A couple of years ago, my good friend brought me a gigantic, thick sweater that had belonged to her father for almost 40 years but that he had had to admit was now far too big for him. She thought that "maybe I could use the yarn for something".
The yarn turned out to be chunky and hand spun, and really soft for something so old! It was made in Australia but we're still not completely sure what fibre it is. It is naturally dark brown, so feels too soft to be black sheep of some kind. My friend thought there might have been mention of alpacas.
It quickly earned the name Gorilla Sweater....every time I wear it I get the
glorious but awful Mr Burns song in my head
As for the sweater itself, I reknitted it top-down to maximise what yarn I had. I seem to have made it far too wide as I've had to repeatedly move the buttons further and further to the side, which is a shame as I could have used that yarn to make proper full length sleeves, but I don't think the yarn can handle another unpicking - it's quite hairy and involved a lot of yanking. Maybe now that I ve learned to spin I might spin up something a bit similar and extend the sleeves - I tried to consider it as a sort of body warmer, but to be honest, when it's cold enough to wear gorilla, it's cold enough for full length sleeves....
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