Life

Thanks for the kind comments about my knitting everyone. I was starting to respond in the comments section, but then I thought I might just make an entry to answer a few questions that were asked. Regarding materials used, the pink sweater is a fairly expensive angora/merino wool/alpaca blend, and the color pattern sweater is made with a wool/alpaca blend yarn. A sweater like the pink one takes about two months to make. By contrast I can knit up a hat or gloves in a couple of days, and I've even got a knit in a night scarf that I can make up for last minute gifts. More complicated scarves, like the double knit music scarf below, take a couple of weeks to make. Blankets can take about five months though, so I've made fewer of those in recent years. I have no idea how long it would take to replicate Night's favorite jumper, but sounds like a challenging project.



I taught myself to knit about four years ago, and quickly found that it had a huge advantage over almost any other kind of needlecraft in that it is something I can do while I read! Thus I was able to use all those hours a day of reading leading up to my oral exams to produce Mum's sweater in record time. Indeed, part of what I love about knitting is that it's something with relatively quick and tangible results. There are many wonderful aspects of teaching and scholarly work, but it's extremely long term work with gradual and often dauntingly distant results. By contrast there is something infinitely satisfying about being able to work on something that you can literally see and feel growing beneath your two hands, and when it's done it's something real you can point to and say "I created that." There is something deep, perhaps primal, within us that derives intense satisfaction from nearly any act of creation, but especially something made with your hands.

I thought it might be fun to document the progress of the sweater I'm starting now on here. My first step was to chart the color pattern (the shades I'm using are different than those on the chart. I used what color pencils I had handy in a similar family to my yarn colors):



Then I calculated the pattern for the cut of the sweater based on a loose master pattern, and now I'm starting on the bottom hem of the back piece. This is the unimpressive looking bit I have thus far (it's curved because of the type of circular needles I'm using but will come out straight):



I'll post more pics later as I progress in the project.