The first item I dragged out of my basement was the abandoned Vegan Fox. I joined Alison's Rip-along and vowed to put this fox out of it's misery. I hated knitting it. I didn't like using the three yarns held together. I didn't like how it looked. I didn't like how it felt. I hated it. Hated it! But I felt like a quitter for giving up on it. I'm much happier now that the fox has been reintroduced to the wild.
Next was a much bigger knitting ghoul. When I was pregnant with my second son, four years ago, I picked up knitting. I wanted to make a cardigan for my older son, then almost two. I picked a pretty simple one from Debbie Bliss's Baby Knits. I knit all the pieces. I worked very carefully and did a very nice job knitting it. The it came time to sew the whole thing together and finish the neck and button band. I freaked out. I worked so hard on it I was terrified I would ruin it with my amateurish finishing (lack of) technique. So I stuffed it away. When I would find it periodically, it filled me with guilt and dread. I stuffed it away again. But like some demon boomerang it kept coming back to me. Finally, last night, I confronted the demon.
As I inspected all the pieces I wished I could have a conversation with the knitting-me from four years ago. "Hey, Four-Years-Ago-Jessica. What the heck were you doing here?" "What the heck is this?" "How did you stitch this thing together?" I have no answers to these questions. What I did discover was that I had sewed on the (unblocked) front pieces reversed using some made-up back stitch/whip stitch sewing technique. I pulled out my blocking board and started to take the shoulder seams apart. The first came apart fine. I couldn't find the end of the yarn for the second seam. I decided to just cut a stitch to pull it apart. Well, stupid me, I cut the knitting not the sewing! I panicked, felt ill and had a strong urge to stuff the demon sweater back into it's purgatory bag for a trip back to the attic. But then I thought about a great story Nanette shared a few months ago about cutting the front and back of a sweater while steeking. I took several deep breaths and got a needle and patched the small cut as best I could with Swiss darning. I think it should be fine. I pinned it all up and gave it a good once over with the steamer. Here it is looking a lot less evil.
The great irony is that my youngest son wears a size 3 and the sweater is a 2. I guess I'll have to wait about 30 years for grandchildren.
