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gas station jacket, anyone?

21 March 2011 2,945 views 11 Comments

The husband celebrated a milestone birthday this year near the beginning of February. One of those birthdays that couldn’t be acknowledged by a simple Amazon gift card or a new tie. (Does anyone still give ties? Such a lame gift) I wondered for months what to get him, and of course he kept saying he didn’t need or want anything special. I stewed for ages on what the gift would be. Dude is a tough man to buy for.

Pump Jockey finished!

Six weeks before his birthday I hatched a plan. I would knit him Jodi Green‘s Pump Jockey from Knitting it Old School completely in secret. Six weeks should have been plenty of time to finish before February. This was all fine in theory, but the reality is the two of us spend most evenings together and this prevented me from working on it. I waited until Vogue Knitting Live weekend (two and a half weeks before the day!) and finally cast on. By the end of the weekend I had a sleeve. There was NO WAY I was going to finish in time if I didn’t work on it in front of him. The day before his birthday I had to admit defeat. I wrapped up the two sleeves and a finished left front in a box and gave him the unfinished sweater.

Pump Jockey finished!

Man, he’s a good sport.

Pump Jockey finished!

True to form, I finished it up six weeks after I cast on. Add in a week for the custom zipper to arrive and bang! He had a new sweater. Completely belated, but still, a new sweater! Fits him like a dream, if I do say so myself.

Pump Jockey finished!

Full details over on Ravelry, but in a nutshell:

Valley Yarns Northampton on 4mm needles.

Antique brushed nickel zipper from Zipperstop.

Custom name patch from Stitch a Logo.

11 Comments »

  • Ashley said:

    It really does fit awesomely, and it’s so impeccably knit. A perfect gift!

    # 21 March 2011 at 9:44 am
  • thea said:

    Pretty spot-on perfect! And I love the little hint of red in the sleeve to match his nametag.

    # 21 March 2011 at 9:49 am
  • Manise said:

    What a great sweater!

    # 21 March 2011 at 10:08 am
  • Vicki said:

    Lucky guy. Perfect sweater! (I want one!!)

    # 21 March 2011 at 10:28 am
  • Carol said:

    Awesome! Man can werq a sweater! New model for the future?

    # 21 March 2011 at 10:36 am
  • lauren said:

    Yeah that fits him AWESOMELY! I love love love the hem detail. I need to knit more things with hems. And I’m cracking up at the idea of knitting it not in front of him. I have no earthly idea how I would ever manage to pull that off.

    # 21 March 2011 at 10:43 am
  • Preita said:

    It really is a truly lovely sweater! The pictures are so fun too!

    # 21 March 2011 at 11:26 am
  • gale (she shoots sheep shots) said:

    Great sweater! I love the red details And the props for the photos too.

    # 21 March 2011 at 11:56 pm
  • agates said:

    Caro:
    What a great sweater. The beard we will talk about later.
    I hope you had a great day on the 15th…your card and wee giftie is now in the mail.
    Love you lots
    Annmarie

    # 22 March 2011 at 7:52 pm
  • margaux said:

    amazing!!! i love it! it looks great on him too :-) perfect gift.

    # 24 March 2011 at 9:34 pm
  • Splityarn » Blog Archive » easiest knitted sweater zipper install ever said:

    [...] I think I’ve found a solution though. If I’m remembering correctly, it’s something that StashKnitRepeat Amy tipped me off to two summers ago. I used it to sew in a zipper on one of the Knitting it Old School sweaters and then I used it again last week finishing Pump Jockey. [...]

    # 27 March 2011 at 11:07 pm

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