When sewing reaches its limits: time to start knitting?

Following my recent post on the Marlo Sweater, this popped up in my inbox: ‘Read the latest blog post, you could have knitted the damn cardigan in that time!’

Well, what deep resonating truth!

My gran, who I’ve written about a few times here, was an excellent knitter. She’d have us place our orders for Christmas sweaters in the summer and on the big day we’d unwrap and marvel at her creations.

As I got older, I’m sad to say, the things I’d set my heart on in May sometimes seemed outmoded by December. I felt a huge amount of guilt when, one Christmas, I unwrapped a bright green and red sweater festooned with dangling pom poms. It was such a vexed complicated pattern, it had taken my gran more than a year to complete, by which point I’d transitioned from child to teenager and no longer wanted to dress like a Christmas tree.

Gran taught me how to knit at a young age. She gave me a little red drawstring bag decorated with a rainbow motif that contained wool and miniature needles. She patiently reminded me how to cast on and off every time I made a start with my treasured balls of colourful wool.

Distracted by the relative speed of sewing, I didn’t progress much further. I spent the next twenty years dependent on knit stitch and having to relearn how to cast-off every time I made the same very long scarf.

It was only in my early thirties, after my gran had passed away and my friends started to have babies, that I learned how to purl, doggedly fixed casting off in my mind’s eye, and challenged myself to follow basic knitting patterns. I happily churned out hats and booties for brand new tiny-footed humans but, again, once I’d banked a few tricks I didn’t progress any further.

I’ve always wanted to knit proper jumpers – clothes I’d actually want to wear. I’m in awe of sewists who straddle both art forms and make it look effortless.

The fear, however, is that I’ll produce sweaters that will never be worn. The time investment is far greater than for quickly sewing an approximation out of fabric (this is debatable given my struggle with the Marlo Sweater). If a knit goes wrong or isn’t quite right, would I be as distraught as I was when I let my lovely gran down all those years ago?

‘You could have knitted the damn cardigan in that time!’

That comment though. It struck home. As much as I love terry sweatshirts, there’s nothing like a properly knitted woolly gansey. With the Marlo, I was chasing the impossible – something that felt like a proper knit that wasn’t a proper knit.

There’s only one option: knit the damned thing. Make gran proud.

As for wastage, there’s always unravelling. And if I take the time to learn, slowly and surely I’ll get there. That’s the beauty of learning a craft. Faith and determination take you an awfully long way.

So, as someone with very little knowledge of knitting, I turned to Lisa of local boutique hand-dyed wool company AndKnit, for tips on how and where to get started:

• Equipment:
  • You don’t need all the helpful (and expensive) twiddly bits that are pushed on Instagram: choose what you are comfortable with, not what is trendy
  • Vintage needles from charity shops are usually better quality than cheaper options and are an affordable way to decide if you prefer wooden, plastic or metal
  • Don’t start with fancy hand dyed yarns – choose an affordable acrylic in a colour you like
  • Buy from a local yarn store for lots of good advice, help and (often) tuition

• Getting started:
  • Rather than knitting endless garter (plain) stitch scarves, which won’t teach you much, start with a small (max 100g) pretty scarf using a pattern that requires a few stitches
  • Sites like Ravelry and LoveCrafts offer huge databases with lots of free patterns
  • Beware old patterns: they assume a level of expertise you may not yet have – modern patterns are often written more clearly
  • Learn to use a circular needle – knitting a hat is easier than you think and will develop the skills required to knit a sweater in the round

So, by learning a few skills at a time, maybe I can slowly build up to THAT sweater. I’m very lucky to have inherited a few bags of wool and a bunch of needles from my gran, so it’s off to the attic to see what might work for my first foray into knitted clothing.

As for patterns, I’ve started a little list…

If you have any tips for getting into knitting clothing or any favourite patterns you think would be great for beginners I’d love to hear about them – please comment below!