Sweater curse, be damned.

I'm knitting Joe a sweater. It's a birthday present, which is to say, you can't surprise the one you love (and live with) with a fully-formed sweater. Instead, he got a box of yarn for his birthday.

A potential gift.

A gift-in-progress, if you will.

There's a thing about knitting your significant other a sweater. A curse.

Sweaters take time, people. And they take yarn. LOTS of yarn.

And by the time you're done knitting said sweater, you could have gone out and bought three sweaters for the price of the one you completed. Plus, you'd have all those hours of knitting back too.

So. Knitting someone else a sweater is a true labor of love.

The curse goes like this: as soon as the sweater is done, so is the relationship.

And since I highly value my relationship, I have been reluctant to knit this man a sweater.

But, we've been through a lot over those 14 years we've been together.

So I decided to take the leap.

I'm deep in it. The back is complete, the two front panels are complete, and I'm half-way up the second sleeve.  There will be a critical point, say, at the end of next week, where I put all of these pieces on a huge circular needle to complete the shoulders and neck, and that is the first time I'll be able to gauge whether this thing is going to fit him (and, therefore, whether or not I'm going to have to frog half the sweater).  This will determine, as well, whether Joe gets to wear this sweater this winter or next winter.

Stay tuned.