Crafty Stories

I like to tell stories through the creative arts. I may be slightly obsessed with books, movies, TV shows, yarn and fiber. Wanna hang out?

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Year, New Sweater, New Skill(s)!

Hello all!

I hope you had a wonderful New Year! Mine was tame, which is just how I like it.

Lots of bloggers are writing posts about resolutions and goals. I'll leave that to them. For today I just have ONE goal I'm thinking about, and that is:

In 2012 I will knit myself a sweater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew. Okay. I'm glad we got that settled.

Ok, so this year I'm knitting a sweater. I'm going to spin the yarn for it, so I don't want to spend too much time obsessing over potential patterns, because I will become very disappointed if the yarn I spin isn't enough to make one of those sweaters.

However, I do have plenty of sweaters I've been ogling, so I thought I'd give them a shout-out here in this post. Maybe one of them will be just the thing you needed to see in order to commit to your OWN sweater-knitting goal this year!

First up, let me just say that I would knit virtually ANY sweater designed by Wendy Bernard. I love her designs! In particular I've had Somewhat Cowl (a lovely, drapey-necked short sleeved, fitted option) and Something Red (a cute, smallish cardigan) in my queue for quite some time. I think I would do well with either of these patterns for my sweater because it's going to be a very colorful yarn, so having a simple stitch pattern in the sweater will help the yarn steal the show. However, both of these use fairly thin yarns so I probably won't be able to spin that weight out of a 3ply yarn from batts. Ugh.

Since my yarn will likely be bulky, I love Jane Richmond's Cozy Bolero. Honestly, though it's called a bolero, it counts as a sweater in my book (Give me a little break, will you? It's my first sweater!). I love pretty much all of Jane Richmond's patterns, too, so if I'm very lucky my yardage and gauge will work out for me to knit at least one of them. I figure at the very least I'll have enough yarn to knit Bazan, right?!?

If I have a lot of yardage, I really like the structure and comfortable style of Grown-Up Hoodie by fellow Phat Fiber Artist Kira Dulaney. That project would also give me a chance to practice with cables, YAY for new skills! I also really love the style of the Military Cardigan by Jessika Ava; I'm hoping that the double-breasted style of it might also help me hide those extra pounds that I haven't managed to shed yet this year, LOL! She also has an awesome faux cardigan pattern - yay for not bunching open around "the girls," huzzah!

In case I don't get much yardage, I really like the Vine Lace Vest pattern (which, again, is more of a sweater than a vest in my book). It has a pretty lace pattern and would be good for most of our seasons down here in the South. I also like $5 in Paris, because it's simple and I can probably knit it shorter if need be in case I don't get a lot of yardage.

My final pattern option, for now at least, is Abalone. I really love the interesting structure of this open cardigan; I think of it like knitting a shawl that will actually stay on and keep your shoulders warm! Plus, it was designed for handspun and I'm going to KNIT with handspun, so it very well could be Sweater Kismet for me!

I hope you'll follow along with me on my sweater knitting adventures this month. I plan to start spinning the yarn very soon, so I'll keep you updated with my progress on that and then of course final pattern selection and actual knitting.

The lovely fiber that will eventually be a sweater. And it's all MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)


Would YOU like to knit a sweater with me? Visit my Ravelry Group to find a whole bunch of knitters who will be knitting AND crocheting sweaters of all shapes and sizes; newbies and veterans alike!

Don't have the yarn for a sweater? I can help you with that:
- 4 skeins of yarn
- 5 skeins of yarn
- 1 pound of roving/top
- 20 oz of roving top
Each of these options comes with FREE yarn or fiber with the purchase! Who can pass up on a deal like that?!?

I'm going to keep the sweater-along going for a while, but the option to purchase your sweater yarn or fiber from me ends on January 10th. That's ONE WEEK from today. So get shopping! You deserve something nice for yourself this year!

2 comments:

  1. I think my favorite is Something Red. It would look great with long sleeves. :-)

    I, personally, don't understand short sleeved sweaters. LOL. I know lots of people like them and wear them. But in my opinion it's either a vest (no sleeves) or a sweater (sleeves that reach the wrist). There is nothing in between. :-)

    I also really like the Stormy Weather Faux Cardigan. It's super cute, but again with the sleeves. Even cuter with long sleeves. :-)

    Hmmm, maybe I have issues with my arms... ? ;-)

    Both, are now in my favorites. I'm definately looking forward to following this project. :-D

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  2. I LOVE the Stormy Weather cardigan. It is super sassy. That are all really nice sweaters but that one (if I could ever lose this weight) would be my choice if I were to make one.

    Looking forward to watching this process unfold.

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