This sweater made me a real knitter. It is now three years old and the only item I've knit that I wear frequently. It is huge on me and starting to pill. The sweater is a Dale of Norway design (long out of print) knit in Heilo. It was my first cardigan and the first time I did steeks.
Knitting this sweater itself didn't make me a knitter. It was what happened next. When I was cutting the front steek for the button band I accidentally cut completely through the back of the sweater for about 2 inches.
After I realized what I had done I sat there for about 20 minutes and just cursed. I knew I wasn't going to reknit the entire sweater to fix this so I figured out how to fix the hole in the sweater. First I had to make the hole even bigger which was quite unpleasant. Then I put the top and bottom stitches on individual dpns and knit up from the bottom and then I kitchenered the hole together, making sure I matched the number of rows on the outside of the hole. Some creative darning to attach the sides of the hole properly and it was absolutely invisible on the outside of the knitted fabric.
That fateful day I learned a lot about the structure of knitting and how knitted fabric is held together. This is why I encourage all new knitters to fix their mistakes instead of living with them. You can learn a lot more from fixing problems than from knitting the item right in the first place. Ripping out a badly done neckline will also ensure you take the time to pick up the right number of stitches the next time around. Reknitting something to fix a mistake can have value for a knitter.
At least that is what I tell myself when I'm working on a project that is not going smoothly. I have probably re-knit the first Kristi's mitten from Folk Knitting in Estonia twice now with all the weird mistakes I've made. Can a knitting project be haunted?