Most Loved - SFO

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but October has been surprisingly crazy busy. Week 3 of Slow Fashion October is themed "LOVED" - proudest accomplishment / most loved item / most frequently worn item / thing you saved up for / investment pieces / thing you worked a long time on / oldest thing that’s still in rotation. Far and away, my most loved, most frequently worn item is this amazing sweater my mom made for me a few years ago for Christmas. 

It was about three years ago that she made it for me, and I have worn it hundreds of time since then. It is (I believe) the Georgetown pattern from Hannah Fettig. Mom made it a little longer for me, and increased the rib shawl a bit to be extra full and cozy. She made it with an alpaca/wool blend and it is literally the most perfect color in the entire world. It goes with everything. I'm not sure I have the words to express how completely I love this sweater.

When people compliment me on something I'm wearing, I'm not quick to offer up a, "Thanks, I made it!" because it feels self-indulgent, even though that's probably not the case at all (and I love when people tell me they made things I compliment). But when someone compliments this cardigan, I get so gleeful to say, "Thanks! MY MOM MADE IT!" because how freaking impressive is that? I grin ear to ear when I get to say it. And believe me, I get a lot of compliments on this sweater.

And I'm always happy to share the tag with people, too -- it tends to make everyone smile. The "Mend when torn" portion of the care instructions rings true: Mom fixed the cuffs for me, and when I washed this recently, I found a hole I need to mend. I am hanging on to a partial ball of this yarn expressly for these purposed. I intend to continue to wear this sweater for forever. It means so much to me that her hands formed every single stitch of every single row of this (huge, finer gauge) sweater. To me, the way I feel about this sweater is every bit the essence of slow fashion. What if everything I owned held this much meaning?