The Sweater Curse

I’ve been thinking, for some time now, about knitting N a sweater. Our 7 year anniversary is coming up and that’s a long time for someone to be dating a knitter and not receive a hand-knit sweater. Truthfully, the curse is on my brain every time I stumble upon a cute guy’s sweater pattern. So, I just file it away and move on with other projects. It may be superstitious but to many of us in the knitting world it actually seems quite plausible. Knitters share their personal experiences in books, magazines, blogs, and by word of mouth. Doing a little research lead me to the ‘Sweater Curse’ Wikipedia article, which is actually quite terrifying.

Apparently knitters have several possible processes for the Sweater Curse which then lead me to ask myself, why do I want to knit this thing in the first place? I must attempt to rule out all possible mechanisms for a successful curse!

Unlucky timing. Okay, we have been together 7 years. This makes the 7-Year Itch pretty relevant to our situation. But now I’m compounding superstitions on superstitions! Does that negate them? 😛

Rescue mission. Hardly. He is on the verge of proposing, so this wouldn’t be relevant! Of course, he has been on the verge for about 3 years now…curious.

Catalyst for analyzing the relationship. No no, he loves me and I love him and this sweater is just showing him how much I care!

Aversion. Hmm, interesting thought. No matter what I knit for him he graciously thanks me and then immediately places it under a pile of clothes! Apparently everything I make is too itchy.

Misdirected attention. Well, I would certainly love the sweater more than he would. Is that really a problem?

Delusion. Geez, I sure hope I am not delusional and wasting years of my life! Wikipedia you can really do a lot to excite a girl’s nerves!

In the end, none of these apply to me and the curse seems all in good fun. Yet I cannot shake the idea that knitting him a sweater is a bad idea. Has anyone else experienced the curse? Did you stare it in the face and come out on the other side successful?

-L