Sunday 4 November 2007

Jacket? What Jacket?


It's been over a month since I touched the steeked jacket.

A month!

I dropped it at the start of Southern Summer of Socks and apart from shifting it to get to something that was under it in my knitting bag (as seen above), I've literally not touched it.

You've all been very kind in not prodding me about it. The same can't be said about my husband.

I get comments from him like, 'so, how's the jacket going?' and 'so I haven't seen you work on the jacket for a while.'

Yes, I will say through gritted teeth. Thank you for that, my love. I so appreciate you reminding me.

And I figured things would continue on in that manner for some time. A lovely state of denial, don't you think?

Two things have happened to change this.

1. I had a nice long phone chat with Amy from Rhode Island last week (thank God for super cheap phone cards!) and we discussed at some point my options for the jacket and how I would feel if I didn't finish it. We decided that it couldn't sit in a cupboard and nor could it be frogged. So I have two options, to finish it or bury it in the back yard in a very, very deep hole.

We have heavy clay soil and it's back breaking to work it, so we don't. I don't think I could convince Sean to dig that sort of hole for me.

So I guess I have to finish it.

2. Last night we had friends over for dinner and while I was knitting a plain sock, my friend Clare asked how the jacket was going. I'd taken it to work once and she'd been impressed. I dragged it out and showed it off and remembered suddenly how much I like it. Our friends were full of praise for it, especially as it's all joined up and looking pretty fabulous.

'You have to finish it,' Clare implored. 'You've come too far and honestly, if it was ugly, I'd say don't bother, but it's beautiful.'

She's a straight talker, that Clare.

Do we listen to non-knitters who know not what they're asking? She has no idea of the difficulty that lies ahead, but still, she was full of praise and support and well, my ego loves a bit of praise and I have woken up this morning thinking this sudden cold snap might be just the invitation I need to actually give it a go.

I'll get back to you all on how that goes.