Knit one, purl one; many times.
I’ve been knotting wool with sticks since I was a kid — just stocking or garter stitch — knocking up arbitrary pieces in nasty acrylic wool which became scarves, blankets or tank-tops for cuddly toys. My first wearable piece was a fetching red beret I knitted whilst studying in Germany. I had a lot of alone time on my hands.
Since then I’ve expanded the repertoire. For a while I used a round knitting loom to produce a number of slouchy hats which could be completed in a couple of evenings. Discovering a Very Nice Shop (Morris&Sons) selling wool in Sydney in 2012, I upped the ante — using beautiful Australian wool to explore my own version of Fair Isle and knit a headband. Through this I learnt a number of important lessons — including one about which casting-on stitches create stretch and which… don’t. But moving forward swiftly, I produced the softest alpaca hat for my mum and began to knit a pair of mittens for Nils’ Christmas. Unfortunately, being half the world away I was unable to take any measurements. I rather let the visual pattern design get in the way of the practical form of the mitts… he very graciously wore them all the same (once I folded back and stitched over the masses of excess finger room.) Here he is pretending to be at ease on a Mongolian pony — wearing his Pony Riding Safety Mitts and matching Hat.
And then sometime around 2014 it came to my attention that knitting was “cool again.” Companies like Wool and The Gang and We Are Knitters arrived on the scene and expanded my horizons considerably. My knitting journey had thus far been a bit meandering and aimless — I’d only explored a limited number of stitches, was terrified of following patterns and didn’t really understand the mechanics of what I was doing. WATG produce patterns for (shock! horror!) things I might actually want to wear, with clear instructions and wonderful tutorial videos to help along the way. The have a transparent supply chain and have built sustainability into the heart of their business model. Could I be any more in love? Yes. Touchpoints. They are nailing their touchpoints.
I’m lucky enough to live just up the road from Glasgow’s Yarn Cake — wool shop come tearoom. However I do find spaces like this can be quite intimidating if you don’t really feel like you know what you are doing.
So over the past three years I’ve stitched up a number of cotton yarn tops and jumpers and a hat or two from these guys. I’ve also stored up a number of kits that I just “had to have”… but it amounts to much more knitting that I’ve allowed time for!
The Challenge:
Last April (one year ago), I began to knit Nils a “Jagger Jumper.” Its a thing of beauty and a labour of love. I’ve finished the back piece and the first four inches of the front. It uses some pretty dainty needles and the rather involved Hexagon stitch and a lot of time. So perhaps it was with some impatience that Nils set this month’s Make+Do challenge; Begin and finish a knitting project in a month.
I’ve a few projects on the go, but the brief specifically called for a brand new one. What a treat! Two Wool and the Gang jumper kits for myself — bought in remarkably reasonable sales might I add — have been squirrelled away in the cupboard for just such an occasion. I chose the Superbowl Sweater over the She Loves Wool Sweater on the basis that it required only one colour and didn’t have such fiddling decrease rows or finishing.
So I’ve been knitting. In every spare second April brought me. In my lunch break. In the flat. At the ski-lodge. On buses. On trains. Briefly in a car, but that turned out not to be a good idea. Disappointingly I’ve probably watched more television as a result too. My project has travelled everywhere with me — to London, to Glencoe and even (optimistically) up a mountain.
The Mistake:
When you’re knitting, you have a lot of time to think. It was during one of these knitting excursions that I got to doing a little maths in my head. With a panic I realised that I was going to need to knit at least 10 rows a day if I were to finish the project. That’s about 2 inches of knitting. If you’re not a knitter — I’m here to tell you; that’s a lot.
It was around this time I also had to admit to myself I had made an error in choosing the Superbowl Sweater. The pattern is for Moss stitch. A lovely bumpy number which is simple enough; knit one, purl one. For the uninitiated, a knit stitch is performed with the wool starting and the back of your work, then sliding your right needle behind the left, then wrap and pull. Purl is exactly the same in reverse; the wool starts at the front and you slide the right needle in front of the left. Very simple. Except that this means that when knitting in moss stitch you need to move your wool forwards or backwards between every single stitch. With Stocking stitch (required for the body of the She Loves Wool sweater) you only need to do this at the end of every row, when you turn your work around to come back the other way. By completing one row knit followed by one row purl you create a nice flat “right side”. This is the most common stitch for jumpers etc. It literally takes half the time of Moss stitch. And then of course there is Garter stitch — a super stretchy fellow created by just working knit row after row. Oh how I long for some Garter!
And black wool. Why did I chose black wool? Two far-more-experienced fellow-knitters pointed out my mistake on this one towards the middle of the month. Its much harder to see what you are doing in anything but bright sunlight when you are using black wool. However it also makes it harder to spot the (relatively few) mistakes so that’s a bonus.
So, did I complete the challenge? Did I finish the jumper?
I couldn’t have done anymore than I did without jacking in the job and going on hunger strike. I’m pretty pleased with how much I did complete and the results of what I have managed.
One full side, plus half the other are done. For a while I wondered if I’d manage both sides, ignore the arms and call it a tank-top. As it is you might charitably call it a crop-fronted woollen-tank. Or turn it round and call it a Sweater Mullet — business in the front, party in the back. Or a Kidney Cooler.
Whatever. I didn’t complete the challenge. Its our first fail. I’m happy to admit defeat and buy Nils dinner this month. So long as he doesn’t object to me knitting under the table between courses.
