Resolution #9 Completed...

I knit myself a sweater. It's blue and lovely and fits me nicely. It's currently drying from being blocked. This is the second sweater I've knit; the first one was a sleeveless shell that I knit for my sister over 4 years ago, when I was a fairly new knitter. I think I waited so long to make another one because the first one took me forever to knit and I didn't want to end up starting something only to find that I didn't really like it by the time it was done. Another thing that deterred me was the attempt I made last summer to make myself a sweater that ended very badly with a gauge accident (however, the aforementioned accident saved me from the tragedy of wearing a sack-y sweater with horizontal stripes...yikes). After the gauge thing, I was timid about making another sweater that could end in me looking at the pieces months from now thinking to myself "Gee, I should really reclaim that wool for something else, but I'm too lazy to take out all that work." But I found a pattern I really liked, knit a whole bunch of swatches to get the right gauge and knit me a sweater. It turned out pretty good, too.

I've learned much from the sweater-knitting process. For one, I can knit much faster than I give myself credit for, but not as fast as I wish I could knit. I started it 3 weeks ago, I think, and finished it today. I was foolish and didn't make note of when I started the sweater, so it's just my best guess. I thought it'd take me much longer than it did. Another thing I learned is I really like wool until I have to block it. This is the first time I've ever blocked wool (I've knit many socks in wool, but have never blocked them before using them...I just knit them and wear them). Wet wool smells kind of unpleasant. It's not a terrible, reeking badness. It just smells like wet animal, which essentially it is, you know, without the animal attached. I've also learned that sweaters aren't as hard as I thought, even though I knit the thing entirely in the round...it was a top-down raglan that I found to be quite simple once I got past the mental block of "Huh?" I experienced when first trying to figure out how the scoop neckline was going to work. After figuring that part out, it was smooth sailing from there. The last thing I learned is that I think I could design myself a sweater all on my own if I wanted to. I know all the basics, and I have information on the more advanced stuff (like shaping and all the math nonsense). That makes me feel kind of good that if I wanted to, I could make my very own woolly creation. And that's about all I have to say about my sweater. Later.