..Knowing What Your Decision Is..It Is Not To Decide

Bonus points to anyone who can place the reference from today's title.*


You may remember a fairly recent posting of mine, where I bemoaned the fact that I don't ever knit sweaters for myself. Socks and shawls I have aplenty, but I seem to get hopelessly tangled in an emotional mess whenever it comes to actually knitting a sweater. I have a lot of excuses and bad logic to support my sweater avoidance, and none of them are good.


I think the Green Woman may have whacked me over the head a month or so ago, because I find that I can no longer live with those sorry excuses. It's time to change.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that my friend Jen seems to be cranking out beautiful garment after beautiful garment for herself. Apparently jealousy can be a good kick in the pants.

At any rate, I've been going through all of my books and magazines, trying to decide upon which gorgeous sweater to knit for almost a month now. My only rule was that I had to use stash yarn because I just can't justify buying sweater yarn when I have enough already to make five or so sweaters. This has been a bit of a problem as all of my stash yarn is DK weight and the patterns I've been drawn to (Inspired to Knit...Yum) use heavier yarns. Nonetheless, I did manage to find patterns for two pullovers and four cardigans that would work well with what I have.

Which is where the problem came in. I just couldn't decide...and I was afraid that I would let my indecision prevent me from actually casting on and knitting the sweater.

So, I asked my husband what he thought I should knit. (I can almost hear the eye-rolling on that one.) While it is true that he doesn't usually have an opinion on what I wear - past an occasional loathing for garments he finds to be too dowdy - my husband does generally have good taste.** After carefully perusing the pile of patterns I had laid out, he selected Forestry, a Veronik Avery design published in the current issue of Vogue Knitting.

I will freely admit that I was actually surprised with how much insight he showed through the selection process. In the end, his decision was largely based on what would be the most practical for my wardrobe and lifestyle. He figured that if I was going to put so much work into something...I might as well be able to wear it often.

And so today I'm going to be a good little knitter and redo some swatches with my beloved Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool. It's been swatched a million times for another sweater, but I haven't touched it in a long time, so it needs to be redone. Fortunately, this yarn doesn't change when washed, so I only need to double check gauge...which should actually be the right gauge for the pattern.

Tonight is my night off, and I intend to be knitting for myself.

*Little Hint. I almost exclusively listen to musicals...and this is Sondheim at his best.

**I should add that I asked my husband to pick out a sweater for me to knit when my interest in knitting for myself first started a month ago. He picked out a summer sweater, but pointed out I probably wouldn't finish it in time to actually wear it this year. Silly man was ridiculously pleased when I told him that he had been right about that.