I’m Knitting a Sweater

I have finally decided to knit an adult sized sweater for myself, there are several things you should know about this:

1. I don’t wear a lot of sweaters, I’m more of a tank top year round sort of gal.
2. I am allergic to wool, so I’m using acrylic (inexpensive acrylic, bought on clearance for $1.00 a skein)
3. I don’t expect to finish this until this fall, maybe longer.
4. There will be no shaping involved, the entire sweater is in super stretchy rib knit, one size fits all.
5. I am hoping that it will turn out cute, but I’m not expecting too much.

I really like to knit hats and scarves and little things that I can make in a day or two, I guess I’m more of an instant gratification knitter.  I really thought that the Tempting sweater pattern from Knitty.com was cute in a retro pin up girl sort of way and thought that maybe it was time to give a sweater a try.  This is also a super easy, mindless knit, great for when I’m hanging out with friends, talking on the phone, or generally only have a small bit of time to knit and when counting stitches or finding my place in a pattern would eat up too much knitting time.

I have knitted about 8 inches up from the bottom of the sweater, 9 more inches before I start the sleeves.  I haven’t been working on this much since I got obsessed with making baby hats and booties, but I hope to make some more progress soon.

Right now I have to go and work on a pressing project, an idea popped into my head yesterday and I can’t stop thinking about it, I even dreamed about Mod Podge all night long and I think I need to do something about it, more on that later.

Kitty Bed from an Old Sweater

As some of you know I have an elderly cat who has been a little sick lately. My cat Pookie had a severe ear infection and seems to be permanently dizzy, the vet thinks she may have even had a small stroke. She is also slowly loosing her vision. I have had to put up a baby gate to keep her from going upstairs because she has fallen down them and she is no longer able to get up on the furniture and so she has been sleeping on the bare wood floor.

I decided she needed a cat bed, she has had one before and was not impressed, so I didn’t want to invest a ton of money in something that many not be used. I found this tutorial that used an old sweater and decided it was perfect. My sweater is 100% cotton(I got this on in the last Bargain Hunter Swap on Craftster) and I think it turned out great, wool sweaters are getting hard to find in thrift stores because all of the crafting uses.It was easy to shape the sweater into a bed. I did have to hand sew the sleeves in position, but I was able to sew the rest on the sewing machine. Mine ended up a little different because my sweater had a “V” neck, but it still worked.

The real test was getting Pookie to use it. When I first showed it to her she was unimpressed, but my other cat Kiki figured out what it was right away.

Once Pookie saw Kiki using and figured out what it was for she went right into it. She really likes it and only gets out of it to eat and use the litter box.

I’m glad she likes it and I have a few more old sweaters, so I may make a couple more. I highly recommend this tutorial, it really makes a cute bed and it was easy and quick.