[Photos of the WIP sweater are further along the post]
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope your week is a productive one thus far. 🙂
I know I haven’t been posting the most craft-related things recently… now it’s time to change that. Today you’ll have an “exclusive sneak peek” into a project I’ve been toiling over working on.
In an effort to “spice up” the summer–or rather, try to amend how pathetically behind I am on crafts–I branched off a little from crochet and turned to a different craft: knitting. Not just that, but an actual sweater. I started this project 6 days ago, and have been working on it for at least 4 full afternoons. Now the collar and sleeves are done, it’s just a matter of knitting the rest of the sweater… which will be another 20 rows of plain stockinette stitch. Lovely. I like to think that the most tedious part of one’s life isn’t when there’s a sudden change; it’s when the mundane, everyday routine takes over. The same goes for crafting. Ah well. It will be worth it, I’m sure.
Let me just say this: there are people out there who believe miniature items take less time to make than regular-scale items. Don’t. Listen. To. Them. The more in-scale you want to be, the smaller the tools you work with have to be… the more amount of time it takes to finish said project. On top of that, knitting requires the utmost patience, and can take a lot more time than crochet. So next time you see someone working on a super tiny project, don’t assume it’s an easy process. It isn’t.
Yep, you guessed it. This sweater is doll-sized, not human-sized. It’s made from a free pattern by Cindy Rice Designs. The pattern is meant to fit a standard 18″ play doll; though the version I’m working on will be a bit smaller. I didn’t have the right size knitting needles (the pattern indicated size 2 needles), so I “improvised” and used tinier ones. I don’t even know what size these needles are… probably size 1 or smaller. Using smaller knitting needles should have constitued using thicker yarn, but… there was some thin, minty cotton thread from Aunt Lydia’s (brand name, mind, not an actual person) that had been sitting around waiting for a project. So I picked that up, combined it with the needles, and set to work.
I started the sweater on August 2nd, trying to get used to the minuscule needles and thread. After a few rows, I was starting to get the hang of it:
(Yep, those fancy stitch markers from the first yarnventuring episode have come in handy… though Mimi insists she keep the sheep one. Haha.)
By the next day, I had finished the collar and had started working on the first sleeve.
Both sleeves are done now. The thread is soft and fun to work with, so that helps. 🙂
Efa’s also been having fun with this…
It’s probably a good idea that you’re certain what you make will actually fit someone or something. In this case, I have no idea who it will fit. It might be too big for a mini doll, so a Hearts 4 Hearts girl? A Madame Alexander Cissette? Guess we’ll have to wait and see, when the sweater’s finished.
All that said, by the time I finish this, I’ll probably go back to crocheting all sweaters, instead of knitting them. I’m grateful to know how to make a sweater (albeit a tiny one). And I have an immense amount of respect for those who undertake such labor-intensive projects. But at this point, I can’t spend too much time making something, unless it stays on the doll forever. As for making human-sized sweaters, that will have to wait till I’m retired. 😛
If the sweater is done by tomorrow, I’ll post pictures of the finished project then. For now, it’s back to knitting I go. hehehe
