his birthday sweater vest.

here's one of the photos from the book i got from the library, that i got the pattern from, and have since returned. ha. that tiny photo is silly. it's from erika knight's men's knits.

and here is my man on the morning of his birthday, in his handmade vest.

looks pretty good, right?

the fit is pretty darn good. although the ribbing at the bottom wants to curl up sometimes, so i told him to kind of check that and pull it down periodically. he said he did through out the day. good man.

strong man. strong men wear vests. vests of all kinds. imagine him with his carhartt vest on top of this one. super strong man image!

a little side detail.

walking to his car on his way to work. looking fine. i am such a dork. it was more like my present almost, how much i loved seeing him wear it.

so cute. he is so so cute sometimes. you know. the fact that he wore this all day on his birthday, and said he kept feeling so much love for me throughout the day because it is all knitted into all those thousands of stitches, made me feel so good, knowing he felt my love so palpable there. an obvious reason for hand~making someone you love, or someone you don't (?), a gift of some sort. any sort.

a few notes~

so i had to go to the knitting store to get some help on the day before his birthday. the ladies who work there are all mostly of the retirement age, 60s 70s and 80s. they were so willing to help me with my few last steps, giving their opinion freely that the pattern i chose was not done in the way they would have written it, calling it nonsense (no offense ms. knight, but i think these ladies are of the elizabeth zimmermann seamless knitting sect), but still showing me what me to do nevertheless. i was shown kitchener stitch. tricky. the woman who taught me that stitch, roxanna, said i will need to know that to make socks. getting complicated here. to attach the neckband on to the back of the neck. i was shown mattress, or ladder, stitch for sewing the side and shoulder seams. did you know your knitting skills could come in handy in a first aid scenario? i've never sewn seams in handknits before. they talked, in the most normal way, about jeopardy and dog shows while i sat there stitching..(i guess if you're gonna watch tv, choose what you watch..make it fun so you can talk about it. anyone want to talk about glee or lars and the real girl? those are the two things i've watched most recently)...... i mostly listened and kept focused. but i loved listening to their gabbing. a lot. and i now have a pretty good idea what i want to be doing when i am an older woman. working, or just basically hanging out, in a knitting store. they are all so sharp. i LOVED that too. they seem to know everything about knitting. and spinning too. and raising sheep. i overheard one conversation about how there is no such thing as cashmere. what do they mean?) and they all have different opinions, but respect each others, sort-of. but one thing seamed clear, based on a conversation i overheard between three of them. and that is that continental knitting is the best. thanks mom for teaching me the best way. friend, you know who you are, you are just wasting time with that horrible american style way. i still feel bad for you. and i still love you very much too. i would not embarrassed at all, though, to knit in public with you. i would be if it was me knitting like that. but i don't care how you do it. it's sweet. it's southern american grandma. i'm just more euro.

making this vest, the largest thing i've ever knit, in my fairly new knitting life, put me up against myself and my thoughts in a way i haven't had to be, in quite some time. the discipline i had to tap into to stay on task, and keep the ship running smoothly with meals on time and daily lessons and appointments kept, was freaking challenging. sometimes i wasn't sure why i was doing this project, this big undertaking for me, a kind-of slow knitter. why? i mean, i knew why. i wanted to make him something special. but why? what if he didn't like it? it felt so risky. then i'd just let those thoughts flow and i chose to just stick with it, simply because i wanted to. that was my why. because i wanted to. because i'm a joyful girl (i love that video so much. it makes me want o put mud on my body and face and sit in some brambles and feel it all. and it also makes me want to put on a sexy silky dress.....). but it was interesting. usually knitting brings me joy. and all of a sudden, i was finding after a solid 30 minutes of knitting, i was getting into territory in my head that was tricky to sit with. i wanted to set it down at that point usually. i've always used knitting before as a distractor. something to do with my hands so i can relax when i'm feeling fidgety and knit-picky (now i understand that term!). but this time, i would sit and sometimes knit for two solid hours. pushing myself to just stay for just ten more minutes. it was so much like a hardcore exercise routine, or a long meditation session. it felt extreme. and then on one of the last days, last weekend, david started doing this exercise program, the p90x thing, that is so extreme. i did it for a few minutes, made myself sore for days by doing 20 pushups (on my knees mostly), and it got me thinking about how many different ways we can be extreme. some good some not. and i kept hearing, over the past few weeks, even before this introduction to the p90x, mr miyagi telling me to start another big project directly after finishing this one. shit. what am i getting myself into? i just wish i had a real mr. miyagi here to keep me on track. i have to be my own god-damn miyagi. that's hard. well, i guess, i could hire a trainer. a crafting trainer. wouldn't that be so great? anyhoo. i guess i'll choose to finish the pants and dress i last cut out but haven't begun to sew yet. ok. but there's no deadline. the deadline on that sweater vest is what got me into those two hour long knitting sessions. i need a trainer. there may be no other way without a deadline. and a fake deadline won't trick me well enough. any ideas for this predicament? should i plan a party? a party for each garment? ha. oh man. it's all in the question, how badly do i want it. but what is it? connection to my deeper self ?? connection to my inner self, that i seem to only find after an extended period of doing something, being extreme in some way. maybe that's my word for the knitting bag. extreme.

???????

well. it was fun. it was hard. it was extreme for me. i paced myself sort-of well. all that practice in school with deadlines, really paid off! i now know how to start my project early, and how to get it done. i am very glad i undertook that project. i am grateful to the spirits that aligned and found ways to give me large chunks of time last weekend when i really needed it, namely at the ski mountain while max had morning and afternoon snowboarding lessons, and then all that time d and i spent in our studio on our date night instead of going out. and on monday morning when my mom took olive for a couple hours and i went to the tea shop and knit the whole time instead of blogging as i usually do when i find myself there. my mom is so supportive of my crafting. thanks mom. and then this tuesday, the one morning when all the kids are in school and i was able to go to the store and those ladies were so able to guide me. yay. that really was fun. and i feel exercised. and i had a day of rest and now i want to get back at it. and i really want my own mr. miyagi. spirits??? can you help me with that?

and. i am so happy when i see d wearing the vest. he looks so freaking cute. the the hippest vest wearing guy i know. the hippest, very very very loved, vest wearing baker man ever!!

and thank you olive for having so much fun in the bathtub while i wrote this post.