Zips. Apparently there are different kinds.

So after finishing rubbishknitterjunior's duffel coat, I had been rather worried about the gap down the front between the toggles. It's just been so ludicrously cold recently, and the last thing you need is a draughty duffel. And then, late one night whilst rummaging in my Drawer of Haberdashery I stumbled across a lonely zip, not only of a matching colour, but amazingly, also the right length! This was too good to be true - a serendipitous zip find sent from the gods of knitting - it was meant to be! We were just about to start watching the new star trek film so I hastily grabbed the coat, a needle and a reel of cotton and settled myself onto the sofa to hand sew it in. It took nearly the whole film and I may have been a bit distracted by the intergalactic adventures but what did it matter? My handsewing is terrible, but with a thin navy blue thread against big hairy thick yarn, you can't see it at all. I was beginning to feel very pleased with myself. And then, as the credits rolled, I lifted the coat proudly aloft to show to Mr Rubbishknitter, and pulled down the zip. And kept pulling. Damn thing appeared to be stuck. Hang on, let me give it a bit of a yank... this is the sort of problem that a bit of brute force and ignorance would surely solve....

It took an embarrassingly long time to realise that this zip was never going to open fully. It was the wrong kind of zip, the kind that you would use to close a bag or a seam at the top of a skirt. These zips just never separate into two halves, even if you yank them impatiently for about 5 minutes. The knitting gods, they mock me! Well son, I don't have the willpower to buy another zip and redo it, so this duffel coat, I'm afraid will be taken on and off over your head forever as a testament to maternal foolishness.


Ah well I suppose at least he is at least a bit warmer now... this is his current dogwalking attire... there is a child there somewhere under the woolly goods