Where did the last half of this year go? I don’t know. Well. I’m resurrecting this dormant blog to document my descent into total knitting obsession. I learned to knit in May 2007 because I somehow stumbled into Knitblogland and saw all these bloggers knitting…socks? WTF? Who knits a sock? But it looked so cool, and fun, and the yarn was so pretty! I had to learn. So I did. Socks are not what I’d recommend as a first project, but then again, I think the best motivation to stick with knitting when you’re just getting started is to pick a project you love. Where’s the motivation to get to the end of that first garter-stitch scarf? I mean, ok, it’s your first knitted object, awesome, but it’s not exactly awe-inspiring. What is definitely awe-inspiring? Turning the heel on your first sock. I did that, and everything changed.
I’ve always been a bit of a dilettante. I get off on these wild-hare obsessions that start with a bang and end with a whimper, often accompanied by much wasting of time and money. The upshot is that I end up knowing a lot about a wide variety of arcane subjects, like African Grey parrots, fixed-gear bicycles, and marine biology. It’s good for Trivial Pursuit, or Scrabble, or amazing my husband, who likes to quiz me periodically. The downside is that it can feel a little bit defeating when you finally come to the conclusion that you don’t finish a whole lot of what you start.
So, it’s pretty amazing when you weave in the last end on something like this: 
My Lauren sweater, a Weaverknits design. It’s not my first sweater. That dubious honor belongs to Sam’s Cobblestone, still forlornly waiting for me to either graft the underarms and weave in the damn ends or frog and reknit the yoke. (Don’t put a project away for 10 months. Just. Don’t Do It. You *will* forget there is a difference between reverse stockinette and garter in the round. Or you’ll convince yourself that purls look enough like garter bumps that it won’t look like hell when your garter yoke is actually half-and-half. And you’ll be wrong.) It’s not my second or third, either. But it’s my favorite, and the first I consider a resounding success.
It’s in the spirit of Lauren that I decided: I am a sweater knitter. I always thought I’d be more about process than product. That’s just how i roll. But I keep seeing these sweaters and I want them. I don’t want to fiddle around with small projects, although I did knit us some winter wear for our Thanksgiving trip to New Mexico, a place where it actually gets and stays cold. So if I’m going to declare myself a sweater knitter, what better way to celebrate than with an arbitrary challenge that will matter to no one but me? Enter NaKniSweMoDo! NaKniSweMo originated as a knitting version of NaNoWriMo, but with a sweater instead of a novel and, obvs, knitting instead of writing. The Do tacked in the end is for Dodecahedron, or dozen. 12 sweaters, a sweater a month for a year. The rules are few: the tally can include vests or shells. The sweaters must be finished. They must be adult-sized. They can be knit at any pace (not necessarily one a month) as long as you have 12 by 12/31/2009.
GAME ON!!
