Designing My Own Sweater, or Not

    I have been thinking recently about knitting a sweater, for myself, but designing it myself. In other words, I'm designing it in my mind.  I'm taking elements from different sweaters and putting them together. I would like to make a pullover, with wide ribbing at the cuffs. I would really like to put thumb holes in the long sleeves. I know of someone who did this, and I think it's a terrific idea.


    I want to make it in sock weight or DK weight yarn, on slightly bigger needles than recommended, so it's drapey. I also want to make it tunic length, to cover up my big rear end. It sounds to me like I need to re-read my Elizabeth Zimmermann book, all about how to design your own sweater. I would even knit a gauge swatch for it, so I would know how many stitches to cast on to get the size I want. Necessary evil.


    After writing those words ^ last night, I got out my books, and looked through them. I couldn't find what I was looking for. So today, after work, I went on Ravelry.com to peruse through the mountainous number of sweater patterns. Once I narrowed it down to pullovers, the number got much more manageable. Only five pages.


    Here is one that I found, that I really like:

   
    And best of all, it seems doable! It's called  Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck Sweater. It was designed by Heidi Kirrmaier, and it was a free pattern on Ravelry! YAY for free patterns!!


   I am not making any promises that I will definitely make this sweater, but I will certainly think about it, hard. Also, there were two sweaters by the aforementioned EZ in my list, which mentioned exactly which chapter in which book that the pattern appears! So I will go check that book again.


    I feel I must mention, that if I do make the above sweater, I will probably make the sleeves too long, so I can put the thumb holes in. I am quite adamant on those.

Go Big or Go Home

    I wonder why I was surprised about having to abandon plans A, B and C... I have never liked working on a small scale. Before I started knitting again, my hook of choice was the N size, which is pretty big. Big enough that when you crochet with it, you usually use two strands of worsted weight yarn.


    I like the instant gratification that comes with crocheting with a bigger hook. You can make so much progress in so little time! It's perfect for satisfying that creative urge.


   When I started knitting, I was willing to work with small needles. But it turns out that sock or lace weight yarn is just too darn tiny for me to see the stitches. Especially in black, and in my house. We keep my house kind of dark, since my Hubs works the night shift, and sleeps during the day. Minimum light works best for this.


    A few years ago, I crocheted a shawl, it turned out to be most awesome, and it was HUGE. Of course, I used a bigger hook than recommended. Now, I am fairly tall, at 5' 8". When this shawl was done, and I wore it to Rhinebeck last year, the point actually dragged on the ground.


    I recently gave that shawl away, and made a new one, which turned out smaller. I love it just as much. I haven't yet had an opportunity to wear it out, but I am looking forward to it.  Stay tuned to watch me make a fool out of myself over and over again. It seems that it's inevitable. But I hope it's at least fun!

Arachno Shawl is Done!!

Last night:

  Tah-dah!! The Arachno Shawl is finally done. I just bound it off a little while ago. It was a fun knit, I have to say. Now I just have to block it, and hope it can stretch out to a decent size. You see, it seems it's a bit on the small side. I personally prefer large shawls, hence my favorite motto, Go Big or Go Home!

I will post pics of shawl post blocking.

Aiming for Perfection

    Whenever we create something, whether it's knit, crochet, paint, sew, whatever, we strive to make it perfect. However, there is a Native American saying that only the Great Spirit makes perfection. So they believe that there are imperfections, however small, in everything made by human hands.


    When I crochet anything, there are always mistakes. When making the current blanket, and I have made many, the error is usually the stitch count on at least one row. There are supposed to be 151 stitches. Every time the kind of stitch changes, that is when I count. Usually it's the beginning of the single crochet sections.

    These little imperfections never show. However, there are others that I make. In the current blanket, in one of the V stitch panels, I made a mistake on one of the V stitches. It only has one side. So the row would look like this:

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/


   If you don't get it, don't worry. It's kind of hard to explain. Let's just say that there is a mistake, and I know it's there. While I was thinking about what to say in this post, I was going to take a photo of the mistake, so you all could see it. But you know what? I looked over every V stitch panel, TWICE, and couldn't find it. But I know it's there, and so does the Great Spirit.


    And as my good friend, Kim says, "If you can't spot the mistake while riding past it on a galloping horse, then it doesn't matter." And she's right!


   One last note on the blanket: in the photo above, it's shown the way it's used. However, it's made from side to side. And every time I make one, by the time it's finished, I swear I will never make another one! But it's the pattern I have made the most over the last 20 or so years.