The 10 Year Cardigan

I learned how to crochet when I was 11.  For years thereafter I seemed to always have a crochet hook in hand.   My Mom was, and still is, a proficient knitter and over the years she had attempted to teach me her craft, to no great success.  I did, though, knit a few scarves and then some newborn hats for a project in Kenya, but I still wasn’t enjoying it the way I love crochet.  I tend to be somewhat attention deficient (!), so crochet seemed to suit my personality better given that I could start and finish a project in an afternoon!

Ten years ago, I gave myself a challenge to improve my very basic knitting skills!  I decided that my first project would be cardigan for myself.  I searched the internet, to no avail.  I finally visited a yarn store in Montréal where I fell in love with a  beautiful pattern for a cardigan in a German knitting magazine, Rebecca.  It even had the English translation!  I bought the magazine together with the wool I needed, and off I went with a skip in my step to start my new knitting challenge!

Well, that skip in my step didn’t last long … after finishing the ribbing part (knit 1, purl 1!) of the back of the sweater, I couldn’t get the pattern right.  I ripped it out so many times trying to decipher the pattern to absolutely no success.  After several tries, my Mom couldn’t figure it out either, so we concluded that it had to do with the translation of the original German pattern.   I threw my knitting needles down in despair, thinking that I’d never succeed in knitting myself, or anyone else for that matter, something other than a hat or scarf!

And then, months later, I came across this cardigan!  The gauge seemed right for the wool I had, so I cast on the necessary stitches and off I went happily knitting away.  It was an easy and fun knit for a novice.  That being said, it took me a few years to finish it!  I’d get bored and would pick up a crochet pattern and then a few months later would go back to the cardigan.  One day a few years ago, I finally bound off the last piece and put it away in one of my many wool bags where it sat for another few years.  I honestly don’t know why I waited so long to block it and sew it together, but somehow the idea of finishing it up seemed too daunting!  Don’t ask, I have no clue why I felt this way because in the end, it was a rather simple task.

So, here it is 10 years later, my first and only knitted cardigan blocked, sewn together, edged in crab stitch and buttons put on.  I’m rather happy with the end result even though it seems to be tighter fitting than it would have been 10 years ago!  However, it’s finally done and now I can move on to another knitting project – I’ll let you know how I’m doing with it in a few years!