Do you like sweaters?

I do.

I love hand knit sweaters.

When I was a very young girl, my Mother, my Sister and I would knit sweaters like the one you see pictured.  We would sell or trade them in our village of East Germany.   Sometimes I would knit the sleeves or one of the fronts.  My Mother would assemble the pieces and we would finish the sweater with embroidery.  We always had some kind of cottage industry going on in our house.  We made beautiful leather millinery decorations, we sewed pieces of pre-cut fabric to make little girls' dresses.  Often, we were without power and one of us would turn the wheel on my Mother's sewing machine by hand. What I never liked was when we had an order for knitted wool socks.

Years later I purchased this sweater in Austria.  It was very plain.  Before boarding the plane for the long flight home, I purchased a little colored wool and embroidered the sweater.  It made the time go much faster.

While in Munich, Germany, Gene bought this lovely sweater for me. The knobby part is crocheted.  Wish I could find the shop again.  The shop sold beautiful handmade items.

On the next trip to Europe, I spotted this sweater in the window of a shop in the Burgenland of Austria.  This sweater goes to Europe with me every time we make a Fall trip.

And then I discovered a shop in a small village in the South of Tyrol, Italy, Toblach or Dobbiaco as it is called in Italy.

From the same shop inToblach (Dobbiaco) the next year.  If you knit you can see that all of these sweaters are knit on No. 2 needles.  That is why they are so indestructible.   

 My last trip, my last sweater purchase.  Next time I'm in Toblach I will most likely visit my Tyrolean Stuebele.

Gina