Did a tubular bind-off on the collar, just because.

A lot of people have probably gotten a lot of knitting done during the covid-19 pandemic, but I have to admit that despite all the time at home I haven’t been able to focus or concentrate enough to be that productive. (I have friends who’ve experienced this with their reading habits as well - plenty of time to do it, no ability to focus.) I’ve finished two scarves in the last year, that’s it. In normal times I generally like to challenge myself with learning a new skill with each project, or trying a pattern that seems daunting, etc, but lately I just don’t have it in me.

One of the scarves I made, though, was from the Nora Gaughan Men pattern booklet. I bought it years ago, when I was still fairly knew to sweater knitting and to cabling, to make the Devon sweater for my husband. It was a challenging pattern for me at the time, and I remember liking the other sweater patterns but thinking they looked too hard for me to try myself. But in my brain fog this year, wanting something simple, I went back to that booklet to make the Beagle scarf…and took a glance at the Beagle sweater pattern. It’s amazing to me now that I thought this looked hard! It’s drop sleeves! There’s no real shaping to be done at all! It’s probably that I didn’t really know how to read a pattern yet, because the Devon I made at the time was already a more complex piece with its cabling and set-in sleeves than this very straightforward Beagle.

It’s a testament to Nora Gaughan’s design talent that a sweater this simple to construct contains so much visual interest that my young-knitter brain was fooled into thinking it would be hard to do. So I’m making it for myself. Though I’m now past beginner-level, it’s kind of perfect for where my year-into-the-pandemic brain is. An easy pattern that yields me a comfortable and comforting snuggly sweater is just what the doctor ordered in 2021.

Thanks, Nora.