Black Cardigan with Lace Back
December 4, 2012This is a cardigan I made.
I mean I really made this cardigan. From SCRATCH. No pattern, I figured it all out. It is sort of a landmark project for me. I’ve made things without patterns before, don’t get me wrong. But there was a lot of this thing, this thing which I believe to be a truly mystical entity, called forethought that went into the making of this sweater.
In the past when I’ve tackled no pattern projects, they’ve been relatively small harmless things. Scarves, hats, gloves… all things that I have enough experience making and so little to rip back if all goes wrong that I generally just dive on in. But not with this sweater, no. This sweater I made love to. I spent time thinking about it, checking measurements, checking again, looking at crochet patterns, making actual real gauge swatches, measuring those swatches a few more times…
I really thought about this sweater before I made it, and really pulled out some stops from my crafting repertoire to make it. I thought about what I really wanted in my next sweater. I knew I really wanted to make a lace back sweater, and I knew I wanted it to be completely custom. There were simply no existing knitting patterns that were quite the shape I wanted, and I didn’t really want the lace to be knit anyway. I wanted a crocheted back. And I really wanted a sweater to replace this crappy factory made acrylic sweater that I had, which was very plain but a perfect everyday black sweater.
I thought about sewing, and how paper patterns are constructed. I measured the acrylic sweater I had to get the perfect dimensions and shaping. I did research and calculations for how knitting patterns are made to get a perfect sleeve cap. I learned how irish crochet works so I could utilize those techniques in constructing a back that was just the right shape. I even drafted a paper back so that I could crochet to the shape and block everything out nicely. I calculated everything and wrote everything out before I started knitting. Just like the designing books tell you you’re supposed to.
As a result of all that forethought it is absolutely my favorite thing I’ve ever made. It fits perfectly, and is very comfortable. My biggest regret is that the yarn I used is just too soft. It is machine washable, which is nice (not that I throw it in the machine willy nilly, but not having to worry about all that hard work accidentally felting in some freak accident is pretty nice) and extrafine merino, so you can’t complain about the way it feels… but it pills like effing crazy. The fights I’ve had with fuzz balls on this sweater could have ballads written about them. However, I did receive the yarn for free from my old boss at the yarn store (well.. kind of for free, kind of as a bonus for making their website at sub-par web development rates/incentive to wear it around the store) so I can’t complain too much about that either.
What I did not think to do, or maybe I did but just lacked the motivation to follow through with it, was document my process. I really feel like a sweater like this would be too complicated to make a tried and true pattern for (at least for me, because I barely managed to find out how to do Irish crochet, let alone write a pattern for it) I could have probably helped other people along who might be interested in figuring out how to make a similar pattern. Or who were even just curious about the process.
Lesson learned, though.. the next time I undertake something like this I am going to photograph all the steps along the way.