The Summer Sweater Update Number 1

I finally (finally) got to the point in my sweater where I could put the sleeves on waste yarn and start on the body of the sweater. Finally. I'm not sure why it takes forever to get to this point. It's one of the things I dislike about top down sweaters and shawls. You cast on a few stitches. Sometimes as few as 6 sometimes as many as 50. Each row you add 2-8 stitches. The first 30 or so rows fly by and you imagine yourself wearing your new creation in a matter of days. Days, I tell you. The sweater (or shawl) is flying off the needles and you can actually see your work growing and taking shape. And then you hit the "point of oh god when is it ever going to end". And each row slogs through like you are trying to run through a quagmire. Each stitch is painfully slow and you swear it isn't growing at all. You have knit the same row at least 90 times. You wonder why you put yourself through this hell just for a sweater when you could purchase a perfectly good sweater at the mall. Your work is so dismal that you know the sun is producing 38% less light than it was the previous day.

And then, right when you are sure that you should abandon this project and go make a washcloth (because the world really needs yet another knit washcloth), you realize you have finally reached a major point in your project. For me it is putting the arms on waste yarn and joining the body under the arms and beginning the body of the sweater. You take a moment to admire the lovely row of yarn over increases along the raglan sleeve increase. You fold the sweater into shape and realize that it has definable parts of front, back, and sleeves. You smooth the lovely rows of stitches, whether they are stockinette or some intricate lace pattern or columns of cables. You are a knitter with a capital K. You can conquer this.

And then you realize that you still have at least 6 more inches until you get to do anything other than stockinette.  Perhaps it is time for a Harry Potter movie marathon.