Sweater cursed...

I can't think of another way to explain it.  I must be absolutely and completely cursed where my husbands sweaters are concerned. 

Now before anyone thinks that I'm referring to this Sweater Curse...I'm not.  He doesn't leave when they're done.  It's a different kind of curse.

My particular sweater curse is that I can't ever (ever ever ever), no matter what amount of planning, knit a sweater for my husband just once.  I always end up knitting at least 30% of the sweater more than once, and sometimes the whole sweater multiple times.

I'm really not kidding about no matter what amount of planning.  There can be days of swatching and washing the swatches to be sure to have an accurate gauge.  Something always goes wrong.  I'm not an idiot....at least I don't think I am.  There are other forces at work here.  Sinister, sweater hating forces.

I really thought I'd beaten it with the last sweater.  This time I thought, it would work out.  This time, I would only knit the sweater once.

Right.

I have 8 skeins of a very deep (almost black) charcoal Cascade 220.  That's not enough to knit even the plainest of pullovers for a man with a 46 inch chest. Unless he wants a cropped belly sweater.  No.....just no.

I have added a skein of black and a skein of medium gray to the mix.  I figured thin stripes throughout would do just fine.  The yarn was originally for me, but I've changed my mind about it, and I already have plenty of sweaters on the needles for myself.  

He said he didn't want thin stripes, but would rather have a set of thick stripes across the chest area.  Ok, doable. 
"You sure?" I ask
"Yes, I'm sure" he says
"You're absolutely certain you don't want thin stripes throughout?" I ask again
"Nope" he says, with as much conviction in his voice and eyes as a person can have saying the word nope. 

I've knit the sleeves and about 7 inches into the body.  He's now thinking the thin stripes are a better idea.  That means ripping back the sleeves.  I DESPISE don't much care for knitting sleeves.  They're a pain in the tookus.  I always knit anything that is a pair of something (socks, sleeves, mitts), two at a time on magic loop.  That's the way I prefer most, but still, it's not my favorite thing to do. 

The sweater and sleeves are on time out.  I have to decide whether to just continue on as planned, or to rip them back and add the stripes.  As much as I don't love knitting sleeves, I'm really really not a fan of knitting male adult sized sweaters that end up not being worn, so I'm considering it.

Sigh...The curse continues.

xoxo,
Liz