The Humble Hobbyist vol.9
Merry Christmas to me! I knit my first sweater đ
How It StartedâŚ
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! đđžđĽłđđ˝
How It WentâŚ
I cast on the âItâs Not a Sweatshirtâ 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 Iâd 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 Iâd 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
Iâm glad I took process shots because seeing a few balls of yarn transform into this beautiful sweater is a marvel; a reminder that nothing âjust happensâ and that everything has a story.
A little vulnerabilityâŚ
We arenât born drafting our clothes from scratch, which means weâve 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. Iâm 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 Iâd 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 doesnât magically undo the ways weâve 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 isnât a single tag on the sweater to indicate âsizeâ, so why did I even care?!
A few months ago I watched a YouTube video where the maker posits:
âIf 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, youâre going to be much much better off.â
This soundbite playing in my head gave me the courage to knit that additional increase and release some of the judgement Iâve internalized about my body.
If we arenât intentional, our egos will have us making poor choices that leave us unhappy, for naught. (Not sure who needed that reminder but youâre welcome đđ˝ââď¸)
Meet my beautiful sweaterâŚ
Itâs stunning đ
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! Iâve 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 donât serve us. đĽ
Tis the season ,
TGM đĽ°đđ
impressive, and I love the message!
wow, what an accomplishment! it's beautiful, congrats