Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The beautiful and completely useless sweater

A long, long time ago I knitted a sweater for my niece. She was, what?, three? at the time. My sister had given me a huge bag of gorgeous hand-spun and -dyed yarns from the sheep farm nearby her house and I decided that the perfect use for that wool was to knit a sweater for her smart beautiful daughter. I used a pattern from a book of Norweigan sweaters, and the yarn that my sister had given me, plus a bit of the yarn my son is so enamored of. Plus some other Lamb's Pride (black and purple).

Now, this yarn is all dense to begin with. None of your wimpy worsteds here! Also, the wool is kinda itchy. In the way that a mild case of poison ivy is kinda itchy. And I knit a very tight gauge. So the sweater ended up weighing in at three pounds.

Let's sum up this work of art:


  • three pounds

  • starchy stiff

  • irritatingly itchy

  • For a pre-schooler.
But, Lord, it was beautiful. Don't you agree?

9 comments:

Phantom Scribbler said...

It really is gorgeous. Did she ever wear it?

Liz Miller said...

Never worn. Not by her and not by the cousin it was handed down to.

I'm going to mount it and hang it up as a piece of textile art.

Mummy/Crit said...

It is stunning! I'm glad that you will display it, it should be seen. I can't knit like that, but I wish I could. My mum is/was a knitter - also tending towards the pure wool, thick and itchy school, but she did make D a lovely slate blue cardigan when he was smaller, which was soft and warm.

I've only recently found that there is wool that i can wear next to my skin.

allison said...

Oh, it is absolutely beautiful! Displaying it seems like a great idea.

Anonymous said...

Truly gorgeous. A long-sleeved shirt worn under it would take care of the itchiness, but I guess not of the stiffness and weight - so textile art it is.

Courtney said...

gorgeous. See? It had a purpose. To show us your mad knitting skillz.

jenn said...

That is amazing!

Scrivener said...

textile art is cool.

Magpie said...

That is splendid. I am awestruck.