The Boyfriend Sweater Curse

So I'm looking through my UFO pile today, thinking "I think I'll finish something today."

Oh, calm down. I was just thinking it. It's not like I was actually going to do it.

So I'm looking through and I come across Chaos. Ah, Chaos. My bete noir. Front and back done. Both sleeves cast onto one needle and halfway done. Why not finish? It's like I have this crazy finishing phobia when it comes to this sweater. IDK. Maybe it's related to the Boyfriend Sweater Curse.

But, Gentle Reader, let me say that I do not believe in the Boyfriend Sweater Curse. Here's why:

I learned to knit way back when T and I were just dating. Of course, the very first thing I knitted was a scarf for him. (Which he still wears, btw.) The second thing was a pair of mittens for me.


But the third thing... I wanted something really impressive. You see? I wanted to give something out-of-the-ordinary to this out-of-the-ordinary boy. So I found the most complicated sweater pattern I could find. One that no one else in the world could knit for him.

It should be noted at this point that I had only been knitting for a couple of
weeks. And I didn't really understand things like guage, or swatching, or reading patterns. I knew Knit, Purl, KFB, K2tog. Everything else I learned as I went.

What's that? Purl through the back loops? Knit in the row below? Slip to cable needle? (What the heck is a cable needle?) And my favorite, S1K1 PSSO. (Mainly because of how I was pronouncing that for a few years.)

But I did learn. And I did finish. Eventually. And he still has it, though he can't wear it any more. It lives on a shelf in our closet, reminding us of how special T is. Of how determined I was. Of how we are not governed by superstition, but by love, so no "curse" can touch us.


And, of course, of how I have still not finished Chaos.