Mima Knits

I have this friend who lives in Quincy, Mass. Call him Ismael (yes, without the ‘h’). He is sort of a Puerto Rican Renaissance man (that is not an oxymoron) in that he has quite a large range of interests and actually indulges in creating examples of some of them. We call him Mima because none of us, including young members of his own family, can even come close to pronouncing Ismael with the accent it requires (too many zzz’s). He’s basically a techie type of guy with, it seems, an amazing amount of patience (please don’t quote his partner on this subject; quote me) and he always seems to choose projects that are complicated and beyond the ken of “normal” artisans. Mima knits and I think it’s more than a hobby for him since he brings his skills in math and science into the creation of some pretty fine garments. Obviously the boy learned to count at an early age.

But enough about Mima; this is my blog, after all. The point is that after a decade of cow eyed looks and deliberately shivering in the cold in his presence, he knitted a sweater for me. It only took years of outrageous hints on my part and two or three months of his spare time but, hey, who’s to say I’m not totally worth it? He took measurements and made a paper pattern, kindly acknowledging that I do have a middle-aged spread midriff-wise. I chose the color (well, actually I just said, “ya know, one of those cool new-blues”) with two letterman-sweater type stripes on one sleeve. This is a throwback to my unlamented high school days where “lettering” in sports (I played basketball) was academically as important as an A in algebra. I never got an A in algebra but I did get an A in b-ball and, therefore, a college scholarship.

This is my new sweater.














Pretty nifty, huh? It is an exact fit, it complements my pitiless blue eyes and I really love it. I haven’t actually worn it out in public yet but will be proud to do so when winter starts blowing up our noses.