(Oops. If you tried to access this message as soon as I sent the notification and couldn't find it, sorry about the snafu . . . I hit "send" before I was ready, and had to call the thing back for revisions . . . )

I've been meaning to write about knitting all break, and now break is over (I go back tomorrow! Sob!). I don't expect sympathy since I've been off longer than everyone I know, but some of you will recognize the Sunday-before-school feeling, anyway . . .

So here's a quick one, and hopes for a longer post later. Basically, I did a lot of knitting (for me, especially in recent years) over break. I got my yarn organized by project, I made several cozy spots to knit in, and I got my chops back.

So it's time to return to Emil's sweater. Some of you may remember that I started it when Jackie was sick. I got quite a lot of it done, actually . . . but then I discovered that the gauge was off, and it won't fit. (My gauge has gone all to hell.)

So I have to tear it out. And I couldn't face it before now, because it took me a long time to do it, and it's complicated and slow. But now I have half of another piece done, so I have enough done that ripping the first piece all out doesn't feel like going back to Square One.

Here's what the back looks like:



I'm posting it as a public record that yes, I did once have a finished piece. And so you can see the pattern . . .

Returning to knitting, like returning to biking, has been what I call a Rip Van Marcy experience. I learned to knit in Maine in 1981, and let's just say it was a vastly different experience than learning to knit now. This sweater brings to mind one difference, and it has to do with how people spend their time. Nowadays knitting stores are full of finish-in-a-weekend projects (for example: Sock yarn that stripes itself as you go, saving you the trouble of changing yarns). But this sweater represents a substantially greater time investment as well as a lot of learning.

One of the biggest pleasures of knitting is that it gives the knitter the opportunity to learn new things. Reducing the activity to the production of garments almost completely misses the point, if you ask me . . .

Well, that's not as clear as I'd like it to be and there's more to say, but that will have to suffice for now; I better just bite the bullet and go rip the damned sweater out . . . happily, the yarn is really fun to work with.

I'll post updates as they occur . . .