In-Laws from Hell·
THE GREEN SWEATER FIGHT
A knitted gift becomes a battleground when dyed green, turning a family gathering into a clash over color, yarn ethics, and what makes a gift worthwhile.
Wear it dyed or keep it as given?
Be one of the first to vote.
The sweater was already a source of tension before anyone had even worn it. When the poster's sister-in-law, the brother's wife, offered to knit one, the poster said yes, but with a catch: they wanted to choose the color and offered to pay for the yarn. She waved that off. No need, she said. She wanted to use up her stash. "tee hee I have a stash beyond life expectancy!"
So she knitted the sweater in beige.
The poster liked the finished piece well enough, but beige was never going to happen. Their wardrobe ran to plums, roses, terra cottas, and olives, not a colorless sweater sitting in the closet. Rather than leave it unworn, the poster dyed it green and started wearing it often.
That was how the family gathering turned into a confrontation.
While everyone was hanging out, the sister-in-law noticed the sweater on the poster and said it looked like the one she had made. The poster said it was, and explained that it had been dyed. That answer landed badly. She said she wished the poster had told her first, then added, "I wouldn't have wasted my malabrigo on you."
The poster pushed back. They said they loved the sweater, but there was no way they would have worn it as beige. Better dyed and on their body than untouched and forgotten.
The sister-in-law did not like that answer either. She said she would never knit anything for the poster again. Then she got up and left the room.
The poster did not talk to her for the rest of the night, and expects not to see her again for a while.
What started as a thoughtful handmade gift had turned into a family argument over color, yarn, and whether a finished sweater was better than no sweater at all.