A friend recently learned how to knit, jumped in at the deep end a got into lace quickly. Of course, things went wrong and there was a lot of frustration. But here’s the thing, I’ve been knitting on and off since I was five years old. And I will state that I have never had a project with no mistakes or mishaps. The mass production world has taught us that things can be perfect. They can’t.
First of all, I ordered yarn from Webs. Webs has a huge selection of yarn, unlike my local LYS which is much more limited. This is a fuzzy Alpaca, the color is basic mushroom. I was a little disappointed when it arrived. I normally like more of a pop than then. Oh well. And then I had downloaded a pattern. I don’t remember who I bought it from. Certainly not Ravelry, I was kicked off there a while ago, because people like me aren’t welcome on that site. So they will get zero money from me.
It didn’t go too well, the lace pattern has a lot of twisted stitches, something that is harder for me to do with my method of crazy knitting. So I went to my LYS and bought this yarn. It’s beautiful but… It is way too thin for a sweater. I tried, first with the original lace pattern.
That didn’t work at all.
So I started over with a different lace pattern. I do like the way the yarn is creating gradations of color. I think this is called kettle dyed. But… something was wrong, so I started over, going down a size and still, it simply didn’t feel like I was going to get anything that resembled a good fit. One of the huge problems in the knitting world, especially online, is that people learn how to knit, come up with something and then suddenly they are a designer. Most won’t use a technical editor and what looks pretty in their picture is one big hot mess. This was the case here. Back to the drawing board.
So I went to the tried and true. Ann Budd, a wonderful designer who has a number of books on basic knitting techniques. This is her book on Top-down sweaters. And yes, she even has a few patterns, which is great, because otherwise, it is simply formulas. I’m not in the mood of designing my own sweater right now.
Back to the original yarn. A very simple basic sweater in a very basic color. This should be good. I can see already that the number of stitches cast on at the neck line make sense. The other pattern was completely out of proportion.
I’m really enjoying the design along the increases of the raglan. The increases themselves are standard in the body of the work, between them are these two rows of twisted stitches. Oh, and they will continue down the side seams of the body.
Lesson learned, nothing creative just works, often I have to try, repeat and start over.
Another project, I found a silly book at the Dollar Tree, snarky cross stitch. This is the only pattern that appeals to me. But another mistake, I cut the fabric too small. I really haven’t been thinking lately.
Thats’ ok! As my grandson likes to say. I solved the problem, there is some cardboard backing there. I gave this to my son to who this really applies. What he’ll do with it, I have no idea.
I bought the Aida cloth at Joanns. Yuck, it was so hard to find the holes. I have a whole roll of this crap, but I’m thinking that I should look online and buy some quality fabric. The quality of the materials is directly connected to the end result. Who knows, I might simply bite the bullet and buy a kit from someone. I am going to need a long break from quilting. I have some small sewing projects, but I need more than just my knitting project.
Leah