Jumper with orange trimming and extra long sleeves in ajour.

In the years before and after the turn of the millennium good knitting yarn was very hard to find. The same goes for fabric. Most people didn’t have the time to make their own clothes. They were busy earning a living. Besides, supply of cheap clothes was abundant. Economics were flourishing.

I remember once pulling out an old alpaca cardigan out of sheer frustration not to be able to buy good material. The cardigan was warm and functional, but it looked a bit too baggy for my taste. Wonder well the yarn had stayed intact all the time and it didn’t give me any trouble pulling it out. I knitted a nice jumper out of it and I received plenty of compliments. It made me so happy: it hadn’t cost me a cent and I got a unique piece of garment in return!

Could I possibly make a living doing this? Not very likely:

Zigzag dress with fringes at the hem.

it had been a labour intensive project and most cardigans and jumpers were not suitable for pulling out and reusing.

I repeated this process a few times until I had no old jumpers left that could suit me for this purpose. Fortunately I had discovered a small shop in the town where I lived at the time. The owner was an old lady who sold underpants, camisoles, socks, embroidering thread and fine crochet yarn. That seemed hopeful enough to me. I bought some coloured crochet yarn and started off with a new project: a zigzag dress. I sewed fringes at the hem and it really looked, well … explicit, doesn’t it?

A few years later I knitted another dress. I wanted to try various textures. I am fond of textures! I decided to knit a pleated skirt, which swings gently when you walk.

Pleated dress in three shades of gray.

At the waist I chose a horizontal structure, which makes it fit perfectly. The body has a vertical structure again. I used three shades of gray (fifty would a bit have overdone it, I’m afraid) alpaca wool. Each part is knitted with a different needle size: skirt thick, waist piece thin and body average.

Knitted dresses are so comfortable. You look elegant and at the same time your legs and buttocks are kept warm and you never have to discretely unbutton your pants after dinner.

Now times have changed. We have a crisis. But there are places where high quality yarns and fabrics can be obtained again. Apparently people want something special to wear. They like to cocoon in their houses and hand knitting fits in seamlessly. I find this a positive consequence of the crisis!