I fell in love this weekend.
The kind of love that lets that uncontrollable smile sneak onto your face while you are trying to act cool around your friends and conceal how whipped you really are.
It happened at a crowded market. My heart skipped a beat and my breath shallowed. With palms sweating and eyes wide I moved closer, as if being drawn there by some consuming energy. Everything slowed down, and the world around me became a blur as I leant over and touched my love for the first time.
A pale cream thigh length, chunky knit jersey, with the most beautiful huge pastel coloured roses dotted across the body. So soft, so warm, so cozy. I saw our future flash before my eyes: cold, rainy days snuggled up in bed together, watching movies and keeping each other warm.
Speechless, I turned to my friend. ” How much is it?”, she asks. ” Only R100″ I reply. It’s so simple. I have the money in my bag. I am a note away from true happiness. And yet, I place my love back on the rail, and turn away. Up until now my “Don’t buy, only make” policy for the year has been shockingly easy, but hanging that jersey back on the rail was painful.
To rub salt in the wound, half an hour later I bumped into another friend and said, ” ah! You have to come and see my love!” and we bounced over to the rail only to find that she was gone. Gone forever. I’ll never know what it is like to be with her.
The next morning I awoke with a somewhat empty feeling as I remembered those beautiful roses. In order to fill the gap, I decided to flop around feeling sorry for myself and at the same time FINALLY take pictures of a slouchy jersey I made a few months ago and never blogged about.
Initially, when I started this challenge, I was going to allow myself to buy knitwear, because I really don’t have the energy to be knitting all the warm clothes I want, but after finding various woolen knit like fabrics (which can just be cut and sewn into a jersey) buying knitwear seems like cheating.
I’ve never worked with this kind of fabric before (hence why I am referring to it as woolen-knit-like fabric as opposed to whatever its actual name is) and actually found it very challenging. The neck line mostly so, and due to my lack of knowledge here, the neckline is actually a little wider than I was expecting it to be.
However, I quite like how massive and oversized the whole garment is. It’s perfect for the exact type of happiness I was imagining in my cream coloured rose jersey. It’s snugly , warm enough for Durban winter, laid back and homely.
You know, now that I think about it, I really love this jersey. Perhaps the reality of the rose jersey wouldn’t have been as perfect as I imagined it. Maybe it would have been scratchy, or pulled too tight over my wide hips, or been a bit too warm for this wonderful climate in Durban. This slouchy jersey is perfect for me, and we’ve already experienced a lot together.
I guess I’ll never know what life with the rose jersey would have been like, but life so far since I made this slouchy jersey has been pretty great, and I think I’ll choose to focus on that.
By the way Mum, Dad and older brother: Don’t worry, I am wearing pants in all these pictures 😉
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