Hello friends. I just finished the most epic sewing trip ever - simply waiting for a good time to document it. In the meantime.....
AM I LOSING MY MIND? Let me rewind. A few weeks ago I shared a few modern knitting patterns here. Stephanie suggested I check out a few of her faves on Ravelry and I fell in serious like with this "Boxy" pattern:
ISN'T SHE LOVELY?? So cozy and swingy. I love the oversized shape and the architectural sleeves and it reminded me so much of the beloved (now pilled and worn out) cashmere sweater I bought in Paris. I had to have. Had to.
So I bought the pattern and headed over to my neighborhood knitting store (owned by perhaps the MOST verbose man I have ever met in my entire life - he knew more about yarn than all of the Nanas so it took about 3 hours to get out of there) where I was faced with an unavoidable reality; this sweater uses sock weight yarn and requires teeny weeny needles. TEENY TEENY WEENY WEENY.
I am an instant gratification kind of lady. I will eat ramen rather than walk 2 blocks for pho. I will suffer through a bad streaming video of Project Runway rather than wait the 10 minutes it would take to download it. I ALWAYS make my self ill eating raw cake batter. So when I knit, I like big effing needles and chunky as shit yarn (that was really a poorly chosen description) so I can whip out a scarf in as little time as possible. As a result of this GIVE IT TO ME NOW mentality, I have only managed to make one, really, truly, hideously ugly sweater about 10 years ago that I only ended up knitting because it called for a chunky wool. Trust me when I say, no one, not even a homeless Icelander, would have worn this thing.
So I was faced with a real dilemma: continue on my path of quick yet unwearable chunky knits, or invest my time (possibly the whole winter, possibly the next 11 winters) in one project that I will actually love and adore. I chose the love and adore route, obviously. I picked a gorgeous silk and merino wool, bought a few slightly graduating sets of TEENY TEENY WEENY WEENY needles and got to work.
After 2 episodes of Buffy (yes, I'm rewatching it, and yes it's still possibly the greatest tv show of all time), I managed to get half through my gauge test. To be fair, I am really working on perfecting my tension so it's slow going:
I really hope you're laughing right now. BECAUSE I AM CRYING. If anyone wonders what I will be doing during the moments I am not sewing, eating, sleeping or brushing my teeth, it is knitting the merino silk albatross that is the Boxy sweater.
Good night.
OMG, I love this jumper and now I want one too! Although I’m already working on a ‘delicate’ 1940s number, that I’ve put aside in favour of a chunky knit…just so I could get to wear something self-stitched this winter! But I will be going back to my delicate beauty afterwards. And I hope you manage to finish this beauty off, she’ll be so worth it!
DO IT DO IT DO IT!!! Oh My God Heather – this is going to be so freaking COOL!!! I don’t care if I’m old and gray by the time you finish it – it’ll be SOOO worth the wait! Silk and Merino?? Be still my effing heart…
Okay – so can you teach me how to knit just so I can knit this too? It could be a knit-along. We can spend the next 11 winters of our lives on it… I’m pretty embarrassed by the fact that I don’t know how to knit, but I don’t want to “waste” my time knitting scarves – I just want to knit this sweater, like, SOOOO BAD! And yes I’m whining… ugh…
Anyway – seriously cool sweater. Seriously jealous over here…
Think of it this way: if you enjoy knitting, now you’ll get to pursue your enjoyable hobby a lot! (I knit fine gauge only. Have no interest in bulky knits, don’t know why anybody would want one. Except for some floor cushions I saw covered in bulky knit. Bulky yarn seems appropriately proportioned to something furniture-sized. Just not person-sized.)
Gorgeous sweater!! I think it’ll be more than worth it when your done (you make me want to learn to knit). I’m going through similar issues myself with a potential long term crochet project (it’ll probably take a whopping 2 weeks–Thank God for my hour commute to and from work!).
Hats and scarves make the craft world seem so easy.
Good luck!!
oh god, i am so with you. i WISH i had the patience for all those beautiful knits in fine gauges, but i just don’t. you will be my knitting hero forever and i will support you in my thought though the months it will take you to knit it (even if the months turns out to be years) and it WILL BE WORTH IT. if i still lived in montreal, i’d bake you cookies and pies so you could spend your time knitting and not starve. and i would go and buy us some pho. oh, i miss my pho.
Is it crazy that I want to be right there with you knitting this sweater and swearing at myself for taking up this project? This sucker is going to be amazing when you’re done, even if it is 11 winters from now!
Ha ha, I totally thought of you when I bought the yarn. Verbose Knitty Man couldn’t stop talking about how “lustrous” it was. Granted, this sweater is going to cost around $100 but I figured if I was gonna spend the next 11 years on it I should enjoy the experience….
Regarding learning to knit: I think if you started with a simple scarf (I LOVED the cowl I did last year in moss stitch which is basically just alternating purl and knit stitches) you could figure out how to manage you tension and the basic mechanics of learning. And then start on something like this, which is a super easy pattern. But I think you would need something you wouldn’t mind screwing up before investing in the material for an actual garment. The great thing about knitting is that (if you do a simple pattern) it’s totally mindless and perfect for winter jammy tv time. I need to constantly doing something with my hands or I feel like I am wasting my life.
You are crazy… But the is ridiculously cute. I think it will be worth it! Maybe the tediousness of this project will make you a super super fast knitter and it won’t take so long?
Thanks Jen! I better not fuck it up.
Oh you are the sweetest ever Joelle. I kinda fibbed about the pho – I only eat ramen when I’m too hungover to walk the 2 blocks. I eat that magic at least once a week. I’m sorry you don’t have easy access. Now about the pie & cookies…. Can they be mailed?
2 weeks! Jealous! I could easily knit on my 30 minute metro ride twice a day, but that is my readin’ time. Also people stare at you way too much when you’re knitting on public transportation. It’s disconcerting. So I’ll stick to my Kindle – it’s the only time I get to dig through my reading list.
The (Non-verbose) clerk at the knitting store said the same thing. She said she used to do chunky knitting but started doing lacework and fine gauge and never looked back. I still love the look of a chunky scarf or blanket, but for apparel it’s difficult to find patterns that are flattering and don’t look super homemade in a heavy gauge.
Marie, I can’t wait to see both! The delicate knits tend to look more profesh and store bought I think, but I am very curious to see your chunky sweater. It looked very enticing on your blog!
This is the best post I have ever read about knitting, and I suspect it’s because if I were to knit, I would be very similar and try to make it go as fast as possible. Best of luck with your project, and maybe you can be buried in it one day (if you finish by then!). The finished picture certainly makes it look worth it, though!
ha. only if you mail me pho back 😉
I was laughing. Seriously. For two reasons – teeny teeny weeny weeny and Buffy. An eloquently written post. Standing ovation?
On a more serious note – I’m glad you took the latter route. I often get myself into a project that takes way more time than I anticipated but it pays off. I promise. Keep at it and keep eating too much cake batter!
Its going to be so worthwhile, it may take a while but so what. You are going to love it!
Ahahahahaha!! I LOVE THAT LAST PICTURE!! I am a middling knitter. I have actually finished my fair share of sweaters. I have made some smallish gauge projects and I have had no luck, AT ALL, with any chunky weight project bigger than a scarf. The last time I bought bulky yarn, I was allergic to it. I had 20 balls of that shit. I gave it away.
Also, Buffy remains, and WILL remain, the greatest TV show of all time. Very closely followed by Coupling.
omg i LOVE that sweater! and then, yes, when i saw that last picture I gulped. I haven’t knitted much in my life but I do know that tiny needles equal loooooonnnnng knitting time. i’m sure we’ll see the finished sweater by next october 😉
This is going to be amazing! It will TOTALLY be worth the time it takes to knit it. I made a long-sleeved tunic/dress out of fingering weight yarn, and, while it took f-in’ foreeeeeeeever to make, it was SO nice– the lightweight yarn is so drapey and nice to wear (we won’t talk about how hubs accidentally put it in the washing machine and felted the whole damn thing… SOB). Really excited to see this sweater on you!
Aww thanks for the laugh. I love cake batter, too and I bless you with persistence because this sweater is beautiful. You are inspiring me to knit something other than a scarf which incidentally one of my dogs just ate so I have no proof I’ve ever knitted anything anymore. But I have to argue on the Buffy point. Alias was the best show ever, at least of that era ;). But I like super spies kicking butt in bizarre costumes.
Crying with laughter!!! Looking forward to seeing this project finished in time for Christmas 2015…!! I too usually will not even consider touching needles any finer than 7mm. Defeats the point anyway – knits are supposed to be warm right? So the chunkier the better. But I salute you and your determination. It’s ladies like you and Lladybird and the sweater factory she’s got going on right now that make me deeply ashamed that I’m still putting off knitting the last sleeve from a sweater I started this time LAST YEAR… on size 10mm needles. So lame. Can’t wait to see yours done – it certainly is a damn good pattern x
The needles are smaller, to be sure, but it’s much easier on your wrists and the stitches are formed quicker. Look into circular needles, too – they’re more comfortable to use, ergonomically speaking.
thanks for share...