The title says it all, really.
My teenage daughter came to me with a photo of a sweater that looked like whoever wore it had stepped on a land mine! Yes…. anyway, I was delighted that she finally wanted me to knit something for her.
The conversation went like this:
DD: Mum, can you knit something like this for me? (pointing at photo)
Me: Hang on, let me get this right, you want ME to knit you a jumper, BADLY???
DD: Yes! (nodding head enthusiastically)
Me: But this jumper is messed up in so many ways, why don’t YOU make it?
DD: Because I can’t KNIT!!!
Me: Does that really MATTER??!!
Well, I gave in and hunted through my yarn stash to see if I could find something fluffy and annoying.
I dug out a few balls of Soft Alpakka from Sandnes Garn that I had put aside for a “Killing” jumper. It had been sat there for well over a year waiting for me to get on with it, but never did. In fact, the yarn is not as annoying as it looks. It is INCREDIBLY soft! It has 80% baby alpaca and 20% acrylic. Most alpaca yarns have a slight prickly edge to it, but not this. Normally I would stay away from anything acrylic too, but this one had won me over.
The Destruction
I was a teenager of the ’80s, so at least I could channel my inner punk and be creative while I knit. Apart from taking down measurements and a quick sketch, all the design was done on the needles. Every now and then I would deliberately drop a stitch and allow it to run. In most cases, the run would only go for about 3 rows, so I had to force it down to get a proper run.
I only had 2 balls of black, so to economize, I added light blue intarsia block. I don’t know what I was intending to achieve with this shape or method, but as I said, there was no planning… just doing!
I really enjoyed knitting on the fly like that. It was fun!
