sweetgeorgia

Coming Full Circle

Well, it’s that time. It’s my first bloggiversary. Yippee, I think I’ll have cake for lunch.

I thought today would be a good time to write about the first sweater I ever knit. If you saw my ten-year old stash, you know that I learned to knit first from a Patons “Learning to Knit” book that I mailed away for during middle school. Hey, it was free. I also had a fabulously colourful beginners knitting book that I can’t find anywhere — I loved that book and made a number of items from it including mittens, scarves and this sweater:

It’s in lilac-coloured 100% acrylic yarn from Kmart in Toronto… I managed to convince my mom to buy since it was already something like 40% off. Gee, even Kmart didn’t want it. It was knit on 5mm aluminum Aero straights — I remember because the hot summer weather made the stitches stick to the metal needles.

I knit this sweater during the summer before highschool. We had just moved from Toronto to Vancouver a few months prior and I didn’t know anyone in my neighbourhood well enough to hang out with them all summer. So I knit. Being able to knit in dark movie theatres now? It’s all because of the summer I spent watching Taiwanese soap operas on VHS and knitting this sweater.

I wore this sweater all the time and all through university… so much so, that I was teased about it at my bridal shower (”What was Felicia wearing during her and Richard’s first kiss? Uh, the purple sweater and Dr. Marten boots?”). Yes, this is also the sweater that I used to pick paint colours for the UBC Dance Club office. Hey, I loved this sweater.

But now, I can’t wear it anymore. It’s stretched out, threadbare, stained (is that Coke?!), and has a number of holes in it.

Sure, it’s old and ugly now, but it’s a 16-year old sweater. And I guess that’s a testament to how long (for better or worse) a well-loved, hand knit piece can (sort of) last. So now, even though I’m over Kmart acrylic and aluminum needles, I’m not over making things that I love to knit and love to wear.