I think I like Mirjam's suggestion to measure a sweater that already fits me well and use that as a model. I have two sweaters I like, one a stretchier one than the other, and I could measure them, and if I made one the same size, then I would *know* it would fit okay.
I've sewn many garments in my pre-learning-to-alter days that when finished did not fit, and I just plain don't like doing that any more.
Yes, please. The easier the better. (She says it's going to be a boy, BTW, if that matters)
More like "what" -- like, go ahead and make the sweater and if it doesn't fit you, NBD -- well, to me it would be.
Oh, now that's an intriguing idea. Like tracing a pattern off onto newsprint to clone a garment. I currently only have two sweaters that I wear regularly, but I really like them both and they fit reasonably well.
Thanks!
Coming out of lurk...
And if something doesn't seem to be "right" (too heavy, too drapey, too stiff, too large, too small, whatever) you don't throw it away. Consider it a learning experience, frog it, and keep the yarn for something else.
After I taught myself to knit ages ago with a scarf and mittens, I plunged into an Aran sweater. It took a long time, or what seemed a long time) to finish because I had to learn to cable and read diagrams as I went but I finished it. It was gorgeous, but weighed a TON and waaaay too warm because I used the wrong weight yarn. I eventually gave it away, but I learned that I love doing cables...and the importance of those yarn "suggestions". I remember using one of those plastic coffee stirrers as a cable needle because I didn't have one,had never heard of one and had no way to go get one. Again, no one told me I could't do that,so I did, and it worked. No one told me Arans were "too hard" or that intarsia was "advanced" (that was my next project). I just saw something I liked and that looked interesting and jumped right in. If it doesn't work, so what? It's just yarn. You can't hurt it. And you always learn something so I always considered it time well spent, not time wasted.
EJ
There's actually an excellent site with dozens of pretty dishcloth patterns at
It was because the yarn and design were not compatible.
sue
Here's one --
*nodding* I understand what you are saying. Let's see if I can use an exeample in a different scenario to explain my thinking. My daughter went straight from high school to a private 4-year college. She is intelligent and capable of rising to the occasion of whatsever challenge was thrown at her, and whatever she makes up her mind to do, she can do, which in this case included carrying 12-14 units a semester and working 25 hours a week.
OTOH, my oldest son has ADD and learning difficulties as well as probably some other neuro/physio/psychologic problems, and when he wanted to go off to college just like his younger sister, I suggested that he take classes at the (much less expensive) local junior college first to learn how to manage his time and learn how to study for college courses, because it was likely that he was not going to hit the ground running on the type of schedule that his sister managed to do (just barely, but did manage to do it and get As in most of her classes), because he was probably going to need to practice to learn to prioritize his time and learn to deal with college-level instruction, and since they both have to pay for their own college (long story I won't get into, but hopefully the expression "sperm-donor-type dad" will give you an idea), I thought it would be better for him to make his mistakes at a place where he would only lose about $500 if he flunked 12 units of classes and not $7000.
In the same vein, if I'm likely to have a problem (which I never thought about until I came here and people started talking about making entire sweaters that they eneded up not being able or willing to wear), I think I want to make my mistakes when it costs less to have made them until I end up getting a bit more proficient. Anyway, baby sweaters and dishcloths don't sound so intimidating, and if I mess one up it won't be two months before I can finish another one, and in the meantime hopefully I will learn the right way to knit and master some of the difficulties my right-left blindness are bound to cause.
Oh. Which is good information to know, and information that I *want* to know for sure.
One of my early mistakes was a tank top that ended up way too big for me. My gauge was correct when I started, but as I continued knitting, my tension relaxed and my guage changed. I didn't know I needed to continue checking the gauge as I went along. Also, the gauge can be affected when knitting a large piece by the weight of the piece.
BB
They can actually be made larger for scarves or baby blankets too....
sue
It happens. I took a pottery course once and found out that I had trouble making pots big enough, because I didn't want to "waste" too much clay on only one pot. As if clay were some kind of limited resource. I'm more relaxed about yarn, possibly because I'm not being graded on it. When a significant other is sneering and judging, it can cause severe distress. (I might reconsider the relationship in that case, but I'm not the one involved here.)
=Tamar ...ten miles in the snow, barefoot, and uphill both ways...
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