The Deuce, in progress

In the fall, I set a goal of knitting sweaters for both my sons – a feat I have never before accomplished in one season. Usually, I am doing well to get a sweater knit for one son before he outgrows it. I was determined this time to knit sweaters for both of them, in time for them to both wear them before winter was up.

Given my track record, this was an ambitious goal. I made it even more so by setting out to design the sweaters, too. My vision was of coordinated colorwork sweaters for all three fellas in my family (thank goodness there is no risk of My Old Man outgrowing his before I can finish it).

You know, a sweater for a kid, even a bigger kid, which mine now are, really shouldn’t take more than three weeks to complete. Of course, that would require not setting it aside multiple times for multiple other projects, which is what I’ve done. Also, it would mean not involving all the trial-and-error work original designs involve (at least that’s what they involve for me).

I finished the body of Tiny Dancer’s sweater in November, but I was horrified with the result of the colorwork. For one thing, I should’ve gone up a couple of needle sizes to accommodate for my tighter gauge when knitting stranded – I knew it was bad, but didn’t realize how bad it was until he tried it on. I also decided it was busier than I wanted it to be (though not nearly as busy as colorwork can be).

And though I usually love corrugated ribbing, I hated it on this sweater.

I also decided I wasn’t super-wild about the lime green (which will be the main color of Little Buddha’s sweater, and was picked by him).

I like the color itself, but wasn’t loving it in combination with the other colors (it is also a different yarn than the tweed I’m using in the rest of the sweater).

As sometimes happens with crafting fails, the result was procrastination – I couldn’t quite make myself unknit and reknit. I set it aside after Thanksgiving and didn’t pick it back up until sometime last month. I’ve changed the colorwork completely, opting for subtle garter stripes instead, and I still had some trial-and-error with the sleeve fitting, but at long, LONG last, I am finally done.

Well, except for the weaving in and blocking. And except for the fact that I have a whole other kid to knit a sweater for and only a few more weeks of winter left. Theoretically….