Why Storebought Sweaters are Terrible

I enjoyed reading this article from The Atlantic about why storebought sweaters are so awful, mostly because as a knitter, I know what to do about it.

The author, Amanda Mull, was prompted to look into the knitwear industry thanks to a tweet (do we call it an X now? I don’t know) calling for a “national conversation” on the decline in knitwear quality over the past 20 years. The post was about a sweater Billy Crystal wore in When Harry Met Sally and the terrible (though expensive) counterpart Ben Schwartz wore to re-create the look.

Update: Ironically one of the projects in the Knitty surprise for deep fall 2023 was an Aran knit sweater, When Harry Met Lucy by Paul Haesemeyer, inspired in part by that very sweater.

There’s a lot of reasons knits are awful these days, Mull discovered, including fast fashion, how cheap acrylic fiber is and how much fashion companies both high and low end love profit.

The vast majority of sweaters produced today, even those that may be marketed as wool or cashmere, have some kind of acrylic or nylon (read: plastic) content, and actually a lot of yarn does, too. Of course you can find pure wool and other natural fibers, but a lot of times acrylic is added to the mix to make yarn machine washable.

That’s another factor in people not purchasing wool sweaters even if they could find them: people who aren’t yarn crafters typically aren’t doing a lot of laundry by hand.

The good news is we have the tools at our disposal to make our own wonderful sweaters, and to choose to make them with natural fibers if we want. Fast fashion is easy but those sweaters don’t feel good and they don’t last. So much better to make your own and care for it so you will continue to enjoy it for many, many years. And even if you’ve never knit a sweater before, you probably have all the skills you need to do it. (And it’s a great thing to learn for winter if you’re in the part of the world heading into that season.)

Have sweater knitting questions? Drop them in the comments and I’ll do the best I can to answer them!

[Photo via Film Updates on X]

Next Pattern:

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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