March 02, 2006

The Saga of the Sweater

Prologue –

Let me take you back… far back… to the edges of eternity… to before time was time…

Ok actually it was this past December. But it sounded cooler the first way. Anyways, it was a couple of days before New Years, that dull, quiet, pointless week when everyone has to be at work but no one ever gets anything done because we’re all still mentally on vacation. Picture that week in your mind, fellow knitters will be able to share with me the euphoria of knowing that finished or not, your holiday knitting crunch is over for another year.

I think that I was chosen as a target because of this reason.

I had decided that the time had come for me to make myself a sweater. That my knitting had progressed enough and I wanted to push myself. So I started searching for patterns and I found the Bristow sweater on knitty.com and I absolutely fell in love with it. Better yet, the yarn was affordable and easy to acquire. I printed it up and showed it to a woman I work with.

Here is where I got stupid.

She also fell in love with the sweater, far more enthusiastically than I did, to be honest. She raved about it, looked at the yarn online, found a color she liked and began begging me to make her the sweater.

And I agreed. Because I am stupid.

So the next few weeks/months will be the Saga of the Sweater. My first adult sweater, what should be the ultimate labor of love for myself, is for someone else. After putting it off for 2 months I can avoid it no longer. I must knit this sweater just to get the woman out of my hair. To get the yarn out of my room. To get on with my knitting life.

But oh no, it doesn’t end there. For those of you who went and peeked at the pattern on knitty, you may be thinking “Well it’s a smallish cardi… not too bad.” WRONG! She ordered extra yarn so I could add an EXTRA 13 INCHES to the length. *weep sob weep*

So this will be my main focus for a while. Once the back, all stockinette stitch, is done I think it’ll progress quite nicely. Especially because I intend to do both front sides at once on 1 long circular. That way I know the lengths will be the same.

But I’m going to enjoy myself while I’m doing this. I’m determined to enjoy myself. After all… it’s only two thousand, four hundred and fifty yards of yarn... yup… good times…

I actually swatched and cast on this past Tuesday. (Yes, I’ve had the yarn since early January and I haven’t touched it until now) and I have the bottom band and probably 3 inches of the back done. And that was only a few hours of work. I haven’t touched it since then. Wolves game last night (they lost… damnit….) and today is my Daddy’s birthday. (Yes, I call him Daddy. Yes, I am a daddy’s girl and yes, I am proud of that fact.) So I have dinner at their house tonight. I’ll likely work on a sock during that. But when I get home I’ll focus on the sweater.

My loose goal is to have the entire thing done in 3 months. (Very loose goal, n’est pas?)

In the mean time… I’m thinking Rogue for myself when I’m done. I do love cables.

3 comments:

Krysia said...

Oh my, Kelly. I am so sorry! I know I would've done the same thing. Next time you need to say, "I will teach you how to knit." While thinking, make your own damn sweater! You are earning awesome knitting karma doing this project, though! I love the Rogue, too. That sweater will be so nice and comfy!

Unknown said...

My child, you have learned young and learned well. NEVER accept/be badgered/agree to knit something for someone else. It's a definite creativity killer. If it isn't your idea to make it, don't go there! Best wishes.

Chris said...

Whoa. Ick. Ick. Ick.

And, um, I'm going to just toss something out there - if you add 13 inches to the sweater, it might stretch crazily LONGER than that because of the extra weight that the pattern wasn't designed for.

Or it might not.

I'll go sit in the corner now.