I don’t remember which yarn or needles I used for this sweater; though I’m checking my stash of labels to see if I get a memory jolt…the most memorable lessons that I learned while working on this project are: 1) ALWAYS check the pattern book to make sure the sweater shown is actually in the book and 2) how to chart your own color design and apply it to a generic sweater pattern.

Yes, I was stupid enough to become enamoured by the pretty pictures in the magazine (in this case, it was the 2000/01 Phildar Children’s Winter pattern book). I was on a business trip in New York state and purchased the magazine at a wonderful little shop called “The Warm Ewe” in Chatham, NY. After flipping through the book for only a few minutes, I saw a photo of this boy having fun in a Snoopy sweater and decided to purchase the magazine to read later. I knew that I wouldn’t have enough room in my luggage for extra yarn, and didn’t want to ship it home, so I didn’t bother to double check that the pattern was in there.

Once I was home and finally looked for the pattern, much to my dismay, I found that it was missing. Apparently, Phildar had to pull the pattern from the book at the last minute b/c of copyright issues, but they left the photo(!).

That’s when Faina, one of the knitters in my Guild, felt bad for me and showed me how to pattern out the color work on my own using a generic pull-over pattern. You may think that any ol’ fool should be able to create their own intarsia, but hey, I had only been knitting for about 18-months back then and was still a little distraught over the pattern book. Damn you, Phildar!

Needless to say, once this sweater was completed, it was too warm for my son to wear, and the neck would not fit over his head. Which, if you read any of the other narratives on pull-overs that I make, is a common problem for me. Or maybe the men in my life all are fat-headed…