This morning I stood up in front of Cameron and declared "Today, July 7th, is the day I will finally finish a knitting project that can defined as a garment. Not a hat, or gloves, or scarf, or headband - an actual cardigan!" I had completed the 5 components of the cardigan, and was dedicating the day to learning the various sewing techniques to put them all together.
Flash backward!
I asked Cameron for the "Summer Night Cardigan" kit from Wool and the Gang (WATG) for Christmas. And by Christmas, I mean, I asked for it early November and then pretended not to notice when I picked it up from our mail box a week later.
Still, I did not even start the project until May 27th. I was just so intimidated. Even though I'd been wanting to make garments since I started knitting, I had a bad experience with another WATG kit (this one for a tunic sweater) about a year ago. The tunic sweater should have been fairly simple for me, with only a few new techniques to be learned. Yet, the piece had to be dramatically rescued so many times, and on the parts that should have been easiest for me, that I ultimately put it down and have not picked it up since.
What finally inspired me to buckle down and start the cardigan was a knee injury. I wasn't very mobile and needed something to entertain me as I stayed in mostly one place all day. I actually hoped that I would be able to work so uninterruptedly on the cardigan that I might even be able to wear it during my trip to California, which was just a few days away. Hilarious. I knew it was slim chances, but the pattern listed it as a 26 hour project. I had three days and figured I might be able to work hideously hard at it, and maybe, just maybe, I knit faster than they average Joe (or Josephine). By the time I left for California, I had finished the back panel and had started work on one of the front panels. In other words, less than halfway done. The cardigan, even though there were plenty of days within this period that I did not knit at all, ended up taking me 5 weeks from when I started, to complete. I would estimate it took me about 35 hours.
Getting down to the construction. This kit is listed as "Beginner" in skill level on WATG's website, but I did actually end up learning quite a bit from it. As stated above, the cardigan was made from 5 pieces: 1 back panel, 2 front panels, and 2 sleeves. Part of the reason this project took me longer than the pattern said it would is because I spent a good amount of time considering the pattern and the way it would fit on me. Once my back panel and two front panels were completed, I pinned them together so it could be tried on. I immediately noticed that the cardigan was very short. I had knit the pieces to the length specified in the pattern, but to my personal taste, it was too short. I therefore I had to learn to undo all three pieces' bind off rows.
"Binding Off" is the technique used to take live stitches and finish them so they can be taken off the needles without the entire piece unraveling. I had previously viewed binding off as a permanent action, so it was a great skill to learn. One-by-one, I made all three panels "live" again and continued to knit them until they were as long as I wanted them.
Deciding what my desired length was also posed it's own questions. I had planned to extend each panel to 24 inches long (the pattern called for them to be 21.25 inches long), but at the last moment had a revelation. Looking at the WATG's product photo, it mentally clicked that the drape of the cardigan was really due to the weight of the yarn. At 100 grams for 148 yards, it's really quite a heavy yarn for how thin it is. I realized that the pattern was written for the cardigan to be a bit shorter because the designer intended for the fabric to weigh itself down, thereby making the cardigan longer. I considered this, and determined that at 21.25, even when I completely weighed/stretched it down, was still too short. I, therefore, compromised a tiny bit and knit the pieces to 23 inches instead of 24, planning that the cardigan would eventually be 24 inches long after the fabric stretched itself down.
The shortness of the torso panels also made me skeptical of the pattern's arm length, so I also measured the length of my arm to the point where the sleeve would be joined with the rest of the pieces. I determined I needed to make the sleeves two inches longer than the pattern called for. Luckily, there was more than enough yarn included in the kit, and I had no problems making the cardigan how I wanted, but extra inches in knitting means extra time!
So, finally, July 7th, I had all my pieces completed and I was ready to sew. Using WATG's very helpful online instructional videos, I learned 3 different types of sewing, all of which would be used on different parts of the cardigan. One stitch was to be used for the shoulder seam, one for joining the sleeves to the body of the cardigan, and one for the sides and the bottoms on the sleeves. Stitching bind-off edges to bind-off edges, I used each of the 3 types of invisible seaming techniques to put it all together. Weave in all the lose end edges and voila! A living, breathing (not really) cardigan!!!
The final step is blocking. Technically, you could get by without blocking but it really finishes the piece, making it look a lot better. Yarn comes relatively straight. When it's knit, it's being forced into the curvy shape of a stitch. Blocking is the process of wetting your newly made fabric. Being wet helps the yarn conform to it's new shape, and makes your pieces look happier. In this case, I also used blocking to help stretch the fabric down. I didn't want to wait for the weight of the cardigan to do the work, so I stretched and pinned the fabric before wetting it with a spray bottle. I let it dry overnight and then wore the cardigan to work the next day!
Overall, I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. For a very first garment, I think it's extremely wearable! I'm very happy I decided to tackle a beginner project as my first garment. Even though I've been knitting for just over 3 years, I am a beginner when it comes to garment making.
It was so much elation and excitement finishing my cardigan. As soon as I finished making the cardigan, I jumped in my car and headed down to our local Joann to get more yarn to make another cardigan. However, I just couldn't find any yarn of a similar weight at Joann. I got home, and told Cameron that I felt very empty and purposeless without a new project to start. I browsed the WATG website again, but was so anxious to start a new project that I just didn't think I could wait for anything to come in the mail.
Suddenly, I had a moment of pure inspiration - I had ordered a sweater kit from We Are Knitters over a year and a half ago and had never started it. I had never made the sweater because when I got the kit in the mail, I changed my mind about the style of the sweater. The sweater looked like it would turn out lumpy and not be very stylish. At the time, I had started going through the process to return the kit, but I took one look at the yarn inside the kit and changed my mind. I'm a sucker for yarn, and this yarn was gorgeous. I figured I'd make the sweater, just for the practice of it. Well, life happened and over a year and a half later, I remembered I had this kit!.... To Be Continued!
Hi Lan Claire
Thank you for showing me your latest accomplishments. Both the wooly jumper and the cardigan are beautiful.
You are teally talented. Say HI to Cam for me, love you both ... NAN