A year of (not much) woolly progress - 2KCBWDAY2

Today’s blog for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is about my progress at knitting and crocheting in the last year, new skills acquired etc. Well I had some trouble thinking about this one because, frankly, I have not learned that many new skills over the last year (do you admire my honesty?). This is because I am already a knitting and crocheting superstar and life has nothing more to teach me, no actually it is not, it is because I have just been plodding along. So I thought quite carefully and I realised. One thing I have learned over the last year, actually, is a bit more about How To Make Knitwear That Fits. Or, at least, I have begun to engage with this as a concept. I think this is because as I get better at sewing I start to have some vague idea about how clothes behave on the body and what kinds of things are flattering, so, for instance (this isn’t about knitting. It is only day two and I am failing), I made this dress today

Those scarves were an absolute pig to sew together

And I learned that you cannot just saw off a tank top and attach a few scarves because if you do it looks peculiar (and I’m glad there were no witnesses to the first version), so I had to shape it and everything! And even an inch can make a difference! (That’s what she said). So a year ago, when I knitted something and it made me look like the Abominable Snowman, I accepted that God works in mysterious ways and sometimes knitted garments make you look like the Abominable Snowman and this is as it shall be forever and anon. However now when I knit something and it makes me look horrendous I can deconstruct what has gone wrong a little bit more, so I may still be looking like the Abominable Snowman but at least I know why*. You may be wondering at this stage where the photograph of me wearing something knitted and elegant which flatters my rather barrel-shaped body is, and I have to confess that there is not one as such a photograph does not yet exist. Because my hard won knowledge is still at the theoretical stage. But I am hoping I can move on from this to actually being able to produce garments which fit. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I actually saw a knitted garment in the wild today. It was a Noro cardigan and it was walking towards the Christian Wholefood Co-operative, where there is the mural of the Sarcastic Lion which Partner says raises its eyes to the heavens a little bit more every time someone buys a packet of mung beans.

Every time I see someone who is going to sprout their own seeds I am seized with cynicism. Seized

So I know if can be done. Woman in the Noro cardigan, I salute you, and I hope one day to join the ranks of Knitters Who Can Actually Wear Things They Have Knitted Out Of The House.

* Normally gauge, bad yarn choice, dodgy pattern, or set-in-sleeves for which I am the wrong build. I can highly recommend Knitting in Plain English for stuff like this, because it is mad but delightful. I wish Maggie Righetti had a blog because if she did I would go and leave her comments and bother her.