The Lonely Sweater

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe I'm still a bit oxygen starved from last month's pneumonia. Maybe it's just the problem of trying to grasp time during the long summer days, but I have been stymied.
This little sweater has been part of my life since I was born. My mother knit it to take me home from the hospital. It was one of the first things I ever knit. I have knit it more than 10 times. But this time, I hit road bumps including gauge, yardage, counting rows, measuring. Can you believe that after this picture, when I went to block it (at 5:45 am before I went to work) I noticed one of the sleeves was shorter than the other. Can you believe I think this is the first time I ever did that?
So last night, in an empty house, with a bit of a heavy heart for an old soul of a patient who died at the end of my shift, I unsewed the sleeve, knit it up properly and sewed it back on. All this for a baby who probably won't live through his or her first day.


I have alread cast on Li's reversible herringbone rib scarf in local alpaca as a simple knit for a Christmas present. I will try to knit toward hope of celebration, as well as revelling in the softness and the pertinence of the pattern.
Today I take it easy and prepare something (a tortilla torte?) for our night shift communal meal.