I was a knitter before I was a sewer. I was just as obsessed with knitting a few years ago as I am with sewing now. My fabric stash is probably bigger than my yarn stash which is a tangled mess of random skeins that wouldn't make much more than a hat. It makes me a bit sad to look at it and gives me a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that my fabric stash could someday go the same way when I find my next obsession.
I still knit occasionally especially when my sister-in-law drags me into fancy New Jersey yarn shops. (Kidding. Has anyone ever had to drag you into a yarn or fabric shop?) I needed a winter hat, and new yarn is always better than tangled old yarn, so I bought a gorgeous skein of Madeleine Tosh Vintage in a beautiful silver-y gray color called Silver Fox from this shop.
The relative speed at which you can complete a sewn garment has totally ruined me for knitting. I keep starting things and not finishing them. I like to knit until I get to the interesting part - cables, lace - whatever - then I'm ready to move on. But I finally finished something!
As scary as it is to put pictures of myself on my blog, here's my finished Dogwood Hat.
Great pattern that fits perfectly.
I had just enough yarn leftover to also make a pair of fingerless gloves from this pattern.
Well almost. The top ribbing on the second glove is about 2 rows too short.
So my two completions and the awesome Tosh yarn motivated me to try to knit myself a whole sweater, but enter the Ravelry Paralysis.
I have spent hours and hours on Ravelry trying to figure out what to make.
Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love Ravelry, but I can't stop browsing and make up my darn mind. Have you been there? Done that?
I'm determined to use some Mission Falls 1824 yarn which isn't really the right color for me and is a bit too bulky for the patterns I like, but I want to prove to myself I can actually finish a sweater before I invest in any more yarn.
But then again, wouldn't I be much more likely to finish it if I loved the yarn? (Okay that's just rationalization for yarn shopping.)
I think I have it narrowed down to:
February Lady Sweater - Over 12,000 people can't be wrong, right?
Tea Leaves Cardigan - I already started this one once. Actually I finished it, but i made a mess of it trying to do it partly on my knitting machine and partly not. I was so disgusted I think I gave it to GoodWill. I should have unraveled it for the yarn.
This Cia sweater is high on my list for when I give myself permission to purchase new yarn.
What do you think? Are you a knitter and a sewer? How do you balance the two? Have you made any of these sweaters? What did you think?
Happy weekend!
