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#11
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
I am a great believer in knitting a sampler of all of the techniques
required for a sweater before actually knitting the sweater. I like Jacquelyn Fee's book, "The Sweater Workshop", but there are others. The concept is that you practice all the required skills either as swatches or in making "teddy bear" sized sweaters first; sort of a 3-dimensional swatch. There are three advantages to this approach. 1. It is small so you can do it fast. And, you can do it over, and over until you know that skill cold, and do not have to worry mucking up your precious sweater. (Working out the details yourself rather than referencing one of the books on doll clothes ensures that you work out all the details on your precious sweater. Also, the construction details in the books on doll clothes are not quite that same as for an adult sweater. 2. You can use "cheap" yarn. Often you can buy an ball or two of yarn for much less than 1/10th the price of 10 balls of matched dyelot yarn sold in packs for knitting a sweater. And, you are not going to be wearing this, so it can be a nice color that does not really suit your complexion, or does not go with other clothes, or a yarn the might pill, or bleed, or.... I use whatever is in the stash, and I have yet to hear my Teddy Bears complain about their new sweaters. 3. You can make mistakes and continute on knitting without worrying about getting everything perfect. You are not going to be wearing it in public so a few mistakes do not matter. This saves frogging. I hate frogging. I would rather knit a few 6"x6" swatches from waste yarn, and get my sweater right the first time, then have to frog even a few rows of something that I am intending to be a finished product Then, your teddy bear sweaters can double as gifts. Maybe not the first, but there are at least a dozen different ways of constructing a sweater. Aaron "The Other Kim" wrote in message ... Melinda wrote: Now that you ladies have totally scared me off making a sweater for fear that I could spend months on making it and then discover it didn't fit, I discovered from *somewhere* a mailing list where they have a knit-along for a knitted dishcloth of a different pattern every month. It seems to me that perhaps I could build my confidence with those small projects for a few months before I tackle something huge. (then I could put them all together for lightweight sofa throws or something if I didn't want to use them all as dishcloths, right?) Exactly. With this kind of thing you could make some using cotton yarn for use as dishcloths - my handknit dishcloths last a lot longer than store-bought ones - and others as sampler squares using whatever yarn you have lying around. I am sort of totally self-taught and have never read a pattern, knit ambidextrously, etc., and learning how to knit conventionally and to follow a pattern is a big hurdle to cross. So does it sound st*pid to start with small things like that or not? It seems to me like it might be the knitting equivalent of telling people who want to learn to sew to start with tote bags, pillows, etc., because they are more forgiving. Sounds like a good idea to me. Since your time is limited, I would think it would be better to work on smaller things that likely won't lead to disappointment if they don't turn out as expected. I know I'd be rather miffed if I spent months working on a sweater that ended up not fitting the way I expected. Especially when you're building skills and confidence, it's better to get some good results early on. I know a lot of people who jumped right into that dream sweater only to give it up when it wasn't going well. OTOH, if I want to stay way out on my off-the-beaten-path position, I also saw knitting pattern software that takes what you can do and gives you a schematic type of thing to follow in whatever way you are knitting to do what you want. Seeing as though I have pattern drafting software, knitting pattern software would only seam a reasonable next step LOL (and it's cheaper -- I think it was like $50). Any ideas? Since the software will customize to your abilities, this sounds okay to me, too. I would still start with smaller items and work my way up, if only because you don't have hours a day to spend knitting. I don't have that kind of time at the moment, either, so most of my knitting time has been spent with socks. I just started a nice scarf in Classic Elite's Posh - 70% silk, 30% cashmere, bought at a blow-out sale for 50% off; I can't afford the regular price on this yarn - and I can pull that out and do a few rows here and there when I get the time. Anything major, like another sweater or jacket, would have to wait until I manage to create those 40-hour days I've been working on for the past few years g The Other Kim kimagreenfieldatyahoodotcom |
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#12
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
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#13
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
P.S. I have also written down your book suggestions and will check them
out, just so you know. The "won't fit" issue really is legit, you know. If I buy something RTW then I have lower expectations of it than if I am going to spend my time and/or more money to make something nice. E.G., if you were 6 feet 5 inches, you wouldn't just follow regular sweater instructions to make yourself a sweater and end up with a sweater that looked like it was made for your kid brother, would you? You would take the time and figure out how many more rows to add and where to make it so it fits you right, wouldn't you? wrote: Had I realized you've already made up your mind I wouldn't have spent the time playing devil's advocate to the "too hard, won't fit" crowd. It is always easy to justify NOT doing something, isn't it? |
#14
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
Melinda I feel you adopt a very pesimistic attitude to the advice you
are given, I find it very frustrating. It seems to me that you don't want to "try it and see what happens", you don't want to spend much time knitting, and you don't want to make any mistakes. It's very hard for me not to interpret that as "I don't really want to knit". Now, I know that statement might annoy you but, I'm sorry, it's *how I feel*. To polish you knitting skills you have to put in the practice, in all honesty it took me years to become a proficient knitter (I'm a slow learner). I dabbled as a child, made small bits and pieces and didn't execute much discipline. It wasn't till I was in my late teens that I learnt to commit, prepare well (tension is everything) and knit regularly so I developed a flow and increased my speed. To really develop your skills you have to find challenges and conquer them, you can't fret that "they may go wrong", you have to get stuck in and be prepared to undo some of your work when you don't get it right. I've knitted maybe three scarves in my life, only a handful of hats. I really learnt on socks, sweaters, gloves and babies clothing. I don't have oodles of time to knit, I work full-time and have all the usual commitments in life. You knit when you can - the beauty of the craft is you can stuff a project in your bag and snatch little bits of time when you get them. Now baby outfits are a fantastic learning tool - a baby sweater contains all the elements of a adult sweater except because it's in minature it takes a lot less time. Plus parents think you are the most fantastic person in the world when you handcraft a garment for their precious child. Why not try a pair of booties? If you would like a pattern, please ask, I'll gladly email you something. Go and knit something - do a dishcloth first if you like, do whatever takes your fancy really. Just do it. Ask us questions if you get stuck, take photos if you can so we can see your progress (you will be very well rewarded by this group, they are very generous with praise for pictures of knitting). Go right now, cast on and knit. |
#15
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
Vintage Purls wrote:
Melinda I feel you adopt a very pesimistic attitude to the advice you are given, I find it very frustrating. It seems to me that you don't I'm sorry. It may sound that way, but it's actually halfway between paranoid and terrified (combined with a perennial difficulty in making decisions). I come from a long lime of obsessive-compulsive perfectionists and I feel like to at least half, if not most, of them I never quite measure up, and I'm afraid it has colored my life a bit. And with knitting right now I am a burned child (the failed sock that it took me two months to complete and it didn't fit) determined to get over my fear but needing some baby steps first. Actually, a baby sweater sounds like an EXCELLENT idea, because my neighbor is pregnant with her first child and if it turns out well, I would have a nice baby gift -- and if it didn't, I might still be able to make a second one before the baby is born LOL. I'd rather make a mistake on a dishcloth or a baby sweater and only have 10 or 20 not-that-wide rows to rip out than make a sweater in my SSBBW size and have oodles and oodles of frog-stitching to do. I wouldn't mind making a poncho or a shawl, because I would wear them at home, but most of the patterns I see are for fancy stitches and I don't know if I want to do that yet. I am taking your advice to heart and thank you for it. |
#16
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
On Jun 3, 12:04 pm, Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply
wrote: I'm sorry. It may sound that way, but it's actually halfway between paranoid and terrified (combined with a perennial difficulty in making decisions). This is knitting, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen if you make a mistake? I've been guilty of quietly disposing of a botched project in the bin. I've ripped entirely knit garments out. Time did not stop. I did not explode. It's okay to screw up your knitting. And though it's a possibility that you'll make a horrendous mistake, there is a much better chance that everything will go well and you' ll get that great buzz of satisfaction when you finish a garment. So, let's examine the possibilites: Slim chance that you'll end up with a unreacognisable lump of yarn. Great chance you'll experience the joy of knitting a work of art. In both instances no innocents are harmed and the world still turns. At worst you may have "wasted" some time (I personally don't subscribe to the "wasted" time notion, it was a great learning experience despite the outcome). If you produce a unreacognisable lump of yarn we can probably devise something for you to do with it all the same. We will also agree that it wasn't your fault it went astray and that next time you try all will be well. Actually, a baby sweater sounds like an EXCELLENT idea, because my neighbor is pregnant with her first child and if it turns out well, I would have a nice baby gift -- and if it didn't, I might still be able to make a second one before the baby is born LOL. Great! Do you need us to point you toward an easy pattern? VP |
#17
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
On Jun 2, 4:33 pm, Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply
wrote: P.S. I have also written down your book suggestions and will check them out, just so you know. Ok good. Leave _Sweater Design_ for last, start with an EPS sweater. The "won't fit" issue really is legit, you know. if you were 6 feet 5 inches, you wouldn't just follow regular sweater instructions to make yourself a sweater and end up with a sweater that looked like it was made for your kid brother, would you? You would take the time and figure out how many more rows to add and where to make it so it fits you right, wouldn't you? Which is exactly what I've suggested you do. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. As VP said, a baby sweater, or even a teddy sweater is a small thing soon done and you'll learn from it how a full-sized sweater goes together. |
#18
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
The worst that could happen? A sneering comment from one's significant other
to the effect that their mother never wasted yarn like that. Wasting yarn can be made to sound as bad as wasting food. Think about all those kids without socks, and you are wasting yarn! Aaron "Vintage Purls" wrote in message oups.com... On Jun 3, 12:04 pm, Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply wrote: I'm sorry. It may sound that way, but it's actually halfway between paranoid and terrified (combined with a perennial difficulty in making decisions). This is knitting, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen if you make a mistake? I've been guilty of quietly disposing of a botched project in the bin. I've ripped entirely knit garments out. Time did not stop. I did not explode. It's okay to screw up your knitting. And though it's a possibility that you'll make a horrendous mistake, there is a much better chance that everything will go well and you' ll get that great buzz of satisfaction when you finish a garment. So, let's examine the possibilites: Slim chance that you'll end up with a unreacognisable lump of yarn. Great chance you'll experience the joy of knitting a work of art. In both instances no innocents are harmed and the world still turns. At worst you may have "wasted" some time (I personally don't subscribe to the "wasted" time notion, it was a great learning experience despite the outcome). If you produce a unreacognisable lump of yarn we can probably devise something for you to do with it all the same. We will also agree that it wasn't your fault it went astray and that next time you try all will be well. Actually, a baby sweater sounds like an EXCELLENT idea, because my neighbor is pregnant with her first child and if it turns out well, I would have a nice baby gift -- and if it didn't, I might still be able to make a second one before the baby is born LOL. Great! Do you need us to point you toward an easy pattern? VP |
#19
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
On Jun 2, 9:55 pm, "Aaron Lewis" wrote:
The worst that could happen? A sneering comment from one's significant other to the effect that their mother never wasted yarn like that. Wasting yarn can be made to sound as bad as wasting food. Think about all those kids without socks, and you are wasting yarn! Oh, dear, Aaron, it sounds as though you were subjected to a sneering comment or two in your time! Higs, Katherine |
#20
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Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...
Melinda i donb`t know who scared you ,,,, i am all for makiing
guaguing samplers but after this , i should advice you to cast on a BIG project ,,,, FOR YOU ,,,, You can always `rest` between knitting the sweater hours anf make some squares ,,, but intially that sweater will be there for you to enjoy ,,, and once you made the BIG sweater , you wo`nt hesitate anymore to make all the other things ,,,, if you put off making the sweater ,, WHO knows when you will make it ?????? It is like years ago when i made my Husband and son a father+ son vests ,,,,, i foolishly started with the son`s vest ,,, WRONG idea ,, i should have started with the Bigger item ,,,,, If the problem is with following instructions MAKE YOUR OWN ,,, Find a sweater /shirt whose size fits you well ,,, Measure it and draw it on a paper ,,,, now GUAGUGE 20 stich over 10 rows ,,,, now translate cm or inches to stitch numbers and WORK on it ,,, mirjam Now that you ladies have totally scared me off making a sweater for fear that I could spend months on making it and then discover it didn't fit, I discovered from *somewhere* a mailing list where they have a knit-along for a knitted dishcloth of a different pattern every month. It seems to me that perhaps I could build my confidence with those small projects for a few months before I tackle something huge. (then I could put them all together for lightweight sofa throws or something if I didn't want to use them all as dishcloths, right?) I am sort of totally self-taught and have never read a pattern, knit ambidextrously, etc., and learning how to knit conventionally and to follow a pattern is a big hurdle to cross. So does it sound st*pid to start with small things like that or not? It seems to me like it might be the knitting equivalent of telling people who want to learn to sew to start with tote bags, pillows, etc., because they are more forgiving. OTOH, if I want to stay way out on my off-the-beaten-path position, I also saw knitting pattern software that takes what you can do and gives you a schematic type of thing to follow in whatever way you are knitting to do what you want. Seeing as though I have pattern drafting software, knitting pattern software would only seam a reasonable next step LOL (and it's cheaper -- I think it was like $50). Any ideas? |
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