Not a Sock Knitter

I tried. I honestly did. Why did I try as hard as I did? Sock knitters were, and still are, everywhere! I was an early Yarn Harlot follower and socks featured often in her books and blog posts. In my early knitting life, prowling for information and inspiration, socks were ever-present. Socks are basics, not just of wardrobes, but, it seemed, of a knitter's repertoire. Now I regularly watch podcasts hosted by dedicated sock knitters: The Periscoping Sisters, The Yarn Hoarder, the Grocery Girls, The Bakery Bears (of course, they don't limit themselves, but they often deliver divine socks). Socks make nicely portable projects and are wonderfully comfortable in all seasons. I do love the ones that I have actually finished. But finishing! I feel more guilt and negativity from sock WIPs than anything others.

So, I'm setting myself free. I am not a sock knitter. There is no need to label myself or dedicate myself to any one project type in my favorite hands-on hobby. Why encumber myself with unnecessary stress? 

(Just saying that makes me feel nicely empowered. What else can I declare that I'm not? hmmm...)

In other news, my sweater yarn has arrived and I'm already about half way up the back piece of Charlie's Cardigan:

The yarn is Weekend Wool from Green Mountain Spinnery in the color way Pollen. 

I used the suggested tubular cast-on method for the 1x1 ribbing, which was a new technique for me. There are lots of online tutorials and videos for this, but I used Cap Sease's Cast On, Bind Off: 211 Ways to Begin and End Your Knitting. I quite like this cast on:

Not only does it give a seamless edge, it's supposed to be stretchier than a long-tailed cast-on (my go-to method) for ribbing. 

I've also begun my first new shawl project of the year, the Geology Shawl by verybusymonkey. Each section features a different textured stitch pattern, including lace stitches and knit/purl stitch motifs. I'm using part of a huge and wonderful skein of Briar Rose Fibers' Joyful (sport weight, 100% Polwarth wool) that I bought at the 2017 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

I'm really enjoying this beautiful shawl, despite jumping all over the pattern due to its organization. (Since I've written a few patterns, I now have my own organization preferences, and sometimes feel like I have to relearn how to read a pattern with each new designer I find.) My only real "problem" is that I want to make the shawl bigger! I may pop in an extra section and crunch some numbers to make that happen, as well as expand some sections as the designer suggests. Always tinkering.

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2018 - Year of the Sweater

I'm not the only one to declare this year as the "year of the sweater." It's been all over the Instagram knitting community and on podcasts. Some knitters are aiming for nine completed sweaters this year! Nine! I'm specifically interested in Amanda's We Are Yarn podcast and her year-long knit-along, which is broken into quarters. Quarters! So simple, so genius. Three months to knit a sweater...and before long I may have the beginnings of a wardrobe that consists of more than lace shawls! Woop!

Before I get into my 2018 goals, though, let’s take care of the elephant in the room: the fact that I haven't blogged in a year. I could list excuses, but there are always excuses. And, really, to whom are these excuses addressed? Truly, me. (Let's be honest. How many readers do I have? This blog most benefits me by helping me organize thoughts. If you are reading this, though, thank you!) So, let me just jump to explaining what happened with those WIPs mentioned in the previous post and any significant woolly-related news.

I actually did clean up that out-of-control pile of WIPs, but now I have 2 smaller piles. The first pile has 11 project bags, 10 of which contain WIPs, and one with a pattern and a cake of yarn, just waiting for its time to shine. Of these 10 WIPs:

-4 are sock projects that may or may not be finished, because I'm seriously doubting my identity as a "sock knitter”

-1 is the Telja yoked sweater (designed by Jennifer Steingass), which I’m working up in beautiful Icelandic from a small American farm, that needs to be frogged and reknit because I chose a ridiculously large size

- 1 is the Find Your Fade shawl, which lost its glossy newness just as I approached the final color (yeah, I know.)

-2 other shawls that lost my interest (they date from 2016!)

-and, finally, one scrappy shawl that I may have fallen out of love with.

That leaves 2 other projects: a cable vest and a Custom Fit sweater (more about that later). The other pile, much much smaller, consists of several WIPs that are actually partially designed or need to be fixed. Projects in the second pile may be frogged or become other projects altogether. I'm letting them live freely at the moment.

Now that I've written that out, it seems pretty obvious that I have more frogging to do!

Amber, of the Yarn Hoarder podcast, recently shared an IG story of how she went through her own WIP pile and decided what projects survived and which ones were frogged. I found this short demo to be surprisingly helpful. Hearing another knitter say that it’s OK to fall out of love with a project or realize she can no longer see it as a part of her wardrobe was actually empowering.

This also connects with what I've been considering for the last couple of months. What does my ideal wardrobe look like? Do the patterns in my favorites lists on Ravelry fit into this ideal or vision? I want to make sure that I will enjoy knitting and wearing the sweaters I make. That means ensuring correct fit and careful selection of yarn. Correct fit means understanding my body better. Which brings me to Custom Fit.

It has been surprisingly difficult to translate my body measurements into wearable pattern sizes, mainly due to a brain-block, I think. I kept avoiding the size closest to my bust size in favor of pattern measurements that included what I mistakenly understood to be "ease." Instead of ease, I got swimming pools of wool. So, I bit the bullet and took Amy Herzog's Craftsy class "Sweater Modifications for a Custom Fit". After also creating an account with Herzog's Custom Fit site and working on my first Custom Fit pattern, I think I'm finally grasping the concept that wool is forgiving and for my best fit I need to look at more than numbers. For example, I’ve begun to pay attention to set-in versus raglan sleeves. I decided that I'm definitely not a fan of drop sleeves, unless a bit of tinkering is possible. I think I now understand that negative ease and fitted are not necessarily the same thing. And that positive ease does not need to mean lots and lots of inches. It could be an inch or two beyond my bust measurement and still result in a comfy garment that doesn’t slide off my body like the blob just rejected me.

I now find myself paying more and more attention to fit. For example, the recently Uber-popular Sunset Highway yoked sweater by Caitlin Hunter. This is a gorgeous sweater, but when I'm ready to tackle a fingering-weight sweater (not yet), I think I would need to tinker with the pattern to make sure the sweater's arm pits match my actual arm pits. Not all yokes sit on the body like this one. One of the few sweaters I've knit that fit me well has a circular yoke. It can be done. I just don't think that much positive ease would do anything good for my body. See?! I'm learning about myself!

I love Shannon Cook's Timber cardigan, but I'm hesitating because I've seen others mention that it doesn't fit as well for those with larger busts, and the raglan sleeves are suspected of being the cause. I already own the pattern (in the Within pattern collection), so I could tinker with it. But, I think this makes my point: I've been focused on design elements and fit.

Although I voiced my fears about knitting a size 47" for my 46" bust ("Mom! This will be waaayyy too small!"), I did it anyway, following the Custom Fit directions for a standard v-neck cardigan in "relaxed" fit. I'm now finishing up the last sleeve. All that remains is to seam and pick up for the neck and button bands. Once I have this test garment finished, I plan to plow ahead with sweater after sweater!

This is where Amanda's quarterly sweater schedule should help keep me on track. I'm already feeling so confident that I've purchased Charlie's Cardigan (another pattern from Custom Fit) and ordered yarn. After swatching extensively with a skein purchased at SAFF, I ordered a sweater's worth of Green Mountain Spinnery's Weekend Wool in the Pollen color way. So excited!

I swatched like a pro, baby!

Oh, and purchasing a sweater's worth is a completely new thing, too! Not because I haven't done it before, but because I don't need nearly as much yardage as I used to think!