FINISHING WOE

My friends, this blogging thing is not so easy. The other day, it took me about two and a half hours just to get some links over there in the little sidebar. (Check it out. Pretty cute, no? I know, it’s a blogger template, and you’ve seen it 6,000 times before. Note to self: learn to code own template.) Link mayhem aside, comments are not working. I removed the code, because it was just embarrassing. Yes, blogging is hard work. But not as hard as finishing.

I have done some finishing before. I have made several baby sweaters for expecting friends and slip stitched those little pieces together into a complete garment. I also put together my very first sweater, though that was crocheted, and not knitted. As I have mentioned, quite exhaustively, in my last post, I have been a crochet maven for some time. That sweater was, however, an unqualified disaster. First, it took me forever to make the dang thing. Patience was not a virtue of mine back then, nor was concentration. Nor, sadly, was accurate measuring. I made the entire sweater, sewed it up, and only then considered the size of the finished piece. I was a fifteen year old girl, on the scrawny side. My sweater was sized accurately for a middle aged man with a gut. It was sized for Rob Reiner.* I am ashamed to admit that I was so frustrated by the whole endeavor at that point that I gave the sweater to Good Will. God knows how many balls of a perfectly nice, super wash wool, and I didn’t even frog the sweater to save the yarn.

I have learned since then. My first knitted sweater, for example, is made from a tweedy brown yarn rescued from yet another crochet project which had been languishing for about four years. This first sweater is just now complete. It is an oversized pullover done completely in seed stitch. You can see a reference to it down there in the Works in Progress sidebar. (I won’t even tell you how long the extremely basic code for that took. You don’t want to know. Trust me.) For you Interweave Knits readers, it is the green sweater in the Rebecca free patterns insert from the Fall 2002 issue. Now, beginning knitters everywhere, let me give you a tip. When you are selecting a pattern for a first sweater, DO NOT choose something oversized and done completely in seed stitch. That is a lot of seed stitch. I measured the thing, and I think it’s about 10 square feet of knit one, purl one. Maybe not quite that much. But it seems like that much. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good, simple project, and, after compulsively measuring the sweater and myself every five minutes, I think it will fit. But I was forced to start and complete several other projects over the course of this sweater, just to keep from going into a seed stitch coma. (If I ever work out how to get pictures in here, you may one day see some of these items, including the Market Squares Felted Tote, from some issue of Knitters, I forget which, and the striped baby set, from a really old pattern, dating back to the days when pattern leaflets cost only 25 cents apiece. However, we’re a long way from pictures. I would settle for a comment section, really. Or figuring out how to change the color of that stripe at the top. Well, one day at a time.)

But back to finishing. To sum up: I have finished things before, but it has not been fun. It was tedious. The items were either gifts (fun, but not as much fun as selfish things) or have not fit. Total finishing experience to date: not that good.

This sweater is big. Big in a nice way, rather than in a Rob Reiner* way, but still big. There is a lot of backstitching to be done. I am dreading this. I want to work on my little Marsan watch cap. (Pattern courtesy of Staceyjoy. Thank you Staceyjoy!) I want to start my second mitten. Dammit! Take this burden of finishing from me!

No, I must be strong. I will wear the seed stitch pullover this weekend. I will go for brunch. People in the café will notice my lovely sweater. They will say. “How comfy that sweater looks. It is big, but in a good way. It is flattering and nicely put together.” All the while I will smile serenely and eat an omelette. Or maybe some toast. No more procrastinating with the blog entry. I have to go thread my yarn needle, folks.


* I love Rob Reiner. Nothing would make me happier than to knit, or crochet, him a sweater. This is not a put down in any way, merely a reference point for size. Thank you.