Follow Friday | July 25

So how did this thing get started anyway?

I blame Gayle and Sharlene. You may know them as The Yarniacs. Their bi-weekly (and that's the bi-weekly that's every other week, not twice a week) podcast is a delightful bit of voyeurism into the lives of two friends and their knitting. They also have started doing interviews with members of the kniteratti, reviews of books, and discussions of sheep breeds and dyeing. Last year during the summer, they hosted a knitalong on ravelry called The Colors of Fall, inspired by the seasonal release of the Pantone colors. It was a resounding success, especially as it asked participants not just to knit something from the autumn color palette, but to style it. Seeing how people all around the world were wearing their handknits was wonderful. So I'm thrilled they're doing it again this year (even as my own project has been hibernating).

Now Gayle and Sharlene are West Coast girls through and through and I fully admit to the more than occasional ribbing of their casual ways because casual for me means something entirely different. Case in point: it's casual Friday at my admittedly all-the-time casual workplace. Me: I've swapped my weekday blazers for a daring casual Friday long cardigan. But yes, I'm still wearing heels (and full disclosure, had I at all managed to get through the morning ritual in a decent amount of time, I would have snapped a couple of shots of my outfit. Apologies. If you'd like to imagine what I'm wearing, it's my Darling Emma, Cheyenne, a blue shirtdress from Mango (kind of like this one), my mom's kickass vintage YSL tortoise shell chain belt (which I'm kind of amazed I found with a google search of "tortoise shell chain belt ysl"), and a pair of Manolo Blahnik wine-colored suede sandals (not quite like these Brian Atwood's or like these from Express, but you get the idea). So a couple of weeks ago when they mentioned me on the podcast (which by the way, makes you feel like a million bucks) and said that while "normal" people wouldn't wear such and such a thing, Yelena would, I took that as a challenge to show just how normal I can be, fashion-wise. So you can all blame Gayle and Sharlene for being bored by the contents of my closet.

Because, and if I might get preachy for a moment, even in a vacuum when no one is around, not your husband/boyfriend/wife/girlfriend/other object of your affection, not the women in your office or the moms outside your kids' schools, not the gas station attendant, the barista, or your family, looking good feels good. I hear from women about how good they feel in their casual clothing when they just don't have to care how they look, but I argue that when you look at yourself in the mirror having taken even 5 minutes to put yourself together, you feel better than when you're eating fritos out of the bag while wearing yoga pants with a hole in the knee. Yes, there's a middle ground, of course there is, and by showing what a casual friday looks like in stilettos, I'm not necessarily advocating everyone do that - but maybe don't go to work without a swipe of mascara.

In conclusion, no matter what your personal style, knit for it! And knit for it during the second annual Colors of Fall knitalong. This season's color weren't my favorite, but I will, eventually, finish a second Hey Girl Cardigan in Wollmeise DK Bussi.