Monday 8 February 2010

Letting Go

I'm always somewhat loathe to give up my knitwear, which makes me feel as though my mantle of "Selfish Knitter" is particularly apt. However, the time comes in a young woman's life where she has to reevaluate her wardrobe and decide what's actually worth keeping.

The U-Neck vest is special to me because I worked on while I was in Peru and, despite language barriers, used it to teach a girl to knit. But specialness kind of stops there. It's always been a bit too small and too tight across the shoulders, so I thought if I wasn't going to wear it, I should give it to someone who would appreciate it more. Looking back at a previous blog post about this vest, I can see how far my knitting has come; back then, this vest was "good enough" that I was ecstatic with it; now that I can look at it with an eye that's more aware of what looks good on me, my affection has cooled enough to let it go to the good home of my friend Jo.








Claudia was the first hat I made for my boyfriend. Well, the second if you count its first reincarnation as a hat that didn't fit. And of course, the second one didn't either, but since both he and I have huge heads, someone else could enjoy it (namely, EllaJ).


Some purple tank top from an earlier issue of Vogue Knitting (not pictured) was one of my first "serious" knitting projects, but it also fell about 4 inches above my belly button. It's found a new home with my friend Kaz.


My fellow Washingtonian ex-pat and friend Rachel was kind enough to host the clothing exchange and invite friends with extremely good taste. So while my knitwear might have been hard to give up, the trade was definitely worth it.

 
For pretty, comfortable t-shirts (and an angora jumper),


pretty details, and a wardrobe ready for Spring.


2 comments:

Trish said...

Clothing exchanges sound like a great way to let things go in an easy fashion! Much less time-consuming that trying to sell or even give them away. By the time you bag everything up, park, trudge to the consignment shop or the Salvation Army....you might as well have had friends over for some wine, good conversation and recycling of wardrobes and accessories. Great idea. I'd love to hear more about how you did it!

Ashley Knowlton said...

Hi Trish!

It was my friend Rachel's shin-dig, really; I just benefited greatly (though I think we all did). We arrived, ate cookies, threw our clothes in a pile, and had a free-for-all. Since we were all different shapes/sizes, it was easy to figure out what looked best on whom.

I love charity shops, but there's nothing quite like getting some well-needed clothes in return!