Knitted Jumpers are Back

Hey guys.

During the week I was in Primark/Pennys and I noticed that all the knitted jumpers that are available again. Last year I had bought a purple knitted jumper with a sheep on it and I loved it. Jeff did laugh at it every time I wore it, I rocked it for so long that the wool is getting very tattered looking. I knew that I had to dump it. It wasn't the softest knitted jumper that I ever bought, I did love the sheep on it. I was having a look at the knitted jumpers in Primark and they seem very simple to make yourself, with the colours you like. The colours that Primak have out at the moment I am not too fond of.

You may know this already from last year that I started knitting as a hobby about a year and a half ago. My mum showed me and my sisters how to knit years ago but non of us picked it up for too long, as school and general life got in the way.

Last year I made myself a Raglan Cardigan. I loved it not it didn't come out like it was meant to be, but that is because I didn't do a swatch gauge, which at the time was something new to me and I wasn't too sure of how to do that. Its a very simple project to make if you are starting off, I know on the pattern download it states that its an intermediate level, but I would put it to a level 2 simple. I did have to concentrate on what I was doing at the time, but I did finished it and I felt so good.

My mother in-law pointed out that this kind of pattern would be nice made on a jumper, and that is my challenge to make a Raglan jumper from this type of pattern. I was a little confused at the start. Here is how I started this jumper.

1. I started knitting in the round so that it would knit up much faster. This part was the most simplest of it all.
2. Then I needed to place my stitch markers so that I would make my increases in the correct place every time. That wasn't too bad either, as I knew what I was doing from the Cardigan.
3. The biggest dilemma that I came across was how I am going to knit in the round and to increase one round and skip the next, that kinda baffled me for a day. When I sat down and thought about it, I would have to do a round where I did the increases and the next round I would just have to knit normally. I tried it and it worked out.

The only thing that I didn't do is make a border, so it looks like the top of my jumper is going to curl a bit. I will take that as a teaching lesson from my own mistakes. I was thinking of starting all over again, but when I looked on how far I have knitted, I really didn't want to start all over again. I do have to get longer needles because the ones that I am using at the moment are 5mm, circular in 16 inches, I will need the 32 inches circular.

I will keep you informed when I have finished this project and show you all how it turned out.

I love knitting it keeps me occupied for a little while. What is your hobby, let me know down in the comments below. :)

Christina xx