I need a kind of wherewithal (that's the wrong word, because all crafting requires this skill) to sew. I mean, it involves motors and rulers and math.
Weirdly, knitting involves all of the same elements, minus the motors (unless you count my muscles).
This project is not mindless:
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| What you're looking at is the upper back of the sweater (in the foreground). The neck opening is that bit of curling fabric. The side upper fronts of the sweater are the pieces that have the ribbing on either side. I'm working on the left side now, which is why it's shorter than the right side... |
In fact, that crazy pattern, involving repeats of 5 (in the flat) that must match at a variety of intersections, not to mention the ribbing isn't just standard issue repeats of knit 1/purl 1, but a fancy version involving knitting through the back loop of every stitch. Haven't yet got to the sleeves or shawl collar, wherein I'll need to figure out short rows in a crazy pattern of 5 stitch repeats (or 4 stitch, when I start knitting the sleeves in the round).
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| I've got pages on pages of notes so far... |
I've already prevailed on the wonderful knitting community for lots of help. Thereafter, I went to my LYS for further assistance on how to interpret a pattern I've been told is constructed very unusually - quite complexly. My newness to knitting means that I encounter numerous untried techniques every single time I start a project.
Why is it that my brain is soothed by this activity while the idea of fitting and sewing is so overwhelming to me right now?
Today's questions: If you knit and sew, how do you find them different? Does your brain prefer one over the other? Which is the more "purely creative" activity, in your opinion? Is that even a fair question? And to those of you who might not do either of these crafts, is there an analogy to this in your life which you can describe?
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K- I don't knit (yet) but am vicariously living through you - plus I'm notoriously impatient - I'm not sure I can make it through knitting for that reason!
ReplyDeleteIt actually helps you to find the serenity in patience. I swear.
DeleteWhen I'm feeling burnt out, I pick up my knitting - mostly because it's pretty difficult to make a mistake that's 100% impossible to fix, versus sewing where you can cut through a piece and completely screw things up, or sew something on backwards and spend an hour ripping out the stitches (whereas undoing knitting takes mere seconds). I think my brain prefers sewing when I'm in a creative mood, and knitting when I'm in a tired but still crafty mood. I'm looking forward to seeing your finished sweater!
ReplyDeleteThat's SO true! Excellent way of putting it.
DeleteI enjoy following your knitting projects but I don't want to knit.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. I was interested in the craft, but totally disinterested in doing it myself, for a long time.
DeleteI think Mika is on to something... there's something about the fact that it's so easy to frog mistakes that it isn't as frustrating. I've had to totally frog a sweater that was over halfway finished on two separate occasions, and somehow even that didn't really bother me. I guess learning new techniques when I knit just feels a little safer than when I'm sewing, and I generally have good results with knitting and when I'm sewing, it's more of a mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteI too have had to frog half a sweater. I wasn't as sanguine as you but it somehow didn't bother me, once I was finished ripping back.
DeleteI'm pretty new to knitting, but even now I find it more relaxing than sewing. With sewing, I feel like I have to think five steps ahead, and I'm always adapting patterns to make them just so, and I always have to be in my sewing room.
ReplyDeleteWith knitting, I'm only thinking about the step I'm on at the moment and I just do a little here and there, wherever I am. Then again, knitting one garment takes soooo long compared to sewing one!
It's interesting that you only think about where you are when you're knitting. I totally understand what you mean - though I'm inclined to think a few steps ahead when knitting sweaters. Mind you, I tend to think from beginning to end with sewing - cuz if you don't, you're inevitably screwed.
DeleteI feel like knitting is less taxing too. Plus the repetition is soothing. But I haven't done any super complex stuff yet :)
ReplyDeleteYour knitting sounds a bit scary but I'm glad you're getting through it! Eep, pages of notes!
The repetition IS soothing. Well put. BTW, I'm a notes taker. I do that with everything, so don't take it as a sign of difficulty so much; it's a process touchstone for me.
DeleteKnitting and crocheting are so not my thing. I think it is because I can't wrap my head around how the stitches are actually formed. I do other needlework, pulled thread, hardanger, other cutwork embroidery and I love that, but it doesn't use the same mental muscle that sewing does. It is just different.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you like things that involve needles having eyes but that fabric-forming needles don't work for you. I have never embroidered. It seems too complicated :-)
DeleteKnitting is creating the fabric and the garment all together one stitch at a time. It's a lot (lot!) slower than sewing but at least you can frog it relatively easily if it isn't working for you and try again.
ReplyDeleteSo true!
DeleteI can't knit -- well, technically I can but all I can really do is produce a square of knitted fabric. I can crochet and used to do a great deal more of it, but gave up in frustration at the dowdy patterns, long construction time and lack of relaxation involved.
ReplyDeleteI actually think I have a math-type disorder where too much of certain kinds of information breaks down into meaningless drivel in my head. I have real difficulty translating things from 1 or 2 dimensions into 3, and I was just studying a pattern sheet today because I could NOT make sense of how they wanted me to construct the garment. I used to give up on a pattern if I couldn't figure it out on the first pass, but now I have enough sewing knowledge to sort it out as I go.
Knitting and crochet patterns put everything in numbers and symbols and long rows -- and my brain doesn't handle that too well. I literally get ITCHY when looking at a long pattern, and that was one of the problems I had with crochet. I would work on something for a short while and feel a strong compulsion to throw it down and run around the room!
I know of the math disorder! :-) I haven't learned to crochet yet - though I am signed up for a Craftsy course that teaches it.
DeleteOoh great questions. I knit mostly not-at-home - on buses, in conferences and lectures - and sew at home, so that's the main difference for me. But also, I find knitting comforting, but sewing MUCH more compelling. I can't maintain my creative vision over the amount of time it takes me to knit a whole garment. When I sew I am often really driven by a vision of what I want to make or try. I mostly haven't tried to do that with knitting.
ReplyDeleteSewing is much more compelling for me too - until the knitting bug hits. Then it's equal-opportunity!
DeleteI am simillar to Erika, in that most of my knitting is on the bus and sewing is at home. I find both activities relaxing, but in different ways. I think you can get that repetative knitting relaxation from hand quilting or embrordary, but not so much from garment sewing. I'm very glad to do both, but I find a complex knitting pattern to be more frustrating than a complex sewing pattern.
ReplyDeleteI can knit on a train - but a bus is too bumpy!
DeleteMy Granma could knit anywhere - particularly when watching US crime dramas like "The Streets of San Francisco" etc. Whereas sewing happened in the back room with a sewing machine and a lot of pins in her mouth. Multi-tasking not so much. xx
ReplyDeleteKnitting with TV in the background is a very nice activity. Sewing with TV is impossible :-)
Deletei love knitting on a trip, when i am away from my machine but still have itchy fingers. other than that i don't knit as much as i would like, especially after i brought some knitting to a business conference...and then someone told my boss they had seen me knitting during the seminars!
ReplyDeleteEeek! :-)
DeleteI love them both so much that I take scraps of fabric and turn it into rag yarn, for heavy rugs and for pot holders. Woven fabrics are spun on a drop loom, and I crochet with them. Jersey knits are cut into long strips, knotted or looped to join, pulled quite hard until they curl up around themselves into a lovely fat tube, then knitted. Sewing is more like working a jig-saw puzzle, knitting is more like a crossword puzzle (in that it is composed over a grid). Don't know if that explanation makes sense to anyone else ... could not choose which craft to give up over the other, if I had to do that awful thing.
ReplyDeleteOK, you are hardcore! :-) I love the way you use analogy to distinguish between these.
DeleteI think I spend (and enjoy) the planning side of sewing and when it comes to actual execution it goes very fast and you suddenly look at a finished item.
ReplyDeleteWith knitting i find it easier to get started and the actual doing is slow - I savour the knowledge of what I'm trying to achieve the whole time - and it's very in the moment.
I'm much more likely to doubt my sewing and alter fit/construction mid way where my knitting I follow to the letter and it seems more like luck or a gamble if it works out.
Then again I'm a more experienced seamstress than knitter so that might bias me towards luck in my knitting!
I've come to discover, recently, that I love the prep for knitting - doing the math and the gauge swatch and figuring out how I might fit the garment to my shape best...
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