaters I've knit for Elsie over the last year and a half.  The oldest (and therefor most cursed) are the green sweet pea sweater and the purple one.  The easiest was the red one.  I'll list my sources and notes on products at the bottom.

Winter is the best time to take up fibercraft.  Summer is too hot for keeping a pile of wool on your lap.  But now the garden is all clipped down to the soil, and I'm turning inward.  Time for more knitting.

 All of these sweaters are out of two Cascade books.  Cascade sells books so that they will sell more of their yarn.  I knew that I was playing into that marketing scheme when I started, but I didn't mind.  "60 quick knits" gave red, purple, green, and blue sweaters.  "60 more quick knits" gave the pink sweater.  Always check the publisher's site FIRST to see if there are any errata posted before you get stuck in a problem with the pattern.  There are lots and lots of errata, unfortunately, but the patterns have always worked out cute and proportional, if a bit bigger than advertized.

I knit only in superwash.  Hand-washing just doesn't fit well with kids clothing.  I started just using cascade 220 superwash, which is soft, inexpensive, colorful, and comes already rolled into a ball -- one less thing!  I have found it to be a bit pilly. The pink sweater was done in Plymouth brand superwash.  The yarn had a bunch of breaks in it, which annoyed me while knitting, but the finished product is flawless.  No pilling.  Beautiful color.  Highly, highly recommend.

My favorite needles so far are the addis.  I prefer quick metal to slow, frictional wood.  Round needles work for everything, I find.  And they pack away into my purse easily, too.

I can now finish a little sweater in a couple of weeks if I'm knitting a lot.  It took me a couple of months for my first few. 

Crocheting is also wonderful and, I find, a bit more natural a motion.  I'll have to hit up the old youtube to remind me how to do it one of these days!

Hope this inspires some craftiness in someone.  If you're still reading, share some of your favorite hobbies and projects.  I'd love to hear about them!