The moment I spied this vintage “Learning to Knit” booklet at a local charity shop my heart skipped. I immediately fell madly in love with the retro font and the colourful balls of yarn magically suspended in air. There is something so precious and endearing about vintage craft books that always makes me feel inspired.
Last spring I set my summer goal: to knit a sweater. After flipping through a bunch of pattern books and visiting a bounty of sites, I decided on the Lucky Sweater pattern in “Stitch n’ Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller”:http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761135901/ref=nosim/karissacove-20. It caught my eye the first time I saw it, and I decided that it must be “the one” for my summer project!
I started the sweater at the beginning of June and knit my way through the entire summer, mostly in the evening while Kevin and I watched seasons of The Long Way Round, Dr. Who and Entourage. Sometimes I would knit out in the hammock, and on occasion even sitting at a bonfire.
Four months and five balls of yarn later I have completed my masterpiece!
This sweater has been the longest most detailed knitting project I have attempted, and my knitting confidence has inflated by leaps and bounds. I feel able to tackle just about anything a pattern has to throw at me!
Next up, to draft a sweater pattern from scratch….I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!
A new batch of “Pink”:http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=497381, “Olive”:http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=497379 and “Blue”:http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=388703 Knitting Totes are up for sale on my “Etsy Shop”:http://karissacove.etsy.com, and I’m just finishing up some totes in Purple, Peach and Green for posting later this week.
Ever since I started knitting a few years ago, I’ve been waiting to feel confident enough to knit myself a sweater. (In all honesty, it’s been a life goal since high school, but keep it under your hat…)
I decided last week that I’ve finally got the skillz to pull it off, and after I poured over my knitting magazines and books looking for the right pattern, I chose the Lucky Wrap Top from “Stitch N’ Bitch Nation”:http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761135901/ref=nosim/karissacove-20. It’s got a simple clover lace pattern throughout, ties at the waist with a knitted band, and is just _toooo_ adorable for words!
Over the weekend I completed the back and blocked it, take a look:
At this speed, I should be done before I know it, and that’s good, because I can’t wait to wear it!
This weekend flew by in the blink of an eye, but I still managed to sneak in some yarn shopping:
I purchased the hank of turquoise Butterfly Mercerized Cotton to knit myself a little pouch for my Nintendo DS. The “cables in my purse”:http://karissacove.com/journal/2006/06/07/cable-knit-purse/ were a real success, so I’m going to incorporate a couple into this pattern as well.
I also picked up the latest issue of “Vogue Knit.1″:http://www.knit1mag.com/. There’s a couple super-cute sweater patterns in this issue, but I have so many WIPs, it’ll be after Christmas before I get a chance to knit anything else for myself!
