Despite overwhelming evidence it's hard to give up on the idea that my daughters are little girls. The younger one is turning 13 in the next few days and has already launched into teenage life at warp speed -- clothes, makeup, boys, gossip -- all the signs point to an adolescent on the loose. She's even grown taller than me, not a lot, but still, I have to concede, she's taller.
Being intellectually alert, you would think I could analogize the length of time it takes to knit for her to knitting for myself. I might save a smidgen of time and yarn because, while she is definitely (though only marginally) taller, she is quite a bit slimmer. Of course not. This is my child, my little one, and she should have a new sweater for her birthday. I hadn't considered the idea until about ten days before the event when I came upon some lovely organic cotton at my LYS. As the germ of the desire to knit for her big day took root, I managed to convince myself that I could knit her a tunic length, long sleeved hoodie in DK weight cotton in exactly ten days.
The internal rationalization went something like this: "I'm not a fast knitter, but I knit a lot and I won't work on any of the other projects I've got going, all 20 of them. I'll manage around work deadlines, the construction on the house, and end-of-year events at school. It's not really that busy. It'll be tough, but I can do it."
I consulted with the other knitters at hand and they confirmed that it could be done. Okay, so one of them was the LYS owner, but I think she's honest. She's a knitter, she knows that the impossible is possible when an obsessed knitter is on the case. She's done it herself, quite recently.
The back is done and there are only about 30 rows until I begin the neck shaping on the front.
I've got two and a half days.
It won't be a problem.
