{"id":18097,"date":"2018-02-14T09:56:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T14:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=18097"},"modified":"2019-09-18T09:08:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:08:55","slug":"12-knit-sweaters-project-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/12-knit-sweaters-project-wrap-up\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Knit Sweaters Project wrap-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I decided to learn to knit by making a dozen self-designed sweaters, I didn&#8217;t really think I&#8217;d ever reach this point &#8211; surely I&#8217;d lose interest in knitting such time-consuming pieces before I&#8217;d completed 12 sweaters? <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/12sweaters1.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Apparently not! Shall we take a look at them all properly?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/sweaters1-3.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project: sweaters 1-3\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/sweaters4-6.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project: sweaters 4-6\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/sweaters7-9.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project: sweaters 7-9\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/sweaters10-12.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project: sweaters 10-12\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>(Find details of each sweater project in its own post, <a href=\"\/blog\/category\/knitting\/\">here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Project Stats<\/h2>\n<p>I started my first sweater in June 2012, and knitted the final stitch on my 12th sweater in June 2017. So that&#8217;s 12 sweaters in 60 months, or an average completion time of <strong>5 months per sweater<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I was very surprised to discover I&#8217;ve been working on this project for 5 whole years, but then, I&#8217;m busy with work a lot of the time, and summers in Africa aren&#8217;t very conducive to knitting sweaters, so maybe it&#8217;s not so surprising!<\/p>\n<h2>Techniques I&#8217;ve Learnt<\/h2>\n<p>This project has helped me learn a huge number of knitting techniques. And, while there&#8217;s still much, much more I can learn, I&#8217;m almost comfortable calling myself a knitter now without feeling like a fraud.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ve made sweaters from the top down and bottom up, seamed and seamless, flat and in the round, with raglan and set-in sleeves, and sleeveless. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve made cardigans and pullovers and a vest. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve tried lace and cabling, ribbing and all-over texture. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve used provisional and cable cast-ons, directional increases and decreases, mattress stitch, kitchener stitch and 3-needle bind-offs. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve used short rows and turned hems, attached i-cord and picked-up stitches. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve made buttonholes and inserted a zip. <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve learnt how to reliably make a sweater that will fit me, in a range of yarn weights and fibres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/12sweaters2.jpg\" alt=\"12 knit sweaters project\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I feel quite proud, seeing the whole dozen together like this. Although they almost all have features I&#8217;d change, with hindsight, were I to knit them again, I enjoy wearing all of them. (And I have my notes, so I can always reknit them with a few tweaks once the originals wear out!)<\/p>\n<p>All in all, I&#8217;d say I&#8217;ve met my original goal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I\u2019m teaching myself to knit by making myself a dozen self-designed sweaters, and learning new techniques with each one I make. I\u2019m hoping that, by the end of this journey, I\u2019ll be a real knitter and not have to survive on guesswork!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s time to own it: <strong>I am a real knitter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s Next?<\/h2>\n<p>Now I&#8217;ve completed my mission, I don&#8217;t have any plans to stop knitting sweaters for myself &#8211; it&#8217;s become a long-term hobby, and I can&#8217;t imagine <strong>buying<\/strong> a sweater at this point! I&#8217;ve already bought the yarn to make another half dozen &#8211; I think we can safely say I&#8217;m addicted&#8230; \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p><em>(You might also be wondering if I&#8217;m considering selling patterns for my knitwear designs&#8230; and I&#8217;ll save that topic for another post!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I decided to learn to knit by making a dozen self-designed sweaters, I didn&#8217;t really think I&#8217;d ever reach this point &#8211; surely I&#8217;d lose interest in knitting such time-consuming pieces before I&#8217;d completed 12 sweaters? Apparently not! Shall we take a look at them all properly? (Find details of each sweater project in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knitting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}