The Not-Quite-Lucky Sweater

We had so much fun at Wicked on Wednesday that Sunday we decided to go lotto for tickets before it left the next day.  So Sunday morning arrived and I found myself, as I often do on my day off, wide awake before 7 am.  This is a serious condition with which I seem to have been cursed -- the inability to sleep in.  I blame my parents, as it seems I should for all problems of such gravity.  When I finally admitted to myself that there was no way I'd be able to fall back to sleep (sometimes I can trick my brain into thinking I have to go to work, then I drift right off), I brewed a pot of coffee and settled in with my knitting.  The night before I had knit the left front button band on my Kaleidoscope, so all I had left was to finish the right front button band, sew on buttons, block, and weave in ends.

By ten, when we were to leave, I was sewing in one of the final ends and was determined to wear the sweater to the theater.  I had joked on Wednesday night that I could have it done in time to wear for the lotto, and by golly, if it was within reach I was totally going to do it.  As I struggled to brush my teeth and apply eye liner at the same time I realized something truly upsetting.  The buttons would not stay closed.  Not because the sweater was too small, but because the button holes were too large!  Somehow, despite my careful gauge swatch and needle choice, despite all the math I did to rework the button band for five rather than six buttons, I managed to forget that I had gone up a needle size, which made the buttons I had carefully selected from my meager stash just shy of large enough to fit.  Not to be deterred I found my shawl pin and used it to secure the second button in place, leaving the top to flop over in a manner I hurriedly deemed flirtatious.

On the way to the theater Andrea and I joked about the fact that we never win anything and how the bright spot of our day would realistically be cleaning out the refrigerator.  I knit on the sock I had started just in case we actually got to see the show and we strategized about where to pick up more coffee to sooth our disappointment.  As we pulled into the parking garage I noticed a sign that featured the dates of the show run.  May 2 - 27.  And then it hit me.  I knew from looking at my project page that I had started this sweater on May 2.  And I knew that I was wearing the sweater I had "finished" that morning on May 27.  It was fate.  We needed some luck and we grabbed on to that for all we were worth.  When we met up with the cast outside the stage door we'd tell them of the unintentional creation.  It was the sweater of destiny.

What we learned that day is that a sweater really needs to be finished before it can be lucky.  I still need to reinforce the button holes, weave in the final ends, and give the bottom edge a good blocking before I can call the Kaleidoscope done.  But I did wear it on Sunday.  And while it  eventually got too hot for even fingering weight wool, my little sweater can be considered not-quite lucky.

Maybe lucky-adjacent, if you will.