Last week I mentioned that I didn’t have any knitting project at all in the works. Yesterday I dug my yarn stash out of a very dusty and dirty corner of the storage room (so excited about getting settled at home again soon) along with some pattern books and ideas. I spent too much time today trying to match yarn to pattern and found this to be a pretty frustrating pursuit.
Compared my level of sewing experience, I am quite a newbie knitter. But it seems to me that unless you choose the pattern first and then buy the yarn specified in the amount specified it is really complicated to find something more involved than a scarf to knit. The issue of guage is the biggest hurdle. I have a lot of yarn (thanks to my MIL!) and a lot of patterns, but when I find a yarn that matches the gauge in the pattern I find that I don’t have enough of the yarn, or it is the wrong color (“boy colors” vs. “girl colors” are a big deal for my little kids) or the pattern requires circular needles and I only have straight in that size, etc. The list could go on….
Of course I could just stick to scarves, small bags, dish cloths, and that sort of thing but I get bored with small things quickly and how many knitted scarves or bags do you really need? I really like knitting sweaters for my kids and there were a few minutes today where I thought designing something myself was the only way to go. That thought only lasted a few minutes. I’m really a long way from being able to do that.
At long last, I did make a decent match. I’ve knit the “The Wonderful Wallaby” before, for my son. It’s a great pattern – knit in the round and the only finishing happens under the arms with about six stitches to graft. The end result looks like a hooded sweatshirt, but it is a sweater.
The yarn I’m using is Lion Brand CottonEase. I’m not too excited about the color. It’s very…um…pistachio-y. But, the sweater will be for my younger daughter and she’d be cute as can be wearing a paper bag. So, I think it will be okay.
It feels good to have something on the needles again, but I was reminded of the many reasons why sewing will always be my first love.
Compared my level of sewing experience, I am quite a newbie knitter. But it seems to me that unless you choose the pattern first and then buy the yarn specified in the amount specified it is really complicated to find something more involved than a scarf to knit. The issue of guage is the biggest hurdle. I have a lot of yarn (thanks to my MIL!) and a lot of patterns, but when I find a yarn that matches the gauge in the pattern I find that I don’t have enough of the yarn, or it is the wrong color (“boy colors” vs. “girl colors” are a big deal for my little kids) or the pattern requires circular needles and I only have straight in that size, etc. The list could go on….
Of course I could just stick to scarves, small bags, dish cloths, and that sort of thing but I get bored with small things quickly and how many knitted scarves or bags do you really need? I really like knitting sweaters for my kids and there were a few minutes today where I thought designing something myself was the only way to go. That thought only lasted a few minutes. I’m really a long way from being able to do that.
At long last, I did make a decent match. I’ve knit the “The Wonderful Wallaby” before, for my son. It’s a great pattern – knit in the round and the only finishing happens under the arms with about six stitches to graft. The end result looks like a hooded sweatshirt, but it is a sweater.
The yarn I’m using is Lion Brand CottonEase. I’m not too excited about the color. It’s very…um…pistachio-y. But, the sweater will be for my younger daughter and she’d be cute as can be wearing a paper bag. So, I think it will be okay.
It feels good to have something on the needles again, but I was reminded of the many reasons why sewing will always be my first love.
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