Office Party

Dress: Ash by Allison Hendrix; wollmeise dk in merlot; my notes and modifications on Trapezius
Blazer: Armani Collezioni; similar styles by Alice + Olivia and at ASOS
Shoes: Cesare Paciotti; similar styles by Pierre Hardy, Alexandre Birman, and Sam Edelman
Lips: Dolce and Gabbana passion duo gloss fusion lipstick in Sensual and Bobbi Brown high shimmer lip gloss in Hot

What do you do when your company has a Christmas party in the office, no spouses invited, that starts at 4pm, and isn't quite billed as either compulsory or optional? Obviously you have to go, but since you also have to drive, it's not as though you're going to drink. Also, you're pretty sure you saw a coworker wearing flip flops...THIS WEEK, so it's not exactly a formal environment, but it is a Christmas party (note: I doubt it's actually a Christmas party, I would be willing to bet every pair of shoes I own it's a holiday party because this is the hill some have chosen to die on) and I like parties and I like an excuse to wear nice things. Now, I also have to work today, with others, in a professional manner, so not only am I not going either a) braless or b) stick-on bra-ful with this backless dress, I'm not even admitting it is a backless dress. I'm wearing a good old fashioned bra and an even more good old fashioned blazer and both will remain firmly in place all day long.

I have to confess that I have yet to get in the holiday spirit. I'm concerned that my wonderful husband may not have acquired an ornament for our annual ornament exchange and will therefore get something totally crappy and last minute - meanwhile we have decided not to exchange big gifts this year because instead we're going to go to Malaysia next year which, don't get me wrong, is capital-A Amazing, but not especially Christmassy. I still don't know what we are doing for actual Christmas because my in-laws are not the most brilliant of planners, and I have no idea what to buy my dad who needs nothing and hates everything. I'm also considering telling my brother that he and I should stop exchanging gifts for birthdays and holidays because there is absolutely nothing either of us wants that falls within our budgets for these kinds of things. I mean, what do I want for Christmas? A new digital camera with underwater housing and external strobe plus wet lenses and filters. I'm not interested in anything even remotely top of the line and the cost for the things I just mentioned makes the Gucci booties I posted yesterday seem rather reasonable in price. I might ask someone to get me one of the wet lenses and filters - at least those are in the neighborhood of what I think is reasonable for gift spending.

But most of all, I just feel a little worn out. Between Thanksgiving, which was not as relaxing as any of us had hoped (lesson learned, I just wish it had been a cheaper lesson), and being sick for about 2 weeks, I just feel like I need to decompress and the holidays are generally not a time for decompression. On the plus side, my wonderful, amazing, talented test knitters are making gorgeous cabled sweaters and I hope to have the pattern ready for release next week or early the following week - you know, so you have something to go with the yarn you receive for the holidays!

Tubes

Dress: Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald; Orange Flower Aran Merino Superwash in Woodsmoke; my notes and modifications on As Far As It Goes
Shoes: Ariat riding boots; similar style (and these have held up through a lot of hard use - I've had the zippers replaced, but the shoes themselves have been workhorses - see this photo of them with wildlife...)
Lips: Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Natural in Aubergine N50
Nails: Butter London in La Moss
Bracelet: Breil stainless steel; similar styles like an olive branch bangle, or something thinner and stackable in gold

Let's get business out of the way first: this photo was taken Tuesday and I had every intention of also writing a post on Tuesday...

I'm sure I'm not alone in impulse purchasing yarn for which no project yet exists. (Please tell me I'm not the only one.) This one-of-a-kind color needed to come live with me, but once at home didn't quite have a purpose. I had loved knitting my first Idlewood even though the yarn pilled terribly, and I love a good knitted dress, so eventually these two ideas coalesced and a project was born. It doesn't hurt that the project is on size 10 or 10.5 needles, so it really does fly. And the dress itself is great. As you can see, it will go with flattish equestrian boots and on my original project page I have it styled with my dressy boots (and perhaps a useless but delightful pair of opera length black leather gloves). However, all that fun quick knitting has, in both cases where I've knit this pattern, resulted in a pilly garment over not that much time. Interestingly enough, this yarn is 100% superwash and my other Idlewood was 80/10/10, so it's not like I can blame the cashmere.

The other problem I have is entirely my fault, but intentionally my fault, and that is because I wanted a very open cowl at the neck, there's very little fabric in the dedicated shoulder area, which means the damn thing falls off my body. Now the enormous cowl prevents this from being accidental nudity, but it is annoying to have to pull your dress up every so often. On the other hand, I have yet to exactly figure out the proper construction which gives a nice open cowl and provides enough support. My Obsidian does a better job, so I might look to it for any future cowl work.

Yet I still heartily recommend the pattern. It's super easy and super pretty and really is just a giant tube. A word of caution, though: consider putting a label in so you know which way is up. On my sweater version, because the cowl is nearly as long as the body, I cannot count the number of times I've put it on upside down. Seriously.

Two Seductions

Dress: Audrey Totter by Kristen Hanley Cardozo; The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Longhorned Beetle; my notes and modifications on I Will Vamp Your Bleep Up!
Blazer: Duskfall Blazer by Madewell; similar styles by J. Crew (nb: I will pretty much only link to J. Crew when its stuff goes on sale; I think the quality is appalling at full price and, as someone who grew up with J. Crew when it made quality clothing, I get especially ragey about it - I only just learned that Madewell is owned by J. Crew, yet at a lower price point their stuff is routinely of a much much better quality), Rag & Bone, and Vince Camuto
Shoes: Manolo Blahnik; similar styles by Pour la Victoire and Prada
Toes: Butter London in Royal Navy
Lips: Bobbi Brown Art Stick in Rose Brown
Necklace: Ever Together magnetic necklace

The first question this post answers is, yes, I do wear my knitted dresses. Whenever I can!

I remember when this pattern came out I thought it was nice. It went into my favorites. Then at 2011 Rhinebeck while waiting in line at the Sanguine Gryphon booth early in the morning, I saw it in real life. I don't remember what I had been waiting on line for, but now I was waiting in line for this! The color in person was mesmerizing. I was already planning to accidentally-on-purpose high stick anyone in front of me who tried to lay hands on the bugga I needed to make the dress. I was smitten. Like many of you, I buy at fairs like Rhinebeck and then the yarn sits around a while. Not this time. It looks as though I cast on immediately and the only reason it took so long for me to finish is that I'm pretty sure between cast-on and cast-off I got married and spent 3 weeks in Africa. I like this story because it proves that sometimes you shouldn't think, you should just do. I likely blew most of my Rhinebeck budget on the yarn for this dress and I regret nothing!

Those Prada shoes linked above at Bluefly (and not available in size 41)? I regret those. The shoes on my feet in the picture just never quite measured up. I do not like paying full price for shoes, especially the shoes I buy. And by do not like, I mean cannot afford. I saw those prada peep toes and suddenly realized I didn't own navy shoes and desperately needed some. But they were $700. Fine, I said, they'll go on sale. But they didn't. Not the first sale season after they were released, not the second, and I was getting pretty desperate. After all, I had discovered a glaring hole in my wardrobe that now hadn't been filled for well on 9 months. Enter the Manolo Blahnik 50% off summer sale. They had a pair of open-toed navy patent pumps. And instead of $700, they wanted about half that. So I bought them.

And I've regretted it ever since. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing the matter with the shoes and they're actually quite comfortable, but they're not what I wanted. The cutouts are too cutesy. These are polo match shoes, the Pradas are queen of the boardroom shoes. I wanted the latter. I'm not saying I should have spent $700 on the shoes, I honestly don't think they're worth that, but I shouldn't have been seduced by the on-sale shoes right in front of me. Just because they were cheaper, doesn't mean they were right.



So now I have a question for you: blazer buttoned or unbuttoned? I go both ways and tend to keep it unbuttoned while seated and buttoned while standing. Thoughts?