For Want Of A Zipper........

................the race was lost.

Yes, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't manage to get that "Tomten" jacket finished in time for my parents departure back to the UK at 5pm on Sunday night. With the weekend packed full of events like 'The Little Guy's' first soccer game of the season and a tourist trip to the local Ice Caves, I just ran out of time.

I did try hard. I knit the final border up the front and around the hood on Friday night, which made a superb finish. My plan then was to sew in all the ends, stitch up the sleeve seams and then put in the 16" zipper. The problem was, I only had a 10" zip in my stash (it's a zip because I bought it in England and that's what we call them there.)

After Saturday morning's soccer game, I raced to my LYS in the vague hope that my friend might have a secret supply of zippers hidden away somewhere. No luck. Even the swift round of phonecalls she made to local quilting stores along my proposed route to the ice caves that afternoon, proved fruitless. Looking at my schedule, there was just no way that I could fit in a drive to the city, just to pick up a zipper and then get said zipper stitched correctly into the garment.

I gave up.

The jacket is rather on the large side, so there's plenty of growing room knitted into it, I reasoned. There really is no rush to get it off to my niece. Pride was also beginning to take over. Did I really want to rush the finishing touches on this project? Haste would only raise the odds of making a gargantuan mistake at the last hurdle. Did I really want to risk that?

The answer was "No!"

So where is the "Tomten" now? Sitting in my basket of WIP's. After all, when the pressure's off, what's a knitter to do?

Why, cast on for something new ofcourse. =)

PS. If you're in the UK, check out BBC2 at 8.45pm on Wed 16th Sept and see my cousin, James Bumpass, boning an oxtail on "Masterchef!"