Ever since I took up knitting four years ago, I’ve been completing increasingly ambitious projects in both scale and complexity. In 2021, I completed my first blanket. In 2022, I made a double-knitted Star Wars-themed blanket for Brandon. And last year, after years of hesitation, I launched myself into the world of garments by knitting myself a cardigan. Let’s take a look!
Motivations for Knitting a Sweater
I’ve been wanting to make myself a sweater ever since I took up knitting needles. The idea of completing a project fitted to my body was both thrilling and intimidating. While the blankets I’ve made are certainly ambitious in terms of scale, I basically made large rectangles. All I needed to do was make them large enough to cover me. A sweater, by contrast, would test my ability to measure accurately, maintain a consistent gauge, and increase or decrease stitches.
Beyond ambition, I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of making clothing for myself. I’ve enjoyed imagining what it would be like to make a garment fitted to my specific measurements and aesthetic preferences. The idea of watching a textile reveal itself one row at a time also appeals to me for its slowness and intentionality. It complements my overall creative practice, with its focus on the passage of time and the subtle changes that occur through it. Additionally, the idea of taking weeks or months to fashion a well-made garment appeals to me, offering a contrast to the ephemeral, ecologically detrimental fast fashion.
A William & Mary colleague of mine, Laura Beltrán-Rubio, reflects thoughtfully on knitting as an expression of love for the self and others. If you’re at all interested in knitting or fashion, I encourage you to visit her website and check out her innovative work.
Picking a Pattern
In 2023, after three years of knitting, I decided it was time to take on a sweater. Even then, I worked toward my goal gradually. During the first part of the year, I focused on shawls. I used the projects as opportunities to get comfortable with increasing and decreasing my stitches and creating more garment-like clothing. They also ended up making great gifts for family members.
For my yarn, I opted for Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks in worsted weight. It’s a durable, affordable yarn I’ve used before. I prefer working with natural fibers when I can, and I’ve enjoyed this yarn in the past. I had bought some on sale a couple of years ago with plans of making a sweater, but hadn’t gotten around to actually making one. When I decided to take it on, then, I already had a stash of yarn ready to use.
After completing a couple of shawls, it was time to find a good pattern. I ended up spending a few weeks looking at different patterns online. As I looked, I kept several criteria in mind. On the one hand, I wanted something simple, but I also wanted to expand my skills. As a result, I avoided flat-knitted, seamed pieces in favor of top-down patterns that would enable me to try knitting an entire garment in one piece. Initially, I thought about making a pullover, but after accidentally shrinking one of my favorite cardigans in the laundry a couple of years ago, I opted for a cardigan.
Eventually, I settled on the Harvest Cardigan by Tin Can Knits. In addition to being a free, top-down sweater, the pattern included an extensive tutorial. That tutorial made the process less intimidating, and if you’re looking to try a sweater, I highly recommend it.
The Knitting Process
From casting on to blocking, this project took me about six weeks. Knitting the collar and yoke was definitely the most intimidating part, but once I had the armholes in place, everything went pretty quickly because I only used stockinette and garter stitches. Working in the medium range of worsted weight also made a big difference. After spending months knitting in fingering weight yarns, I was amazed at how quickly the worsted skeins knit up by comparison.
Being my first sweater, I opted for positive ease, as I figured it’d be better to err on the looser rather than tighter side. I also wanted to make sure the sweater could slide comfortably over long-sleeved shirts, so opting for a looser fit around the sleeves was important to me.
Mixing-and-Matching Patterns
One of the most fun aspects of this sweater was the opportunity to customize it to my preferences. The two-toned color scheme, for instance, came from another pattern I’d seen, Estuary by Berroco. Although I preferred the Harvest Cardigan’s top-down, seamless pattern, I liked Estuary’s color blocking, so I applied it to my own sweater by using white and green. Another alteration I made was adding pockets. After reading a couple of different ways of knitting afterthought pockets, I added a couple of my own.
Arguably the most fun and personal addition I made was the inclusion of buttons. The tutorial included an option for adding buttonholes, so I followed it as I made my way along the border. I then ordered a bag of 100 random buttons from Fabric from Darlene on Etsy. Realizing that the chances of me finding 8 matching buttons in this grab bag were essentially nil, I took the opposite approach. Instead of trying to match my buttons, I decided to make them as different as possible, the more unusual or colorful the shape, the better. As a result, my cardigan includes buttons shaped like triangles, strawberries, and even butterflies.
Reflecting on My Experience
I’m so glad I made this sweater. This was a really fun and satisfying project, start to finish. After completing this cardigan, I feel a lot more confident in my skills as a knitter and my ability to make clothing. As an added bonus, I now have a great winter cardigan that I’ve already worn several times.
Like many of my creative projects, the cardigan also became a metaphor of sorts for my ongoing dissertation work. This project grew out of a few rows I knitted every day. On their own, these rows didn’t amount to much, but knitting them consistently, I managed to create a larger, more complex project. Similarly, my daily dissertation work may not look like much, but by doing that work every day over a few years, I’ve managed to write it. Yet sometimes it’s hard to appreciate that work when all of it lives in Word docs on a computer. Tangible projects like the sweater help me visualize and appreciate it more fully.
Next Knitting Project: More Sweaters!
So what’s next for my knitting needles? More sweaters! Now that I’ve made one for myself, I’m determined to make one for Brandon, sweater curse be damned. He’s picked out a yarn and a pattern, and over the next year, I’ll knit it up for him. In the meantime, I’ll keep enjoying the sweater I’ve already made.