Guernica Magazine

Hand-Knit Sweater

The sweaters my grandmother made hung loose, so I could grow into them.

This essay is part of Fashion in Isolation, a special issue on the intimate, contradictory, and ultimately inescapable relationship we have to what we wear.

Winter evening.

Six-year-old me did my homework at the dinner table; my grandmother sat next to me, knitting

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Guernica Magazine

Guernica Magazine10 min read
Black Wing Dragging Across the Sand
The next to be born was quite small, about the size of a sweet potato. The midwife said nothing to the mother at first but, upon leaving the room, warned her that the girl might not survive. No one seemed particularly concerned; after all, if she liv
Guernica Magazine5 min read
Al-Qahira
Growing up, your teachers always told you: “Al-Qahira taqharu’l I’ida.” Cairo vanquishes her enemies.
Guernica Magazine2 min read
Confrontations
We start the year confronting — and confronted by — the centripetal power of whiteness. Youssef Rakha, a novelist who was born and lives in Egypt, recounts a lifelong journey to forge the “new, contemporary ore” of culture in the aftermath of coloni

Related