Saturday, January 14, 2023

The Sweater by Liz Flaherty

2013 or so - almost new!
Twenty-plus years ago, Duane was given a gift certificate from Rock Hollow by people at work. He was thrilled because they thought of him and because he loved Rock Hollow. I'm sure he played golf with some of the gift certificate, but he also bought the Sweater. While I am deathly sick of looking at and washing the Sweater, even I must admit it deserves a capital letter at its beginning.  

It's light gray, no collar, and has three buttons at the neck and the Rock Hollow insignia where a breast pocket would be if it had one. It's loose enough to wear over a shirt, but perfectly comfortable without one, too. 

A few years ago, I felt a little bit of hopeful glee when a small hole wore though the front of the Sweater. Maybe we could give it a Christian burial after all. I don't know of any scripture exactly right for threadbare Sweaters, but...

"What do you think?" said Duane. "Think you could patch it?"

So much for burial. "Sure," I said. "Maybe."

You could barely see the mended place and he was happy with it. The Sweater went on. And on. I washed it more often than I wash sheets. Sometimes its owner puts it on before it ever makes it to a hanger--it's so nice and warm straight from the dryer. 

No surprise that when Duane went to the hospital for back surgery last week, he wore the Sweater because it would be comfortable for going home. Before he put it back on, we squinted at the patched place (squinting comes with age, in case you weren't aware of it), and sure enough, the patch has worn through, as well as another hole close to it. If the Sweater were a shower curtain, the bathroom floor would be soaked.

I didn't even think about a funeral. How could I possibly think of getting rid of a Sweater that was just reaching its sweet spot in life? Its owner had stitches in his back because of a lifetime of wear and I hadn't even considered getting rid of him. All right, I talked about it, but not seriously.

"I can fix that," I said. 

The Sweater will live on. 

Nan Reinhardt
Nan Reinhardt dresses really well. I'm always kind of happy when she hands down something to me that she doesn't wear anymore because I know I'm going to like it. 

But then there's her Sweater. I asked her if it had a story and she said, "I put it on over my jammies and go to work in my office every morning." Nan and I travel together sometimes on writing retreats and I've seen her pajamas--I'll bet they cringe every time she puts that sweater on. It probably looked nice when it was newer, before it had holes in it, but I'm not placing any bets. 

Jim Reinhardt
Her husband, whom she calls Husband in print, also has a Sweater. He's had it for...oh, a long time. It's referred to in the family as his Mr. Rogers sweater. It was with...er...Husband every day in his office until he retired in 2014. Now it's in his home office. Except for when he's wearing it. 

The last Sweater is mine. Tahne, my daughter-in-law, bought it for me from a store near Biltmore in North Carolina. It's deliciously soft and seems to fit me no matter what size I am. It was expensive, and I told Tahne I was going to save it to wear when I was dressing up. 

My Sweater--not me.
She said No. She wanted me to wear it to be warm and comfortable in while I was working or whenever I needed it. I didn't argue. It does, after all, have pockets and is the perfect length and I roll the sleeves up to wherever I want them to be on any certain day. And every time I wear it, it's like being hugged by someone I love. 

I love sweaters. I have a blue-green one with sparkles that gives me some shine on a day when I need it. When I was in the fourth grade, teacher and I had the same royal blue cardigan, I was so impressed and felt so grown up! I doubt Mrs. Kotterman was all that excited about it, but I certainly was. 

I bought a burnt orange one on clearance once and wore it with everything. Although I admit burnt orange isn't much of a neutral, it still works for me. It's a warm color. Forty-some years later, my raincoat is that color. So is a down jacket I just bought on clearance. It was the only color available in my size. I think that was a message.  

When my grandmother died, we found a brown cardigan she'd never worn, and I took it home with me and wore it until there was little left of it. That's what Grandma did--she looked after us. 

This is one of those interactive blog posts. Tell us about your Sweater. Your favorite or your least favorite or one that wakes a memory. 

Stay warm. Have a good week. Be nice to somebody.



19 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this! While I don't think of myself as materialistic, I definitely won't let anyone get in between me and one of my sweaters. Would you believe it's burnt orange? I bought it on sight after spotting it on a mannequin. It's more like a sweater coat that I pull around me and goes down past my knees. My college-aged daughter even complimented me on it. I wore it every day at a huge writing conference in November of 2021, where more than stranger caught up with me and said, "I knew it was you from your sweater." Wish I knew how to post a picture! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So nice to know I'm not the only burnt orange fan! Thanks for stopping by, Cathy. I've never had one of those long ones. Maybe next time...

      Delete
  2. Ah, sweaters. I have my holey (though I prefer to think of it as "holy") writing sweater on over my jammies as I comment. It helps me cope, it helps me write, it is a talisman for future books... all in all, an important garment that I shall keep until it frays to just a few pieces of yarn. You'll be seeing it in a couple of weeks when we go on retreat! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sweaters (and leather boots) are the only perk to winter living, in my opinion! I love sweaters. I have favorites, some with weakening seams, and I love every single one. When they’re no longer wearable, I make pillows out of them. That’s how much I love them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, gosh, now I'm thinking of how many pairs of boots I have... Like you, though, I love sweaters, and have only recently starting thinking of what I look for in them. Like no tight wrist bands--I have to be able to roll or push them up. And pockets!

      Delete
  4. Several years ago (close to 20 I'm sure) my mother gave me a sweater for Christmas. Gray, fleece, quarter zip-up style -it was super comfortable She was always buying me sweaters. I guess she always thought I was cold. They usually ended up in the back of the closet and eventually Goodwill (I wasn't a fan of sweaters). But I liked this one and wore it all the time. Probably longer than I should have. A while after she passed, I ran across this sweater while going through my closet. Hanging there, worn out, broken zipper and all. It's the only sweater I have left from her. It's still there, years after she died. I still break it out in the fall and wonder why I didn't appreciate sweaters sooner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't appreciate them, either, because I swear I've been hot ever since I turned 40! But now I do, and I do love it when a memory comes along with it.

      Delete
  5. My go too isn't a sweater but a shawl. One I made out of pale mint green yarn because I liked the pattern. I've never worn it outside the house because I have nothing to go with it although I love the color. I wear it in bed reading at night, at my computer writing and sitting in my recliner doing needlework. It has snagged and been repaired and keeps keeping me warm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I have one of those! My friend Judith Palmer made it for me and it lives on the back of the rocking chair in the living room--where it's handy.

      Delete
  6. I don't have a favorite sweater, although I have plenty of them. I do have a favorite sweatshirt...actually several of them. But the one I'm thinking of is a boysenberry (dark purple) shade. I got it on clearance for $15 at Kohl's. It has a v-neck, a hood, and a big pocket, open on the sides, I can put both hands in. The reason I like it so much is because of the color and the fact that it's lightweight. Big, thick sweatshirts make me feel confined and uncomfortable, but I love a lightweight one, and they are hard to find.

    All this talk about sweaters, though, had me reaching for one. It is a cardigan with black, dark gray, light gray, and white stripes, long, with fringes on the bottom. I'm wearing it over a dark gray sweat jacket with red, Christmas, Mickey Mouse pajama pants. Quite the look! But I'm comfy. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The look sounds great to me. I'm with you on sweatshirts. I just bought one from Kohl's, a Tek gear one. It's wonderfully soft, but I'm not sure on the weight yet--I haven't worn it. It's really bad when I have to dress up, because even then I'm...pretty casual!

      Delete
  7. I have a black sweatshirt-type cardigan that is covered in dog hair most of the time and many hours of blood, sweat and tears from time at the computer. It's my second such sweater because I wore the other one into oblivion. I searched on the internet for something close if not exactly like the first one, and the Sweater Goddess was good; the second was just like the first. My reincarnated writing sweater lives on.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love this post! As for fav. sweaters, I claim two right now. They are rather like sweater jackets and are warm--the pinkish-red is quite fuzzy; the light and dark gray one, a little less so. I seem to always be cold when I'm working in my office, so I alternate them. The pinkish-red has developed a split seam on one shoulder, so I'm going to have to break down and mend it. Not so nostalgic as the ones you've described, but I feel as if I'm not dressed for working if I don't have one on. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your sweaters are what nostalgia grows from, though. Maybe our muses spend their time in our sweaters!

      Delete
  9. About fifty years ago Pete and I ordered a batch of wool yarn from Canada that included some heavy yarn: five ply, undyed grey and full of lanolin. I knit him a sweater to beat all sweaters - thigh length with a monster cable stitch running up the front and back. It's the garment that comes out of moth balls when the weather is really cold - it weighs enough to make you warm just lugging it around on your body.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, my, I'll bet that's an adventure--and what a great story to share! Do you dry clean it?

      Delete
  10. My senior year in high school my then boyfriend got me a light blue cardigan sweater with shreds of silver yarn throughout it. It was my favorite sweater! I wore it ALL the time for the next five years. I used it as a jacket or with jeans or navy dress pants. It was as versatile as they come. I moved to Texas when I was 20. Three years later, I packed up all my things in a Uhaul and drove home. When I unpacked, the sweater wasn't there! I searched and then I cried. I just knew I'd left it behind, likely on my chair at work or on a hook on the back of my bedroom door 100's of miles away. For the next couple of years, I searched frantically to find another one. I even went so far as to contact my old boyfriend, who didn't even remember the sweater! One day I got a box in the mail. It was the sweater!!! With no return address. I wore that sweater for another ten years, before it was so worn out, I had to let it go forever. So...if the person is out there who sent me the sweater, I am FOREVER grateful! I haven't loved a sweater like that since!

    ReplyDelete