Tuesday, August 16, 2005

A sweater with no name

I recently read the book KnitLit, and one of the entries talked about how naming your project helps you to "own" it. She was struggling with a particular project until she named it. After that, the knitting went fine. I don't know how much I buy into this theory, but the project naming sure is fun. (Peppermint Stick, Bloody Pulp, and Hair Ball were all named by me).

So now I'm working on this sweater. I've been so busy knitting it, I never got around to naming it. A name just didn't jump into my head. The pattern comes from the summer edition of Knit.1 magazine (the "wear your greens" section) and the yarn used is Lion Suede in Olive. I thought about calling it Mossy, but it just doesn't seem to fit. For now I guess it's The Sweater with No Name.

As far as I can tell, the sweater is coming out okay. The yarn is very easy to work with and, being bulky weight, knits up fast. I knit the first sleeve in half the time I expected it to take me. The yarn is very soft and instead of being woven threads, it is one solid piece. But it's 100% polyester. Ugh. I don't want to wear polyester. Am I a yarn snob? Maybe so, but I've found I prefer natural fibers. However, I've come too far to turn back now. I'll just consider it a learning experience - remember to read those yarn labels before buying!!

Saying I don't want to wear polyester brings me to another fear. The big fear. The fear that I won't have to worry about wearing the polyester sweater. The fear that I will get the sweater all done only to find out it does not fit!! How crushed would I be? It's meant to be a cropped sweater with half-sleeves. Since it's my first, I don't have a good feel for how big the pieces should look. Is it too cropped? Will it fit around my body? Or will I get the whole thing knit and (miraculously) sewn together correctly, only to find it's to small/short/tight to ever wear? I find that the closer I come to the end of the knitting, the more hesitant I am to finish it up. I'm afraid of finding out it really didn't come out as good as I thought. Do all knitters go through this with their first sweater? Or is this another by-product of my self teaching? A paranoia born from the lack of encouragement and reassurance from pros and teachers to let me know it's gong well?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry about your very first sweater being perfect. The first of anything is going to be a learning experience, for how to make the other projects the way you want them. Think about what worked, and what didn't, and you can fix whatever you didn't like on the next one! This first piece will just be a drop in the bucket down the road of knitting :)

Anonymous said...

That's my husband!!! Aren't I lucky to be married to such a supportive guy? Thanks for the nice comment, Sweetpea!

knittinmom said...

Hi, Karen! I'm so glad you visited my blog, because it brought me to yours, and I love it! Your dear hubby is right - your first sweater probably will be a disaster, but that's okay. The next one will be better, and the next one after that will be even better... And who knows - maybe you'll get lucky and end up with an awesome piece of work right off the bat. As for being a yarn snob, it's probably better to be using acrylic for your first piece rather than those $8 balls that I love so much... If you really want to see some snobby yarn, check out Interweave Knits. Whoo-ee, they have some gorgeous (and extremely spendy) stuff!

Love your blog - I'll be back!

Chrissy
aka Knittin' Mom

Owen said...

Now I'm curious to know what "Peppermint Stick," "Bloody Pulp" and "Hair Ball" looked like...

Anonymous said...

Thanks Owen, I'll have to get pics of them up soon. I tried tonight, but it's too dark to take the pictures. Anyway, the names might be better than the projects themselves!! :)

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