Now that I am pretending to be a knitting expert I feel the need to reflect a little on my actual achievements in this area. While gathering proof of how well-versed I am in needle language , a couple of unfinished projects tumbled out of the closet. Here they are, together with the excuses for why they were never finished.

 Baby Sweater in Screaming Colours

The first picture shows the front part of a baby sweater for my now 20-year-old son which I started knitting in 1990-something. By the time I got ready for the back part he had already outgrown the front part. So I decided to turn it into a sleeve instead and started a larger front part. Then the same thing happened again, he outgrew it.. Front and back are finished, but one sleeve is lacking and I ran out of yarn. Can’t get the same cotton anymore and won’t get babies anymore either, so I think I will become an unraveler for this one.

Cabled Tweed Pullover

Similar story, but some seven years later. Did not finish this on time and then all of a sudden my son was taller than me. I took it up again now, because I still like it. I just need to find a new beneficiary. The yarn got attacked by moths in the meantime but after vacuuming it, most of it is still intact. It is a very cheap yarn from Zeeman that I bought at the incredibly low price of 2.99 guilders (€ 1.35) for 100 grs. It is 25 % wool, 7 % viscose and the rest synthetic fibre, which was helpful for surviving the moths. In the 90-s there were hardly any yarn shops left in Amsterdam and all those great hand-dyed, fully natural yarns had not even made it into existence, so the Zeeman deal wasn’t so bad at the time.

Loose Ended Roses

This one is finished, that is, the knitting is finished. The reason why I still don’t get to wear this can be seen in the picture on the right: I still need to weave in hundreds of loose ends. And the yarn is so black, the light in my house so dim. What if I took it with me on my holiday to a sunny country? It will become such a sweaty job! The yarn is unfortunately totally synthetic, for the reasons mentioned above, but also because I couldn’t afford expensive yarns a few decades ago.

Black Seed Stitch & Cables

This sweater actually got completed, it is even a little worn. I bought the cotton yarn while travelling in Guatemala and in need of something warmer than the clothes I brought (and reluctant to wear the indigenous garments and look like a hippy). The black never really was black enough. I thought I would wear it again if I added a skirt to it as I had plenty of yarn left. Look at the size of that skirt, what was I thinking? The skirt has to go. Maybe I’ll use the yarn for a summer camisole.