Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Don Draper Effect

I love Mad Men.

I love Don Draper.

My husband disapproves of me loving Don Draper.  Not because it's another man, but because he's a wee bit slimy.


I mean, come on, just look at him.  What is not to love?  The fact that he is a chain smoking, womanizing, alcoholic is just minor really.

But, I have to say, I am not thrilled with Don right now.  You see, Jeremy and I began watching Mad Men from Season 1, in July.  At that time, I started knitting my February Lady sweater.


Gorgeous is it not?  This is not my completed sweater however.  This is the sweater that the lovely designer created, the one I want to emulate.

I have been working hard to get my sweater done.  Working every night as we watched Mad Men, as we have watched our other shows, taking it with me everywhere I go really.

I had about 10 inches done from the armpits down and realized somewhere along the line I had lost 10 stitches.  I studied my sweater, trying to figure out where and when and HOW that happened.  Then I saw it.  There was a spot, about 3 inches into the sweater, where I obviously messed up. 

This was the spot where Don Draper did something that I really did not agree with (probably in Season 3 or something) and I lost some stitches.

I got distracted from my knitting by the oh so handsome man on the television and I didn't even notice it. 

I lived in denial for a bit, pretending that it wasn't as bad as it was.  I told myself it was ok, and that only God makes perfect things, so a little mistake wasn't a big deal.

Except it wasn't a little mistake.  It was obvious and glaring.  I asked Jeremy if I should rip it out and he said that he thought it was ok.  I asked Nicole (another knitter) the same thing and she said that she wouldn't.  I asked my sister Stephanie, the one who taught me to knit, what she thought.  She told me to rip it out right away.

Jeremy agreed.

Apparently he didn't want to tell me this before.  It was a lot of work.  I think he was scared of me a little and until Stephanie said something he didn't dare.  Something about pregnancy hormones.

Listening to my mentor, I did it.  Stephanie and I sat on her couch and I ripped out 10 inches of my sweater last night.  I may have cried a little and cursed Don Draper a lot.

Moral of this story:  Don't knit anything other than a garter stitch when watching Mad Men.  The Don Draper effect will break your heart and ruin your knitting.

Trust me.

1 comment:

Jocelyn said...

I've got to say, something similar happened to me while packing for a trip and watching Mad Men. I was so involved in watching the show (and I too have a bit of a fondness for Don Draper) and I ended up forgetting a few items. This is of course the one time that I didn't double check before zipping up my luggage. Too bad the new season isn't until next year...