Blind Dates with My Yarn

So, now that I have finished my green cable sweater, DH was inspired to pick out a new pattern for his *next* sweater.  Never mind that I have the next 34 sweater patterns for myself picked out, thanks to the bounty of knitting magazines from my friend.  I guess it would be fair to let him have a turn.

I won't be starting it right away.  I have to find the right yarn.  Given we live in a warm-ish climate, we don't actually need many wool sweaters.  I am reading Amy Singer's book, "No Sheep For You" to learn about non-wool alternatives.  I am leaning toward silk, but she recommends lots of swatching and testing of the swatches to ensure drape, gauge, look, feel, etc.

After the travail of finding the right yarn for my brother's sweater, I know this may take a while, and I am not exactly looking forward to it.  In fact, it has all the appeal of blind dating.  Which made me realize how much knitting and dating have in common.  See how I have matched up the steps below:

•  Finding the pattern = Knowing what you seek in a mate

• Shopping for yarn online = Reviewing online personal ads (they all sound so appealing, but you have to get to know them in person)
• Shopping for yarn in the store = Speed Dating (yarn shopping allows for more fondling)
• Swatching = First dates (exhilarating and fun at first, but gets tiresome after the first few tries don't work)

I had much more fun knitting the actual sweaters once that research phase was done with.  And this insight has me grateful again that dating was a long, long time ago for me!