the sweater project

Some of my close friends and my family know that I have an annual tradition of making my husband a handmade sweater every year for Christmas.  It’s been going on for quite a while and word has even gotten out among his colleagues and our church family as whenever he is complimented (usually by a female) on his sweaters, he proudly gives me credit.

I’ve been asked a lot lately how long my tradition has been going.  I wasn’t even sure myself looking back when it started.  We’ve been married for 25 years, but I know I didn’t start right away.

So this week, my daughter helped me empty my husband’s closet and document them.  We piled them up like a Dr. Seuss heap on the bed.  We couldn’t put them all in order by year, but I have a general sense of some which came before/after others…

I’ve made 19 sweaters and vests.  I know the tradition started in 1994.  I have a photo of my husband and myself on the occasion of my graduation from grad school with my Ph.D. in 1994. In the photo, he is holding our baby son and wearing the first sweater, a green, pale yellow, and black vest with a fair isle pattern round the waist.

Here is the gallery:

Wow! Most of the sweaters are original designs I created without a pattern.  The few times I follow a pattern, I interpret the term “follow” quite loosely.   18 of the sweaters are knitted.  Only this year, the vertical wavy stripe pullover is crocheted.  Most are wool or cotton and a few are even a silk blend.  I usually begin sometime in october or november.  Some years, the sweater might have been a few days or a week late.  Most years, he’s worn it for NewYear’s at least.  the 2012 sweater wasn’t finished until Valentines Day 2013 because I miscalculated the pattern and had to rip it out back to the armpits and go again.

Kevin tentatively suggested that he might have enough sweaters and that perhaps, since my son’s are pretty much full grown, that I should make sweaters for them for a few years.  We’ll have to see.

Blessings,

Patti