I’m trying to get more adventurous with my knitting, well maybe that is not the word I’m looking for, although I need to be adventurous also. More fearless, I think. I hold myself back and wasn’t sure why, until I read a post (I’ll link it if I can find it here), about creativity and perfectionism. The fear of not finding the “right” pattern or it not turning out “good” keeps me from starting or finishing projects. I’ve tried to embrace the “it’s only yarn” mantra. This sounds silly but has helped me to finally bust out of a creative slump. The fear of not performing up to my expectations.
Jodi gives the sweater a tail wag!
Check out all of the lovely versions of this and get your own creativity going….
In that celebration of going all in and creating something, I cast on a very simple sweater, knitting flat in garter stitch. Although it looks super plain, that is the beauty of it. Oversized and cozy, it has immediate appeal. Scrolling through the Ravelry lineup of those that had knitted it, I was amazed that this sweater seemed to look good on everyone, big, small, young and old. I cast on and then got excited, due to the quick progress and I decided that I would attempt to make it in 7 days. I’m going to knit the #4DayKal from #Oliveknits (link) and after reading why and how she attempted this (the first one was in 2017), I decided, what the heck.
This 7 day sweater is the pattern from Maria Skappel it is the Mammas hjemmestrikkede genser! Skappelgenseren" which translates to Mom home-knitted sweater in English. Her blog post about it is linked (here) English translation of the pattern is (here). I modified mine due to yarn substitution, the original sweater is knit with two strands of yarn, one bulky and one finer. It is beautiful, but I’m in stash busting mode and decided to use some hand dyed yarn. It was described as worsted weight. I’ll add all of the info below….including tutorial links I used on grafting shoulders, sides and arms to body.
My version of the Mammas hjemmestrikkede:
I used worsted weight yarn
Worsted weight yarn a total of approx. 1600 yards.
Size approx. 50 Men's, length approx. 26.5 inches (front), back 2 inches longer
I made the arms wider, because my husband always wears flannel shirts under sweaters.
Arms: increased to 20 inches (flat measurement) at top.
My Gauge was approx. 3.8 to 4 stitches per inch.
(15.25 stitches per 4 inches)
I’ll put my finished measurements here and modifications:
CO 100 stitches for both the front and back. (approx. 25 inches wide) I made the back about 2 inches longer than the front.
CO 44 stitches for the arm. inc to 78 stitches.
I used a k1p1 for the neck ribbing.
I cast this on 5-22-18 (in the evening) and decided I would try and complete it in 7 days. It is pretty hot and muggy out and am staying indoors more right now. I’m going to use yarn from my stash, not sure I have enough yardage, but I’m going to “make it work” (maybe a stripe?)
5-23-18 knitting on front all day, had to make a critical decision of color change vs. Stripes . Think I would have run out of yarn . So decided to color block the top using a neutral color I had in my stash . This is after looking at the Ravelry knitters finished projects, Inspiration was the red and greyish sweater, I love it!
5-24-18 Done with the front of the sweater. Taking a break before casting on the back. Love how my colors turned out!
5-25-18 I had cast on back last night and worked about 3 inches. Worked on the back all day. Had some other things to do so I didn’t get as far as I wanted.
5-26-18 still on the back, almost to the color change! Trying to decide how much longer to make the back.
Knitted all of the way up to the bind off of the back & quit. Was undecided on the neck. Pinned the front and back together and the neck felt too small. Added 4 more rows to the front, with a decrease at the neck edge on each side twice. (2 ridges, 4 rows)
5-27-18
Decided to bind off some middle stitches for the neck as per front directions. Now the neck feels and looks better. Grafted the front & back together. Time to start the arms, knitted first arm 2/3 of the way, & tried to decide when to switch colors. (around 15 inches)
5-28-18
Finished 1st arm and started 2nd arm. Pinned it together & had my husband try it and it looks pretty good. Finished arms and pinned it together to see how it looks, trying to decide if arms are wide enough. If they are I’m all ready to knit the neck ribbing.
5-29-18
Ok frogging the arms back and going to make them wider. Did some math=painful. Restarted the arms.
5-30-18
Reknit the arms wider and it looks much better. Going to knit the neck ribbing k1p1 and then sew it together.
5-31-18
Knitted the neck ribbing and cast off, but it was not stretchy enough, I ended up knitted twice around in stockinette and then doing the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn cast off, because it is so stretchy. Looks good.
6-1-18
I’ve never grafted together garter stitch (the arms and shoulder, in different directions) watched some videos & found one. Got them sewn together. Started weaving the sides together.
Side by side garter stitch tutorial by VeryPinkKnits on YouTube (link)
Horizontal to Vertical on shoulder to body by Arenda Holladay on YouTube (link)
6-2-18
Finished the second side of the sweater and although it wasn’t blocked yet, took some photos! It fits and I’m really happy.This turned out to be an 11 Day Sweater instead of 7, but considering I had some frogging in there I’m really happy. It is the fastest I’ve ever competed a sweater and it fits and looks good!
I am planning on making another one of these!
Jodi gives the sweater a tail wag!
Check out all of the lovely versions of this and get your own creativity going….
In that celebration of going all in and creating something, I cast on a very simple sweater, knitting flat in garter stitch. Although it looks super plain, that is the beauty of it. Oversized and cozy, it has immediate appeal. Scrolling through the Ravelry lineup of those that had knitted it, I was amazed that this sweater seemed to look good on everyone, big, small, young and old. I cast on and then got excited, due to the quick progress and I decided that I would attempt to make it in 7 days. I’m going to knit the #4DayKal from #Oliveknits (link) and after reading why and how she attempted this (the first one was in 2017), I decided, what the heck.
This 7 day sweater is the pattern from Maria Skappel it is the Mammas hjemmestrikkede genser! Skappelgenseren" which translates to Mom home-knitted sweater in English. Her blog post about it is linked (here) English translation of the pattern is (here). I modified mine due to yarn substitution, the original sweater is knit with two strands of yarn, one bulky and one finer. It is beautiful, but I’m in stash busting mode and decided to use some hand dyed yarn. It was described as worsted weight. I’ll add all of the info below….including tutorial links I used on grafting shoulders, sides and arms to body.
My version of the Mammas hjemmestrikkede:
I used worsted weight yarn
Worsted weight yarn a total of approx. 1600 yards.
Size approx. 50 Men's, length approx. 26.5 inches (front), back 2 inches longer
I made the arms wider, because my husband always wears flannel shirts under sweaters.
Arms: increased to 20 inches (flat measurement) at top.
My Gauge was approx. 3.8 to 4 stitches per inch.
(15.25 stitches per 4 inches)
I’ll put my finished measurements here and modifications:
CO 100 stitches for both the front and back. (approx. 25 inches wide) I made the back about 2 inches longer than the front.
CO 44 stitches for the arm. inc to 78 stitches.
I used a k1p1 for the neck ribbing.
I cast this on 5-22-18 (in the evening) and decided I would try and complete it in 7 days. It is pretty hot and muggy out and am staying indoors more right now. I’m going to use yarn from my stash, not sure I have enough yardage, but I’m going to “make it work” (maybe a stripe?)
5-23-18 knitting on front all day, had to make a critical decision of color change vs. Stripes . Think I would have run out of yarn . So decided to color block the top using a neutral color I had in my stash . This is after looking at the Ravelry knitters finished projects, Inspiration was the red and greyish sweater, I love it!
5-24-18 Done with the front of the sweater. Taking a break before casting on the back. Love how my colors turned out!
5-25-18 I had cast on back last night and worked about 3 inches. Worked on the back all day. Had some other things to do so I didn’t get as far as I wanted.
5-26-18 still on the back, almost to the color change! Trying to decide how much longer to make the back.
Knitted all of the way up to the bind off of the back & quit. Was undecided on the neck. Pinned the front and back together and the neck felt too small. Added 4 more rows to the front, with a decrease at the neck edge on each side twice. (2 ridges, 4 rows)
5-27-18
Decided to bind off some middle stitches for the neck as per front directions. Now the neck feels and looks better. Grafted the front & back together. Time to start the arms, knitted first arm 2/3 of the way, & tried to decide when to switch colors. (around 15 inches)
5-28-18
Finished 1st arm and started 2nd arm. Pinned it together & had my husband try it and it looks pretty good. Finished arms and pinned it together to see how it looks, trying to decide if arms are wide enough. If they are I’m all ready to knit the neck ribbing.
5-29-18
Ok frogging the arms back and going to make them wider. Did some math=painful. Restarted the arms.
5-30-18
Reknit the arms wider and it looks much better. Going to knit the neck ribbing k1p1 and then sew it together.
5-31-18
Knitted the neck ribbing and cast off, but it was not stretchy enough, I ended up knitted twice around in stockinette and then doing the Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn cast off, because it is so stretchy. Looks good.
6-1-18
I’ve never grafted together garter stitch (the arms and shoulder, in different directions) watched some videos & found one. Got them sewn together. Started weaving the sides together.
Side by side garter stitch tutorial by VeryPinkKnits on YouTube (link)
Horizontal to Vertical on shoulder to body by Arenda Holladay on YouTube (link)
6-2-18
Finished the second side of the sweater and although it wasn’t blocked yet, took some photos! It fits and I’m really happy.This turned out to be an 11 Day Sweater instead of 7, but considering I had some frogging in there I’m really happy. It is the fastest I’ve ever competed a sweater and it fits and looks good!
I am planning on making another one of these!
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