For patterns where you pick up stitches from the neckline for the collar, I knit the collar before the sleeves and the body precisely because of the cinching in that happens. It's much easiser to adjust the lengths of the sleeves and the body after that. Hope you like your next project more!
I’m not sure of all the details of how you blocked it but I’ve heard that acrylic doesn’t work well with wet blocking. It works better with heat blocking. So you can try using a steamer, blow dryer or an iron (with something between) to block it.
Thank you for sharing your trials and tribulations knitting this sweater. The neck pulling everything up is something I learned this way too, and I now don't finish sleeves until collars are done. And I add bust darts in front to make them long enough
I knitted some sweater in acrylic and I put them on the dryer to relax the yarn after washing. Throw it in tge dry on a full cycle, you can't go wrong trying it. It away worked for me
Top down is a good way to go. my heart breaks but you did learn so much!! Well done and 10,000 hours is what people say we need for deep learning. So you got some of those hours in this!! Congrats! You learned so much and that's amazing. And be wary of stores that dont carry the yarn type you know you need. THANK you!!
you have to steam block. acrylic responds to water differently from wool. i just wet blocked my 85% acrylic sweater held with mohair double, it almost didn't grow at all. this morning i steam blocked it on the hanger and i literally saw acrylic elongate and expand as it got hit with the steam
When learning new stitches or techniques, it is a great habit to use life lines until you get the hang of the pattern. It takes a lot less time and frustration to thread the line than it does to tink back without dropping stitches. Cable rows can be hard track if you have to tink them.
Aww. Live and learn, I guess! If you want to try cables again, you could try a woolen-spun yarn instead of a worsted-spun one. The cables pop less, but the overall weight of the garment is much lighter. I get the impulse to just buy what the local yarn shop has, but it's worth waiting till you can find the right yarn if it's a long-term project like this. Wool is MUCH more forgiving, not just in blocking but in laddering down to fix mistakes. (The other comments are right that you didn't block this in a way that works for the fiber content though. Also, be aware that plant fibers don't behave anything like wool in blocking either.) A darker yarn with some speckles in it would hide your mistakes a lot more easily. You picked a good yarn for seeing what you're doing, but that also means all the mistakes still show really badly at the end. Overall... I think you're too hard on yourself, and you can absolutely make a textured sweater in the future! But yeah, these mistakes are pretty visible and pretty bad. I'd be disappointed too. Those front cable issues are particularly egregious. That's the kind of thing that will generally make a sweater feel unwearable and is worth going back to fix at the time even if it means ripping a lot out. This is less about knitting experience and more about emotional fortitude to keep redoing whole chunks of the sweater instead of hoping that you'll feel better about it later even while knowing you probably won't. Don't underestimate how much of the process is just managing one's own emotions. Does your local yarn shop offer a project clinic? Sometimes, they have someone who can look at your knitting and tell you why your cable looks off and how to fix it. I wouldn't necessarily do the neck before everything else, but what I would do is get 90% of the way through the body and sleeves, then finish the neck, and then adjust the final length after that. (My personal achilles heel is sleeves that are waaaaay too tight around the biceps, for what it's worth. I have multiple sweaters sitting in the Fixit February pile from that issue. We all have things we should have redone at the time and were idiots about.)
Oh man! Whenever you try something for the first time-it can be a little daunting but now you’ve picked up so many great skills in the process. Keep it up, it will definitely get better!!
Thank you so much for sharing this video and your journey!! Try it again when you've healed from the Traumas this pattern has caused (I'm also knitting one and have quite literally restarted twice - I feel your pain).
Well hey! You may have been much more upset if you'd invested in a nice wool to knit it. You definitely did what all good knitters do, which is challenge yourself and problem solve, and learning new techniques as you like. I think you'll find that if you come back to a similar pattern in the future, things that used to be daunting or challenging are much easier than before. What a great documentation of the learning process of what can be an extremely frustrating hobby at times haha. I can see how you improved as you moved through the sweater! I just knit the pullover vest version of this pattern for my son and I really enjoyed it once I got in the flow as well, and I'm planning the second one!
this is why i always knit the neckline before the sleeves... im so sorry this happened to you! really hope you do make another one someday and itll go much better ❤❤❤
@deannacrafts24 BTW, your cabled sweater was an awesome job for your 3rd sweater, despite the problems. It was a very challenging pattern. I bet if you tried it again, it would go a lot easier for you.
Yeah, i understand the frustration. If I were you, i would just frog it all and put it aways for a while before trying again, or using the yarn for something else. It may be painful, after you put so much time, work and nerves into it, but if you won't wear it, there is no reason to keep it. As some already wrote, doing the neckband as soon as possible might be somehing to remember for the future. Also, when you are looking for a specific yarn and the store doesn't have it and the employee tells you: 'take this one, it'll be fiiiiine...' DO NOT believe that. Just leave and order online, a different yarn will behave differently.
I appreciate your sharing. There is a reason that I have WIP time out and WIP jail depending on the severity of the offense. WIP jail means you will be undone, once I've healed enough from the trauma to do so. I've also been knitting garments for about 2 years (I'm in my 3rd year.) and was looking at textured sweaters. I think I will try a moss stitch accented sweater and then try a very simple cable knit in the round pullover vs having all the things in one sweater. I've only ever done cables flat for a 3/4 length cardigan.
next time - don't save the neckline for last! you can do it at any point after the body is joined and it'll allow you to try it on with a much better idea of fit as you go!
Thank you so much for sharing this, I am very slowly struggling with the salty days, which is built in a similar way. I now think it will be too short 😢
The sweater is cute! I would push the sleeve up just a little to make it 3/4 sleeves & then put a cami under for a cropped sweater vibe ❤ Super Cute & Beautiful Color. Love your tenacity!! Great Job for a 1st year knitter!! Keep going 🎉 Happy New Year 🎊
Well done finishing it! As, from what I see, you knit from top to bottom, you might be able to 'unfinish' the sleeves and body and lengthen them. If you have yarn left, that ist. The mistakes in the back are unfortunate. Maybe you can embroider something on top? Fix it with doublestitch? Sew in a patch, that makes it look deliberate instead? But seeing the material you chose, in the long term you'll probably be better off knitting it again out of wool/nicer material. I have a textured sweater on my to do list, as well. And I already know I'll hate knitting it. But you can't buy what I want in a material I'd like. So, that's that.
I understand the struggle!! I've been knitting my second sweater and still trying to work out so many kinks from the first one! It's such a learning process :') but you did amazing on just understanding the pattern! BTW I love the crochet t-shirt you are wearing in your voice overs! Do you have a pattern for that?
Everyone in my circle has a different allover sweater pattern ,knitted in one piece in the old traditional gansey style. I give everyone their own individual pattern . I ONLY knit this way. NO SEWING! Lol! And the patterns are interesting all the time! ❤
I applaud you for trying something that was a challenge. I think you would have had fewer issues if you had used a wool or wool blend yarn. But the fact that you persevered and learned so much from the experience is gold so I hope you will make the sweater again (with a more forgiving yarn!).
I totally get it. I just finished my first textured, petite knit's Storm sweater. I did the folded collar right after I split for sleeves. P. S. The top of my back panel is trash and I left it til. 😂
Did you swatch? I know it seems like a waste of time, but it really gives you a lot of information. You swatch in the pattern of the sweater. It’s a good way to practice the stitches you’re going to use, and to measure if you’re knitting the right size. It’s a pain to do it, but saves you time and money in the long run.
I kind of liked it better without the neckline. If you liked it too you could probably take off the neckline and that might be the best way to salvage it into something you'd like better. Looks cute regardless! I'm terrified to even try cabling 😂 one of these days I will but just the fact that you can make it look like cables is skill!
Seems to me this knitting adventure has been quite the learning curve for you. I’m so sorry it turned out the way it did. Perhaps a few tips can help just in case you might want to venture into knitting a textured sweater again. 1. Cables are heavy. Natural woolen-style yarns weigh less. Also: nylon/acrylic yarns tend to pill. To me that’s a waste of all that hard work. 2. Patterns using combinations of stitches are easier if you follow a chart and if you use one or more post-it notes to keep track of where you are. 3. If you have them, use needles with interchangeable tips that have a tiny hole near the connection between the cable and the tip. Thread a long piece of dental floss through that hole and tie it with a knot. Knit a row and that floss will go through your stitches. Once your row/round is done, slide the stitches beyond that hole, cut the knot, and pull a little on the floss: instant lifeline without the time spent threading it through every stitch. If something goes wrong, you can just unravel until you hit that lifeline. Because it’s so little work to thread it through, you can add lots of lifelines and it won’t hurt as much to unravel. You don’t lose hours trying to ladder down to fix a few stitches either. That often means unraveling costs you less time than laddering up. 4. As others have already said, it's a good idea to put the body and sleeves on hold and to finiqh the neck early, unless you're 100% certain of the fit. With any new pattern I knit, I'll leave the ends (body, sleeves) unfinished until I'm done with the collar and can try it on. Then I'll check how much yarn I have left, how much I've still got to knit before deciding on whether I do long sleeves, oversized sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, a cropped body, regular length body or oversized body length. This means I have options and fewer surprises. 5. Printing out the charts so I can scribble on them if and when I hit an issue helps A LOT because if I'm shelling out money for a pattern, I want to be able to te-knit it without all the questions and calculations and re-dos of thay first attempt. Our bodies aren't all created equal. Neither are our preferences. For example, I've knitted 3 Ranunculus sweaters so far. each has a few variations to suit the wearer. The pattern is meant to have loads of positive ease and that's not the preference of any of the recipients/wearers. All of them wanted it longer. All of them have different cast-ons for the collar (one even has a turtleneck, which isn't in the pattern at all). All of them are for wearers with significantly different body types from very tall and willowy to petite and with a generous figure. All had different arm length and all sweaters were knitted with very different yarns. But my notes on my previous iterationsmassively helped me with my subsequent versions. 6. Don't trust the gauge swatch. Ever. Re-measure your gauge on your actual knitting. Once you've knitted far enough, check your gauge. While you're at it, whip out your scales and weigh what's still on your ball of yarn to estimate how many yards/metres you've knitted up. This 'll help you to avoid having to play yarn chicken. Because not only gauge matters, grist also does. This comes from my experience as a spinner. Not all yarns that have a same thickness and yardage knit out to produce the same amount of fabric. You might think you've got plenty but might fall short, or you might end up with lots of leftovers. Leftover yarn isn't all that big of an issue. But not enough is a pain in the bleep. An elegant solution is to leave the hem, cuffs and collar for last and if you can't back order the exact same colour/yarn/dye bath, if to finish those with something else, either similar or entirely different. I hope this totally unsolicited advice on knitting sweaters, jackets, cardigans etc. helps. Happy knitting!
I think you should try it again but order the Aran wool . With the knowledge you have now it shouldn’t be as painful and long an ordeal. YOU DID A GOOD JOB for a newby 🧶
I loooove this video! It is so good to know other people struggle too. 🩷 I felt so bad, as I couldn't get my stitches right a while ago. I was so mad at myself. 🥹 But there is progress and that's what it is all about.
For patterns where you pick up stitches from the neckline for the collar, I knit the collar before the sleeves and the body precisely because of the cinching in that happens. It's much easiser to adjust the lengths of the sleeves and the body after that. Hope you like your next project more!
Thanks for the tip! I’m knitting my first sweater right now. I’ll do this
I’m not sure of all the details of how you blocked it but I’ve heard that acrylic doesn’t work well with wet blocking. It works better with heat blocking. So you can try using a steamer, blow dryer or an iron (with something between) to block it.
Thank you for sharing your trials and tribulations knitting this sweater. The neck pulling everything up is something I learned this way too, and I now don't finish sleeves until collars are done. And I add bust darts in front to make them long enough
In the future, always pick up and knit the neckline before you finish the sleeves and body- It will always cause them to rise.
I knitted some sweater in acrylic and I put them on the dryer to relax the yarn after washing. Throw it in tge dry on a full cycle, you can't go wrong trying it. It away worked for me
Top down is a good way to go. my heart breaks but you did learn so much!! Well done and 10,000 hours is what people say we need for deep learning. So you got some of those hours in this!! Congrats! You learned so much and that's amazing. And be wary of stores that dont carry the yarn type you know you need. THANK you!!
you have to steam block. acrylic responds to water differently from wool. i just wet blocked my 85% acrylic sweater held with mohair double, it almost didn't grow at all. this morning i steam blocked it on the hanger and i literally saw acrylic elongate and expand as it got hit with the steam
It’s 20% acrylic so i thought wet block would be be fine but you might be right! I’ll give it a try w my steamer and fingers crossed haha
When learning new stitches or techniques, it is a great habit to use life lines until you get the hang of the pattern. It takes a lot less time and frustration to thread the line than it does to tink back without dropping stitches. Cable rows can be hard track if you have to tink them.
It sounds like you learned a lot! That knowledge is invaluable, and you gained it firsthand. That sounds like a success to me!
You did a great job on a very complicated pattern. 👏🏼 Wabi sabi!! Anything you can learn from is always worth doing and being proud of! 💪🏼
Aww. Live and learn, I guess!
If you want to try cables again, you could try a woolen-spun yarn instead of a worsted-spun one. The cables pop less, but the overall weight of the garment is much lighter. I get the impulse to just buy what the local yarn shop has, but it's worth waiting till you can find the right yarn if it's a long-term project like this.
Wool is MUCH more forgiving, not just in blocking but in laddering down to fix mistakes. (The other comments are right that you didn't block this in a way that works for the fiber content though. Also, be aware that plant fibers don't behave anything like wool in blocking either.) A darker yarn with some speckles in it would hide your mistakes a lot more easily. You picked a good yarn for seeing what you're doing, but that also means all the mistakes still show really badly at the end.
Overall... I think you're too hard on yourself, and you can absolutely make a textured sweater in the future! But yeah, these mistakes are pretty visible and pretty bad. I'd be disappointed too. Those front cable issues are particularly egregious. That's the kind of thing that will generally make a sweater feel unwearable and is worth going back to fix at the time even if it means ripping a lot out. This is less about knitting experience and more about emotional fortitude to keep redoing whole chunks of the sweater instead of hoping that you'll feel better about it later even while knowing you probably won't. Don't underestimate how much of the process is just managing one's own emotions.
Does your local yarn shop offer a project clinic? Sometimes, they have someone who can look at your knitting and tell you why your cable looks off and how to fix it.
I wouldn't necessarily do the neck before everything else, but what I would do is get 90% of the way through the body and sleeves, then finish the neck, and then adjust the final length after that.
(My personal achilles heel is sleeves that are waaaaay too tight around the biceps, for what it's worth. I have multiple sweaters sitting in the Fixit February pile from that issue. We all have things we should have redone at the time and were idiots about.)
Oh man! Whenever you try something for the first time-it can be a little daunting but now you’ve picked up so many great skills in the process. Keep it up, it will definitely get better!!
Thank you so much for sharing this video and your journey!! Try it again when you've healed from the Traumas this pattern has caused (I'm also knitting one and have quite literally restarted twice - I feel your pain).
Well hey! You may have been much more upset if you'd invested in a nice wool to knit it. You definitely did what all good knitters do, which is challenge yourself and problem solve, and learning new techniques as you like. I think you'll find that if you come back to a similar pattern in the future, things that used to be daunting or challenging are much easier than before. What a great documentation of the learning process of what can be an extremely frustrating hobby at times haha. I can see how you improved as you moved through the sweater! I just knit the pullover vest version of this pattern for my son and I really enjoyed it once I got in the flow as well, and I'm planning the second one!
Yes!! I def learned a lot and will be more prepared next time I knit a textured sweater. Happy knitting on your second pullover!!
Though, a fully wool yarn would have recovered better and also be easier to frog! Agree....
this is why i always knit the neckline before the sleeves... im so sorry this happened to you! really hope you do make another one someday and itll go much better ❤❤❤
At least you learned a lot on the journey. 😄 BTW, bamboo is super heavy too.
It is? 😭 ok maybe not bamboo then haha! I’ll have to do fiber research lol
@deannacrafts24 BTW, your cabled sweater was an awesome job for your 3rd sweater, despite the problems. It was a very challenging pattern. I bet if you tried it again, it would go a lot easier for you.
@@heatherholly6563 thank you!! :) i will probably try again in the future haha it will be my redemption
I’m sorry. I feel your pain. Cables in wool are a thing of beauty. I love your crochet tee. Do you have a pattern for it?
Ty I was doubting if I should continue now I am sure I will givd up
Yeah, i understand the frustration. If I were you, i would just frog it all and put it aways for a while before trying again, or using the yarn for something else. It may be painful, after you put so much time, work and nerves into it, but if you won't wear it, there is no reason to keep it.
As some already wrote, doing the neckband as soon as possible might be somehing to remember for the future.
Also, when you are looking for a specific yarn and the store doesn't have it and the employee tells you: 'take this one, it'll be fiiiiine...' DO NOT believe that. Just leave and order online, a different yarn will behave differently.
I appreciate your sharing. There is a reason that I have WIP time out and WIP jail depending on the severity of the offense. WIP jail means you will be undone, once I've healed enough from the trauma to do so. I've also been knitting garments for about 2 years (I'm in my 3rd year.) and was looking at textured sweaters. I think I will try a moss stitch accented sweater and then try a very simple cable knit in the round pullover vs having all the things in one sweater. I've only ever done cables flat for a 3/4 length cardigan.
next time - don't save the neckline for last! you can do it at any point after the body is joined and it'll allow you to try it on with a much better idea of fit as you go!
Thank you so much for sharing this, I am very slowly struggling with the salty days, which is built in a similar way. I now think it will be too short 😢
The sweater is cute! I would push the sleeve up just a little to make it 3/4 sleeves & then put a cami under for a cropped sweater vibe ❤ Super Cute & Beautiful Color. Love your tenacity!! Great Job for a 1st year knitter!! Keep going 🎉 Happy New Year 🎊
Well done finishing it!
As, from what I see, you knit from top to bottom, you might be able to 'unfinish' the sleeves and body and lengthen them. If you have yarn left, that ist.
The mistakes in the back are unfortunate. Maybe you can embroider something on top? Fix it with doublestitch? Sew in a patch, that makes it look deliberate instead?
But seeing the material you chose, in the long term you'll probably be better off knitting it again out of wool/nicer material.
I have a textured sweater on my to do list, as well. And I already know I'll hate knitting it. But you can't buy what I want in a material I'd like. So, that's that.
Thank you for sharing your (painful) experience because it will help other knitters. 🩵
I understand the struggle!! I've been knitting my second sweater and still trying to work out so many kinks from the first one! It's such a learning process :') but you did amazing on just understanding the pattern!
BTW I love the crochet t-shirt you are wearing in your voice overs! Do you have a pattern for that?
I don’t! I free handed it with raglan increases at the shoulders
🧶 I love the color! It is beautiful! So beautiful I’m going to order some!!
Everyone in my circle has a different allover sweater pattern ,knitted in one piece in the old traditional gansey style. I give everyone their own individual pattern . I ONLY knit this way. NO SEWING! Lol! And the patterns are interesting all the time! ❤
i've read that for acrylic you want to steam it because the wet blocking does not work for it
Ya definitely one you can get the neck line done do it right away. I noticed that in my past knits
I applaud you for trying something that was a challenge. I think you would have had fewer issues if you had used a wool or wool blend yarn. But the fact that you persevered and learned so much from the experience is gold so I hope you will make the sweater again (with a more forgiving yarn!).
Try "Wool at ease" available at Michaels and Joann's
I totally get it. I just finished my first textured, petite knit's Storm sweater. I did the folded collar right after I split for sleeves. P. S. The top of my back panel is trash and I left it til. 😂
Doing the collar before the sleeves is so smart !!! I’m gonna do that next time haha
Did you swatch? I know it seems like a waste of time, but it really gives you a lot of information. You swatch in the pattern of the sweater. It’s a good way to practice the stitches you’re going to use, and to measure if you’re knitting the right size. It’s a pain to do it, but saves you time and money in the long run.
Steam blocking will kill the acrylic and stretch it foryou
I knit the Folklore sweater-Taylor Swift-yikes! What a mess.
Sometimes projects end up being for learning and not necessarily wearing! You are now more skilled and will continue to improve!
Lol... blocking is magic?
You did a really good job considering your experience. I think your sweater is really charming looking.
Just unravel it and start over. Simple.
I kind of liked it better without the neckline. If you liked it too you could probably take off the neckline and that might be the best way to salvage it into something you'd like better. Looks cute regardless! I'm terrified to even try cabling 😂 one of these days I will but just the fact that you can make it look like cables is skill!
You are soo brave. You finished it until the end and learned a lot and i again learned from you ! I wish you a very fun knitting year 2025 🎉
Seems to me this knitting adventure has been quite the learning curve for you. I’m so sorry it turned out the way it did.
Perhaps a few tips can help just in case you might want to venture into knitting a textured sweater again.
1. Cables are heavy. Natural woolen-style yarns weigh less. Also: nylon/acrylic yarns tend to pill. To me that’s a waste of all that hard work.
2. Patterns using combinations of stitches are easier if you follow a chart and if you use one or more post-it notes to keep track of where you are.
3. If you have them, use needles with interchangeable tips that have a tiny hole near the connection between the cable and the tip. Thread a long piece of dental floss through that hole and tie it with a knot. Knit a row and that floss will go through your stitches. Once your row/round is done, slide the stitches beyond that hole, cut the knot, and pull a little on the floss: instant lifeline without the time spent threading it through every stitch. If something goes wrong, you can just unravel until you hit that lifeline. Because it’s so little work to thread it through, you can add lots of lifelines and it won’t hurt as much to unravel. You don’t lose hours trying to ladder down to fix a few stitches either. That often means unraveling costs you less time than laddering up.
4. As others have already said, it's a good idea to put the body and sleeves on hold and to finiqh the neck early, unless you're 100% certain of the fit. With any new pattern I knit, I'll leave the ends (body, sleeves) unfinished until I'm done with the collar and can try it on. Then I'll check how much yarn I have left, how much I've still got to knit before deciding on whether I do long sleeves, oversized sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, a cropped body, regular length body or oversized body length. This means I have options and fewer surprises.
5. Printing out the charts so I can scribble on them if and when I hit an issue helps A LOT because if I'm shelling out money for a pattern, I want to be able to te-knit it without all the questions and calculations and re-dos of thay first attempt. Our bodies aren't all created equal. Neither are our preferences. For example, I've knitted 3 Ranunculus sweaters so far. each has a few variations to suit the wearer. The pattern is meant to have loads of positive ease and that's not the preference of any of the recipients/wearers. All of them wanted it longer. All of them have different cast-ons for the collar (one even has a turtleneck, which isn't in the pattern at all). All of them are for wearers with significantly different body types from very tall and willowy to petite and with a generous figure. All had different arm length and all sweaters were knitted with very different yarns. But my notes on my previous iterationsmassively helped me with my subsequent versions.
6. Don't trust the gauge swatch. Ever. Re-measure your gauge on your actual knitting. Once you've knitted far enough, check your gauge. While you're at it, whip out your scales and weigh what's still on your ball of yarn to estimate how many yards/metres you've knitted up. This 'll help you to avoid having to play yarn chicken. Because not only gauge matters, grist also does. This comes from my experience as a spinner. Not all yarns that have a same thickness and yardage knit out to produce the same amount of fabric. You might think you've got plenty but might fall short, or you might end up with lots of leftovers. Leftover yarn isn't all that big of an issue. But not enough is a pain in the bleep. An elegant solution is to leave the hem, cuffs and collar for last and if you can't back order the exact same colour/yarn/dye bath, if to finish those with something else, either similar or entirely different.
I hope this totally unsolicited advice on knitting sweaters, jackets, cardigans etc. helps.
Happy knitting!
I think you should try it again but order the Aran wool . With the knowledge you have now it shouldn’t be as painful and long an ordeal. YOU DID A GOOD JOB for a newby 🧶
I loooove this video! It is so good to know other people struggle too. 🩷 I felt so bad, as I couldn't get my stitches right a while ago. I was so mad at myself. 🥹 But there is progress and that's what it is all about.