A sweater that took 3 years to knit. And some thoughts on making teeny tiny steps forward.
I’m working on my transitional weather sweater (hopefully). This sweater took 3 years to knit, and it has prompted some thoughts on making teen-tiny-itty-bitty steps forward.
I knit a lot.
I have a handful of unfinished sweaters hanging about, and thanks to a swift kick in the butt from the self-made wardrobe project I’m finishing a bunch of them up.
This particular sweater has taken me 3 years and 1 month to finish.
As far as sweaters go, this one is pretty straightforward.
But the interesting thing about it, is how much my knitting has changed since I started it.
My actual gauge hasn’t changed (thankfully), the actual number of stitches per inch is the same as it was three years ago. But my knitting has changed.
My stitches are straighter.
My tension is more even.
You can definitely feel the difference.
And up close you can see the difference.
The fabric looks and feels smoother.
If you had asked me, before I picked up this sweater, if my knitting had changed in the last three years I would probably have said “yea, but not a whole lot.”
But it did.
I did some quick guesstimates of the number of stitches in most of the shawls I’ve published patterns for between starting and finishing this sweater, and the total comes out around 788,000 stitches.
I can knit about 30 stitches a minute. (In a lace pattern, relaxed, and following a chart. Averaged over a couple hours with breaks, pauses, etc.)
788,000 stitches.
437 hours.
16 shawls.
When you think about the fact that that’s only the knitting I’ve done for the patterns I’ve published, (no swatches, no sweaters, no unpublished shawls), that’s a lot of stitches, and a decent amount of time.
Turns out my knitting has changed quite a bit over three years.
One stitch at a time.
Over 788,000 stitches later.
two sweaters and a shawl
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I’m working on the last two rows of my lace shawl!!! Working with Julie Asselin’s “merletto” was absolutely amazing as always, I can’t wait to work with it again.
My boring black sweater is moving along with some help from “Downton Abbey.” I know that I’m going to love wearing it, I just hope knitting the sleeves isn’t too awful.
My Versio sweater is blocking! Yay! I can’t wait to clip all the ends, thread the cording, and start wearing it!
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 8 – sweater weather is here
I still don’t have jeans. I still desperately want jeans.
But unfortunately it’s starting to get a bit chilly, and what I really need more than jeans, are sweaters. Lots of cushy, cozy, warm sweaters.
So my quest for jeans is being put aside for the moment in favor of sweater knitting. Lots and lots of sweater knitting.
I’m this close to finishing my Versio sweater. Yay!
I’m almost done with a sweater I started three years ago. Double yay!
I started knitting a black lace weight sweater that’s a total nightmare to knit, but I know that I’ll love wearing. Half a yay?
Plus there’s the pile of half finished sweaters I’ve started through the years…
Also! I got my tripod – so I’m going to play around with taking garment photos – (yay! & eep! all at the same time).
If you want to know the moment I figure out how to take photos that really show off the pieces I’m making (and that don’t make me look like a monster) – hop on the mailing list to get blog posts delivered straight to your inbox.
