Sweatermen

Now that Christmas is over, I can start sharing some of the gifts that I made. 

When Joe graduated from college I knit him a sweater.  He picked out the pattern and the yarn.  Previously I told him I would not knit him a sweater because he tends to lose things.  But I promised that if he could graduate, I would knit him a sweater.  So in the hottest part of the summer, I was finishing up a wool sweater for him. 

While I was working on the Joe's sweater, it seemed like David liked the style.  I tucked that idea away for the time being as I had already knit a sweater for him.  (And they take a long time!) 

When David found out that he was going to be travelling in November and December I got the idea that I could make a sweater for him for Christmas and it would be a surprise since he wouldn't see me working on it.  So I ordered the yarn, and waited for him to be gone.  The first week I got a lot of work done on it.  He was gone from Monday through Thursday, so I was able to work on it nightly.   Second week - almost as good - he was gone overnight for two nights and again, I got more work done.  I had been keeping track of the time that it takes, and based on the amount of time it took me to get through one skein of yarn, and the number if skeins it took for the sweater, I figured it would take me between 50 and 60 hours total to get it done. 

Third week - he decided to only be gone overnight for one night.  That only gave me the time between when I get home from work, and when he would get home - which was about 2 hours or so.  Usually.  One night he called me from his car when he was about 10 minutes away and it was an hour earlier than I expected.  So I was running around getting everything stashed away before he pulled into the garage.

By now I knew that I was in trouble.  It was a week, before Christmas, I still had about 12 - 15 hours left, and we were going to Moorhead for the weekend - which meant that I would not get any work done on the sweater unless I could knit in the car.  Which also meant that I would have to tell him, because although he doesn't always pay a ton of attention to what I'm doing, he would notice a sweater being done in a color that I would not wear. 

I kept on trying to figure out how I could still get it done, but I knew it was a lost cause.  So before we left, I fessed up.  Told him what I had attempted, and how I would need the 10 hours in the car to work on it if it was to get done.  He said as long as I wrapped it and put it under the tree he didn't care.  (Which is sort of funny since we both generally know what we're getting each other anyway.) 

I worked on it going and coming, and David was even able to pick out buttons that he liked at a yarn store in Fargo. (Yes he goes with me to yarn stores - isn't he great?)  I finished the sweater, wrapped it, and put it under the tree. 

As luck would have it, Joe wore his sweater when he came to celebrate (according to his girlfriend he wears it all the time) - and so we got a picture of:

The Sweatermen:

A  couple of fine looking men, huh?