Ambitions
This baby knitter's audacity was unmatched.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how I started knitting and my early projects. Although I don’t have any of the finished objects from earlier in my life, I do have some very distinct memories of them and none more so than my first proper garment: the Starsky cardigan.
The time before
I feel as though I should begin this story by saying, “Gather around, children, and let me tell you about once upon a time, long before the knitting internet was a thing…” or something along those lines.
Basically, before Ravelry, the plethora of digitally available patterns, and the explosion of interest in knitting that has been the knitting renaissance of the 2010s and 2020s, it was slim pickings for a knitter looking for modern, store-bought inspired patterns. I remember endless books of boxy patterns in wild colors (hello intarsia everything) that I never would wear. Things were…grim.
And then I found Knitty.com.
This was a place that had knitting patterns that a twenty-year-old might actually want to wear! For free!
This was revolutionary.
The Starsky cardigan
I did a lot of browsing and a lot of printing off patterns at my college computer lab, which housed the sometimes-working printers in my dorm. I don’t know if there was a unifying feature for each of these patterns except that I though they were cool and I wanted them.1
Eventually I stumbled over the Starsky cardigan2, a cream belted shawl collar cardigan with a banana tree motif that stretched up the back by designer Jordana Paige. I saw it. I wanted it.
Now I should explain, at this time Knitty.com rated its patterns at four levels of difficulty:
Mellow (“Suitable for beginners. Relaxing, not mentally taxing.”)
Tangy ("Fun things with zing. A twist, even. Friendly + unintimidating: very knittable by most knitters.”)
Piquant (“Something for the seasoned knitter. Daring but not exhausting. Probably not tv knitting.”)
Extraspicy (“For those with a lot of experience. Or patience. Or both. These babies have teeth. Hoo boy.”)
Starksy was rated extraspicy.
I think it was safe to say that I was not an extraspicy knitter. Up to that point, I had made scarves and that was about it.
What business did I have making this cardigan as my very first garment?
None. None at all.
Did that stop me?
Absolutely not.
Sometimes you don’t know enough to know that you shouldn’t attempt something.
The making
I returned home to LA after graduating from college, intent on spending my summer working as a nanny and relaxing as much as I could before going off to NYC for graduate school. While at home, I drove myself to a local yarn store in Santa Monica and bought the yarn for the Starsky cardigan. I don’t remember what it was except that it was ecru and 100% wool, a bold move given that it was the height of summer in LA.
I took my very hot wool back home and I started working. At this point, I do think I could knit and watch TV so I’m certain I sat in the air conditioned house knitting away while I was not working. Again, this was before Ravelry so the idea of making note of my start and finish dates or taking any notes at all went straight over my head. Instead, I just knitted knitted knitted away until I had a cardigan.
I wish I could give more detail than that. I do remember the belt taking forever. I also remember the banana tree pattern being gorgeous. I picked up stitches for the first time to make the deep rib of the collar.
That’s about it.
A finished object
When I was finished, I loved the look of the cardigan, but I quickly consigned it to the back of my wardrobe. I have no idea why. The cardigan is my style and it was in a very sympathetic neutral. The only thing I can think of is that I was less comfortable wearing belted cardigans than I am now. Why I do not know.
What I do remember is that, when the summer was over, I packed the Starsky cardigan and took it to New York.
I think I wore the cardigan a few times over the years, but then it’s gone from my memory. I suspect I donated it in the frenzy of packing up my life to move from New York to London. Now I wish that I still had it, if only as a reminder of how wildly ambitious and audacious I was in making it my first garment.
Do you remember the first garment you knit?
Nothing has changed, I still do this.
Now also listed on Ravelry here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starsky
This is such a wonderful piece. Like you I remember pre Ravelry, pre internet days for knitters. Pattern choice was grim and limited to hard copy pamphlets in binders at wool shops. I remember being blown away when Knitty et al started up. So Much Choice!