another sweater, another story

ez sweater detail, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

In the early 90s I read Knitting Without Tears and discovered the knitting guru Elizabeth Zimmerman. I don’t think I quite got what ez was trying to impart to knitters which was this: gauge gauge, gauge, gauge. If you know your gauge, you can knit anything.

Around that time, the early 90s, knitting wasn’t as popular as it is today. We didn’t have the internet and we didn’t even get our first Mac until 1994. On Hawthorne, a knitting shop in a big purple house was going out of business. Old timers might still remember that epic sale. I picked up the brown sheep wool to make my first seamless yoke sweater for less than 20 bucks!

But I didn’t check my gauge. I simply cast on without much thought and the resulting sweater was way too big. I mean, just look at those sleeves! It's more like a dress than a sweater!

Still I was proud of my achievement as you can see (I like my haircut too).


I ended up giving the sweater to Liz, my sister, and she still has it. And still wears it. I think.