Why I Gave Up Knitting

for about ten years.

When I moved to Georgia from Florida, I thought: Now I can knit again!!! There wasn't much inspiration to knit in Florida, with weather that was rarely cool, let alone cold. There wasn't the variety of non-wool fibers that we have now -silks, bamboo, lovely cottons. At least not in the only yarn shop anywhere near me.

What did I pick for my first project? The lovely sweater above. I mean, who wouldn't want shoulders like that? Gaw-jus. And what yarn did I choose? 100% black mohair. Big mistake. I had never knit with mohair and had never knit with such a dark color. I bought bamboo needles, another mistake.

I struggled for months with this project. I couldn't tell the stitches apart because the black mohair was so....mohair-y. That meant I couldn't get a reliable stitch count. As time went on, the black dye from the mohair penetrated the needles, turning them black. Then I REALLY couldn't see details.

I kept knitting, swearing, knitting, swearing. For months. And months. And then I gave up. I put the whole mess away in a closet, and decided that until I finished that sweater, I wouldn't knit anything else.

Amateur!!!!! I know better now. I always have multiple projects going at once, with others hibernating.

Well, that sweater hibernated for about ten years, until first granddaughter was born. I took the sweater out of Siberia, studied it, and threw the whole thing (except for the knitting needles) away. Again, what an amateur. I couldn't have frogged the sweater; the mohair was too stubborn to take out, but I could have kept the unused yarn for another project.

What's done is done, but I wish I had known then what I know now. I wouldn't have: a. bought that particular project; b. stopped knitting; c. thrown the whole thing out.

With age comes wisdom - I hope.