Okay, tell me if you think this is silly...

No, starting with small projects where gauge doesn't matter is less frustrating than spending months knitting something large with which you are not happy or doesn't fit. If you use different yarns for these projects, it will also give you an idea of what type of fabric each fiber will produce. Knitted purses are a good learning tool. You are actually making something, gauge really doesn't matter, and you are learning to read patterns.

there are tons offree purse and accessory patterns here, just click on the accessories link.>> OTOH, if I want to stay way out on my off-the-beaten-path position, I also > saw knitting pattern software that takes what you can do and gives you a > schematic type of thing to follow in whatever way you are knitting to do > what you want. Seeing as though I have pattern drafting software, > knitting pattern software would only seam a reasonable next step LOL (and > it's cheaper -- I think it was like $50).>

would be my choice ofsoftware for designing knitting patterns which are easy to understand. Overthe years I have used several design programs, from expensive (Design-A-Knit) to free and Sweater Wizard is the one I end up using the most.It is written by a knitter, and tech support is great.Just a satisfied user, no connection to the company.DA

Exactly. With this kind of thing you could make some using cotton yarn for use as dishcloths - my handknit dishcloths last a lot longer than store-bought ones - and others as sampler squares using whatever yarn you have lying around.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Since your time is limited, I would think it would be better to work on smaller things that likely won't lead to disappointment if they don't turn out as expected. I know I'd be rather miffed if I spent months working on a sweater that ended up not fitting the way I expected. Especially when you're building skills and confidence, it's better to get some good results early on. I know a lot of people who jumped right into that dream sweater only to give it up when it wasn't going well.

Since the software will customize to your abilities, this sounds okay to me, too. I would still start with smaller items and work my way up, if only because you don't have hours a day to spend knitting. I don't have that kind of time at the moment, either, so most of my knitting time has been spent with socks. I just started a nice scarf in Classic Elite's Posh - 70% silk, 30% cashmere, bought at a blow-out sale for 50% off; I can't afford the regular price on this yarn - and I can pull that out and do a few rows here and there when I get the time. Anything major, like another sweater or jacket, would have to wait until I manage to create those 40-hour days I've been working on for the past few years

The Other Kim kimagreenfieldatyahoodotcom

"Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply" wrote in message news:4660fb86$0$27156$ snipped-for-privacy@news.sonic.net...

As I recall, you said previously that you can only allot small increments of time for knitting. So joining a dishcloth knit-along seems like a smart thing to do. Yes, you should be able to sew or crochet them together for a throw or pillow cover providing they are all similar in size.

Melinda, if you were to go back on this board (which I don't recommend) you would find I have often recommended beginners to get a book of dishcloth patterns - there are some fairly cheap ones at some of the "big box" stores - buy some pretty acrylic yarns and get busy. The great thing about this is that (1) each square can be knit in a relatively short time (2) you learn to knit various different stitch patterns, and (3) You can knit as many or few as you like, and make them into a lap robe or afghan.

Once when I was making an afghan for my son, I wasn't sure which way I wanted to arrange the squares so made a few extra. At the end I had four left over, so stitched them together to be an afghan for his cat!. The cat loved it, and slept on it right until his demise.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Why wouldn't it fit? If you know how to measure yourself (or your intended victim), know how to make and measure a gauge swatch, if you're able to count and if you can do some basic arithmetic you can make a sweater that fits.

Three books for you: Maggie Righetti _Knitting in Plain English_, Elizabeth Zimmermann _Knitting Workshop_, and if you really get into DIY sweater building, Maggie Righetti _Sweater Design in Plain English_.

Also a sweater need not take "months" to knit, unless you have absolutely minimal time to give it. I've turned out adult-sized sweaters - made with fat yarn on big needles, admittedly - in less than a week's time when I was under the gun to get them done.

Indeed. Another good small first project is a pair of "standard" flap- and-gusset socks. The skills you hone on sockmaking will be useful when you start the sweater: knitting in the round, knowing which way different decreases lean, picking up stitches.

Then only thing to remember is "right leg forward". If you knit such that your stitches are mounted left leg forward on the needle it makes some manipulations fiddly because you have to remount the stitches before you can do whatever. Otherwise there's no "conventional" knitting to learn: it's knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off put together in endless variations.

Pattern reading isn't that tough either. A well-written pattern defines for you all the abbreviations used therein. Its just a matter of becoming accustomed to the abbreviations, which is a learned skill like taking shorthand or reading a recipe.

No, but I do think you should jump in with a project for which GAUGE WILL MATTER, such as socks, or a teddy sweater. You'll learn more, and build your confidence faster so you'll be ready to tackle the sweater sooner.

Sewing is a LOT less forgiving than knitting. You can always rip out the knitting and start over. With sewing that's a little harder to do, hence the starter sewing projects. I've taught 3rd/4th graders to knit; once they have KNIT and PURL I throw them at socks, or simple lace. My most outstanding student is now in grade 6 - her first project was an EZ-style sweater, then she went straight to Shetland lace and is now designing her own stuff and selling the patterns to her classmates. That girl is going places :D

Knitware and similar software presumes that you have basic knitting skills, understand gauge, and can read the patterns it spits out for you.

I don't know, but that's what I got in response.

Absolutely minimal time is what I have most days right now.

I already tried socks and gave up because it took me a couple of months to get one sock finished, and then it didn't fit (I have large calves and the only reason for me to make socks is to make knee socks, because I wear Okabashi sandals most of the time). So I'm not really anxious to try a sock again.

In addition to the fact that I can't always tell right from left so I have no idea what the relevance of this is, I have no idea of what you are talking about here.

It's a matter of remembering which row I am on.

I think I would rather learn to "knit properly" and read a pattern first.

Yes, but I can make a dress in about 5 hours. Unless I use my knitting machine, it will take me tons longer than that to make a sweater; ergo, we are talking about massive amounts of time lost in frog-stitching for knitting rather than frog-stitching for sewing.

Another good reason to start out with dishcloths to learn how to do all that first. Then I could spit out a machine-knitting pattern and follow it and not worry about learning how to "knit properly."

I am sort of sock-phobic right now. Tried to make some a number of years back (knee socks because I have no need for any other kind of sock) and after a few months I ended up with one sock that didn't fit. :(

P.S. Part of why it wouldn't fit is that my body doesn't even come close to looking like standard sizing (I am a sort of an asymmetric-trapezoid-shaped SSBBW), and I have to make substantial alterations to sewing patterns for them to fit nicely, and if I am going to take the time to make a sweater, I am for sure going to make sure that it is customized to some extent so that it fits better than RTW.

Had I realized you've already made up your mind I wouldn't have spent the time playing devil's advocate to the "too hard, won't fit" crowd. It is always easy to justify NOT doing something, isn't it?

I am a great believer in knitting a sampler of all of the techniques required for a sweater before actually knitting the sweater. I like Jacquelyn Fee's book, "The Sweater Workshop", but there are others.

The concept is that you practice all the required skills either as swatches or in making "teddy bear" sized sweaters first; sort of a 3-dimensional swatch. There are three advantages to this approach.

1. It is small so you can do it fast. And, you can do it over, and over until you know that skill cold, and do not have to worry mucking up your precious sweater. (Working out the details yourself rather than referencing one of the books on doll clothes ensures that you work out all the details on your precious sweater. Also, the construction details in the books on doll clothes are not quite that same as for an adult sweater.

1. You can use "cheap" yarn. Often you can buy an ball or two of yarn for much less than 1/10th the price of 10 balls of matched dyelot yarn sold in packs for knitting a sweater. And, you are not going to be wearing this, so it can be a nice color that does not really suit your complexion, or does not go with other clothes, or a yarn the might pill, or bleed, or.... I use whatever is in the stash, and I have yet to hear my Teddy Bears complain about their new sweaters.

2. You can make mistakes and continute on knitting without worrying about getting everything perfect. You are not going to be wearing it in public so a few mistakes do not matter. This saves frogging. I hate frogging. I would rather knit a few 6"x6" swatches from waste yarn, and get my sweater right the first time, then have to frog even a few rows of something that I am intending to be a finished product

Then, your teddy bear sweaters can double as gifts. Maybe not the first, but there are at least a dozen different ways of constructing a sweater.

Aar>

No, I don't have my mind made up. I am in the indecisive mode, where all the pros and cons play off of each other like bumper cars in a rink.

Combine that with being paranoid of spending tons of hours to make something that might not fit right, and that makes the bumper cars move even faster.

P.S. I have also written down your book suggestions and will check them out, just so you know.

The "w> Had I realized you've already made up your mind I wouldn't have spent

Melinda I feel you adopt a very pesimistic attitude to the advice you are given, I find it very frustrating. It seems to me that you don't want to "try it and see what happens", you don't want to spend much time knitting, and you don't want to make any mistakes. It's very hard for me not to interpret that as "I don't really want to knit". Now, I know that statement might annoy you but, I'm sorry, it's *how I feel*.

To polish you knitting skills you have to put in the practice, in all honesty it took me years to become a proficient knitter (I'm a slow learner). I dabbled as a child, made small bits and pieces and didn't execute much discipline. It wasn't till I was in my late teens that I learnt to commit, prepare well (tension is everything) and knit regularly so I developed a flow and increased my speed. To really develop your skills you have to find challenges and conquer them, you can't fret that "they may go wrong", you have to get stuck in and be prepared to undo some of your work when you don't get it right. I've knitted maybe three scarves in my life, only a handful of hats. I really learnt on socks, sweaters, gloves and babies clothing. I don't have oodles of time to knit, I work full-time and have all the usual commitments in life. You knit when you can - the beauty of the craft is you can stuff a project in your bag and snatch little bits of time when you get them.

Now baby outfits are a fantastic learning tool - a baby sweater contains all the elements of a adult sweater except because it's in minature it takes a lot less time. Plus parents think you are the most fantastic person in the world when you handcraft a garment for their precious child. Why not try a pair of booties? If you would like a pattern, please ask, I'll gladly email you something.

Go and knit something - do a dishcloth first if you like, do whatever takes your fancy really.

Just do it.

Ask us questions if you get stuck, take photos if you can so we can see your progress (you will be very well rewarded by this group, they are very generous with praise for pictures of knitting).

Go right now, cast on and knit.

I'm sorry. It may sound that way, but it's actually halfway between paranoid and terrified (combined with a perennial difficulty in making decisions). I come from a long lime of obsessive-compulsive perfectionists and I feel like to at least half, if not most, of them I never quite measure up, and I'm afraid it has colored my life a bit. And with knitting right now I am a burned child (the failed sock that it took me two months to complete and it didn't fit) determined to get over my fear but needing some baby steps first.

Actually, a baby sweater sounds like an EXCELLENT idea, because my neighbor is pregnant with her first child and if it turns out well, I would have a nice baby gift -- and if it didn't, I might still be able to make a second one before the baby is born LOL.

I'd rather make a mistake on a dishcloth or a baby sweater and only have

10 or 20 not-that-wide rows to rip out than make a sweater in my SSBBW size and have oodles and oodles of frog-stitching to do. I wouldn't mind making a poncho or a shawl, because I would wear them at home, but most of the patterns I see are for fancy stitches and I don't know if I want to do that yet.

I am taking your advice to heart and thank you for it.

This is knitting, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen if you make a mistake?

I've been guilty of quietly disposing of a botched project in the bin. I've ripped entirely knit garments out. Time did not stop. I did not explode. It's okay to screw up your knitting. And though it's a possibility that you'll make a horrendous mistake, there is a much better chance that everything will go well and you' ll get that great buzz of satisfaction when you finish a garment.

So, let's examine the possibilites: Slim chance that you'll end up with a unreacognisable lump of yarn. Great chance you'll experience the joy of knitting a work of art.

In both instances no innocents are harmed and the world still turns. At worst you may have "wasted" some time (I personally don't subscribe to the "wasted" time notion, it was a great learning experience despite the outcome).

If you produce a unreacognisable lump of yarn we can probably devise something for you to do with it all the same. We will also agree that it wasn't your fault it went astray and that next time you try all will be well.

Great! Do you need us to point you toward an easy pattern?

VP

Ok good. Leave _Sweater Design_ for last, start with an EPS sweater.

Which is exactly what I've suggested you do. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. As VP said, a baby sweater, or even a teddy sweater is a small thing soon done and you'll learn from it how a full-sized sweater goes together.

The worst that could happen? A sneering comment from one's significant other to the effect that their mother never wasted yarn like that. Wasting yarn can be made to sound as bad as wasting food. Think about all those kids without socks, and you are wasting yarn!

Aaron

Oh, dear, Aaron, it sounds as though you were subjected to a sneering comment or two in your time!

Higs, Katherine

Melinda i donb`t know who scared you ,,,, i am all for makiing guaguing samplers but after this , i should advice you to cast on a BIG project ,,,, FOR YOU ,,,, You can always `rest` between knitting the sweater hours anf make some squares ,,, but intially that sweater will be there for you to enjoy ,,, and once you made the BIG sweater , you wo`nt hesitate anymore to make all the other things ,,,, if you put off making the sweater ,, WHO knows when you will make it ?????? It is like years ago when i made my Husband and son a father+ son vests ,,,,, i foolishly started with the son`s vest ,,, WRONG idea ,, i should have started with the Bigger item ,,,,, If the problem is with following instructions MAKE YOUR OWN ,,, Find a sweater /shirt whose size fits you well ,,, Measure it and draw it on a paper ,,,, now GUAGUGE 20 stich over 10 rows ,,,, now translate cm or inches to stitch numbers and WORK on it ,,, mirjam