Surprise

I have been with my husband for over eight years and it amazes me how often he can still surprise me.

Most of the time my husband treats my knitting with indifference. And sometimes even with out-and-out loathing. He sees it as something that takes time away from productivity around the house and from, well... him.

He didn't much appreciate the socks I've knit for him (he thanked me, but looked at them kind of distainfully at the same time- only wearing them when he's out of other clean socks) and I had pretty much given up on the idea of knitting anything else for him. Period. When suddenly, he threw me a curve ball.

A few weeks ago he actually asked me to knit socks for him for his work. He's entering into a management position and he wants to have 'nicer-looking' socks. In the stupor that followed his request I think I repeatedly (perhaps as many as 5 or 6 times) asked him, "What? Are you sure? Are you really, really sure that you want me to knit you socks?".

Sure enough, he really did. Then, just a few days ago, he tells me that one of his co-workers' wives was due to have a baby any time and he asked me if I would knit something for their baby. I can't accurately describe how busy I've been between spinning for the next Etsy shop update and getting the house ready to sell, but somehow, between everything else, I rose to the challenge.



This is the Ribbed Baby Jacket, from this book by Debbie Bliss. I found the pattern available as a free download on Ravelry. It's adorable, though I made a few modifications to the pattern because there were way too many things about the design that bothered me on a fundamental level (which, of course, I realized when I was already 2/3 of the way through the first time I knit it).

Also, when my husband first asked me to do this, we weren't sure if it was to be a boy or a girl, so I had bought yarn that could go either way. I ended up girli-fying it by embroidering little daisies on it with some left-over cherry tree hill sock yarn. Which I think turned out very cute.



I've really enjoyed this little knit, and have been thinking about knitting another one soon. I feel flattered that my husband asked me to do this, though I also kind of hope he doesn't get used to the idea of asking me knit things for other people. =)