I WILL learn to knit!

I have no experience knitting so I bought this pattern based on the fact that so many had been made, it has a massive positive ease and it looks really boxy. Oh, and I didn’t want to have to pick up stitches round the neck.

Oh dear, didn’t realise I’d have to do shaping. Or pick up stitches from my cast on row at the shoulders!

I made a gauge square and it seemed to be right using 5mm needles. I got through the first part of the back and my piece was wider and deeper than it should be. I guess I need to learn to do a swatch more accurately.
So I frogged. I’d already frogged that piece once because I lost a stitch when doing the short rows.

I’m now doing the left front, having mastered s1^, M1R, M1L and pick up and knit from CO row - even got the lingo!

3 June 2017

Now at the point where I am making the pocket and the pattern tells me to slip some stitches onto a holding piece of yarn, fine. It then says to cast on stitches using the backward loop cast on, but there are no instructions as to how. Bit annoying when it is a paid pattern. And you haven’t a clue what you are doing, lol!

update just to say that the backward loop method is rubbish. I followed a YouTube video that told me to use 2 needles because it often works out very tight for newbies - mine is VERY holey. I have decided to leave it and see how it looks when blocked but I would recommend the cable cast on method when making the pocket top. It seems so much neater to me.

6 June 2017

OK, so now on to the arms. I had to pick up stitches round the armholes then work a magic circle for the arms. Obviously as a total newbie I’ve never done any of these before!
Picking up stitches always put me off knitting because I’ve seen so many untidy necklines which spoil someone’s lovely work. However, it was MUCH easier than I thought, and as a neat freak I’m glad to say that I found it quite straightforward. For the magic circle I followed a YouTube video. Tbh, its a bit of a faff but gets rhythmical as you get going, so alls good.

8 June 2017

I made a mistake on my first arm with a set of 8 rounds repeat. This means that my arm length is a bit longer. I’ve checked the pattern and the length is within the larger sized pattern and I have long arms so that’s ok, just make sure I make the same mistake again, lol. It also means that my sleeve cuff is a couple of stitches narrower, which again in the scheme if things isn’t a problem.

12 June 2017

Wow, blocking made such a difference to the finish and the yarn, which seemed to soften. It is lovely and I am really happy with my finished jumper. It fits pretty perfectly too which is a miracle!