Sweater Saga

Every once in a while, inspiration strikes and I decide to continue down the Path of Crazed Knitting. Could be the wee hours between 2 and 5 and all of the books I drag to work with me. Could be the chill in the air, begging for turtlenecks and cozy wool sweater. It might even be the yearning for the quiet, rural, farm-like atmosphere of my childhood (am I really old enough to have "way back when" memories?) Whatever it is, working yarn into wearable shapes


Over the past few weeks, I have made several "model" sweaters to experiment with styles. I quickly decided that knitting a sweater in pieces and then sewing them together is a fairly silly idea. I embarked upon my first sweater knit upon circular needles. I scaled it down so that if i didn't like it, I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my Useful Knitting Life discovering this fact. So I cast on a lower-than-normal number of stitches and knit away ...


Finally I had something resembling a sweater with 2 sleeves which I proudly posted on facebook:

To which a Friend posted, "Well, dear, at least you tried."

Apparently she didn't know it was not yet finished. So I posted a finished photo.

I did NOT at this point receive any messages saying, "Well, NOW that looks remarkable." I am completely aware that the sleeves are different lengths and of slightly different construction. I am, after all, the one who knit them all cattawampus.

Now we get to the part where we discuss scaling. I have clearly posted that this is a small sweater. I do this without fear because my cousin reminded me that she learned from sewing Barbie clothes that "smaller" does not mean "easier."

But folks were apparently shocked at the actual appearance of "small" when I posted a shot for scale:

Yes. This was not a "size small"; it is "small."

This sweater was worked on my breaks at work and the ladies at work were kind enough to humor me with a few bits of attention. Without fail, they would pick it up, put it on their hand, and kindly try to think of something I could do with it. Stuffed animal. Doll. Really small doll. Ummm. They were baffled at the concept of knitting something with absolutely no purpose (other than figuring out how to do those should decreases.)

I assured them I was perfectly happy to put it on the shelf with my Class Sock (also useless.)

But the really cool thing about THIS sock is it's Universal Appeal:

At least Noah knew enough to not try to make it any more useful than this!

P.S. Coming up: The Virtual Yarn Shop returns!