Oh man I can't believe I forgot. You know that post that was like "tell me what clothes you've bought because of a character" or whatever. I searched for ages to find an adequate white cable knit sweater because of Ransom's in knives out.
It's a good sweater
I'm putting this here bc I feel like it's information everyone needs. You can find it here.
I don't knit but that's hilarious because this looks like such a complicated pattern for a beginner
Oh it is. There's at least three different styles of cabling. And more advanced cabling at that. That sweater would take me like a year to finish.
All the cabling is done the same way. You just need to read your knitting and keep track of which row you're on
No, but for real. Knitting is just loops. Cables? Spicy loops. Lace? Spicy loops. Color work? Multicolored spicy loops.
There are no levels in knitting, there are no exams to pass or goals to achieve before you can continue.
The Handsome Chris is a perfect beginner project. It's all one color, it's knit flat, you get to learn lots of new techniques all at once, but most of all it's engaging and you're working towards a goal you really like.
I would have impaled myself on my needles if I'd been forced to complete a Sophie scarf before I got to advance to something more "challenging" like a washcloth, or God forbid a ribbed hat.
My very first project was a self-drafted 11-strand intarsia double sided cable scarf, because I didn't know I wasn't allowed and that was what I wanted to make.
This attitude of mystifying certain fabrics as advanced really twists my stitches. I cannot do simple stockinette colorwork to save my life, but I can 3-color brioche without looking.
There are no levels in knitting.
Make that fucking Handsome Chris if you want to, it's a great sweater. Or start with the Sophie scarf if that's more your vibe. But don't ever think that knitting is hard.
You sound like me telling a beginner crocheter "nah the alligator stitch is easy for a beginner, it's all just double crochets!" (a real thing I have said to people picking up a crochet hook for the first time). I'm not saying you can't start with a complicated stitch I'm saying it's very funny when people do.
#I mean. knitting and crochet both just build onto very basic stitches#once you know the basics it’s short work to do those ‘harder’ stitches#you just gotta practice them!
"Once you know the basics" is my point. Beginners do not know the basics. I am a beginner knitter and let me tell you we're doing shit like "trying to remember how to cast on", "not dropping too many stitches and going on without noticing if you can help it", "trying to figure out how to keep consistent tension so the width of the project doesn't keep changing", and "trying to remember the difference between a knit and a purl because at least a quarter of these stitches are definitely backwards".
"there are no levels in X" is literally only a thing you can say once you have learned the skill well enough that you have not just learned, but mastered the basics and they are second nature to you.
like, I know the feeling well, I myself don't think drawing is hard. you put a pencil to paper, and you are doing it. but my experience in teaching drawing does tell me that it's hard for people to get over the learned self-reflection of "am I doing it right?", it's hard to have an idea, put it onto paper and then analyze WHY the drawing on paper isn't the way you envizioned it, and it is hard to then plan accordingly and adjust your drawing based on that knowledge.
The whole problem is that these skils (knitting, crocheting, drawing, etc) have been developped over centuries if not millenia. These skills have width and depth.
it's true that there's no preset levels of "learn this first, and then learn that", but there's definitely skills that are more superficial, and ones that require a deeper settled understanding of the tools you are working with, so that you can actually use the thinking part of your brain to process what you are doing and how that affects the larger craft as a whole.
Being good at a craft, and teaching a craft are two different skills too.
