Knitting the Knitter's Almanac - January

One of my goals this year is to knit my way through Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac.  For non-knitters, Elizabeth Zimmermann was a prolific and influential knitter and designer whose patterns and work are well known by most knitters.  From what I've observed, knitters either love or hate EZ's patterns.  Her patterns often use mathematical formulas or vague instructions, which give a lot of leeway to the knitter following the pattern, but also require more thinking, creativity and math on the part of the individual knitter.  Depending on a person's reasons for knitting and ability level, her patterns can either be exciting and educational or frustrating and impossible.  Since I fall on the side of loving the creative and mathematical side of knitting, and thus EZ's style of pattern, I thought knitting through her Knitter's Almanac would be instructional and fun, and was a worthy project for the year. 

Unfortunately, I got a late start at January's project, an Aran (or cabled) sweater, because I was working on a non-knitting project that I wanted to finish.  I started knitting from the Almanac on January 24.  EZ's instructions for the Aran sweater include three cable patterns and the information and advice on how to arrange and adjust patterns to create your own individual sweater.  She also introduces the idea of first knitting a hat with exactly half the stitches needed for the sweater to see how your patterns will work together and to get a more accurate idea of the size your sweater will be.  This allows you to adjust your pattern if necessary for a better fit.

I used all three of EZ's cable patterns in my sweater, but I did not like the way she doubled up on the largest of the patterns in the center of her piece, so I modified her suggested pattern by centering the largest cable and adding two medium sized cables on either side.  I then knit the hat as suggested.



Front of hat



Side view

From knitting the hat, I learned I needed to add more stitches in order to make my sweater big enough, so I went back and modified my pattern, adding a few small cables and removing some of the spaces between the different cable patterns to add just the right amount of extra sweater.  I also noted that my added cable was not coming out as nicely as I would have liked.  EZ's patterns instructed me to knit through the back loop instead of the normal way, through the front loop, for the twisted cable.  This created a longer line, and also seemed to prevent some of the gapping that can occur when knitting cables.  The cable pattern I added did not use this back loop technique and thus did not look as clean as EZ's cables.  So, I decided on my sweater I would use the back loop technique to give the added a cable a consistent look with the other cables.

Compare EZ's twist on the left with the
twists of the new pattern on the right.



I knit the hat in only four days, but being twice as big around and five times as long, the sweater took a lot more time.  In addition, I had a few equipment problems while knitting that caused me to set the sweater aside temporarily.

Finished sweater 

Finished sweater

First, after I finished the tunic part of the sweater, I realized that the knitting needles I was using were too long for the sleeves.  I tried working the sleeves on double pointed needles (a technique that uses four or five special needles to knit in a circle rather than two needles with a cable in between), but found that the patterns were too complicated to work that way.  I needed a shorter circular needle set to complete the sleeves.  Then, I ran out of yarn before I finished the second sleeve, so I had to order more.  But finally, at the end of April, I finished all the parts of the sweater. Then came the hardest part.  The pattern instructed me to knit the body as a solid tube, and the sleeves as tapered tubes.  To attach the sleeves to the body, it told me to cut, yes cut, my work and stitch in my sleeves.  I was terrified!  I've never cut my work, and I was convinced it was a bad idea. . .  But I worked up the nerve, followed the instructions for machine basting the area and cutting and stitched in my sleeves.  It didn't destroy my work, and it looks quite nice, so while it's not a technique I truly feel comfortable with using on a regular basis, I won't necessarily shy away from doing it again if it seems the best method for a piece I'm making.

Detail of the front cable pattern

Detail of the other cable patterns.
Note the difference between the hat and sweater.

A lot of my reason for undertaking the project was to learn, so I just want to recap a few things I learned during this project.  Firstly, cables.  I had done a few cables before but certainly not this many or this intricate.  I certainly feel I understand cables better now, and could create my own or modify other cable patterns if I wanted or needed.  Secondly, a swatch hat.  I rarely make swatches to check my gauge, since I think they waste yarn (that's not to say I don't check my gauge, just that I don't make and keep swatches around to check my gauge).  But a hat isn't a waste of yarn, it's a useful item.  And seeing how the patterns work together is also useful.  So, for sweaters I'll probably use this technique to check and alter patterns I knit.  Thirdly, cutting.  As I said, it was new to me and scary.  But having overcome the fear, I see how it can be a beneficial tool in my arsenal of knitting, or rather finishing, techniques.

That it took me four months to complete a project expected to take only a month doesn't bode well for completing the rest of my goal of knitting the entire almanac in one year.  However, I wasn't idle during the times I put the project aside to get the right needles and yarn, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up.  Once I have February complete I'll post some pictures and commentary on those as well.