NeedleWorkMonday || A pull over for Adrian. A great learning ! 🧶

Blessed Monday my dear and appreciated Needleworkers, it is my pleasure to share with you again on our Needlework Monday.

Have you ever heard of the saying "Echando a perder se aprende"?
Well, this saying is very popular in my country and refers to the fact that from the mistakes we make we gain experience. This is precisely what today's post is about.

In most of my publications of crafts or crochet projects, I usually show a very neat step by step and a very neat final result. However, to get to that result and to be able to show a beautiful project, there are many mistakes that I often make, I knit and unknit until I get the desired result. It is those mistakes, failures and mistakes that are not shared with you5q, but thanks to them I have been able to learn a lot.

Today I am going to share with you this project that I was working on last week. This is a Pull Over for my nephew Adrián who had his birthday on Saturday. Adrián is a very curious and intelligent boy, whenever I am knitting he is attentive to see the result. With my knitted blouse project that I shared with you on Women's Day, she always told me that she couldn't believe that I could make a blouse with just threads. That's why I thought of knitting her a garment to give her on her birthday. I have previously knitted amigurumis for her but this is the first time I have decided to make her a garment.

On Tuesday I went out to buy the material for my project. I decided on a 100% cotton yarn in these two cute colors, baby blue and brown. This material is very comfortable and soft to work with. The same day I started weaving my project. As it was the first time that I was going to knit this type of garment, I watched some tutorial videos to guide me a bit.

I decided on the "Jersey" stitch since this stitch has a very professional finish and garments knitted with this stitch look great. However, it was my first time using this stitch on a garment.

I started my project with the elastic or spring, as some knitters call it. This type of rib is the slowest and most tedious part of the entire garment. After finishing the rib, I measured it for my nephew at the height of the hips and I thought it fit him well, so I continued knitting in a circle, forming blue and brown stripes until I reached the armhole.

Then I made the separation of the front and the back to continue knitting until completing the neck and the edge of the sleeves. I was so anxious to see the result that I just knitted and knitted without stopping to watch the progress.

When I finished my project, I was very disappointed, the garment was misshapen, the fabric did not look neat and it was too small for my nephew. I felt very bad about myself because after analyzing it well I realized that I had made several mistakes. The first of these was not taking measurements of my nephew's body. I only measured his waist, but it turns out his chest girth is wider and I should have worked with that measurement. Another mistake was not planning or drawing the garment, I got carried away by emotion and knitted without a structure. And many other little details that made my project fail.

After all the frustration I was almost resigned to going out to buy a gift, but I didn't want to give up. I decided not to unweave the garment and leave it as a learning reference. I kept trying but all my attempts failed at something, either too big or too small but I couldn't finish the garment.

On Friday night I decided to drop the project and clear my mind doing other things. But on Saturday morning I woke up in high spirits and determined to see my initial project through. This time act in a more focused and organized manner. I drew a small sketch of what I wanted the Pull Over to look like and started knitting. I took a sweater from my nephew as a reference and decided to work the garment in simple double crochets so as not to complicate myself too much and to be able to knit quickly.

I started at nine in the morning and finished at 5 in the afternoon, I finally managed to finish the gift for my dear nephew on his birthday, I ended up with a lot of pain in my neck but very happy to have finished the project. I know that I still have a lot to perfect, but I learned a great deal from this experience.

The final result was a very simple garment, with a very simple stitch, but with exact measurements. After this project I feel more confident to knit similar garments. I would love to knit a bigger one with a fantasy stitch but I know I have to plan it very well before I start. So as they say in my land, "By spoiling, you learn"; I will continue learning as long as I have life. Thanks for reading, greetings and blessings.