I have this comfy cardigan that I won’t wear in public. I knit it in January 2022. In usual Kelly fashion, I decided I needed to knit something to bring on a trip when I didn’t actually have time. We were leaving on the 29th on a road trip to Disneyland and I absolutely had to have a new hand knit cardigan to bring. I could always finish it on the 2-day drive.
Stockinette is my favorite and I wanted it oversized, so it was easy to choose a simple pattern. I picked up acrylic yarn from Jo-Ann. Like I said, we were about to go to Disneyland, so I needed to buy my yarn on the cheap. I knew it wouldn’t look good forever, but I thought it would last a few months before it needed a good shave. I finished it in time and it was a great road trip sweater.
This cardigan never saw the inside of Disneyland, though. It was a fuzzy balled up mess after 17 hours in the car. I loved everything else about it, but it looked so shabby.
I still wear it around the house to this day. And Bruno loves getting wrapped up in it on my lap. But the yarn choice made it impossible for it to fulfill its destiny as my vacation sweater.
How did I get it so wrong? The pattern was fine, the color was fine. The gauge and fit were both just what I wanted. I forgot to ask myself one question.
What is the purpose of this sweater?
If I had taken a few minutes to think about it, I would have known that I wanted a sweater that would look good after lots of wear.
The yarn I chose was perfect if I had wanted a cozy lounging sweater that I could wrap around me and Bruno together. Before Bruno, it was Indy and Vader. All of my chihuahuas have loved this thing.
How many times do we jump straight to the cast-on because we found a pattern or yarn that we can’t wait to use? Or because we need the sweater for a trip in 3 weeks?
We invest so much time and skill into our projects. Just think how fulfilling each project could be if we made sure it would serve its purpose before starting?
When we are making something by hand, we may as well take the extra few minutes in the planning stage to make sure we know exactly what we want.
Kelly Spenhoff 