Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Knitting Queen?

As you may know from some of my older posts that are mainly posted in the winter I do dabble at knitting.

Since my mum died last year I wanted to be the one to carry on the family tradition. My children had great wardrobes of beautiful homemade sweaters and blankets that were well admired by our friends. So I bought a pattern for a sweater for number 3 in February 2009 to continue in her footsteps.

A cocky shop assistant talked me into buying it and convinced me that I could do it. It was one of those scenarios that your gut tells you there is no way you can attempt a pattern that complex but you do not want to look like a looser so you buy it anyway!

Normally I am a very strong personality so it is very rare that I get bullied by a shop assistant yet this was a great example of being caught "off guard." I was determined to prove to myself that I could and would finish this god dam sweater.

It took 10 months of constantly rushing to my mentor who lives down the road to get this sweater completed. It has travelled from NH to FL, ME and MA.  I lost faith in it, unravelled it at least twenty times and swore at it as I cried many tears of pain and frustration.

Well it is complete and it is running a tad on the short side:  nothing that a few good pulling sessions will not fix.

My son was thrilled at first as I have drummed into him how much love has gone into making this sweater, however my heart has just been broken!

I pulled his clothes out for him to wear tomorrow and he said "I don't want to wear that sweater as the kids will laugh at me!" Since I am recovering from a heavy dose of the flu I had a hissy fit & stormed out of the room. Sir L went to try & resolve the issue.

He found that number 3 likes the sweater but only for home use as another kid at school wore a homemade sweater & everyone teased him.

I could understand if we lived in the city......hell most of the kids around here are dressed in Walmart specials. Peer pressure or what?

Needless to say my next masterpiece will be a scarf for me!


5 comments:

Expat mum said...

Aw. I know just how yo ufeel. I have a beautiful moss stitch sweater I made for the older boy. It now fits the younger boy and he actually likes it but, it's "too scratchy" and he doesn't want to wear anything underneath it. I would knit something for myself but it's a lot of work in Chicago to a) find a good pattern and b) find nice wool.

Daffodilly said...

You should try the patternworks.com as the wool as it is great.

Jane said...

It's fantastic, Daff! What a great job you've done, I'm really impressed! At least you can treasure the photo of him wearing it.

Almost American said...

Very nice sweater! I've always figured something with pockets would be too difficult, even though I've knit arans!

Luckily around here homeknit seems to go over OK. Maybe it's a bit more earthy/crunchy!

Expat Mum - another good online yarn store is yarn.com.

I'm within spitting distance of two great yarn stores, and have to be restrained when one of them has its annual sale! Not that I've actually completed any knitting in the last year or so! I have at least done a little knitting as a friend has started organizing monthly stitch'n'bitches at her house :-)

From the Top of the Hill said...

OH IT'S WONDERFUL!!!! Young Master D had best wear that "jumper" with pride, or he'll have Mme. L making him cry about it!! You should be very proud..I have a lovely wrap pattern for you to work up for yourself.