year of the sweater, year of the fit | BASICS ROUND-UP

Year of the Sweater Community: 

Ravelry | Pinterest 

in prep for my year of perfecting my sweater skills, i've been earmarking blog posts, podcast episodes, and other things that i find helpful in my journey. i have decided to put together a few posts along my journey to help others who are setting out along with me. mainly, this is a way that i can put everything in one place to access later. i want to say up front that i will not be sharing any tips that are from purchased resources. i will do my best to explain the resource in context to the technique, but i want to give credit where credit is do (chalk it up to the student in me!). everything will be linked for your convenience and those resources that i have purchased will also be linked. if you want to see inspiration and all things pertaining to the year of the sweater, you can check out and follow my pinterest board.

don't know where to start? how about the basics. i thought i would put together a good round-up of some things that i've been reading.

1. Look into some of these resources about getting what YOU want out of your next sweater.

CustomFit by Amy Herzog | this is a great resource and an account is free! amy has put together a program that basically does everything for you. you can also view her videos on gauge, measurements, and steps to getting a sweater modified to YOUR body.

Knit to Flatter | Craftsy Class & Book | another great resource from Amy herself. i have worked my way through the class and am now taking the first steps to learning how to modify a sweater. the class is good to view forever and include worksheets that you can print out for your own use. the book is additional but a great resource as well... you'll even find the patterns for the sweaters that are modeled in the class.

2. Don't skip the details! Swatch, swatch, swatch.
Swatching: Why You Wanna
Practical Tips on Swatching
Why Swatches (sometimes) Lie
Swatching in Pattern

3. Here are a few other resources that are worth checking out.
A great post on ease.
An episode where Hannah Fetig and Amy Herzog talk about modifying sweaters.
Elizabeth Zimmermann talks about gauge and it's importance

year of the sweater, year of the fit | SWEATER PROBLEMS

Year of the Sweater Community:

Ravelry | Pinterest 

if you watch the podcast or follow the group, you know that i have decided that this new year will be about knitting sweaters that fit me the way that i want them to fit. sweater knitting is time-consuming, costly, and can lag on for-EVER. after all that, you just want a sweater to fit, right?

over the next year, i am challenging myself to start paying attention to the details of knitting sweaters. everything from getting correct measurements, to learning about gauge and why i should love it, to finishing techniques. i want to learn AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! 

i have several posts planned in my head, and a few on paper, but i thought i would start with talking about why i need to learn to knit better sweaters. 

problem #1 the bust

before i had my son, i really only knit one sweater. truthfully, i'm pretty sure that i didn't finish said sweater until after he was born. fast forward 3 years and i'm still struggling with the changes that happened to my bust. i was picking a size 38 sweater based on my bust size. obviously this was a problem because i'm knitting sweaters that don't have the right amount of positive ease.

problem #2 the waist (aka the "spare tire", the "muffin top")

i said it...i want to be clear here... i am not degrading my body. i am happy with my body, maybe not so much my weight but i'm working on it. BUT, i want to wear sweaters (and garments) that don't bring attention to my waist. i am mom and i know that there are some things that just happen when you have children and i am completely okay with that. BUT, i want to wear things that make me feel beautiful... not self-conscious of those areas that i would rather not put on display. 

problem #3 the details

there are details that a knitter has to pay attention to when knitting any pattern. how many stitches to cast on, when to increase, when to decrease, how many buttonholes, etc. after knitting my inland, i realize that those details are not suggestions...the details lead you to knitting a great sweater. gauge is a BIG DETAIL that i think a lot of knitters look over and disregard. however, not knowing your gauge is a red flag for not getting the sweater you want. when i knit my inland, i didn't really pay attention to my gauge or my buttonholes. measuring for the next buttonhole was really non-existent. and knowing how my row gauge affected said buttonhole was even more of a disaster. i now have a finished sweater where the buttonholes are way too far apart, making for quite a disappointment. isn't there a saying about this???? ah, yes.... "the devil is in the details". how true that is.

so, there you have it. 3 main problems that i have noticed with my sweater knitting. 3 problems that have led me to this point. 3 problems that are absolutely fixable with a little bit of help.