Starting with a Sweater

A little bit of an introduction before I get to the sweater.

This website, blog, shop, what have you, has been a long time coming.  I'd make small little branch blogs that I never stuck with, Etsy shops that I woefully neglected, scattered quilt sales that would lift me up just high enough to make me see that this is what I wanted to do, but not enough for me to put any real drive behind it, and all other various assortments of half-hearted efforts that would end in me letting myself believe that I might not be cut out for my dreams in my life.  Which leads me to The Sweet Crafterlife.

Maybe I chose this name because I don't want to end up a wee spooky ghost haunting fabric and yarn shops, making strange and eerie appearances at circus performances, and giving my loved ones cold chills every time they try and curl up under one of my quilts.  Maybe it's because I've met my Fate and can, instead of bleeding my heart out over practicalities, enjoy all of these wonderful and beautiful creative works that I've so adored throughout my lifetime.  And maybe it's just because I've studied far too much death culture with an Anthropology degree, and this is now my twisted sense of humour.  Any which way we hack it, I welcome you, to this place where my otherworldly wishes are granted, and I simply enjoy (and perhaps grumble about my capabilities) for all of us to share.  

Now, enough about that.  I made a sweater and I'm excited.  Let's talk about it.

This project was born from my complete lack of ability to leave behind anything that is soft.  I had ventured off to the Knitting Bee of Portland with my phenomenal mother and, as per usual, I was feeling all of the fun and beautiful yarns when I found… the one.  It's baby alpaca, so it's made out of all of my wildest hopes and dreams, compacted into a semi-bulky strand of love and softness that makes me want to curl up in it for all of eternity.  

The pattern is what my brain thought a good sweater would be constructed like, partially because I like the challenge, and partially due to the fact that I'm still wary of knitting patterns and just try to wing it so I don't have to translate the whole thing into what works for someone that knits ambidextrously.

I started with just a basic rectangle shape, and as I approached the point where I wanted my arms to be, I decreased by one stitch on both ends for three rows.  I'm not particularly broad in the shoulder department, so wee bits of shoulder coverage were just fine.

The neck hole started with me feeling a little extra brave since everything else had been going so well.  

I chose to leave all of my stitches on the circular needles I was working on, but only knit the 15 stitches that would make up the shoulder on one side until it was a length that I thought would be suitable.

As is nearly impossible to see here, I looped the yarn I was working with in a continuous slip knot sort of chain, threading each new loop further down the side of what I had just worked on, and towards the stitches I had been ignoring.  I cast off on the middle stitches, which led me to the other side, so that I could begin my other strap.  

Once both straps were at the same length, I cast on the same number of stitches I had cast off in the front, and worked my way down on the back of the sweater, in time increasing my stitches towards the end of where the arm hole would be as I went.

Because I wasn't working with a pattern, have never made a sleeve before, and (at first) could not  conceptualize that the arm hole was bigger than my arm, I ended up needing  to decrease stitches quickly.  This made the (w)hole thing a little wonky and I quickly had to make adjustments so that I didn't look like an albino bat hopeful in my new sweater.  The second sleeve felt a little more like old hat (or old sleeve I guess) and I managed to finish it in half the time, finishing off both sleeves with a classic cuff of knit two purl two.  

Ultimately, I was thrilled about the end result and notified more people of this sweater than I'm going to fully disclose.  It definitely got a little rough around the first sleeve, but looking at the pictures and looking at it longingly in this summer heat, I'm happy.  

Now all I need is for it to be cold enough outside for me to actually be able to wear it.  

Thank you for the dedication of your eyes, and more will be coming soon.  All the best to you, and all of your lovely creations.