Victory in Knitting

Over the last few months I've been in a group on Ravelry Knit for Victory and we've all been working hard on finishing our 1940's inspired knits. This was not my first sweater by any means, but it was my first sweater of this sort. Every sweater that I've made so far has been of a completely different construction type. Up to this point all the sweaters, cardigans, boleros, and tops I've done have been working form the top down, in one piece with raglan sleeves. This was the first time I had to work a top in pieces. First the back, then the front, then each sleeve. I've never seemed my knitting before, well not with any success anyways. I vaguely remember in the beginning of my knitting life doing a baby sweater with seaming that looked so horrible that I didn't even frog it, it just went strait into the trash. I was scared at first, well, and the whole way through, but it came out really well. Doing the set in sleeves was the scariest but after watching a half dozen tutorials on youtube I dove in head first. I firmly believe that if it weren't for youtube, I'd still be making garter stitch scarves. I'm a self taught knitter, or rather a youtube taught knitter, haha. Anyways, this was also the first "Vintage inspired" pattern that I've followed and true to vintage pattern form it was very vague. I'm used to having stitch counts when I have increases to make. I'm used to having row counts until there is a change in the pattern. I'm used to patterns that do the math for you when increasing or decreasing (Knit 8, inc 1, rep) not "increase 7 stitches evenly over next row" then I've got to figure out where to do them in the row. After completing the pattern, I'm not complaining. But I sure was complaining while doing it. In the end, it all worked out great. I was able to trust my knitting skills and now I know that I can to a sweater that is constructed in pieces. It's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. The pattern is The Quick Knit 1940's style sweater , I altered the pattern on the front, I like a little deeper neck line, I also did some plain ribbing around the bottom of the body. I absolutely love the easy cable rib pattern and would have no problem making this sweater again. I think, if I do make another one, I'll make it just a bit longer and maybe put some plain ribbing on the end of the sleeves so that it matches the body.

I'm working on 2 new patterns right now. One is a Capelet with a staggering cable pattern, the other is a Herringbone stitch key-hole scarflet. I look forward to sharing them with you soon.

#knitforvictory