My Knitting Master

What a way to replace a hoodie!
I had this in the works for about a year!

A couple years ago my youngest brother came to me and said, “Hey, let’s learn to knit.” 

“Ok,” I said, “I’ll talk to the lady in our church who knits and see if she’ll teach us.” 

Instead I walked away and promptly forgot about it. Yes, because that’s how cool of a big sister I am. 

This happened a couple of times until one day he walked out of his bedroom and said, “Hey! Look what I made!” 

We stared in amazement at the beautiful scarf in his hands. Knitting ladies oohed and ahhed over his remarkable tension and perfect gauge. 

When asked, "How did you learn this?" 

“YouTube.” was his reply.

Fast forward a year and my brother drags me over to a lady and says, “Tell her she needs to learn to knit. She can’t just crochet.”

After a long conversation, in which I learned many interesting things, like the fact that knitting was invented by fishermen and in the beginning was strictly done by men until women stole it from them; or knitting was made for clothing because of it’s built in stretch, I was converted. I picked up my first set of needles and learned to cast on! 

It has been two years since I began to knit and after multiple Interesting knit projects,  I have finished my first full sweater! 

Meet My Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors

It is super beautiful, warm and I love to wear it! It has replaced several old hoodies and is much warmer than they ever were. It is 100% wool from Noro. I adapted two Noro patterns taking the shape from one and the stitch pattern from the other. I took the extra time to knit it to the correct length for me. For the back and front I just added rows to the bottom. For the sleeves, I knit an extra row before every sleeve increase so it would grow in proportion. 

To finish, I did a four strand braid in two colors to match the sweater colors. After some research on the best methods, I used grosgrain ribbon on the back and perl floss to sew the buttons on so I wouldn't rip the sweater with wear and tear.

A cozy collar instead of a hood to keep my neck warm.

I’m so thankful my brother took the initiative to learn a new skill and wouldn’t leave me alone until I learned it too! I really enjoy having someone to discuss a creative process with and watching him create is truly inspiring. Plus I now have some amazing things to wear!