My friend Di started a Facebook group wherein members post a photo a day for the month of January. Today’s suggested topic: a depiction of goals for yourself.

I thought of an easy one! Finish this flipping February Lady sweater.

I started knitting this sweater a year ago. I chugged along nicely until May, when I set the sweater aside. I hate having a pile of wool worsted in my lap and in my hands when it’s 90 degrees out and it’s light until 9 pm. Just too much sweatiness. So I put it aside.

When I put it aside, I had all of it done but one sleeve.

In September, when the days got shorter, the sweater started to look at me, as if to say “hey, get over here and finish me.” But I was teaching a new class, Design Fundamentals. And it is such a big class! Not student-wise (there were only eleven students), but idea-wise. I knew they would need to know the importance of value and repetition and so forth. But I also wanted them to know about Paula Scher and Swiss Industrial Style and Polish Posters.

And I wanted my students to think about the difference between fashion and communication. So I had to think about that myself, and figure out a way to talk about it.

And along with my wonderful class, I had the the Fermentation Fest project. It is such a cool project, particularly with the Farm/Art DTour, and I’m so happy to be able to work on it. But it didn’t leave a lot of time for knitting.

So I didn’t even think about it until a few weeks ago, when I looked at the sweater and thought, “Oh my God, I’m knitting a giant baby sweater.”

It is, in fact, a GIANT BABY SWEATER, adapted from a lovely Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern meant for actual babies.

It’s designed for babies and their little baby selves. They can’t really do buttons and they are basically round: no boobs, no waist, no hips. Just smooth (though wiggly) ovals, who look cute in sweaters.

And what adult woman doesn’t find that amazing? I certainly must have. I bought $65 worth of yarn and knitted this sweater that clearly says “I am in my fifties and yet I am adorable!”

I do understand the rationale behind adapting the Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater for women.

For one thing, it’s easy to knit. The lace makes it look difficult, but its basically knitting a big square thing and a couple of tubes.

For another, it’s adorable. Adorability and cuteness are very huge in the DIY indie culture. Etsy and Ravelry are stuffed with cuteness. They’re not entirely filled with cuteness, but there’s a lot. Like this and this and this.

The combination of ease and trendiness hypnotized me, it would seem. But not quite long enough to remain amazed by the sweater. I’ll finish it anyway.