Knitting Kits are Brilliant
Whoever came up with the idea of knit kits was a genius! I mean, everything you need, to make something amazing, mailed right to your door has got to be one of the best ideas ever!
I’ve used a few of these kits from Wool and the Gang (color block baby sweater, and personalized Christmas stocking) and can tell you from experience, they don’t disappoint!
Included in the kit is the accurate weight yarn to use for the pattern in your choice of colors, a clearly written pattern, beautiful wooden needles, tapestry needle, and a few extra fun tidbits like stickers and a sew in label.
The perfect sweater for beginners
The kit I used this time is called the Party in the Cardi Sweater using Shiny Happy Cotton yarn in the color “Malibu”. This cotton is a great summer weight fiber and comes in so many color choices that you’ll find it hard to choose.
The whole sweater is knit up from 5 different rectangular pieces, which means you can knit away almost mindlessly without having to count stitches all day long. That also means it’s a great pattern for beginner knitters, especially if you’ve never made a sweater before. If you can knit a rectangle, than you can knit this sweater!
The Fishnet Stitch
You may have to learn a new stitch to make this kit. But as you know, all knitting stitches are made up of some form or combination of knit and purl, you can do this!
This particular stitch is the Fishnet Stitch, which has a great airy texture, and makes the perfect summer cardigan. It’s also one of those stitches that feels so appropriate to work on while you’re knitting in public at the beach.
What to do when things go wrong
As with any thing else in life, the more you do it, the better you get. The more I knit, the more I realize I don’t know, and the more motivated I am to push myself to learn even more.
At first I got a bit discouraged when the “alteration” I made to this pattern didn’t work out. Originally I thought I wanted to make this sweater more of a crop top then a longer draping cardigan. But my measurements were wrong, and my crop top was WAY too short. This isn’t the first time I’ve made something I wasn’t happy with: “Giving a New Meaning to Finished”. And I quickly devised a plan to save the project!
I ended up adding more length to my cropped version of the sweater by picking up stitches along the bottom edge and working the same fishnet stitch until I was happy with the length. Then, because its summer and because I couldn’t help myself, I added some fun little fringe to finish it off.
If I were to work this pattern again, I would stick with the original length in the Wool and the Gang pattern, but I still think I would add that fringe at the bottom, it’s one of my favorite parts!
Then, to celebrate the finishing of knitting a sweater, it’s always fun to twirl around and show it off!
Video by my daughter Ruby :)
xo Emily
