One of the things on my life list is to get better about fitting and finishing my knitted work so that I actually wear the items I knit. It feels a little weird to take a “hobby” so seriously, but at the same time, I spend a lot of time (and money!) knitting on my sweaters and such, so I want them to work. Also, I think it would be awesome to be a really skillful knitter - to be able to clothe myself warmly and stylishly using nothing but two sticks and some string (ok, and a pattern and a tape measure!)
Part of this fitting process is just being patient. Sometimes I just want to knit and knit with abandon - not caring about gauge or ease, so I guess that’s what socks and afghans are for. But I’m discovering that sweaters require patience, and lots of measurements.
One thing I need to work on is adjusting the distance between the tops of my shoulders and the top of my breast. I haven’t quite figured out how to do this yet, especially since there’s a lot of shoulder shaping and armhole shaping going on at the same time.
Anyway, I’m working my way through Maggie Righetti’s Knitting in Plain English and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears. I also have another EZ book on order from Amazon, so hopefully those books, along with a lot of patience on my end, will help me become a better knitter. We’ll see.
I did have a couple knitting accomplishments this weekend. I’d been working on the Bramblewood Vest (ravelry link) for about a month or so. I used a gorgeous heathered green yarn that I’d tried to knit into a (plain) vest before. That first vest ended up far too big, so I frogged it and did the Bramblewood. I finished it last week and blocked it, but when I tried it on, the hips were far, far too big. Even when I had the vest laying out to dry from the blocking, I could see weird “wings” on the hips. I didn’t want to rip it back because I’m lazy and also because it was cabled and I wasn’t sure about getting the cables right. So, I let it sit for a few days - then I had a solution. I decided to treat the knitting as fabric and to take darts over the hips to remove the fullness. I ended up taking a total of eight inches off the hips, and now it fits perfectly!
Also, I had an Amused that was about 85% done - I just had to finish the collar. Unfortunately, I’d made a mistake and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Again, the mistake involved cables - something that terrifies me when ripping out. A few weeks ago I pulled it out again and tried to fix the problem, but I succeeded in making it worse, not better. My lack of fixing ability had nothing whatsoever to do with the two glasses of wine I’d had beforehand, of course. Anyway, Ithrew it into a bag to rot set it aside to wait until I came up with a solution. And I found the solution this weekend, thanks to the great Maggie Righetti and a cup of tea! I threaded a small circular need through stitches a few rows below the mistake, ripped back, and voila! The sweater was back in business.
Part of this fitting process is just being patient. Sometimes I just want to knit and knit with abandon - not caring about gauge or ease, so I guess that’s what socks and afghans are for. But I’m discovering that sweaters require patience, and lots of measurements.
One thing I need to work on is adjusting the distance between the tops of my shoulders and the top of my breast. I haven’t quite figured out how to do this yet, especially since there’s a lot of shoulder shaping and armhole shaping going on at the same time.
Anyway, I’m working my way through Maggie Righetti’s Knitting in Plain English and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears. I also have another EZ book on order from Amazon, so hopefully those books, along with a lot of patience on my end, will help me become a better knitter. We’ll see.
I did have a couple knitting accomplishments this weekend. I’d been working on the Bramblewood Vest (ravelry link) for about a month or so. I used a gorgeous heathered green yarn that I’d tried to knit into a (plain) vest before. That first vest ended up far too big, so I frogged it and did the Bramblewood. I finished it last week and blocked it, but when I tried it on, the hips were far, far too big. Even when I had the vest laying out to dry from the blocking, I could see weird “wings” on the hips. I didn’t want to rip it back because I’m lazy and also because it was cabled and I wasn’t sure about getting the cables right. So, I let it sit for a few days - then I had a solution. I decided to treat the knitting as fabric and to take darts over the hips to remove the fullness. I ended up taking a total of eight inches off the hips, and now it fits perfectly!
Also, I had an Amused that was about 85% done - I just had to finish the collar. Unfortunately, I’d made a mistake and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Again, the mistake involved cables - something that terrifies me when ripping out. A few weeks ago I pulled it out again and tried to fix the problem, but I succeeded in making it worse, not better. My lack of fixing ability had nothing whatsoever to do with the two glasses of wine I’d had beforehand, of course. Anyway, I
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