My Very First Sweater!
I finally took the plunge and started a sweater. As a fat person, I find it hard to take on the challenge of making fitted clothes, like a sweater. (Yes, I call myself fat - it's just a description, like short or blue-eyed.) Sweaters seem like they are hard to fit and a lot of work. Plus, it's really hard to find plus sized patterns that I like.
I made the extravagant purchase when our family of five lived on a very tight budget. My husband was working full-time but I was going to college and only working part-time. That yarn purchase took a sixth of my take home pay! Today, I'm a full-time audit manager and routinely spend the same amount or more on yarn without even consulting my budget. It's a different world and I decided to stop protecting that yarn from fulfilling its destiny! I started the sweater in November of last year.
Even though the pattern went up to a 3x, I wanted it bigger. So, I cast on additional stitches! It took an Excel spreadsheet and 3-4 tries to figure out the spacing of the tree motif with my additional stitches on the needles. I don't think it should have taken that long but I had some trouble visualizing the pattern, plus I'm a little slow at basic math. For those of you remembering that I'm an audit manager, I'm an information technology audit manager, so I'm not usually required to do basic math. When it is required, I use Excel.
I finally figured out the spacing and I was merrily stitching the back of my first sweater. Of course, I lost track of the motif pattern and had to frog-it and start over. Twice. I eventually made it through and was on to the stockinette section and the needles flew. It went well, but in keeping with my theme of wanting to make it bigger, I added about an inch and a half to the length before I decreased and bound off at the neckline. I probably shouldn't have done that, but It looked like the back of a sweater!
I was smart enough to realize that if I wanted the front of my sweater to match the back, I needed to add half of the additional stitches to the left front panel and half to the right. The motif only repeats twice on the front panels, so I didn't even need Excel to figure out the spacing.
It was going great…but then several things went wrong.
There is an instruction in the pattern that says something like continue doing this one thing while AT THE SAME TIME do this other thing. The pattern had the phrase in all caps, so it seems like it was probably important, but it didn't really make sense to me. Most likely it didn't make sense because I added an inch and a half to the length, so my row count was wildly different from the author's expectations. I didn't really do anything AT THE SAME TIME as anything else because by the time I got to that instruction, I was done with the first thing. That was probably bad.
I also ran out of stitches before I ran out of decrease rows. That was probably bad, too, and I don’t really know why it happened.
There were some decreases that occurred on the x repeat in the AT THE SAME TIME portion of the pattern. I'm pretty sure I missed the "on the x repeat" of those instructions and did it every row on the first panel I completed. I believe this because when I got to that portion of the second panel, they were shaped quite differently along the neckline. So, I frogged the first side and gave it another go.
When I was finished, the sides matched each other and mostly matched the back, but remember that I didn't do anything AT THE SAME TIME as any other thing. I suspect there will be consequences.
On to the sleeves!
I think the sleeves went really well. I did add some additional increase stitches because I have fat arms but I was careful not to add any rows because I didn't want the sleeves to be too long.
But, man, the first sleeve looked extremely long! I decided that maybe it appeared longer than it would really be once the raglan seems are joined and the sides and bottom of the sleeves are sewn up. I continued on and made a second really long sleeve.
Steam blocking sounded really scary but I watched a few YouTube videos and decided I could pull it off. It was pretty amazing to watch the curled edges lay down under the power of steam. Much quicker than a wet block and I only nearly burned my thumb once.
As it turns out, yes, that is … partly … right!
I joined the pieces at the raglan edges. Pretty good match up. I had a weird triangular piece of knitting about 2 rows long at the top of both front panels, but it was only a few stitches wide. I thought I could hide them in the seams.
I put all the pieces together and sewed up the side seam and the bottom of the sleeve. It looked like a sweater. And it fit together pretty well.
But then, I tried it on.
Oh. It was not good.
The back looked right. The rest of the sweater was so much too big that the neckline was at the edge of my shoulders. The front panels hung at an odd angle. The sleeves were at least 3 inches too long, maybe 4.
But, I thought maybe when I add the knitted button band, it will straighten up.
Spoiler alert. It didn't.
I put the sweater in time out for the night. I stared at it for a while the next night.
I tried it on again wondering, "Could I maybe just wear it around the house?"
No. The answer was no. This monstrosity must die.
First I undid the side and underarm seams. Then the raglan joins. Then I frogged a sleeve. I ended up with one full ball of yarn and two partial balls. I had to go to bed, so I left the four remaining pieces on my craft table to be frogged later.
I want to make it clear that the pattern is NOT at fault for this failed sweater. I had no business trying to alter a sweater's fit on the fly when I've never made a sweater before.
I'll post an update when I've decided what to try next with this beautiful yarn.
Last winter, I finally found a pattern. A raglan-style cardigan knit in cotton called the Branching Lace Sweater by Sian Brown Knitwear Design in the August 2018 issue of Simply Knitting. I decided to give it a go.
But I don't like knitting with cotton, so I needed a different yarn. I had a stash of 22 skeins of Knit Picks Andean Silk that I purchased more than ten years ago. It was past time that I used the yarn but I was still hesitant. It took an epiphany about relative cost to get me to use it.
I realized I was hesitant because I was afraid I would mess up the project and ruin my beautiful, soft, silky Jade yarn. I was afraid of ruining the yarn because I had paid a lot for it - more than $150 (maybe as high as $180, I don't recall exactly). As I was thinking about how "expensive" the yarn was, it hit me that I had not reassessed the cost of that yarn in the context of my current lifestyle.
I made the extravagant purchase when our family of five lived on a very tight budget. My husband was working full-time but I was going to college and only working part-time. That yarn purchase took a sixth of my take home pay! Today, I'm a full-time audit manager and routinely spend the same amount or more on yarn without even consulting my budget. It's a different world and I decided to stop protecting that yarn from fulfilling its destiny! I started the sweater in November of last year.
What could go wrong?
Immediately, I started messing things up by altering the pattern.
Even though the pattern went up to a 3x, I wanted it bigger. So, I cast on additional stitches! It took an Excel spreadsheet and 3-4 tries to figure out the spacing of the tree motif with my additional stitches on the needles. I don't think it should have taken that long but I had some trouble visualizing the pattern, plus I'm a little slow at basic math. For those of you remembering that I'm an audit manager, I'm an information technology audit manager, so I'm not usually required to do basic math. When it is required, I use Excel.
I finally figured out the spacing and I was merrily stitching the back of my first sweater. Of course, I lost track of the motif pattern and had to frog-it and start over. Twice. I eventually made it through and was on to the stockinette section and the needles flew. It went well, but in keeping with my theme of wanting to make it bigger, I added about an inch and a half to the length before I decreased and bound off at the neckline. I probably shouldn't have done that, but It looked like the back of a sweater!
I was smart enough to realize that if I wanted the front of my sweater to match the back, I needed to add half of the additional stitches to the left front panel and half to the right. The motif only repeats twice on the front panels, so I didn't even need Excel to figure out the spacing.
It was going great…but then several things went wrong.
There is an instruction in the pattern that says something like continue doing this one thing while AT THE SAME TIME do this other thing. The pattern had the phrase in all caps, so it seems like it was probably important, but it didn't really make sense to me. Most likely it didn't make sense because I added an inch and a half to the length, so my row count was wildly different from the author's expectations. I didn't really do anything AT THE SAME TIME as anything else because by the time I got to that instruction, I was done with the first thing. That was probably bad.
I also ran out of stitches before I ran out of decrease rows. That was probably bad, too, and I don’t really know why it happened.
There were some decreases that occurred on the x repeat in the AT THE SAME TIME portion of the pattern. I'm pretty sure I missed the "on the x repeat" of those instructions and did it every row on the first panel I completed. I believe this because when I got to that portion of the second panel, they were shaped quite differently along the neckline. So, I frogged the first side and gave it another go.
When I was finished, the sides matched each other and mostly matched the back, but remember that I didn't do anything AT THE SAME TIME as any other thing. I suspect there will be consequences.
To arms!
So, now I have back panel with extra stitches and an additional inch of a half in length along with two front panels that match each other and mostly match the back.
On to the sleeves!
I think the sleeves went really well. I did add some additional increase stitches because I have fat arms but I was careful not to add any rows because I didn't want the sleeves to be too long.
But, man, the first sleeve looked extremely long! I decided that maybe it appeared longer than it would really be once the raglan seems are joined and the sides and bottom of the sleeves are sewn up. I continued on and made a second really long sleeve.
At this point, I had all five pieces and it was time to learn to steam block.
Steam blocking sounded really scary but I watched a few YouTube videos and decided I could pull it off. It was pretty amazing to watch the curled edges lay down under the power of steam. Much quicker than a wet block and I only nearly burned my thumb once.
Sew it up!
Against the advice of more experienced knitters who suggested kindly that I should think about remaking the sleeves and front panels, I decided to sew the pieces together and see how it went. Sure, some of my pieces seemed a bit … off, but knit stretches. I can ease these pieces together, right?
As it turns out, yes, that is … partly … right!
I joined the pieces at the raglan edges. Pretty good match up. I had a weird triangular piece of knitting about 2 rows long at the top of both front panels, but it was only a few stitches wide. I thought I could hide them in the seams.
I put all the pieces together and sewed up the side seam and the bottom of the sleeve. It looked like a sweater. And it fit together pretty well.
But then, I tried it on.
Oh. It was not good.
The back looked right. The rest of the sweater was so much too big that the neckline was at the edge of my shoulders. The front panels hung at an odd angle. The sleeves were at least 3 inches too long, maybe 4.
But, I thought maybe when I add the knitted button band, it will straighten up.
Spoiler alert. It didn't.
I put the sweater in time out for the night. I stared at it for a while the next night.
I tried it on again wondering, "Could I maybe just wear it around the house?"
No. The answer was no. This monstrosity must die.
First I undid the side and underarm seams. Then the raglan joins. Then I frogged a sleeve. I ended up with one full ball of yarn and two partial balls. I had to go to bed, so I left the four remaining pieces on my craft table to be frogged later.
I want to make it clear that the pattern is NOT at fault for this failed sweater. I had no business trying to alter a sweater's fit on the fly when I've never made a sweater before.
I'll post an update when I've decided what to try next with this beautiful yarn.
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