Monday, October 18, 2010

The Sweater Curse

No, no.....this is not a handknit.  It's a sweater repair job I have inherited.

You've heard of the "sweater curse".  You've heard of the book ..."Never Knit Your Man A Sweater*".....*till you have the ring!  Read on!!!
My co-worker's son's girlfriend gifted him this sweater!  They broke up  (i.e. the sweater curse) and now the brother loves the sweater. 
 It's a Dale of Norway sweater.  They usually sell for around $300.
I believe it may be a "second" because the tag is snipped.  Still pricey, however.
Notice the row of knitting just below the "Dale" tag.  It's what needs repairing.
Here's the inside of the sweater....unraveling in all it's glory.  When I asked my co-worker if she was hand-washing or dry-cleaning this sweater as it would make a difference on what I used for yarn for the repair job, her response was, "Oh, use anything you want, any color you want!".  Well, that won't work with my signature on this repair job.  I have a reputation to uphold in the knitting world.  It will look nice.

Have you experienced the curse?

On another note....I saw snow on the mountaintop when I left work today.  I'm getting those scarves and mittens ready.


Happy Knitting!

16 comments:

  1. What a coincidence! We are both working on someone else's knitting. I am finishing a baby sweater for an 80 year old lady about to become a Great Grandma. The baby outfit was started by her Mother, now deceased - that would be the Great Great Grandma - about 15 years ago.

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  2. Snow? Really? How lucky! :-) Sigh...unfortunately some people just don't understand yarn. Even worse, some of them actually knit! LOL!

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  3. Yep, I suffered the boyfriend curse. Second year of college, tall dark and handsome rugby-player I loved to bits, beautiful handknit in pure wool in cream and chocolate. The sweater ended up on my at the time best friend who was the next girlfriend.

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  4. Good luck with the repairs. Didn't Seinfeld or Friends to a segment about the sweater curse?

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  5. Ah, the boyfriend curse! That sweater ended up being a birthday present for my older brother, more than 40 years ago!

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  6. @Freyalyn: ouch!

    Good luck with the sweater! It can be very gratifying to rescue a well-loved sweater for someone.

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  7. Yep, so did I. We split up as I was knitting the sweater, so I kept it for myself. It was a really drab green. ***grin***
    Renate

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  8. Snow? For real? It was 83 here yesterday. Hope you get the sweater repaired soon. I have never done repair work on a sweater before. I have on afghans though.

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  9. Just yesterday I picked up a beautiful Scandinavian sweater from my yarn store to repair. It has a hole right under the short neckline zipper. Of course it made me think of your sweater repair. I have some sock yarn that's a very good match and plan to duplicate stitch over the hole - it hasn't unraveled yet.

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  10. Wow, I guess there is something to that BoyFriend-Sweater-Curse thing. The sweater is gorgeous and I hate repairing sweaters.

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  11. Oh my gosh Joan,
    Have you considered getting out of this before it's too late? If not, make sure you advise it's not something you normally do no matter if it's your friend or not you'll be the one blamed...poor you!

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  12. Jane got me a sweater before we were married. At the time we lived in CT. Now look what happened. The curse reversed for a generation. Thanks Joan!

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  13. P.S. what I failed to mention is it had a moose on it!

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  14. Ewww did you have to mention the S word? I hate snow ;P. It wasn't bad and I looked forward to it when I lived in the SW because we didn't get much and it melted within a few days, however now where I live we have a ton all winter, I don't look forward to it at all, maybe if I didn't have to get out in it and drive in it :P.

    I was going to say good luck on the sweater, but I know you won't need it, she won't even be able to tell where you mended it ;).

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  15. Argh! Snow! Not ready!
    I didn't fall for the sweater curse - I knit a scarf for a high school boyfriend who dumped me soon after, so I learned the lesson early (and cheaply!)

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  16. The only sweaters that never came unraveled for me are the ones my mother knit me. They are as nice as the day she gave them to me--and I have some that have been around for a long time :) If a $300 sweater comes unraveled, how much more are my mother's knitted sweaters worth?

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