Even I knitted a sweater!

Everyone is knitting!  And everyone is knitting lovely sweaters.  So...if you can sew yourself a wardrobe, you should be able to knit a few sweaters to go along with it?  Sounds convincing but although I can knit, the pair of socks that I started in 2002 are 3/4 finished, eg I have 1.5 socks.  I've finished legwarmers and scarves.  And definitely nervous at the idea of a knitting pattern as I have trouble remembering which is knitting and which is purling. 

I finally clued in that sweater making is actually supposed to take a month.  I definitely still have an issue with this and with a short attention span.  I'm also nervous at the idea of making sense of knitting patterns.  However, I love Gather, a knitting and yarn store in Napier, and every time I went to Napier I had to stop in and see what was new.  And one of the interesting projects on offer was a super simple sweater pattern to be done on huge needles with thick wool.  The wool is actually pretty cool - it's recycled wool and alpaca bits, so not as itchy as plain alpaca, and in pink how could I resist? Nikki, the owner, promised that it would take less than a month.  It's a pattern that she has made and that she gives out together with yarn purchases.  In fact, real knitters apparently can do it in a day...

Finally I caved in and made it my travel project.  Nikki gave me a quick lesson on things like what is stocking stitch?  and made sure that I understood the directions.  The result: I carried this pile of wool and needles across most of New Zealand, half of Australia and to Seattle (it was halfway done on the 14-hr Mel-Sea flight!) before I finally finished it on my flight to Zurich!  Yesss!  Winter sweater, just in time.  (Well, anyway, still in time, since I was freezing the entire month I was in Seattle.)

I did a lot of emergency youtubing along the way.  How to add stitches?  How to remove them in the middle?  I didn't do a very good job of the neckline.  The basic pattern is to knit a rectangle, add stitches to the middle, cast off and then back on to make a head-hole, and then to cast the sleeve stitches off.  The entire thing is folded in half and makes a sweater.  I found the instructions straightforward and most of the time knew what to do in theory if not in practice.

The result is a big sweater!  It's warm and currently shedding everywhere, which I hope will improve when it has been washed.  Although it isn't my dream sweater (can't see having 5 of these in my wardrobe)  it has definitely given me a bit of confidence that another sweater is worth trying to knit.  Like, next winter.