Back in February, I did a little post about the current state of Tom’s “big brown blob” of a fishing sweater I knit for him. Quick recap: He wears the crap out of it every fishing season — with all the abuse you might think a beloved fishing sweater would get when worn hard . . . and to purpose. I made the mistake (not actually a mistake . . . more like an ill-advised yarn choice . . . ) of knitting the sweater from Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter** yarn. Which is a beautiful yarn, but it’s super light and doesn’t wear particularly well over time. I explained to you all that I was going to do what I could to keep his sweater in fine, functional form for as long as I could . . . BUT that I was also going to make him a new, sturdier fishing sweater as an (inevitable) replacement.

Well.

Tom wore his sweater up north last week for his first fising outing of the new season. The weather got warm once the sun came up, and he took the sweater off, laid it on the ground as he “re-grouped,” and then wadded it up in a ball and shoved it in the back of his fishing vest. Y’know . . . as one does. When he got back to the cabin, he looked at the sweater and . . . Uh-Oh! He’d laid it on the ground in a patch of burrs!!!!! The entire wad-of-a-sweater was all stuck together with those particularly nasty, sticky burrs. He did his best to pull the burrs off . . . but talk about sweater stress!!!

He brought it home . . . I did an assessment (no holes, but definite weak spots in the fabric). . . gave it a fresh bath . . . and promptly cast on for the new sweater (which I had been planning to knit closer to fall) (because who wants to knit a big man-sweater at a fairly tight gauge with tough-as-nails Jamieson wool . . . in the heat of the summer).

And so it begins.

(To remind you, it’s this sweater in this yarn.) The color in the photos in this post show a much lovelier blue color than the yarn actually is in real life. (The yarn IS pretty — but more gray-ish blue than BLUE.) It’s going to be a long-term project for me, and I know it will get too hot to work on it much during the summer. But . . . it’s a start. I have begun!

How about you? Beginning anything new?

** If you like Brooklyn Tweed yarn, you might want to take advantage of any stock-up/farewell sales while you still can. Brooklyn Tweed is getting out of the yarn biz, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. (In fact, the BT site is sold out of Shelter already. But if you do a Google search, you can find other shops with it in stock. Don’t delay if you want some, though.)