For years now, on Ravelry, when the site asks you if you want to set a challenge for yourself for the coming year, I have said I want to knit myself twelve sweaters.
I figured I could knit one sweater per month. Not every sweater needed to be a long-sleeved winter-weight sweater. I could whip up lightweight sweaters and tees for summer, right?
Nope. Not a single year did I accomplish this goal.
In fact, I had basically given up on setting myself a goal or a challenge for the year at all.
I think I began to default to saying I would make twelve projects throughout the year because I typically make at least that many hats for the year, especially around the holidays.
When I started this year, I had no clue that this would turn into a year of crocheting for me.
My Ravelry challenge for myself was originally twelve items.
In 2022, I didn’t bother to set any goals in Ravelry. In 2021, the only goal I set was one item. I ended up making three things. Prior to that, most of what I knit up in any given year was typically hats.
In 2023, which is not yet finished, I have completed fifty-seven projects. The goal I had randomly set was twelve items.
This year, in 2023, I have made thirty-two sweaters. I knit only one of them. I included cardigans in this count as well as pullovers. I included sweaters I made for myself, as well as for my son in this count.
I have completed five blankets. I am working on one right now as well.
This year, 2023, has been the greatest year for me actually finishing projects and makes. It has blown me away.
I have made three kitchen keyhole towels, using a crochet hook and some leftover yarns.
I made two rugs for the bathroom, using chenille yarns.
I have made hats. And more hats. And then more hats. Without having to wait a few days, or a few weeks, in between every hat because I was too tired and/or sore after making one to make the next one.
I know watching YouTube had a huge influence on me just figuring, ok, I have a yarn stash, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
I started with It’s Erin B’s top-down raglan tutorial. I made a bunch of them before I cottoned on to the fact that I don’t really like that scoop-style neckline.
Then I found SewSam’s wide sleeve crochet sweater tutorial…and the mathematic formula to make square necklines on your topdown raglan sweaters. That tutorial and math problem is pretty much my go-to ‘pattern’ for raglans.
Then there is Michelle Jasek who absolutely blows my mind over and over when she makes herself a sweater. I have learned so much from watching her and listening to her, and her brain works so much like my own some days…it’s a wonderful thing.
Now, after making so many sweaters this year, what have I learned? (You know, the title of this post and all…)
First of all, any random yarn scraps can make a cool and gorgeous sweater.
Second, I will no longer make sweaters, except maybe for cardigans, for my youngest. He needs to learn to make his own clothes because he is too picky about things for me to make them fit the way he wants.
Third, I need to make the sweaters for myself longer than I think. Sometimes I am sitting and crocheting, and I think, ok, let me hold this up to my body…but there are cats all over the place and I can’t stand up and wake them up…so I just…eyeball it. The sweaters I made this way do fit; I would just be happier if the hems were two or three inches longer.
Fourth, cuffs can be good things. I have been so happy I can make my sleeves as long as I want them. I love sleeves that come at least halfway up my hands. But, if there is no real cuff (ie, ribbing) then those sleeves can get in the way real fast when dealing with, say, young children, or … cats … or worse, dogs… lol.
But I also do not want to put ribbing on everything. I don’t want to do a few rounds of HDC, or SC, or anything else around a cuff. Sometimes I like the sleeves long and loose all the way to the wrist. So, again, not a deal breaker in the sweaters I have already made.
Five: for pullovers, I need to use larger than called for hooks to make the fabric. I tend to run hot. Wearing a sweater that was made with somewhat tight fabric, which makes the sweater warmer, is not always a good thing. I was sweating my tush off in 50-degree (F) weather wearing my Autumnal Equinox sweater because it was so well-made. Now, instead of the hook called for on the yarn label, I will go up two or more hook sizes so that the fabric is more airy as I work it up.
Six: in contrast, making blankets on hooks one or two sizes smaller than the yarn label calls for works out well. I learned that from Toni at TL Yarn Crafts. This woman has revolutionized the way I make my granny square blankets. This is something that actually sucks when I go to pick up a granny square blanket I started before I learned Toni’s techniques because I cannot for the life of me remember what it is I used to do or how I used to do it. I no longer chain one between granny clusters. I don’t chain as many in the corners now, but I cannot tell you how many I used to chain. At the start of a new round, I no longer chain, I think it was a six-stitch chain, but I am not sure. I prefer the way I do it now. I think I only have one other granny square blanket unfinished around here and it was one of the stash-buster ones. That means when I come upon it, I can finish it off wherever it is and turn it into a rug or something. I do remember I didn’t get too far into it before I set it aside for one reason or another.
Another thing I have learned, even though it applies to anything a person creates or makes themselves versus buying it in a store, but I would never have thought of it or done it to a knitted project—because in a knitted project I always followed a pattern and I didn’t want to deviate too far out from the pattern, is I can do what I want.
My one Halloween sweater I made the front grey with the Halloween stripe in the center of the chest. The back of the sweater is all black. Why? No real reason other than I could so I did.
The sweater I am working on currently, the front of the sweater is four different colors, each color a single row stripe before the next color, over and over. The ribbing is a different color than those four. The back of the sweater will be two of those four colors. Why? Again, because I can so I am.
I did think about doing the single-row colorwork for the back. That was the original plan. As I worked up the front panel of the sweater though I really liked the two colors that I am using for the back…and liking them that much is why I decided to do half the back panel in one color (the bottom) and half of the panel in the other color (the top of the panel). I always intended to use the fifth color for the ribbing and nothing else. I think it looks good that way and so I went with it.
I do not use a pattern most of the time for my sweater-making. I do start off with a tutorial or a written pattern the first time I make a sweater, such as my everygirl sweater. Then I mostly use the pattern or tutorial as a jumping off point for my own sweaters.
Another thing I learned from PassionKnit Kelsie (also YouTube) is to use a larger hook when making a hexagon cardigan. Her tutorial has been amazing for me. I had made one long before but I have wanted to make a better one ever since I finished the first one. I believe I used an H/5mm hook with worsted-weight yarn for the first one I made. For the one I made after watching PassioKnit Kelsie’s tutorial, I used a K hook and a worsted weight yarn. The second one I made is a long, knee-length cardigan that I did not need to seam anything up on once I completed it. It worked up super fast. It looks good. It’s a dream to wear. I love it.
Now, what I am about to say has nothing to do with the tutorial. This is all about me.
Next time, because I am already planning to make not one, but at least two more of these cardigans, as well as one of the pullover sweaters, I will use an I hook with worsted weight yarn, simply because I want a little bit of a denser fabric, but not super dense.
I will not work as many rounds around the initial hexagon so that the sleeves are not quite as wide. I also want pockets for the next one. Not because I want to stick pens or tidbits or random things in my pocket, but because I very much want to stick my hands in my pockets.
I do not want a hood, although PassioKnit Kelsie does have a separate tutorial for a hooded hexi cardi (as well as a separate video to make the hexagon pullover), but I do want to add more of a collar next time. Nothing huge or oversized, just something that flips over the back of my neck if I need it.
On at least one of the next two I am going to make, I want to add a ribbed edging to the entire thing, just for the sake of cohesiveness, I guess. Just because I want to show myself that I can do it. Even though I know I can do it. It’s the doing it that will give me that boost of I knew I could confidence that I can carry over into the next task.
I think that is it for right now. I may add more to this post—or write a second post to continue this conversation at some point.
Do you make your own clothes? Sew them? Knit them? Crochet them? Or make them for other people? Let me know what you do and what you have learned by doing it in the comments below.
Tabitha Low 