sweater project nearing completion!

[arguchik]

i thought i would post some photos of the sweater project i'm finishing up. it will be a late-ish birthday gift for glaucon. as you'll see from the photos, the sweater does not have a collar yet; i have to add that (it will be knitted in the round) after sewing all of the seams. each panel still has a certain number of live stitches at the top--those metal things that look like big safety pins are stitch holders. they keep the live stitches from unraveling. the collar, which will probably be a turtleneck (because that's what glaucon requested, though the pattern calls for a crew neck, and i may have to revert to that if the turtleneck doesn't look right), will grow out of those live stitches, plus a few that i will create along the top of the front panel.

it is really something to put a big project like this together--really satisfying. i'm excited to finish it. i have knitted a number of whole sweaters before: a total of 4--one adult sized, which i knitted for myself in the early 90's, and 3 of varying child sizes for the nieces and nephews i had at the time (my youngest niece had not been born yet). it has been awhile!

a professor once gave me a valuable piece of advice: when asked for a good graduate school survival tip, he said, "get a hobby." he was right. i guess i have 2 hobbies. knitting and running, taken together, give me plenty of tactile and somatic, soothing and meditative activity as a counterbalance to thinking and writing, and especially to the stress of getting overwhelmed by the dissertation as a "whole project," to say nothing of what comes afterward... these two hobbies are both good metaphors for the kind of slow and steady work that gets a dissertation written, too: step by step. stitch by stitch. mile by mile. row by row.

word by word. page by page.

meh. i know it's cheesy, but it helps my self-confidence, so :-P TBBBBTTTBTHTHTH!





the 4 pieces together, taken a few days ago before i had completed the front panel.



here is the completed front panel.



here is the back panel.



here are the sleeves. (they are raglan sleeves.)



here is the first seam, which i completed last night. i'm using a mattress stitch to assemble this sweater. in the past, i have used a crocheted chain stitch, but it makes the seams bulkier, so i decided to go with the mattress stitch this time. my next sweater project will be knitted in the round, so i won't have any seams to sew.



here is a close-up of the first seam.



and here is a close-up of the brown-to-gray junction.

P.S. the stitch pattern is what's called an "english rib." on the right side, you work in K1-P1 ribbing, and on the wrong side you pearl all the way across. the result is a 1X1 knit-garter stitch rib, as opposed to regular 1X1 knit-purl ribbing. this gives the rib stitch a bit more texture in the "grooves," and also makes for a more open or relaxed ribbing. (regular 1X1 ribbing, which you'll see at the cuffs and hem--also the collar when i finish it--pulls in more.)

OK, back to work...

Comments

[rojonoir.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's hard core. Before I knew anyone that knitted, I didn't realize how much work even small things can be. Years ago a girlfriend knitted me a scarf and I was amazed at how much work was involved and how tricky it was to get it right even though it's just a rectangle.

But a sweater? Wow. I'm impressed.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

LOL--it's funny, i don't find it that complicated at all. for some reason it just makes sense to me. i suppose it is a lot of work, when you add up the hours and the stitches, but it just doesn't feel like work to me. i think it appeals to that OCD part of my brain that loves (and is soothed by) pattern, rhythm, and repetition, also tactile stimulation. as another example...i aced the sequences and series portion of my diff. eq. class in college (which was not true for the rest of the course material--i think i ended up with a B in the class). i have been analyzing and figuring out patterns my whole life, as a way to combat intellectual boredom. whenever my mom would take me shopping, or to the doctor's office, or wherever, i was always expected to just sit quietly; so i would occupy my brain by analyzing the pattern repeats of carpeting, floor or ceiling tiles, design features of the room, or whatever. you should see me eat plain m&m's...or have me explain how i remember phone numbers by mentally mapping the relationships among the numbers...or how i listen to and understand music (my mother is a professional musician, so i can't remember a time when i didn't have music in my life). that aspect of diff. eq.--also the section on matrices and multivariable calculus--seemed like an extension of all of this stuff i had been doing instinctively since i was a little, little kid. (i am drawn to fractal geometry/complexity mathematics, too, for a similar reason, though i haven't indulged myself by learning all that much about it yet because i don't have time--its elegance and the uncanniness of reiteration is deeply beautiful to me, though. ditto cultural studies, actually.)

crocheting, on the other hand...i have no aptitude for it whatsoever (ditto other kinds of needlework like embroidery or straight-up sewing). i don't know why, but making one loop at a time irritates me, but making rows of loops or spirals of loops, as in knitting, appeals to me in this really visceral way.

(LOL--maybe it's genetic. i am descended primarily from irish and scandinavian people--both cultures are big into knitting.)

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

p.s. my mom's primary instrument was the organ (she is retired and arthritic and seldom plays anymore), so she played a lot of bach.

[rojonoir.livejournal.com]

Speaking of patterns and fractals and music and Bach - have you read Godel Escher Bach? Lots of good stuff on the subject.

[rojonoir.livejournal.com]

i am descended primarily from irish and scandinavian people--both cultures are big into knitting.

I was reading this out of the corner of my eye and I read "fish and scandinavian people". I think because "scandinavian" makes me think of lutefisk, and because people ultimately evolved from aquatic life, my brain didn't see any contradiction until I got to the end and had trouble figuring out how a fish could knit.

But, yeah, I can see the draw - even though I'm a bit impatient at such things.

[malafrena.livejournal.com]

I had a completely opposite OCD reaction to knitting when I was in college. I tried to knit a Tom Baker scarf and got way too focused on it. I ended up giving away all my yarn and needles and throwing away the scarf and never touched knitting again. :)

So I am impressed by anyone who finds it soothing.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

LOL--i had to look up "tom baker scarf" to see what you were talking about. i can see why a first project like that would drive a person to give up knitting forever.

:-D

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

p.s. did you see this (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/3746/Scarf.html)? someone spent waaaayyyy too much time analyzing the narrative trajectory of that scarf! so...if you were trying to knit the most up-to-date version of that scarf, i can see how that would be extra frustrating, especially if you happened to start from the end that kept changing.

hey...you didn't happen to write that website, did you?

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

glaucon knows about the sweater curse, right?

I think if he asked for the sweater, that kills the curse.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

what is the sweater curse?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

p.s. what if i started the sweater for someone else, left it in my knitting bag for 6 years, and took it out again because, "hmm. maybe this will fit you... want a sweater?" and then proceeded to change the design of the top half of the sweater so that it would suit glaucon better? and also because i was a dummy and didn't buy enough yarn 6-7 years ago when i started the thing, and now there's absolutely no hope of finding more yarn in the same dye lot of that color--though they do still make that color--so i had to knit the top half of the sweater in a different color, but it looks better that way anyway, and then i put a different neckline on it too, and that looks better too...

does that kill the curse?