echoes

 
I began my third sweater this past June and I finished it the other night. It just needs one last blocking and then it is ready to wear. I am super, super excited. 

This one was a big experiment for me. I have been avoiding seams, especially big seams in sweaters. When I have thought of seams I found myself getting overwhelmed at all the knitting and sewing. I somehow imagined that I would need to knit about a hundred different pieces, but actually, it is usually only 4. And in the back of my mind I had all the voices I have heard about how hard it is to seam knitting echoing around. I couldn’t hear anything about how easy it was or fun, just those grumpy ones. I heard them so much I could tell I was beginning to think it was hard too and something to be avoided.

In early spring, I found a sweater I really liked. I was in trouble though it had seams, but only two knit pieces. I figured this was my chance to stretch and take on the challenge. To make it a bit more fun and enticing, I found some yarn that I splurged on (it also put a bit more pressure on me to finish this to the end—I really wanted to wear it).

The knitting went great. It was a pattern unlike and I had knit before, sort of knit sideways. I blocked it and got ready to sew. But as I pulled the pieces out of the water I noticed a large hole in the right side. Ugh. My heart sank and I was frustrated. The high of beginning a new part of the process quickly vanished. I began blocking the left side slowly and let my mind simmer on how to resolve the big hole.

A few weeks later I remembered a friend, Allison, telling me about her use of knitting lifelines. And it clicked. I put in a lifeline where I knew I could restart the pattern easily then pulled the whole front half of the sweater out, sort of sad, sort of liberating. It quickly knit back up and I was back at the blocking stage.

Before I began sewing I went back to all my resources for basic knitting techniques. I wanted to start fresh and put aside any past experiences or opinions about seams. I reminded myself it was okay to make a mistake and I could take it slow and start over if I had to. Then I made myself a good cup of chai, took a deep breath and dove in.

This sweater, while only having 2 pieces, had a whole lot of seaming. I needed to use 3 different techniques to complete everything. I reminded myself that this was all new to me, and gave myself some space to get the hang of it. And while I did make a few mistakes and had to start over more than a few times, I finished! And I actually loved doing the sewing. And to me, that was the craziest conclusion, what I was avoiding the most was what I ended up loving the most. Each time I wear this sweater I will be reminded of beliefs I let go of in order to create something new.