The Unplugged Sweater

 

I haven’t knitted a sweater for Dino in many years.  He went a long period where he wouldn’t wear something I made for him.  Now, he wants a replica of the sweater Kurt Cobain wore during MTV Unplugged.

Obviously I said yes.

I tried to find the right color.  The original is actually a green but it appears dark grey in numerous photographs I consulted.  Finding that kind of vintage green color is next to impossible however, on my meager yarn budget anyway.

Next I had to decide the yarn composition. The original is a mohair and acrylic blend.  I can easily find mohair, however I would have had to carry it with something else and that wasn’t in my budget even if I ordered from Knit Picks.  I didn’t want to spent over 75 bucks on luxury fibers for a 14 year old.

Luckily, Lion Brand had a sale and I snatched up enough “Touch of Alpaca” in this grey color.  When they say “touch”, they really do mean touch.  It’s fucking 10% and the rest is acrylic.  Knitting with it is ok.  It’s not the nicest yarn, probably why it was on sale.  You can actually feel the alpaca in it, which is somewhat kind of refreshing cause it’s not too plasticky.

I wish I could have gone all wool, or all alpaca, but until he can take proper care of a special care article of clothing, he gets acrylic.

I’m hoping to have the entire thing done for his birthday.  Perhaps I’ll even rough it up a bit to make it look fuzzier like mohair would.  This reminds me of an episode of “Are You Being Served” where a customer is looking at mohair sweaters and is shown one that comes with a little comb so you can fluff it up again.  Alas, Dino would never get the joke if I gave him a little comb with it.

Yay, to another year of knitting deadlines!

🧶