MIKE'S SWEATER-A LABOR OF LOVE....A Blog Silent No More!

Sometime ago I had a burning desire to knit my husband a sweater-I believe it may have been around 2003. There were many false starts: the stitch pattern was all wrong for the wool, the needle size didn't give nice stitch definition, and Ye Gads! The gauge was all wrong, turning the sweater into a wrap around bathrobe!

Finally, the kinks had been all worked out. Knitting for a size 54 was daunting at times, and the merino/alpaca blend purchased from Webs long ago was heavy on the hands and needles. I knitted on, sometimes taking (ahem!) extended breaks to knit smaller, kinder and more manageable projects, like baby hats and bibs, socks and my beloved cotton dishcloth. Returning to the sweater was not always easy, as progress seemed slow, the color, although my husband's choosing, seemed cruelly bland to my eyes. And, still, I knitted. Dragging it along with me to Wednesday night knit -ins with Eileen, Jeanie, Roberta, and Nancy at Kraemer's Yarn Shop. I'm sure they whispered about my lack of commitment "to the project". It was the color, not marital discord that slowed my hand!!!

Seaming and easing were challenging. Cardigans, I learned, could be tricky when it came to attaching the button band. Button holes had to line up precisely with their button mates. Thank God I had sweater support from my knitting gal-pals!

Drop shoulders aligned with the sleeves...

Heirloom Lehigh Valley Railroad brass buttons belonging to his Pop Stem securely sewn on...you never suspected I had raided your treasure drawer, did ya, Mike?

Careful attention to easing in the bands to the sweater......

The V-neck portion needed several attempts before it, well, looked like a real v-neck.....

Will it stay together? Son, Shaun, my constant reminder that I had an outstanding UFO to complete ( uh, Mom, shouldn't you be knitting THE SWEATER instead of those socks?) models the finished sweater.

It is done.

Now, I feel a sense of loss since I no longer have the weight of an unfinished sweater dragging down my spirit.

So I remedied that by knitting a few cloths. I accidentally forgot the pattern rhythm of my favorite ballband dishcloth, and instead knit the bands in straight rows, resulting in a pleasing pattern on the reverse side. Dishcloths are forgiving, aren't they?

Grandma's favorite restored my knitting karma...

As did finishing my Feather and Fan 2 Toe Up At The Same Time Magic Loop socks!

Happy New Year and happy knitting!