That is a sweater, knitted by me. It is a bottom-up, roll edged raglan sweater made with a pattern and yarn created in Portland, Maine. The sweater was meant to be a memento of a trip I took to visit my friend Adam, many years ago. I would, I decided, begin buying handmade yarn each place I visited and make a garment to commemorate my travels. Six years later, I have finally knitted that sweater.I made it in a size I think will fit me when there is not a baby inside of my body. I haven't blocked it yet. I keep hoping the body will grow longer and the sleeves less...ugly on their own. This is, I fear, wishful thinking.
Now that I am done with this chore, after a month of cramped hands and blue-stained fingers from the very darkly dyed wool, I have this to say about the pattern: how incredibly inefficient! And I loathe inefficiency. My knitting friend Laura is so right to point out the vast superiority of top-down sweaters knitted in the round. I spent seven hours on the seams and finishing of this sweater. I know it was seven hours because I sat on the sofa and watched the following movies while I seamed:
* Take the Lead (in which Antonio Banderas teaches inner-city youth that the key to their salvation is, in fact, the rumba or Viennese waltz)
* Something's Gotta Give
* Failure to Launch (though I finished the project halfway through)
Had I been knitting in the round, the sweater would be been done long ago. Oh well. Now I know I can do seams, should I ever be forced to again. In other news, here is a profile shot illustrating how lovely the sweater looks when paired with my tummy, which now juts past my bosom:
4 comments:
I'm excited to see a picture of your pregnant tummy!
the sweater i'm working on is bottom-up raglan in the round. I have to set the body aside and two both sleeves separately (also in the round) before attaching all three pieces in the round, and when I'm done the only seams I'll have are 8 bound-off stitches under each armpit. My book doesn't have top-down raglan in the round, so I'd be interested to know if it's much different than the bottom-up method!
Which seams did you have to sew? just up the sides and under the arms? What is ugly about the arms do you think?
i had to sew up the sides of the sweater, then the sides of the sleeves, then sew each of the 4 raglan seams of the sleeves to the 4 raglan areas of the body. then i had to pick up and knit the stitches to do the neck. it was a mess.
the arms are rather lumpy. if you see the sweater in person, they don't look like smooth sweater arms. they look like rolled up bags of blue wool...
I haven't done a bottom-up raglan, but I've heard they're nearly as simple as top-downs. Speaking of, I should really finish the sweater I am making for my baby!
I think it looks quite good for a first sweater, Katy.
WOW!! That sweater looks awesome!! To me, knitting seems like such hard work... And this is after 1 and a half quilts, and other misc. baby stuff I've been sewing!
Good job!
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