Liberation

I’ve given up on Thanksgiving as a deadline for finishing the sweater. If it happens, fine, but I doubt it will and I’m not going to let it spoil the fun of knitting this thing.

I am, however, learning more and more about doing steeks. This pattern calls for armhole steeks and I have realized that this is going to be the central feature of this sweater, insofar as learning to knit goes.

After reviewing the available literature, I have decided to use a crocheted steek stitch for the armhole steeks. This means that I am going to have to learn to crochet, at least enough to do a steek stitch.

There is very little that I love more than learning new things. It runs in the family. When my Dad had an untimely and accidental death at 90 last year, he was still enrolled at the local university, even though he had gotten his undergraduate and graduate degrees in the 1930's. Last year he was taking courses in anthropology and medieval history.

Of course, I’m going to love having the sweater too. I get cold very easily, and I’ll be wearing it a lot, even here in North Carolina. In partial defense I'll plead that I at least live in the mountains.

I also learned that I’m going to have to have some new thought on decreases. Though this isn’t a classic fair isle pattern, whatever that may be, it’s close enough that I’m going to have to pay careful attention.

Also, I can’t wait for SAFF. The Western NC Ag center is less than a half hour from my house, so it will be easy to get to. Some other blogs are really beginning to talk it up. I have borrowed the above photo from one or the other of them.

A year ago when the SAFF was here I was just starting to get serious about deciding to learn to knit. It reminds me a little of a poster I saw when I was in college – "A year ago I culdn’t even spell ‘colledge stoont’ . . . now I are one."