This is from the pages of a top, top fashion magazine. In fact, the very top. What it is is a Michael Kors sweater and lace skirt. The skirt is of organic cotton, but it is unclear from the descriptive text whether or not the sweater is also. But, it is described as a hand-knit boyfriend sweater. I guess so, if your boyfriend is a NFL linebacker. I think it violates every rule in the 'What to Knit' guidebook: grossly oversized, super-bulky yarn, drop shoulders, crew neck, light color, no waist shaping. It also seems to want to defy the laws of physics. If this is pure cotton, it has got to weigh a ton. And gravity is certainly going to be pulling it out of shape with a sagging shoulders and neck - and it is!
What really struck me, though, was how much it resembles every knitter's first sweater. Doesn't everyone begin with a drop shouldered, crew neck pullover? And, isn't the craft world a wonderful place when even a beginner knitter can produce a sweater that sells for a mere $1,295 at Michael Kors stores? (See proof to right.)Maybe I should rejoice in the fact that the hand knitter might have made something close to an industrialized world living wage. After all, if it took 20 hours to knit, and she (isn't it another great assumption that the knitter is a she?) made $200 on a $1,295 sweater, that's $10 an hour. Now, that's probably a huge stretch to think she made that kind of money, given the 100% retail mark up and the number of middle men in the process from cotton boll to store hanger, but maybe it's progress.
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