When I'm knitting on the bus, random people will often talk to me. They like to know what I'm knitting. I think most of the time they probably think "scarf" but I've been into sweaters lately.
Sweaters are the quintessential knitted item.
If you go into any store right now, you'll see that cabled sweaters are the "in" item of the season. When I see these sweaters, I think "I could make one of those and make it better". In our society though, we like to have everything right now, and knitting a sweater by hand takes time. I have two sweaters and a summer top in the works right now. (The summer top is on hold until spring.) I wrote about them in a previous post. I've been working diligently on the most ambitious, and consequently the most fun, sweater which has an all over cabled pattern in DK weight yarn. I have the front and the back finished and was very excited to pin it and try it on. It actually fits me pretty well. :) But here's the thing. I would probably prefer it to be a little longer. Unfortunately it was knit bottom up and I don't really want to unravel 6 months of work for a couple of inches of length.
The thing that I find most satisfying about knitting and sewing is that I can tailor the clothes to fit me. I have long arms and so have difficulty with some shirts in stores being shorter than I prefer. Same goes for my long legs. I could not find acceptably long pj pants in any stores, so I sewed my own. With sewing you just measure the fabric, sew it up and tada! It fits. If it doesn't take it in, or let it out. Knitting is different. With knitting you have to make the fabric! And you can't try it on half way through. On my previous sweater attempt, I was so intent on making the sleeves long that I made them a little too long. (I still love the sweater though!) I'm realizing now that I won't be able to knit a perfectly fitting sweater the first time, and certainly not without altering the pattern.
Knitting the perfect sweater is a journey, littered with too-long sleeves and too-short torsos. I will wear these imperfect sweaters (they're not too bad....) because I put in so much time to make them. Along the way, however, I'm learning how exactly to modify future sweaters so they fit me!! I'm up for the challenge, especially with a long, cold winter ahead!
Maybe after I master knitting sweaters for myself, my husband will finally let me knit him a sweater...
