The journey begins

As I mentioned in my previous post,  in a moment of maternal weakness, I agreed to knit my son a sweater.   This would be no small project, seeing as this son of mine is 6 feet tall.

Off we went to the nearest craft store hoping to find a pattern for a man's sweater, in particular, a V-neck pullover.  It seemed like a classic style that should be easy to find.  Unfortunately, we were both wrong.  It was actually quite hard to find patterns for men.  Page after page, in booklet after booklet, we found beautiful patterns for pretty, feminine sweaters and accessories,  sweet baby items,  lots and lots of sock patterns, but not one single pattern for a man's V-neck sweater.

Finally, I searched out the craft book section, and reluctantly picked up this book:

I was reluctant because I did not want to pay $20 for a whole book of patterns when all I wanted to knit was just one sweater.   But also, I was put off by the scowling face of the guy on the book cover.  If  the sinister looking coverboy was any indication, how could I expect to find a sweater in this book that would appeal to my son?   Expecting the worst, but with no other alternative,  I began flipping through the pages. 

On the inside cover was this guy staring back at me:

I could not imagine wanting to make any sweater that would also appeal to this crazy-eyed, disheveled lost boy. 

I kept searching. 

The next picture I saw was this guy:

He seemed to be daring me to ask about that earring in his ear. 

There was another sweater modeled by the coverboy-with-attitude:

Is that the only face he knows how to make?

Perhaps he was annoyed because his overachiever girlfriend made his scarf

way too long:

This next model looked less menacing, but did I really want to spend time and effort to make such a droopy, mis-shapen, boring cardigan as this?

Who was the stylist for this photoshoot anyway? Looks like this guy just rolled out of bed.

Finally, a model who was more cutie pie than smarty pants:

Cute smile, but we weren't looking for a cardigan.

And then this pic of somebody's lovable, teddy bear grandpa:

I bet he keeps Werther's original caramels in that pocket.

At long last,  I came to this photo of a camera shy computer geek  modeling a perfectly normal looking V-neck pullover.

My son and I both agreed it would make a fine sweater, and we found some nice
charcoal gray heather yarn to make it with.

I guess this book was designed  to appeal to the new breed of younger, edgier, way-hipper-than-me knitters.  Stepping away from my comfort zone to attack a sweater project is as close to the edge as I want to get.