Never Give Up!

Ok.

I've come to realize that I've NEVER made my husband anything in terms of crochet.
I think because of his picky nature I didn't want to risk spending money (with me being a yarn snob and all) on something that would sit in his closet.

But then I found a pattern that just screamed ROBERT CAN WEAR ME GOLFING!!!!!

It was this awesome zip up sweater vest in the Stitch N Bitch for men book.

The vest was a navy blue with orange in the book.

At the time Robert was out to sea and nearing his 30th birthday.

"Great!" I thought. "I can make this as a birthday surprise. He'll love it"

HA!

I went out and bought some Cascade 220 superwash in his favorite color (forest green)
I bought some quatro army green to replace the orange in the pattern.

The colors were smashing. Or at least that's what my knitting circle gals said.

And then I heard that voice. A little squeak coming from the back of my brain that I like to call the "It's Robert remember" voice.

So after a good few weeks of attempting to start this vest, only to hear this voice every time I picked up my hook, I decided I'd better wait until he got home.

And yet again the voice was right.

Yeah my husband loved the vest... BUT

Could I add sleeves to it.

Does it have to be green? Well yeah it's my favorite color but..... Ummmmmmm can I have you make it in CAL colors (as in CAL Berkeley football)

Oh! And can you ummmm make my brother Matt one too.

The kicker here is the yarn for just one sweater totalled about $100.

So add this up.

I had already bought the green yarn totalling about $110

I then go buy CAl colored yarn, factor in I need extra for sleeves :$130

Because I bought all of Caroline's stash of the navy blue at Wild N Wooly she had to order more

Factor in that Robert's brother is a size larger :$140

This is starting to become one expensive project.

So I sit down to start Robert's sweater two night ago. I've already discovered that the Stitch N Bitch books are unfortunatly very poorly edited and not very clear when it comes to direction. I usually find myself going to www.ravelry.com to look for corrections or tips from other people who have struggled through the patterns.

I chain the correct number - that's easy, no problem

Then I attempt to start Row 1. First of all it's a linked stitch which I've always heard about but never had actually attempted. Second of all, the description on how to do this stitch, sucked monkey butt.

Not to toot my own horn, but I don't fancy myself as a novice crocheter. I can usually figure things out. What I ended up with was reminicant of what I would have produced back when I was five.

My stitches were gnarles and wonky. The yarn was tangled up to the point I couldn't "frog" it.

I was so ticked off.

I was just about to give up on the project all together ($300 plus in yarn and all) when the voice of a fellow Homefronter popped into my head.

Bethjt: Hey youtube has the coolest videos showing you how to do crochet stuff!

This was when she was learning how to add a brim to a beanie, which I might add she does an AMAZING job at.

So I took a chance and what do you know! There was a video showing me how to do the stitch. And it was DUH simple.

So needless to say, the lesson learned here is don't give up. And don't buy yarn before you've talked to the person who are making the project for.