Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Timeless Tuesday

I had this idea that I would do an online version of my Knitting Brag Book. Start at the beginning. But after a frantic search of the basement last night, I can not find my Brag Book! I have shelved most of the other books that were in the same spot at the old house, and I have another box of books from that cupboard to shelve still....but I can not find the photo album!! It's got to be somewhere stupid.

So, instead, I'm starting a little further along than the beginning.

I learned to knit around 8-10, but got so totally confused by my British books, American books, and metric needles, that I gave up. In my 4th year at university, my housemate was learning to knit along with her friend. They were making sweaters. I thought "I already know how to knit, so this should be a breeze for me--finally something I'd be better at, LOL". They were bulky, heavily textured sweaters. But I wanted a short, slim sweater so I made it smaller. I had to substitute yarn and chose a bulky acrylic from Zellers. I knew nothing about yardage (there wasn't yardage on most yarns then), and ended up with enough yarn to make another smaller sweater, the same, for my little brother:
Notice the white strip on the collar? That's how much short I was on the second sweater, made from the leftover yarn! Notice also the tidy stair step shoulders? How about the visible side seams? I'm sure you can also picture me wearing the original....too small to wear over a shirt, too icky to wear without a shirt....
Interestingly, the first swatch I ever made was also a tad short on yarn, and was green. Years later I found a tiny ball of the main yarn, with electical tape wound around it to hold the end down, LOL.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tracy, you are simply a talented knitter. I have no clue how to alter anything other than extend length!

TracyKM said...

But I've seen your pictures, and I think you're quite talented too!
Starting to alter patterns was a necessity...you've seen me, LOL! And yarn is usually reusable so that helps. But it's been a long process, and I have to admit that getting a knitting machine really pushed me to make things that fit properly--if it only takes a day to knit the front of a top, then why not get it right? So then I've taken what I've learned from that and apply it to handknitting....but I still don't hk tops for myself.
I'm sure if you put your mind (and calculator) to it, you could make other simple alterations.
Oh, and the green sweater---I just knit a smaller size than what 'my size' should have been, LOL. But I did alter the sleeve length and body length!