The curse is contained in the unfinished sweater. (Provided photo — Diane Chase)

When my husband and I were dating, I decided to make him a hand-knit sweater.

A friend gave me the pattern and wool. She wanted to knit a sweater for her boyfriend, but they had broken up before she started the project. She wanted a fresh start, including gifting any crafts pertaining to the doomed relationship.

I hadn’t asked for the materials, and it seemed like a waste for her to toss everything. She was going through a cleanse, an actual bonfire ritual, so pulling stuff off the pile probably saved her a call to the fire department. I’m normally superstitious, but I didn’t see this anger as a sign.

I’m not a fast knitter. I enjoy the process, but I need to work without distractions if the pattern has any design. I admire the people able to knit while watching TV. I am not that person.

I wound the woolen skeins into balls and began casting on my stitches. The pattern wasn’t complicated, a fisherman’s type sweater. But from the very beginning, I struggled to get this sweater right. I would knit a few inches, notice an error, and have to rip out any progress to correct the mistake. When I casually mentioned to another knitter the struggles making this simple sweater, he informed me of the Knitted Sweater Curse. Oh, for all that’s holy. Can’t I knit in peace? No.

The superstition is that if you make a loved one a knitted sweater, you will break up before completing the project. Doomed from the beginning? I just wanted to make a sweater, but the curse had other plans. I continued to persevere. I would find another error, put the sweater aside, and then pick it up again a few months later to try to start again. I would rip out stitches and pick up stitches. The sweater was warning me not to complete the job. It became a running joke in my family. I could finish sweaters, blankets, hats and mitts for other people, but this one sweater for my husband remained undone.

Where is that sweater? I never finished it. It is in a sealed bag in the basement, like my own “Picture of Dorian Gray.”

I feel that all our marriage stress is being held in those wool fibers, and that is where it needs to remain. Is it logical? Of course not. I could gift the yarn, but I also don’t want to pass a curse on to someone else.

I think about unraveling the sweater to make something new, but what type of devil will that bring to the surface? I have been told that the curse is broken once you are married or committed, but why risk it.