My husband had a knee replacement yesterday. In preparation for waiting room waiting, I decided on taking a book and a knitting project. At first, I thought I would knit some socks, but after leafing through my sock knitting books, I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm for selecting a pattern. Then I saw a sweater our librarian made, and she directed me to Westknits.com. I'd found my project.
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| Source: Westknits |
The pattern is perfect for scrap yarn, of which I have a lot, especially handspun. But I couldn't quite visualize how it would work out, plus I'd like to go for a longsleeve version. So I decided to knit a trial sweater with some of the worsted weight acrylic yarn I've collected over the years.
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| Picking up along the edges of the seed stitch back panel to knit welts. |
The yarn is worsted weight and the needles are US8. As a trial sweater, I have several advantages.
- No swatching to fuss with. Size and fit aren't terribly important here.
- I'll be able to experiment with the sleeve length.
- It's using up yarn I don't like to work with anyway (acrylic). And I'm not especially attracted to those colors, so I'm not emotionally attached to it. It will be easy to gift to someone who likes it
- I'm not very good at serendipitous color knitting. I feel I need to follow a plan because I want to know how it will all come together, but in my mind a sample sweater doesn't matter. I admit knitting the entire back panel with one variegated colorway wasn't very creative. Hopefully I'll get freer with color choices as I go along.
The surgery went well and he spent a lot of time dozing afterward, so I pretty much had the entire day to indulge myself in knitting. It's a small town hospital and so neither overcrowded nor noisy, so it was perfect for contemplative knitting.
Waiting Room Knitting © 2026
by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal
10 comments:
Wishing your husband a quick and uneventful recovery! Will he need to get the other knee replaced or is it "one and done"?
May the replacement go smoothly for Hubby, and the knitting trouble-free for you.
Thanks Michelle. The other knee isn't as bad as this one, but will probably still need replacing in the future. The way he feels right now though, you couldn't pay him a million dollars to do it!
Thanks Meg. The knitting has gone great, but Dan is still in a lot of pain. Hopefully it will pass soon!
That's exactly why I had both mine done at once, Leigh; why go through that twice?!? Both my knees were trashed, though. I will say that my first two weeks were not bad at all, not like what I was told to fear. Maybe i was given better pain management?
Anonymous, could be. I'm surprised though, because Dan usually has a high tolerance for pain. He's having more trouble with the muscles above the knee than the knee itself. But it seems a little better today.
That is a great looking sweater, Leigh! (Made more noble by the model's head tilt, for sure.)
Hope Dan recovers well. My mother in law had both knees replaced last year and it seems to have been life changing for her.
Thanks TB! He's doing so much better today, which is a relief for both of us. He put it off for a very long time, but now we're looking forward to a return to more normal activities for him.
Glad to hear your husband is recovering well. The scarf looks nice also.
Michael, thank you!
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