If Practice Makes Perfect

If practice makes perfect,  if repetition leads to learning,   if slow and steady wins the race,  then I'm onto something big with my creative top-down. 

After a week of knitting, here I am.

Just out of the gate, just past the start line, just barely underway.

And if bragging is not something one should do, then I am being punished.  Yesterday at knit group, Wilma asked how my CTD was coming.  I 'bragged' -  bragged I tell you  -  that my research and multiple starts had paid off.  I was away to the races.  I was on my way.  Things were going well.  I had it under control.


Of course I spoke to soon.  I am, today, just  barely underway because last night, yet again, I ripped it out.  The first few rips involved getting the neck size and shape just right.  The vision is for a  neck that is a bit more open than a crew neck but still high enough to be warm on a chilly winter's day. Rip.  Rip.   Once that was settled, I questioned  whether on an open neck  the back neck should be raised.  Rip.

Then came the issue of a bit of contrasting colour at the edge of the neck trim.  One row?  Two rows?  Rolled edge?  Ribbed?  Rip.  Rip.  Rip.  Rip.

In listing my 2012 goals, I said that I wanted to knit enough top-down sweaters to make that type of construction intuitive.  Into my first sweater, I have already learned an important lesson. When knitting top-down, the creative bits come at the beginning.  No time to envision them, no time to  think about how to do them through round after round of plain stockinet as would happen in a bottom up.  In top-down, I have to think  before I start.  Not something that comes naturally to me, for sure.

I always claim that the ripping and re-doing on my own designs doesn't bother me as it would on a pattern knit.  On a pattern, I presume that the designer has been through this process and I resent having to repeat it.  But when knitting pattern-free, it is part of the design process.  However - there is a limit.  I have had enough practice now, thank you very much.  Let's get this sweater started.