Now, As Promised: My First Sweater
I think the notes in my Ravelry project tell the story better than I could:
I am knitting this entirely in the round a la E.Z. (Elizabeth Zimmerman). It is my very first sweater! Zoooooom! Yay!
I’ve seamed the shoulders with a 3-needle bind-off and am zooming aroung the neck. I can’t wait to steek the armholes. Eunny Jang’s instructions for crochet steeking have left me confident and excited.
Things not going perfectly. Oh well.
Have two holes to repair. Otherwise, it’s not bad!
I repaired the two holes. I’m glad I did – now I know how to graft knitting and repair holes!
Well, the shapeless bag has now become the fish sweater! There’s no going back now.
Welcome to Liat’s world of fish.
Well, it’s the ugliest sweater in the world but at least it’s done.
It turns out, when there are knots in the ball of yarn, you can’t just knit them into the sweater. You have to cut them out and join the yarn again as if it’s a new skein of yarn.
This sweater wasn’t a total loss – it turned out to be the perfect thing to bring to our Christmas White Elephant party.
But I’m mostly thankful for the lessons I learned about choosing yarn, picking the right style and size, and checking gauge, that I now get to pass on to you. Oh, and because I didn’t let this less-than-wonderful sweater stop me, I’ve knitted and even designed many lovely, fun, and I’m-proud-I-made-it sweaters since then.
A few of the sweaters I’ve made since then.
You might notice that I gravitated to jewel-toned, fitted, sweaters with large necklines and flared sleeves. You will start to learn the particulars that work for you, as well.
Still to come – overcoming potential hangups BEFORE they snag you.
4 thoughts on “As Promised: My First Disastrous Sweater”
I had a disaster for my first sweater because I didn’t check gauge. The pattern was from Knitty.com, and it was called Hey Teach. It had a lace top and a stockinette bottom. I made it for my SIL at Christmas. About halfway through the top, I had to add more yarn, and I did that in the middle of the back portion. I used Berroco Weekend yarn, which is a cotton acrylic blend. I thought I was so smart using up the yarn and changing in the middle. Well, I learned to always, always add new yarn at the end of a row and work the old yarn and new yarn in together. About a week before Christmas I was looking at the sweater and in the back top, right where I added the new ball of yarn, the yarn unraveled and there was a HUGE hole right in the back middle! I flew to my LYS and one of the ladies there sewed the hole up for me, but in my mind it was a disaster. AND it didn’t fit her! It took me 7 months to knit it, and it didn’t fit her!! I cried right there. I was so upset! It turned out that she threw everything out when my brother and her split up, so it didn’t matter anyway.
OH MY GOSH that is certainly a disaster. Why do we have to learn this lesson about holes right in the middle of a sweater? I can’ t believe this has happened to both of us. I’m so sorry it didn’t fit her. I do feel sad to think of someone throwing out a hand-knit sweater… can I choose to believe she donated it instead?
Hugs,
Liat