Today's Knit and Crochet Blog Week post is all about my knitting aspirations:Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.
When I first started knitting, I never even considered the notion of making a sweater. The process seemed too daunting, too expensive, and too overwhelmingly time consuming to be necessary. I could make piles of scarves and hats and gloves to wear with simple coats and that would be it. Little cozy things that require a few skeins of yarn or less and there you go. Then, I got on Ravelry. Not only were there gorgeous cardigans, pullovers, jackets, and tank tops all over the place... but I wanted to wear them. And even worse, I got the urge to knit them.
Future sweater knitting - Solstice Cardigan and Larch CardiganOnce I fell down the rabbit hole, there was no turning back. So really, I have to say that if there's one knitting skill I dream of having in the future, it's the understanding of garment construction. Sure, I can knit a sweater, but can I make it fit well? How do I know if a raglan suits my body/the garment better than a set-in sleeve? What's the best way to attach a buttonband? What about short row shaping? How should I take drape into consideration? And how in the hell do I actually create negative ease?
To me, understanding garment construction is the ultimate knitting goal - having the ability to design my own stuff would be amazing. I don't know if I'll ever be able to completely wrap my head around it, but I'm sure willing to try. In the meantime, I'm planning to knit a variety of sweaters that will teach me new techniques. Perhaps there's a master knitting class in my future, too.
My main yarny problem is that I want to knit ALL THE THINGS and can't seem to keep up with my crazy ideas or keep myself focused on a few projects at a time. I'm always lusting for the next thing. Such is life. The good news is that I've only been knitting for about three years now, and I don't expect to give up on my needles anytime soon (especially considering the massive amount of yarn in my possession)... so, I suspect that there's plenty of time to learn.
13 comments:
You CAN knit All The Things! But as you say, a little trickier making them fit correctly. This is definitely something I struggle with when I've knit garments for myself. Good luck!
You'll make them and they will be gorgeous and fit perfectly the first time. XD I know it
A worthy aspiration--the biggest advantage of hand-knitting garments is that you can make them fit perfectly! Negative ease is easy (ha)--it just means the garment is a smaller circumference than the person wearing it.
Oh I hear you on wanting to knit all the thing and getting all scattered... I hear you. :)
lol- KNIT ALL THE THINGS!! Is that like 'CLEAN ALL THE THINGS'? ;D
You can get through everything, just one pattern at a time. See what the synopsis says about its construction and pick different ones each time so you'll learn something new about construction :O).
I know what you mean by wanting to knit everything. Sweaters are hands down my favorite things to knit. I love top down sweater construction because you can easily modify the pattern as you go. A great book with a lot of useful information on garment construction is "Custom Knits" by Wendy Bernard.
I have faith you will make the sweater of your dreams. Esp if you stay on Raverly. That place is such an enabler!! lol
Good aspiration! I'd like to know more about garment construction, too, as I'm not 100% happy with the jumpers/cardigans that I've made. Love the Solstice cardigan, off to add that to my Rav queue!
I want to knit everything too! I'm always thinking of new projects, but I can think a lot faster than I can knit, so the list of things I want to knit keeps getting longer!
*laughs* I actually have a blog post called "knit ALL the things", so that comment made me chuckle ;) I've made a couple of garments, and learned a lot about shaping from them. I think it's one of those learn by doing kinda things!
i have those two sweaters in my queue too. i, like you, would like to conquer garment construction as well but i think you're much closer to conquering it than me!
You can get through everything, just one pattern at a time. See what the synopsis says
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