Fall is absolutely the best time of the year for knitters! Not only is the weather perfect for cozy, warm sweaters, but you get tons of inspiration from the colors of nature at this time of the year. There’s also some major events going on around now. In North America, we’re preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, Hallowe’en, and Rememberance day as well, and VKL Chicago and Stitches East in Connecticut is one week later.
But this year, fall is extra special. Not only are we putting up the first episode of our new show It Takes Balls To Knit … The Show on Sunday, Johnny and Lacie at Yarn Nation (the peeps who bring you Stitch-A-Day) are launching what they hope to be the biggest Knit-A-Long ever on October 1st! And guess what? We’re participating!
It’s called the 30 Day Sweater Challenge, and its exactly what it sounds like. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it and participate, is to make yourself (or someone else) a sweater in 30 days! You’ll actually get 31 as it ends at the end of October. Now don’t worry if you haven’t ever made a sweater before, Johnny and his crew have taken care of everything. When you register for the challenge, you get a downloadable booklet that takes you through the process of knitting your very own custom sweater. I’ve been fortunate enough to have already gotten the booklet, and let me tell you, I am IMPRESSED!
The booklet takes you through the 30 steps (days) needed to complete your sweater – from conception and design, to final finishing. Each day you are given a task to complete in the process of making the sweater. Along the way you are given options for each part of the sweater, and when necessary, calculation worksheets (also by download) so that you can customize your sweater to fit you perfectly. You get to choose the yarn, color, and style of the sweater, and then this KAL takes you through the process of working out the rest.
Now when I say they’ve taken care of everything, I mean it. You can make a sweater or cardigan, and you have the option of buttons, or zippers if you go the cardigan route. Since it’s done in the round, top down, you can try on your sweater as you go along to make it fits, and there’s a great tutorial on steeking as well. This is by far the best KAL I’ve seen for doing this kind of sweater, and the best thing is that since it’s entirely customizable, every level of knitter can do it and create their very own sweater in 30 days! You can even do it in less, depending on the type of sweater you choose. And for those of you who might not be as speedy as the rest, there are actually 3 catch up days built in!
If you want to participate in this KAL, you’ll need to register – and soon – it starts on Tuesday. If you’d like to do it as part of Team It Takes Balls, you can do so through this link and you’ll save 25% off the cost of the course … IT TAKES BALLS! This link will be live on Sunday for you to register. As a treat, we’ll be refunding the cost of 1 lucky participant that registers through this link. There’s also a competition and lots of great prizes for anyone participating in the challenge. Don’t worry, it’s not all based on skill … this is where sheer perseverance will get you far.
Being able to knit a sweater was the reason I learned to knit in the first place, but I sure wish this KAL had been around back then! I have spent way more in both time and money learning to knit a sweater, and now you have the opportunity to do the same in just 1 month! And the best part is that with the knowledge you gain from doing this, you’ll have the know how and the confidence to design many more in the future, and to adapt patterns as well! I can’t wait to see what the almost 3,000 participants (so far) will come up with! I can’t wait to finally knit myself a sweater!
Hugzzz 😎