Storytelling Sunday: The jumper

At some point normal crafting service will be resumed but life has been filled with a holiday and then a whole lot of work catching up from the holiday. Hey ho! So instead I will share my story - and the layout I did that arose from last month's story too.  Sian encourages us to tell stories of things that are precious to us and link them here

So this month it is the story of the jumper. Alas I don't have a photograph of it from when it was first bought and worn. You would think that I would have made sure to take a photo of me going off to University for the first time. But I didn't. So you will just have to put up with a slightly less fresh faced person wearing the jumper (and who didn't check that her hair had moved from being funky and pixie cut to convict style thanks to changing clothes before taking the photo. Rats)

So it begins with the September 1983 edition of Look Now magazine. The 18 year old Lythan loved this mag and inside was an advert for the latest styles to hit Miss Selfridge. She saw the jumper. She loved the jumper. She must have the jumper.  The very next morning bright and early she jumped on her bike and cycled the two miles into Swansea town centre (downhill most of the way - it is Wales after all) and was there for when the store opened. "Please let the jumper be there" she pleaded, not having the common sense to ring the store and check before leaving home. It was. Readers, she bought it. And a pair of black cords to go with it. It was cropped and bat winged and comfy and fashionable and everything. And so just had to be what was worn to make an impression on the first day of University.

Did it? I have no idea. 1983 is a very long time ago now. But as this photo was taken at 12pm on 3rd March 2013 you can tell that I still have - and still wear the jumper. Its not quite as fashionable. But people still comment on it positively! And it connects me back to a girl who was at once shy and confident, eager to learn and have fun and to start life away from her parents and begin growing up. OK she thought she was grown up and learned the hard way that there was a lot more growing up to do. But that's another story...

I also still have a cropped black and white jumper that I bought in my second year that I have donated to Carys and it makes me smile whenever she wears it. I haven't given her this one yet, but if she likes it, maybe I will give it to her when she goes to Uni in 18 months time.

(NB for sake of honesty I admit that in a moment I will put a cardigan over the top because my tum and back are cold. I'm such an old lady now!)

And here is the layout I did for the last story. This was created using the latest Quirky Kit and it feels like all the papers were chosen just so I could tell my story!

for more details look on the Quirky Kits blog