November | 2014 | The Modern Mantua-Maker

I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions, but this year (well, technically late 2013) I thought to start something resolution-like. I decided 2014 would be the year I (finally) become a (proper) knitter.

And it’s happened! And I’m totally addicted! lol

I’ve tried knitting a couple of times in the past but it somehow never really drew me. Not until the last couple of years that is. As I got into reading sewing blogs I saw that several of the authors were also knitters. Furthermore, I saw that they were knitting really cute stuff! Add to this a sort of crystallization, if you will, of my personal style sense being largely vintage-inspired dresses with fitted bodices and skirts of varying fullness (read moderately full to hella-voluminous!) paired with cute little cardigans. Realizing this is the sort of thing I like wearing best made be realize that I NEED ALL THE CARDIGANS – the cute little ones, that is. I started seeing all kinds of adorable knitted cardis all over the place and I wanted in on the fun!

Inspired by knitting sewists like Tasia at Sewaholic, Lauren at Lladybird, Marrie at Purls & Pleats and my friend Jill (for whom I made the navy & copper garrison ball dress in exchange for a hand-knitted cardi) I dove in.

However, while some folks are brave enough to start their knitting journey by jumping right into a CLC (cute-little-cardi) – major props to JuliaBobbin! – I took a more dipping-my-toes-in approach and started with the standard scarf. This went along pretty easily. So since I had yarn left over, I decided right away to move onto a matching hat: