The Day of the Cardigan

It all started back in September. I decided I was going to knit a cardigan. My Very First Knitted Sweater. You may recall this cardigan, and my crazy decision to knit it in lace weight yarn. Well, it sat in pieces in my yarn nook for months and months, however this week there was a new and exciting development for this little UFO.

You see, my sister-in-law is in the theatre department, and happened to be in a play. Not only that, but my brother is the musical director of that same play, and they had managed to get me a complementary ticket to opening night! Now, the tradition at my school is that opening night of a performance is a Fancy Thing. People come looking all Lovely and Sophisticated in their most elegant clothes. I had decided that I would wear this cardigan to opening night, so the day before I brought it back from exile and dumped all the pieces on the floor.

Luckily for me, I had learned mattress stitch and good seaming practices not long before, so I felt confident enough to tackle this project, with the hope that I wouldn't inadvertantly ruin all the hours of work I'd already put into it. What I didn't count on was how horrifically long seaming takes, and how much of it I had ahead of me.

If there is a place of divine punishment for knitters, I am certain that it is full of endless amounts of mattress stitch. I tell you, I did nothing but work on the finishing of this cardigan all day long today. I had my DDR out so that I could play a song or two between seams to shake out my hands and get the crick out of my neck from staring so intently at the rows of tiny lace-weight v's. I almost gave up. There was just too much to do, and not enough time. I was on the point of choosing something else to wear, but decided to try on the half-finished cardigan, just to see what it would look like. This was my undoing, because it looked too cute, and I knew I HAD to wear it that evening. My roommate arrived home and made me delicious dinner, which I hurriedly ate between weaving in ends. The angel that she is, she ironed my skirt for me, while I set about making myself presentable. Time was tight. I went from the shower to the bus stop in 5 minutes. I'm still not sure how I managed that, but I did! I also wore my recently completed Blackrose Socks, since they matched my cardigan, and what knitter can pass up the chance to wear two coordinating FO's simultaneously!

The play was lovely, however I only knew two other people in the whole building, and since one was in the cast, I didn't even get a chance to talk to her after the play before having to rush off to catch the bus home. It was actually a rather anti-climactic end to my day of furiously knitting and seaming like a madwoman. Wearing your new knitwear isn't half as fun when there isn't anyone else there to share it with. So, dear blog readers, I shall just imagine that you were all at the play as well. "Oh this? Yes, I did knit it myself! Let me tell you, the first seam was the neatest, and they got progressively messier as the day went on."

Have a lovely night all! Catch you next time :)