Another Sweater Adoption

I found this hand-made Irish Aran in the local thrift store in late October. I love the color!

It's a Cleo Ltd, made in Dublin. It's made of that hard-wearing, somewhat scratchy yarn. I took it home with me. I gave it a good soak in luke warm water with some shampoo and it sorta softened, but not really. Maybe that was why such a beautifully made sweater was abandoned. Then on the first cool day in October I tried to wear it, but the bind off on the turtleneck was soo tight, it just about ripped my head off trying to take it off.

Then one day a thought came to me. I could take out the binding and a row or two of knitting and rework it with a stretchy edge. It worked nicely; it made the turtleneck a little shorter, but now I can take it off with ease.

 I did an Internet search on Cleo Ltd. sweaters and once I converted the Euros to dollars, found out it sells for about $200.00. (!) At first I thought that was a huge amount to pay for a sweater. Then I reasoned that the woman who hand knit it might've gotten 50% of the retail. A hundred dollars for her time and talent suddenly didn't seem like very much.