The Humble Hobbyist vol.9
Merry Christmas to me! I knit my first sweater 😊
How It Started…
In The Humble Hobbyist vol.2, I stated that I was determined to knit a sweater by winter some how, some way. And I did! 👏🏾🥳💃🏽
How It Went…
I cast on the “It’s Not a Sweatshirt” sweater in Berlin, knit through Copenhagen, and polished it off once we were back home, for a total of 63 hours of knitting over ~3.5 weeks.
Thanks to the smaller projects I’d worked on prior to the sweater, the process was pretty smooth. I kept stitch count majority of the time, and because of the visible increases/decreases it was apparent when I’d missed a step and I could quickly get back on track.
New skills I picked up along the way:
Knitting a folded neckband
German short row shaping
Italian bind off
I’m glad I took process shots because seeing a few balls of yarn transform into this beautiful sweater is a marvel; a reminder that nothing “just happens” and that everything has a story.
A little vulnerability…
We aren’t born drafting our clothes from scratch, which means we’ve learned to view (aka judge) ourselves and our bodies through subjective and inconsistent measurements of ready-to-wear garments.
A Small garment in one store could be a Large in another.
When making my own clothes, this is still true. I’m typically following patterns based on body types that seldom include ones like mine.
Why am I telling you this?
While knitting this sweater I reached the point where you split for sleeves, tried it on and determined it was more snug than I wanted. I debated whether to keep going and try stretching the garment during blocking, or knit an additional increase up to the next size (from 2XL to 3XL in the pattern).
After some hesitation, I decided I’d rather have a sweater be a little oversized than spend my time uncomfortably pulling on it whenever I wore it, defeating the WHOLE purpose of making my own garments. I knit up a half size.
Sewing or knitting our own clothes doesn’t magically undo the ways we’ve been socialized to feel about our bodies and ourselves. I almost made the choice to keep going with a smaller, potentially ill-fitting, garment to avoid bruising my ego. There isn’t a single tag on the sweater to indicate “size”, so why did I even care?!
A few months ago I watched a YouTube video where the maker posits:
“If you can remove those emotional judgements about your body, what it looks like, what you think it should look like, and just learn to see your measurements as data you can use to make clothes you love and that fit you, you’re going to be much much better off.”
This soundbite playing in my head gave me the courage to knit that additional increase and release some of the judgement I’ve internalized about my body.
If we aren’t intentional, our egos will have us making poor choices that leave us unhappy, for naught. (Not sure who needed that reminder but you’re welcome 🙇🏽♀️)
Meet my beautiful sweater…
It’s stunning 😍
It lays beautifully after blocking, the fabric is ultra soft on my skin, and I feel SO proud wearing it. True to its name, it has the comfort of a sweatshirt but taken up a notch by merino wool and silk mohair.
Before blocking:
After blocking:
Learning to knit was not on my 2023 Bingo card but here we are! I’ve knit an entire sweater after picking up a pair of needles only 6 months ago. This sweater is proof of what can happen if you just show up.
Cheers to learning new skills and unlearning the things that don’t serve us. 🥂
Tis the season ,
TGM 🥰🎄🎁
impressive, and I love the message!
wow, what an accomplishment! it's beautiful, congrats