I decided to revive one of my hobbies I used to do, which is knitting. I learned how to do knitting from my mom, and I usually have a moment of passion to it every several years for some reason. This time, I wanted to do something I can wear, but I wasn’t sure how much I remember. I found We are Knitters through internet, and it looked like that’s the one I shall try.
They will send you everything you need other than scissors, so you don’t need to go to a store.
There are a lot of kits, and they are labeled by difficulty.
Their designs look very cool. This is very important!
They are very active on Instagram so you can see the results by the other people and the colours.
Their strong concept on sustainability to be environmentally friendly via selection of materials of each product.
As the very first project with WAK, I chose Emei cardigan with spotted pink because…
I love cardigans!
I like chunky one, but I am pretty small so am unsure how I would look like with a real chunky one so I shall go with slightly lighter.
Go with normal wool, no mohair or cotton which are usually less easy to knit.
Easy level to see my knitting level.
Due to the Covid-19 panic, it took a while to received a package, but I opened the box and saw a nice recycling paper bag. This already excited me a lot. I took the picture of the pack below after I finished the project so the yarn does not have a label on it. The yarn was called Petite Wool, spotted pink, and there were 5 of them. I was a bit nervous about the colour before and I instantly loved it! My husband also was impressed how beautiful it was! And, there are a pair of wooden knitting needles, 2 sewing needles, a label of ‘We are knitters’ (not on the picture), the pattern instruction, and a sheet of cute stickers.
First thing first, I did gauge. The most important part. I found my hands are tighter even after blocking (basically washing the piece for gauge in a cold water and dry before counting the stitches and rows), so I decided to go with Medium for most parts, and small just for the length.
The instruction was very well written and super easy to follow. Since this project is an easy level, there is no increase or decrease, you just knit 5 pieces in rectangular. The pattern itself is also very simple with all made of just knit and purl, and easy to count.
Wooden needles are light and flexible, not slippery at all. Yarn is soft, no itchy feeling at all.
Since it was just all rectangular, sewing pieces together was not that hard as I thought. I remember I hated to joint all and left pieces for a month or so when I was knitting a while ago, but I found myself enjoying this step too. Keep in mind of giving some flexibility and not sewing too tightly. When you hid all the tail end of yarn after jointing the pieces, knitting is done!
It doesn’t say anything about ‘blocking’ on the instruction, but my mom says I should do blocking most of your projects. Blocking is to soak your work in cold water, and push to get rid of the water (not squeezing too much), and leave on a towel on a flat surface until it gets dry. For this cardigan, it took nearly 3 days. Depending on the work, you do steam iron with the lowest heat to adjust the shape. I didn’t think this project needs ironing so I skipped. After 3 days, it now became very soft and fluffy with much more consistent looking stitches and rows! I am pretty happy with the result, and will definitely wear this.
