My Favorite Sweater

I have a sweater that I wear all the time. As soon as the temperature starts hovering around 60 degrees and below, the sweater comes out. Although I have been known to wear a tank top, boxer shorts, flip flops and this sweater when driving my daughter to school in May or June, along with glasses and a haphazard bun.

I pull it on first thing in the morning, and keep it around during the day to don if I feel chilled in any way.

Now I didn't knit this sweater, and I didn't receive it as a gift. Well, not really anyway. My mom was cleaning out her closet about 6 or 7 years ago, (She is very good at that sort of thing, by the way. I am not.) and she asked me if I wanted this sweater of hers, a heathered gray 100% wool cardigan with a collar and pockets. I said, "Sure!" After all I love sweaters, and I love gray, so this seemed like a decent score for me.

This sweater seriously became my goto for everyday life. It's not particularly stylish by any stretch of the imagination. It's very basic, has a healthy dose of positive ease and might even be bordering on frumpy, but I love it. It's warm, it's cozy and it's comfortable. It's like a favorite sweatshirt, but I like sweaters better. I affectionately call it my "Mr. Rogers sweater". If I am home, I probably have on that sweater. (Yes, I have it on right now.) Don't get me wrong, it's been out and about too....to the supermarket, school meetings and that kind of thing. It is my favorite sweater.

Since this sweater has been providing me with warmth and coziness for the past 6 or 7 years, some things are starting to go. Take the elbows for instance. I noticed the fabric wearing very thin in the left elbow 2 years ago. There was no way that I would ever consider throwing this sweater out on account of a hole in progress, so I found some multicolored dyed yarn and just kind of whipstitched over the offending gap. Not a very knitterly solution for a knitter, but at the time I was in a hurry to get the sweater back on. While I was at it, I took the same yarn and whipstitched the cuff, 2 stitches in each purled section of the ribbing. Just because I felt like it. While I don't have a photo of my classy elbow fix, I can show you what the cuff looks like.

Pretty fancy, eh?

Yesterday, my quick fix of the elbow blew out, leaving my elbow exposed to the drafty elements in my house. What to do? What to do? I grabbed the same variegated handdyed yarn and knit a patch. I cast on about 15 stitches and knit in stockinette stitch until it seemed like it would cover the gape. While I was knitting, I decided that I liked the purl side better, and then I unexpertly mattress stitched the sucker in place. See?

Yes, I know it's not perfect. You have to understand that my attitude about this sweater is very laid back. It's missing a button, and it now has a wonky patch on the elbow and will probably need another one on the other elbow soon, but I don't care. I love it just the way it is. It keeps me warm, it's my favorite and it's mine.

Enough said. :)