A Lasting Pattern

Wool Cable Sweater
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Here's a sweater I made in the 1980s at some point. It's still very wearable, since it is one of the first wool sweaters I ever made. Germantown Wool was the best stuff you could get back then. This sweater is maroon heather, and the pattern has cables and a lace pattern between each cable. It's also repeated on the sleeves. it's a little short, like all my 80s models, but still works fine.

Why does this blast from the past get its own post? Because it has a story. I found the sweater in my closet this week while looking for old items to photograph for Ravelry. I realized it's still in good shape and tried it on for Lee.

Then, yesterday I spent some time at the LYS (escaping barking dogs). I was working on the alpaca sweater when two women came in and spent a lot of time looking at patterns and yarn. I thought to myself, "Hmm, looks like that lady made her sweater." Then I looked more closely. It was my maroon sweater, only in dark green. Sure enough, it's the same exact sweater. She said hers was at least 20 years old, from Germantown wool. She remembered that the pattern book had a smocked sweater in it, too. I bet I still have it, if I can find it in the craft closet. That inspires me to try to clean that out...some time. Funny enough, she also had recently rediscovered her sweater and started wearing it again! What a coincidence!

It just shows you that classic patterns made from good yarn can have long lives. And it's nice to think that some of our current projects, which we work so hard on, won't look silly in a couple of decades.