on knitting your first (bad) sweater
I think there are a lot of people who don’t start knitting or sewing - one of those “difficult” hobbies - because there is a misconception that it will be way too difficult to learn. That has been stopping me for a while until I bought some yarn on a whim and decided to knit a sweater. Turns out it was a horrible idea - I did almost everything wrong on my first try. The color was horrible, I got the worst needles possible, and in the end I didn’t even have enough of the yarn to finish this project, so my sleeves did not match the body in color1 1 (note: yarn chicken is when you don’t get enough yarn for the project, and in a constant state of dread that there will not be enough to finish the second sleeve. I’d be a champion in yarn chicken if it was a sport). But I still enjoyed the process, so I tried again.
I don’t even have pictures of that first project - I hated it so much I threw it out (on reflection, I should have frogged2 2 (Knitting translation: unraveled) it and just reused the yarn, but at the moment I was very emotional about my wasted time), but the next one turned esthetically pleasing, even if not very practical. Hence, I will add a picture here.
All this is to basically pass some notes on knitting to beginners:
- Maybe start with a scarf first, not a whole cardigan
- Do some research before starting
- Do not knit whole sweaters from mohair if you get itchy
- Don’t give up :D
See the project on Ravelry.