Sweater curse - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Knitting

Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...

use the term "sweater curse
Curse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...

" or "curse of the love sweater" to describe a situation in which a knitter gives a hand-knit sweater to a significant other

Significant other

Significant other is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual...

, who quickly breaks up

Relationship breakup

A relationship breakup, often referred to simply as a breakup, is the termination of a usually intimate relationship by any means other than death. The act is commonly termed "dumping [someone]" in slang when it is initiated by one partner...

with the knitter. In an alternative formulation, the relationship will end before the sweater is even completed. The belief is widely discussed in knitting publications and some knitters claim to have experienced it;
a recent poll indicated that 15% of active knitters say they have experienced the sweater curse firsthand, and 41% consider it a possibility that should be taken seriously.

Despite its name, the "sweater curse" is treated in knitting literature not as a superstition

Superstition

Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

governed by paranormal

Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

forces, but rather as a real-world pitfall of knitting that has real-world explanations and solutions. Several plausible mechanisms for the sweater curse have been proposed, but it has not been studied systematically.

Existence

No controlled studies

Scientific method

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

have investigated this phenomenon, and the available evidence is largely anecdotal

Anecdotal evidence

The expression anecdotal evidence refers to evidence from anecdotes. Because of the small sample, there is a larger chance that it may be true but unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise unrepresentative of typical cases....

, which is generally of low reliability due to cognitive bias

Cognitive bias

A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations. Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable...

. Particularly important in this effect may be confirmation bias

Confirmation bias

Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.David Perkins, a geneticist, coined the term "myside bias" referring to a preference for "my" side of an issue...

, as knitters may remember breakups more clearly after giving a hand-knit sweater, which represents a significant investment of money (typically over $100), effort (~100,000 stitches), time (as much as a year) and romantic imagination.

Proposed mechanisms

Although the existence of this effect remains uncertain, it is a common belief amongst the knitting population and several plausible and non-exclusive mechanisms for the Sweater Curse have been suggested within knitting periodicals and books:

Unlucky timing. Knitting a sweater takes a long time, and the relationship dies of natural causes during its making.
Rescue mission. The knitter senses subconsciously that the relationship is about to end, and knits a sweater as a dramatic gesture to save it.
Catalyst for analyzing the relationship. Giving or receiving a significant gift
Handicap principle
The handicap principle is a hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how evolution may lead to "honest" or reliable signaling between animals who have an obvious motivation to bluff or deceive each other...

such as a sweater may cause either the giver or receiver to evaluate the relationship. For example, the gift may seem too intimate, too domestic or too binding to the significant other
Significant other
Significant other is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual...

. It can be seen as a signal
Signalling theory
Within evolutionary biology, signalling theory is a body of theoretical work examining communication between individuals. The central question is when organisms with conflicting interests should be expected to communicate "honestly"...

that makes them realize that the relationship is not reciprocal, prompting them to end the relationship before it involves obligations.
Aversion. The significant other may simply not want to wear anything hand-knit. A hand-knit sweater can also subject them to ridicule, either because the sweater looks bad (i.e., poorly made or unfashionable) or conveys overly domestic connotations.
Misdirected attention. The knitter loves their sweater a little too much, and pesters the significant other about the sweater instead of working on their relationship. Alternatively, the knitter loves to knit too much, and spends too much time with their knitting instead of with the significant other.
Delusion. The knitter imagines incorrectly that their significant other likes them, and is not disillusioned before knitting the sweater and giving it to them.

Avoidance

For many knitters, making a hand-knit gift is an emotional experience, an extended affectionate meditation on the person receiving the gift. A metaphor commonly used by knitters is, "I knit my love into every stitch." Since giving too significant a gift too early in a relationship can evoke apprehension, knitters have been advised to match the knitted gift to the stage in the relationship, beginning with hat

Hat

A hat is a head covering. It can be worn for protection against the elements, for ceremonial or religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory. In the past, hats were an indicator of social status...

s, mittens, scarve

Scarve

Scarve is a French technical death metal band from Nancy. They have released four full-length albums, the latest being The Undercurrent, released on April 2, 2007 on Listenable Records.- Biography :...

s, or sock

Sock

A sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...

s before graduating to sweaters. Many knitters wait until marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

before making a sweater for a significant other, or ask their affianced to sign a "pre-knitual agreement".

Common-sense advice to knitters is that they should determine whether the recipient would ever wear a hand-knitted sweater. For example, a sweater may not suit the intended recipient's clothing style or it could make them uncomfortably hot. More serious problems include wool intolerance, which is particularly severe in people who suffer from atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory, chronically relapsing, non-contagious and pruritic skin disorder...

. Knitters have also been advised to involve the significant other in designing the sweater

Sweater design

Sweater design is a specialization of fashion design in which knitted sweaters are designed to fulfil certain aesthetic, functional and commercial criteria...

(e.g. in choosing its design, colors and materials] and follow their suggestions, even if the knitter objects. Several books offer practical design advice for avoiding the sweater curse.

Existence

Proposed mechanisms

Avoidance

See also