Cheekystitch

How to knit an Aran Fishermans Sweater and other Insane Projects Part 1

I was at a friends house a couple of weeks ago and one of get guests had a handknit chunky sweater, I swear you must have needed like 25 gauge needles to knit that thing, it was so thick it mad me sick. It was from The Gilded Age, an incredibly expensive line of high end rugged mens clothing I covet. ( apparently they will be coming out with a ladies line Im sure wont compare to the mens , because it never does)

So I set out to price the thing, turns out I couldnt even locate the sweater online, much less its price. Iits like the thing appeared out of no where to make me sad. Every 100$ cashmere i found  could potentially run me, hmmmm, I dunno 1200.

Like the good crafter that I am I set out to figure out how I would acquire my very own cashmere sweater.  So I decided to knit one, even though I have never knit anything more complicate than a scarf.

I decided on a pattern first, I looked at many many cheesy patterns, lamented that Japanese sewing patterns would be too much of a challenge to me. It difficult enough to decipher sewing patterns. I settled on the eternally stylish Irish fisherman’s sweaters, in my fantasy I saw myself wearing this an an old lady with a grandchild balanced on my knee, in my fantasy I’m also a cartoon, but whatever.

This was perfect, I got the pattern at Downtown Yarns in New York City. Its a Yankee Knitter Design pattern for and Adult Aran Sweater. The pattern seemed complicated, the sales woman assured me it wasnt anymore difficult that any other sweater. I choose to believe her.

Next was finding the cashmere yarn. The pattern called for about 13 skeins in my size, I use a size small. I looked all over the nets and luckily found somebody who was selling yarn on ebay for 16 a skein, which would bring my sweater cost to about 200$. its not cheap but its not 1200 either, and if i was buying a thin cashmere sweater in a store I could expect to pay that if not more. So that’s how I justified spending 200$ on yarn on a project I may or may not finish. if your like me you make preemptive strikes on craft/fabric/and art stores, I am well stocked but rarely finished projects. I have about 20 unfinished projects and a dozen or more possibilities.

So armed with needles, yarn, pattern I cant read, and a case of dyslexia, I go forth!