While picking up stitches for Brooklyn’s collar, I encountered the first misbehavior on the part of the yarn and the pattern. (This jacket has involved misbehavior on this part of the recipient, but that is another story.) The yarn, having behaved very well for me so far, in spite of its reputation, flatly rebelled when it came to picking up the stitches. I had to bring in a crochet hook, which works fine but slows the process down unbelievably. Then I found that I was supposed to pick up 39 stitches across the back, where there are only 31. Some accomodating yarns will let you do this, but not the denim. I squished in 34, and snuck the remainder in with the first row.

Having fought with the knitting to this point — and it took almost an hour — I did in fact have sore hands, and forearms for that matter. It is possible that there was a predisposition to it, based on the previous day’s time spent wrestling big ol’ German toy excavators up into the rafters, but my new theory on why some knitters find that knitting with denim tires their hands is that it is the fighting, not the knitting, that does it. The lack of stretch is what does it, I think. Instead of stretching agreeably like wool when you manipulate it, the denim sits staunchly refusing to budge.

I like to have theories for things, however ad hoc.

But I would say that this makes denim most appropriate for fairly straightforward knitting, like Brooklyn, rather than, say, lace or Viking cables. And you’d probably want to avoid complex finishing, too.

Be that as it may, the end is in sight. I am working tomorrow instead of today, and so I have a day at home today. I hope to get Brooklyn done, at least to the point of the zipper.

This weekend is Homecoming, and Autumnfest, and I know that #1 son will want to wear his jacket. It is still entirely possible that he will reject the finished item, in which case Pokey gets it. But he will want it finished so he can accept or reject it in a lordly manner.

I am also taking him to get his license today, and doing the housework and errands I would normally do on Saturday. What’s more, #2 son has alerted me to the fact that everyone else has decorated for Hallowe’en, so I am planning to do that as well. He keeps us up to par on such things. As he says, we do not want to be the black sheep of the neighborhood.