I have often said that knitters are control freaks. After all, in knitting a jumper we are not only choosing to make our own garment, with the exact style, fit and flair that we want, but we have the ability to also control the fabric from which it is made. Much more so than selecting a cloth with which to cut and sew from an “off the shelf” roll, we must not only choose the fibre we wish to work with, the blend, the weight of the yarn, the spin, the twist, the colour, but we can then additionally manipulate the final look of the textile that it creates. Tension, stitch, and the combination of both can dramatically change the way the fabric of your knitting feels and the final appearance of a garment. And at every step of the way you are making those decisions (and this is true of a pattern and yarn that you have bought off the shelf – don’t get me started on the millions of miniscule decisions of designing that yarn or pattern!) This is not a passive experience, this is active analysis, making small adjustments, tweaks, and refinements at every step along the way.
Perhaps it’s the knitting that turns us into control freaks…