I'm a sweater knitter. I can knit socks, I'm awesome at doing shawls, and I can still pull off the odd scarf or two, but if I had to choose one kind of project to knit for the rest of my life, it would be sweaters. Perhaps it's due to the sweater's practicality or some primal urge to clothe oneself, but I can never go long without knitting a sweater. I went on a mad stash enhancement last year just to ensure that I would always be able to satisfy this urge and now I happen to own enough yarn for at least 18 sweaters. I may be a sweater junkie.
This habit became very obvious a month ago. I had gone on a gift-knitting binge and finished four presents for family and friends. Why, of course my Mom needed her Mother's Day socks a month early! Of course I had to finish my older brother's hat two months before his actual birthday! Of course I had to finish everything before I met my Mom and younger brother in Berlin! After banging those projects out and sending them home with Mom, I found that I had reached my gift knit limit. With nothing but Blathnat socks for me in all that time, I felt the rise of my selfish knitting beast. I wanted something FOR ME. I wanted something big FOR ME. I wanted it RIGHT NOW. I already had a huge, alpaca laceweight shawl on the needles (Carmen Oliveras' Winterchild), but it was behaving badly after nearly a month on The Shelf. I was nine rows into the knitted-on border, yet I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't read the lace and kept dropping stitches. It's been awhile since I've had this much trouble with lace and that's normally a sign. Although it was FOR ME, it wasn't ready for me to work on it. I needed something else and Winterchild went back to The Shelf.
Looking at the Rav queue, the sweater Arisaig beckoned. It's an early pattern of Ysloda Teague's that is knit in fingering weight yarn. That was enough to give my selfish knitting beast pause. The last time I knit a sweater in that weight, it was Zora and it took me four months. I still had two gift knits to produce before mid-June, so whatever I made for myself had to be finished in a month or less. I suggested other options to the knitting beast. A lacy cowl? A nice shawl? A cabled hat? The beast rejected all of them. It wanted a sweater. It wanted Arisaig. I cast it on mid-April, noting that we had plenty of holidays in May this year and I could always send the project to The Shelf if I had to return to my gift knitting.
It went surprisingly quickly. Perhaps the selfish knitting beast had friends pulling night shifts, but the back was finished in nine days, the right front in four, and the left front in three. This was strange because I had lengthened it by two inches in the ribbing due to fellow Ravelers complaining the cardigan seemed too short. I sat down and guesstimated how long it would take to knit the rest of the sweater. My bob, I thought, I could actually get this done in a month! That's got to be a world record of some kind! Thank bob for Spanish/Madrileño holidays!
Then I hit a bump. It turns out that I can't hide myself away in my yarn fort for long as I used to. I had dinner out, went to the park, and spent time brushing up on my patchwork quilting skills with one of the wonderful ladies from my knitting group Madrid Knits!, Anita Dinamita. (Her blog is here, but all in Spanish. She is a mistress of many crafts and much patience.) Although I was enjoying myself, I had to admit I was getting close to my deadline. I sat down and hammered out the rest quickly. Yesterday, all that remained was the finishing. You know, side seams, shoulder seams, sewing the border on, sewing on hooks and eyes. I figured it was a day's work and then it would be done. I turned on CraftLit's Frankenstein and dug in for the long haul.
10 hours later, I came out of the Wool Zone. I was so dazed and bewildered that I took photos without the ends woven in.
I immediately loved it so much that I had to take more pictures.
Then I had to model a bit. After listening to both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was feeling a bit romantic and swoony.
In retrospect, the swooniness was probably due to staring at tiny stitches and not talking to anyone for 10 hours straight. I strangely felt a bit like Marianne Dashwood. I was so shell-shocked I couldn't pick up the needles for an hour. Never again will I do so much finishing at a single go. I love the sweater, though. It is a gorgeous piece of knitting, if I do say so myself. It was nice to work with a Rowan yarn; this is 4Ply Soft. I just wish the sleeves hadn't blocked out so long and it didn't have so much blasted finishing work!
So now I am back to the gift knitting. I'm working on a pair of Paraphernalia socks for friend as a goodbye present. At the moment, they look like this:
Ducks will not be included. After that I have a shawl to knit for my Mom's birthday and then I would like to make a few things for my nephew due in September. I have learned a lesson here, though: do not neglect the selfish knitting. It just might kill you.
This habit became very obvious a month ago. I had gone on a gift-knitting binge and finished four presents for family and friends. Why, of course my Mom needed her Mother's Day socks a month early! Of course I had to finish my older brother's hat two months before his actual birthday! Of course I had to finish everything before I met my Mom and younger brother in Berlin! After banging those projects out and sending them home with Mom, I found that I had reached my gift knit limit. With nothing but Blathnat socks for me in all that time, I felt the rise of my selfish knitting beast. I wanted something FOR ME. I wanted something big FOR ME. I wanted it RIGHT NOW. I already had a huge, alpaca laceweight shawl on the needles (Carmen Oliveras' Winterchild), but it was behaving badly after nearly a month on The Shelf. I was nine rows into the knitted-on border, yet I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't read the lace and kept dropping stitches. It's been awhile since I've had this much trouble with lace and that's normally a sign. Although it was FOR ME, it wasn't ready for me to work on it. I needed something else and Winterchild went back to The Shelf.
Looking at the Rav queue, the sweater Arisaig beckoned. It's an early pattern of Ysloda Teague's that is knit in fingering weight yarn. That was enough to give my selfish knitting beast pause. The last time I knit a sweater in that weight, it was Zora and it took me four months. I still had two gift knits to produce before mid-June, so whatever I made for myself had to be finished in a month or less. I suggested other options to the knitting beast. A lacy cowl? A nice shawl? A cabled hat? The beast rejected all of them. It wanted a sweater. It wanted Arisaig. I cast it on mid-April, noting that we had plenty of holidays in May this year and I could always send the project to The Shelf if I had to return to my gift knitting.
It went surprisingly quickly. Perhaps the selfish knitting beast had friends pulling night shifts, but the back was finished in nine days, the right front in four, and the left front in three. This was strange because I had lengthened it by two inches in the ribbing due to fellow Ravelers complaining the cardigan seemed too short. I sat down and guesstimated how long it would take to knit the rest of the sweater. My bob, I thought, I could actually get this done in a month! That's got to be a world record of some kind! Thank bob for Spanish/Madrileño holidays!
Then I hit a bump. It turns out that I can't hide myself away in my yarn fort for long as I used to. I had dinner out, went to the park, and spent time brushing up on my patchwork quilting skills with one of the wonderful ladies from my knitting group Madrid Knits!, Anita Dinamita. (Her blog is here, but all in Spanish. She is a mistress of many crafts and much patience.) Although I was enjoying myself, I had to admit I was getting close to my deadline. I sat down and hammered out the rest quickly. Yesterday, all that remained was the finishing. You know, side seams, shoulder seams, sewing the border on, sewing on hooks and eyes. I figured it was a day's work and then it would be done. I turned on CraftLit's Frankenstein and dug in for the long haul.
10 hours later, I came out of the Wool Zone. I was so dazed and bewildered that I took photos without the ends woven in.
I immediately loved it so much that I had to take more pictures.
Then I had to model a bit. After listening to both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I was feeling a bit romantic and swoony.
So now I am back to the gift knitting. I'm working on a pair of Paraphernalia socks for friend as a goodbye present. At the moment, they look like this:
Ducks will not be included. After that I have a shawl to knit for my Mom's birthday and then I would like to make a few things for my nephew due in September. I have learned a lesson here, though: do not neglect the selfish knitting. It just might kill you.
Hi Jackie!!! it looks awesome!! bsss MariaD
ReplyDeleteI'm the new one at Madrid Knits.