Last week I saw a few snippets of some 1990s sitcoms I used to enjoy watching on TV. Apart from reeling at how corny they seem now, the other thing that struck me was how many of the characters were wearing jumpers (sweaters, pullovers, jerseys - depending on where you live.)
And I don't mean thin cashmere knits. These were serious jumpers. Thick woolly jumpers. Textured, multi-coloured jumpers. Jumpers with cables and high round necks.
Exactly the type of jumper I remember wearing myself in the 1980s and 1990s.
But do I ever wear one nowadays? Do I ever see them on people on the street?
Rarely.
Today I conducted a small survey of everyone I saw within a 90 minute period while doing the school pick-up and ducking into the local shops. I saw lots of fleece hoodies. Plenty of thin shirts, topped by a jacket. A multitude of layered fine knits.
The grand total of jumpers spotted? Two. (And one of those was bordering on a fine knit.)
Is the woollen knitted jumper a dying breed?
Before our time, jumpers were always made of wool and were a reasonably heavy garment intended to cover the torso and arms of the human body to provide warmth.
Have space-aged fabrics such as polar fleece made heavy jumpers redundant? Can we now obtain the warmth required without the bulk?
Perhaps it's just where I live. Do you see many thick jumpers in your part of the world?
15 comments:
There are lots of jumpers and polar fleece here in central Victoria. Not as many as I remember from my childhood, but I'm certainly not the only one here who knits.
It isn't just the invention of easy-wash polar fleece though, heavy woollen jumpers were essential when houses weren't heated so much. My Dad grew up with a wood stove in the kitchen, a fireplace in the loungeroom and was cold everywhere else. They wore a lot of handknits. Now more people have central heating on a timer, and cars are heated too. When I was a kid our family car was freezing (actually, my current car has no working heater, but it's 20 years old so we're hardly normal in that respect). My Mum used to wear heavy jumpers to work, but her offices became more effectively heated over the years, so now she doesn't.
I love jumpers....the only plaace I can buy them is in the op shops....nice thick ones....bring back the jumper I say.
We do see jumpers up here - but of course polar fleece does seem to dominate.
And the odd flannelette shirt!
I agree - better heating in houses, and cars that don't leak! And demisters that work! In winter, I always drove with one window down in order to keep the windscreen clear of fog - that required big thick jumpers. A three hour journey in the car would consist of constant movement to raise a lower the window (by hand) to balance freezing to death with keeping the windscreen clear.
Nowadays, you can even get heated seats in your car.
I only had one big jumper growing up, and that was one that Mum knitted. It was thick and indestructible and immensely warm.
I don't like a jumper and much prefer a cardigan. A jumper seems like a commitment where a cardigan is a more casual relationship.
You bet we do, particularly home-knits in our house as I'm sure you know, and lots of fleeces as well. I even have 5 of the latter myself despite all my own home knitting! We do have well-heated and well insulated houses, buildings etc. but it may be that our unpredictable weather means that they are more all-year round garments although we really only need thick ones in winter as fine ones suffice for cooler sumer days – a wonderful excuse to have twice as many and both kinds. I suspect what you're referring to was a fashion fad of the time.
Right now we are in the hottest days of summer, so not likely to see any today or tomorrow. But, in the cold season, I still wear them. I use to wear them a lot more often then I do now, but that is only because when I have a 'hot flash' I need to take something off, so as one of the others said, I prefer cardigans so I can take it off when I need to. ;)
I do like a knitted jumper, but after seeing photos taken recently of me wearing the very thing, I vow never to wear one again.
I looked very Michelin man like.
Perhaps women have come to the realisation that in the whole, they aren't flattering?
Its fine knits all the way for me now.
I suspect that layering has overtaken the bulky jumper as the dress code of choice for those feeling the cold. Topped off with a coat and hand-knitted scarf for the truly stylish.
Then, of course, there is the drama of washing a heavy woollen hand-knitted jumper...
I'd say hand-knits are still popular amongst babies under 6 months who have a handy nana. Provided she is not too busy hiking some mountain or visiting the gorillas.
Still lots of woolly jumpers here, in addition to the polar fleeces. And at school drop off, there are lots of scarves and hats too.
We have a small gas heater, and a wood fire and the rest of the house is freezing so it's thick jumpers and slippers all the time.
I haven't noticed them for a long time. I still have some in my closet, but they are outdated and too small. Still like them though. No heavy wool ones though.
Yes yes yes I had the perfect stash of jumpers. My husband started family tradition on my eldest daughters 1st birthday and gifted me with a cream and blue number with big black penguins on the front. From then on for the next four or five years each Mother's Day meant another jumper. A green one with children knitted on the front with one wearing a skirt that actully was liftable, a 3D jumper who ever would have thought. Mercifully today my girls are all grown up and the dreaded UGLY jumper Mother's Day gift is a thing of the past. But the memories linger...thanks for the memory.
I've very fond of a woolly jumper myself. My mum has an eagle eye and often finds lovely pure wool knits in the various secondhand shops about...
I love jumpers but I hate washing them. This is my theory on why jumpers are becoming extinct. You can't just bung them in the machine, and if you do you'll regret it, hello felted cashmere jumper now only wearable by an 8yo. They need love and care and attention, because you have to do a separate woolwash and then leave them stretched flat all over your house for a week while they dry and try not to kick them over meanwhile. Frankly most of my jumpers are in the woolwash pile in my laundry. That's where all the jumpers are.
Stomper my elders tell me that was always the case when my Dad and his siblings were kids. Nanna was a champion knitter, but she always left the wool washing til everyone was running out of warm clothes.
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