More or less at the same time that I adopted cats (and I do not think that the events are unrelated) I developed a passion for knitting, which also perfectly matched the equal passion the kittens showed for wool balls.
One day, during a coffee break at the office, one of my female colleagues talked to me about the hat she had been knitting from over a year and the fact that her mother was very good at it and had been knitting many sweaters and blankets for as long as she could remember. I had also seen my mother do it when I was younger and I actually made a scarf once, when I was about 13 years old. However, considering the fact that I never saw an actual completed item made by my mom, and my scarf having resulted in a too short item that I never adjusted (hence worn) I haven’t picked up knitting needles ever since.
And it would have stayed that way if my friend hadn’t also talked about this great website, We Are Knitters, selling soft and completely natural wools but most importantly ready-to-use kits to knit any piece you choose on their website. Ok, so I have a soft spot for “ready-to-use” things, and I love fluffy warm scarves, so I decided to at least try to make something easy and useful.
My first piece of clothes was a snood (it took me 2 hours to decide which one was the most perfect one) and 2 days of YouTube videos and knitting, starting over, knitting, to make it. But it felt so relaxing and fulfilling (and actually good-looking) that I went back to buy thinner wool to make a second one in a different colour right away!
And although the result is so great that I could keep declining it in every colour (I bought some natural white wool to make another for my mum), I decided to try something different to keep it challenging. So I started knitting a hat (the model is Braille Beanie) for my dad that should look like this in the end (the only difficult part about it is the pom-pom I guess).
But the next real challenge that won’t be achieved as fast as I did the others is the Fortezza Sweater (I bought the pattern and the wool on the same website) and it is rated as an intermediary difficulty (so far I have only done easy/beginners items).
I was so excited when I received the wool that I started right away even though I haven’t finished the hat yet (but it is not meant for me so I have more time)! I already finished the front side over the week-end but something is definitely wrong. It is way too small compared to the picture (it is supposed to be a quite large cozy sweater) so I might start over, but all the better, I was afraid I would finish it too soon and have to buy more wool to keep knitting (it has to be said that it is really quite expensive, for some items it is almost more convenient to buy them already made/imperfections free). So I’ll start over and if it turns out good this is definitely something that I will make in many different colours!
I also just learned that I will be spending some holidays in the Argentinian mountains at 3800m high (more to come in the next post) so I’ll definitely need to be well prepared and covered for the cold (this is just the perfect excuse)!
52 Weeks Challenge 