saying farewell

[aryanhwy]

Growing up, my dad had a small set of sweaters that he rotated through on a regular basis (~5, I think). When I went off to college, I surreptitiously took two of them with (I can't remember now if I'd been wearing them before, and it was natural to take them with, or if I suddenly decided "I want to appropriate those two sweaters of dad's, or if he'd stopped wearing them and they were going to go to Goodwill if I didn't rescue them). These two sweaters are ones that he'd taken to college with him -- we have photographic evidence, so they're now reaching the 30+-year-old mark. Today, I pulled one out, and found that, in addition to the slightly frayed wrist-band on one sleeve, Widget had gotten a hold of the wrist-band of the other sleeve and chewed on it; he didn't eat a piece out (as he often does), but there's a cat-mouth-shaped semi-circle bit into it, and it's covered in crystalized cat slobber. I took this as a sign that it was time to retire this particular sweater. Lately, because it's gotten a bit ratty, I've been wearing it only around the house, and not out in public, but it still got pulled out on a regular basis and I put it into the trash with a somewhat heavy heart.

Comments

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Really??!!?!

If you have come to hate it, then may it rest in peace.

But sweaters like this often benefit amazingly from being turned into pet beds by being folded, *machine washed on hot* and thus felted. (Yes-- just what you try to AVOID doing to sweaters you plan to wear!) They look much less ragged after a couple of rounds of that treatment.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I don't hate it, it's still a favorite -- but I can tell you that machine washing it on hot won't felt it, since that's how it's been washed almost every time the last 30 years and it's not felted yet. And as I noted above, turning it into something for the cats would likely have the unfortunate occurrence of encouraging Widget's chewing on this type of material.