Crafting Body Appreciation

The exact content plans for this crafty side project are still a bit TBD. Since the focus is sharing projects, let me start by sharing the projects (err, project) I finished in February.

Y’all, I knit a freaking sweater! It is technically my second sweater as I did make one for a tiny human 9 years ago. But this sweater! This sweater is for me, a decidedly not tiny human.

I have dabbled in knitting off and on for the past 25 years or so, mostly making hats and shawls. Those projects felt approachable to me – not overly complicated, not too many supplies, not a lot of yarn, and relatively quick to make.

[Sidenote on the shawl thing, why did I make shawls? It was never my style, and now, in my perimenopause era, just the thought of wrapping extra fabric around my neck and shoulders is enough to bring on a hot flash. But I digress.]

Knitting a sweater for myself felt beyond intimidating – the fit, the expense (so.much.yarn.), the time. It could all go so horribly wrong in so many ways. I do think it was sewing clothes again that gave me more confidence to try knitting a sweater – I have gotten much more comfortable reading patterns, taking measurements for fit, and keeping my hands busy with making. It didn’t hurt that I had a sweater-quantity stash of yarn on hand that I picked up at a deep discount from the 2009 Sock Summit in Portland.

What did I have to lose? I knit most often in the evenings when watching TV which I would have been doing anyway. The pattern was pretty inexpensive, and I already had the other required supplies. And a cool thing about knitting is undoing it is easy as we all learned from Weezer’s blue album:

“If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away.”

The yarn could always be repurposed for another project. In fact, this yarn was once half knit into a baby blanket before being reincarnated into the sweater it is today.

Plus, since it has been negative one million degrees in the past few months (perhaps, a slight exaggeration) and my sewing room is in an unheated basement, I needed a project that could be made from the cozy warmth of the living room couch.

As I mentioned previously, my style is comfortable and unfussy, so I was looking for a relaxed and relatively simple sweater pattern. I landed on After the Rain by Heidi Kirrmaier. I appreciated that it was an older pattern so other people have already found and solved any pattern problems and that the pattern came in a size inclusive range (up to 6X!). I ended up knitting the 2X, my bust is 48-inches, and I wanted a little more ease than the XL would have provided (or so I thought…).

I used yarn that was a mix of merino wool, cashmere, and silk. I didn’t, and still don’t, know the intricacies of how different fibers behave, which, in retrospect, would have been good to research (foreshadowing, again), but I just jumped right in.

Knitting the sweater was pretty straightforward, though I did reference the KAL from Purl Together for things like splitting the sleeves and picking up the sleeves.

The most terrifying part of the project for me was blocking the finished sweater. This is also when the project went a bit sideways. My sweater grew at least 2 sizes from the blocking process. Eeek! Apparently, the fibers in the yarn I used are known to do that.

I can hear you all now. Did you make a swatch and block it before starting? No, no I did not swatch the project. I also don’t make muslins of new sewing patterns. Those steps make me not want to do the project at all and I have accepted that means not every project will fit as expected. I would rather make something than not, even if it ultimately doesn’t work out.

Anyway, I salvaged the project in a way that will probably have better knitters clutching their pearls. I got it wet for a second time and threw it in the dryer. I kept it on a low heat setting (actually I bumped it up to medium heat, low heat was taking too long) and checked it frequently. I ended up taking the sweater out when it seemed back to the size it was when I was knitting and let it air dry the rest of the way.

And look I am wearing it! It is soft and comfortable, and I love the colors.

If I were to make it all again knowing what I know now, I would have made the XL size and possibly even gone down a needle size. I have enough of the green colored yarn left to make some kind of tank top so I will definitely keep all of that in mind for the next project (and probably still won’t swatch it – I am who I am!).

Knitting a sweater, more than any other knitting project I have done, felt like magic. I took a pile of string and turned it into clothing. That will never not be amazing to me.

For the knitters out there, do you always swatch your projects? Have you had any, shall we say, “learning opportunities” mid-project like finding out merino wool garments get bigger when blocked?