Cape Breton > Lifestyles
Sweater goes from family to thrift store back to Cape Breton family 50 years after it was knit
Nicole Sullivan | Posted: Nov. 29, 2021, 3:20 p.m. | Updated: Nov. 30, 2021, 2:06 p.m. | 7 Min Read
Nine-month-old Iris Rice in the wool sweater her grandmother Sandra Rice knit when she was 18, which made its way back to the Sydney Mines family even though it was passed through many families and at least one thrift store. - CONTRIBUTED
SYDNEY MINES, N.S. — Sandra Rice's daughter-in-law had just walked in the door when she immediately recognized the sweater her nine-month-old granddaughter was wearing.
It was one Sandra knit in 1973 when she was 18 and still a Campbell.
"I knew as soon as I saw it. You always recognize your own work," said the 68-year-old Sydney Mines woman.
At first her daughter-in-law, Stephanie Rice, laughed at the idea. It was impossible that this sweater, handed down to her from her friend Chelsea Felton who had it handed down by another friend Gemma Cook who had bought it at a thrift store 12 years ago, was the one her mother-in-law had knit 48 years ago.
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Stephanie looked at the tag sewn in the collar, hanging on by a thread, which reads "Made especially for you by Sandra" and started to wonder if her mother-in-law was right.
Then Sandra produced the ribbon she won at the Cape Breton Exhibition for the sweater, the only second place ribbon out of numerous first places, and Stephanie realized baby Iris Rice's new cardigan was made by her grandmother before her father was even born.
"Never in a million years did I think I'd see that sweater again," Sandra said during a phone interview Monday morning.
Hanging on by a thread, the tag inside the sweater reads "Made especially for you by Sandra" and it was purchased at the Sydney Mines five and ten store. CONTRIBUTED
Decades of families
Along with the tag, which has now been reattached, the wooden buttons are original and the sweater fits babies, toddlers and young children.
A mustard brown colour, Sandra gave the sweater to her sister-in-law for her children and it got passed through the family through the 1980s and 1990s.
At some point, the sweater was donated to a thrift store like Value Village or the Salvation Army and Sandra had long stopped thinking of it as it became a family favourite for others.
"I never thought in a million years I'd see that sweater again." Sandra Rice, Sydney Mines. CONTRIBUTED
Stephanie said when Cook gave Felton the sweater she'd asked it be returned because all five of her children had worn it and they loved it so much.
But Felton passed it on to Stephanie who is very grateful it made it back to the Rice Family.
"They don't make clothes of this good quality anymore," said Stephanie as Sandra agreed.
"It's amazing how this sweater seems to fit children of any age."
Sandra added, "And it's good for boys and girls."
Sandra Rice kept the second place ribbon she won at the Cape Breton Exhibition in 1973 in the children's clothing category for the sweater; an important piece of evidence that helped prove she knit the cardigan her daughter-in-law's friend bought at a thrift store 12 years ago. CONTRIBUTED
When Sandra saw the sweater and recognized it as the one she made in 1973, she thought it was a sign.
"It's like you just went full circle and I just thought that day I was going to die," she said with a small laugh. "It brought back so many memories. When I held it, I felt like I was 18 again."
For Stephanie, having the sweater come back to her family through a thrift store buy and her friends who have become family is simply "incredible" and her family is "blown away" by it.
Nine-month-old Iris Rice in the wool sweater her grandmother Sandra Rice knit when she was 18, before she was married or had children. CONTRIBUTED
"Usually with hand-me-downs, I just throw them in the wash. Not that I don't care about them, but they've already gone through a lot of kids," she said.
"This sweater was different. I could tell it was well made, made by someone. If I had of thrown it in the wash the tag would have come off ... It is really special that sweater came back to her granddaughter."
Nicole Sullivan is an immigration/diversity and education reporter for the Cape Breton Post.
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