I completed the shoulders and started on the hood this weekend.  The picture above shows my progress thus far.  I’m 25 rows into it.  The shoulders were by far the trickiest part.  Somehow I was off by a few stitches here and there.  I improvised to keep the decreases in a place that looked logical.  I really didn’t want to have to rip out, but was prepared to do so since I don’t consider myself good enough to improvise and have it work. But to my surprise, it seems to have turned out ok.  I had the right number of stitches when I finished the shoulders, PHEW!  If you are working on the shoulders of this sweater and you come to the part that says “work in pattern as set” then make sure to do sssk’s and p3tog’s instead of just k’s and p’s.   I consider myself leveled up after this shoulder experience 🙂  That means the Vivian has leveled my knitting skills up twice now!  Talk about diving into the deep end of the pool!

Cool Moon Yoga Knits had a post today with a poem about knitting and how it heals which reminded me what propelled me start this project I thought was impossible.  I started this sweater the day I had to put my dear old cat down after 15 long years of being there for me.  I just wanted to knit to help me through mourning, it’s such a healing process.  There’s something about the repetative motions, that lead to a creation of fabric, that is really grounding and statisfying.  Now I will always remember him when I wear this sweater .

• Vivian