curse of the boyfriend sweater

at least that's what some folks call it: curse of the boyfriend sweater. in my case it's not just sweaters, and it's not just boyfriends of course either. whatever you want to call it though, the cold hard fact is that any time i have endeavored to knit for someone i was involved with romantically, we have broken up before item was off the needles.

first it was the ex-cheerleader girlfriend, and a gorgeous chunky varieg ated wool scarf in a beautiful basket weave. i wore the scarf after the break-up with the ends left unfinished - until it was stolen at the library. next it was the "left" & "right" mittens for the boy i hand-fasted to. i got just past the thumb on the second mitten, and the first line of the colour way. next it was the overly long green ribbed scarf for a best-friend-turned-lover, with 3 stripes of orange snowflake yarn at either end, and a ridiculously long fringe. i got all through 150+ cm of scarf to the last few stripes when we broke things off.

so you can perhaps understand my apprehension with ever knitting for someone ever again. the last time i got up the gumption to knit for a girlfriend i had explained to her about this curse, and told her i would only knit her the requested legwarmers if she promised to avoid breaking up with me at least until they were done. we had a good laugh about it, and she assured me no break-up was in our near future anyhow. when we split rather abruptly just a few weeks later, she paused in mid-sentence, and with a look of genuine regret, said, "i'm sorry about the legwarmers..." i was a mere inch away from finishing the second one. that was 3 years ago.

::added later to finish post::
so i decided to knit Pooh Bear a scarf. and finish it before he arrived in Canada. and it was really therapeutic. i cried in frustration. i felt terrified. i almost gave up a few times. i ripped back & reknit entire sections. but i finished it. and gave it to him, utterly completed. even though the relationship ended so horribly, i am grateful that i was able to lift the curse of the boyfriend sweater while we were together. projects are a lot easier to complete now.