I have been thinking about knitting way too much lately and a comment that Audrey made on a previous post about wearing pretty things prompted me to ask: How often do you wear something hand knit? Daily? Weekly? Is it something you knit? Something someone knit for you?
I have a real problem with actually wearing the items I have knit for myself. This winter I wore my Shiny Cowl a whole bunch, I have also worn my Central Park Hoodie a few times, but everything else I have made gets limited wear.
It is usually one of two reasons that something knit gets shelved:
- I hate it.
- I love it.
Reason one means that I don’t like the way it looks on me.
Reason two is a little more complicated, basically I love it and don’t want to ruin it. I can’t wear my hand knits to work because I would destroy them (all of my work clothes have holes.) I get home from work, shower and then put on my knits to wear for 3 hours at home? Nope.
This leaves the weekends/special weeknights. As I get dressed and consider putting on something I have made I run through a sort of check list: Will I be exerting myself? I don’t want to sweat in something I have knit and need to wash it immediately. Will I be getting dirty? I don’t want to get my knit dirty and need to wash it more than gently. Will I be eating? I am a messy person and always spilling something, stains are a huge fear for my hand knitting.
Needless to say most days don’t seem to be good ones for wearing my knits.
A few months ago I made a resolution to wear a knitted item at least once a week. I am going to try and do that again. Why else would I knit something if not to wear it? Hand knitted sweater wall art? We’ll see how it goes.
For fun, my CPH:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that sweater.