4-Day KALs and 3-Week Sweaters

My first sweater I ever made was over my first winter break in college. I’m a bit of a workaholic and I needed something to keep me busy and combat the winter blues. I’d just started knitting a few months prior and knitting a sweater seemed like the next step. I knew that once my semester started up again my sweater knitting time would shrink, so I was determined to knit this sweater in the three weeks of freedom I had in front of me.

I had a pattern all picked out. It involved brand new words like negative ease, neckline shaping, and half-brioche stitch (I’d have been worried, except for I had no idea what brioche was).  Because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I didn’t see a reason why I shouldn’t knit my first sweater in three weeks… and guess what? I did it!

I loved hearing Marie Greene’s story about knitting a sweater in four days over a long weekend. I’m someone who almost always bites off a bit more than I should when it comes to work and school, and knitting has taught me so much about making time for myself, making mistakes, ignoring my type A perfectionism, and enjoying the project in front of me.

This is my first year officially doing the famous 4 Day KAL, but I keep thinking back to my 3 Week solo sweater and how much it taught me. Pre-knitting Izzy might have been glued to the 4-day deadline, but now, I’m just along for the ride! Let’s see how many evenings I can carve out to do something I love (with the help of some amazing Migration yarn).

By the way, the pattern I used for that first sweater was Jacqueline Cieslak’s Ursa Sweater. I used stash yarn, but I highly recommend something like Manos Cardo for its beautiful stitch definition, Malabrigo Rasta or Manos Franca for it's coziness, or even Manos Serpentina for some variegated color! 

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a sweater that is challenging in all the best ways, but full of amazing instructions, tips, and tutorials! I've also made Jacqueline Cieslak's Rift Tee, for those who want all the benefits of a beautifully written pattern without that pesky sleeve knitting. Even better- pick up a copy of her amazing, size inclusive book "Embody".

I didn’t have the benefit of an awesome LYS community like String Theory to help me along at the time, but I’m so glad I do now!