My First Knitted Sweater

I have never knit a scarf before. I have, however, knit the beginning of several scarves only to rip them out and declare that knitting is the most mind-numbing thing in the world. Then, on all of those occasions, I used that yarn to crochet something. Before the Geek-A-Long came into our lives, and even for a good while after, that was my only experience with knitting. But then Megan-Anne had MCATs, and suddenly I had to learn to double knit.

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What can I say? Megan-Anne isn’t the only one in the family with a dramatic flair.

What I learned during my brief stint as knitter of the 2014 GAL blanket is that no one — and I mean, NO ONE — should ever knit a scarf as their first project. It’s rows and rows of monotony. For the love of Baby Alpaca, if you’re considering picking up knitting, start with a set of coasters or maybe a washcloth or something. I would’ve become an avid knitter much sooner if I had heeded Megan-Anne’s warning all those times and knitted something small first.

After I made a couple of squares for the 2014 Geek-A-Long, I started to understand why people loved this whole knitting thing. And then somehow Megan-Anne convinced me to skip the scarves, washcloths, and coasters to cast on a sweater. She whipped up an easy raglan sweater pattern for me and I got to work learning how to increase, decrease, and not cry when I dropped twenty stitches on accident.

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I only had to rip out the yoke twice due to one newbie reason or another. I was assured that this was completely normal and “not a reason to Bogart all of the mini chocolate eclairs.” I humbly disagree. Starting over the yoke TWICE and making zero progress, is definitely a reason not to share ones mini chocolate eclairs.

Third time was the charm and I got through the yoke just fine. I even started to enjoy shaping the neckline.

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I’m not sure if I’ve been watching Megan-Anne knit so long that I already halfway know how to do things before she shows me, if being an advanced crocheter translates to being a beginner-intermediate knitter, or if Megan-Anne is really just that good at teaching people how to knit. I suppose it’s some combination thereof, but I managed to join for the neckline and put my stitches on a holder for the sleeves.

I learned Magic Loop to knit the sleeves. It was fun and exciting at first. But then halfway through the first one, it started to feel like making a scarf again. I might’ve accidentally abandoned the second sleeve to work on the collar instead.

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I actually finished knitting my sweater back in September, but I had all these pesky ends that needed to be woven in from my color changes. So, I ended up learning how to knit socks instead of dealing with it. Talk about knitshame. A couple days ago, however, I actually sat down with a tiny crochet hook, season 1 of X-Files,  and got to work weaving in all those ends. I should have done it while I knitted the sweater, but c’est la vie!

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I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Halfway through the body, I was worried my gauge had loosened up too much and the sweater would be too baggy. But, it’s a comfy amount of baggy, perfect for lazy Saturday afternoons or grabbing a latte with friends.

Do you still wear the first sweater you knitted?

~Jac
“Why did they assign me to you in the first place, Mulder? To debunk your work, to rein you in, to shut you down…” — Dana Scully