Emergency Preparedness

Sweater: Telluride Aran by Amy Herzog; Black Trillium Fibre Studio Pebble Worsted in Moon Shadow; my notes and modifications on Last Run
Jeans: DL1961 Florence coated jean in Barcelona; similar styles by Topshop, Calvin Klein, and Treasure & Bond
Blazer: Forever 21 asymmetrical coat; another Forever 21 option, this from Urban Outfitters which I might buy at $40, and if you like the color, but not the length, Forever 21 has you covered too
Shoes: Mossimo for Target but I got mine on sale and you should wait for a sale too; then, of course, there's always the original Frye model
Lips: Korres mango butter lipstick in nude PLUS Bobbi Brown high shimmer lip gloss in Hot

So I hear we'll be getting some weather! My original plan was to head into the office early, work there a half day, grab my computer, and head home before the worst. Since I was also mindful of the possibility of perhaps being stranded in my car or needing to be in the elements, I scrapped pencil skirts and stilettos in favor of -gasp- pants. I don't generally wear pants to the office, not out of any abhorrence of pants, but because I don't think I look as professional in pants as I do in a skirt, primarily due to body shape. Trust me, I would be over the moon if I could rock a pantsuit, but I can't because I'm hippy. So I chose the coated jeans as being "dressier" than regular jeans, went with a monochromatic top (also a raveler recently asked me a question about this sweater and I realized I hadn't worn it in a while despite loving it), and then still wanted something that would cover up the fashionable tightness of the pants across my rear. This Forever 21 blazer was featured on some fashion blog, or I saw it on pinterest, or something, and I impulse bought it (which is pretty easy to do at Forever 21 since everything is cheap). When it arrived, I wasn't crazy about it, but that was because I was trying to wear it closed (where it looks ridiculous). Open, however, is a different story and I actually like that it's a bit different both from my general palette and from my very tailored fit. It works equally well over a dress. I also barely did my hair (but as you can see this magic hair stuff makes it possible for me to not blow dry AND not look homeless - it's amazing), put on a minimum of makeup (pressed powder, bronzer, blush, lips (I just curled my lashes but didn't mascara them)), and decided to brave the roads.

And at first they weren't bad at all and I felt silly for my trepidation. Then, however, at about the halfway mark, I noticed that the problem for the moment wasn't snow, it was wind. The wind was already picking up enough to both blow the weekend's snow around, but it was also approaching the strength where it jiggles the car. I decided that I would chicken out at that moment: go to the office, pick up my laptop, and return home. There was no virtue, to my mind, in waiting around for several hours and possibly getting stuck indefinitely because my lovely front-wheel drive sedan is not cut out for blizzard driving.

So now I'm back at home with a cup of peppermint tea, a working and charging laptop, and for the time being electricity. Who knows how long that will last, but I thought a "business casual" post would be fun. To everyone affected by this round of winter nonsense: stay warm, stay safe, and let's all catch up on some knitting!

Looking Ahead, Part 2 - Works in (sort of) Progress

Is it strange to be looking ahead when I have two sweaters in the super-active queue already?

The hot pink sweater came off the needles and went straight to the blocking boards Tuesday night which meant that a navy sweater got cast-on Wednesday evening.

I have vowed to get some WIPs taken care of in the new year. I start way too many sweater and then just abandon them. There's really no rhyme or reason to how this happens: both fingering and aran sweaters, both cardigans and pullovers, both plain and advanced, there's no rhyme or reason as to why one sweater gets started and finished almost without break and others spend years in the WIP pile.

My Fisher Queen WIP is in the lovely madelinetosh erin (which I hoard as a rule) in thoreau

and it is going to look excellent with my J. Crew cream colored wool mini skirt

and it's early to the waist of the body AND on super big needles! I have no excuse not to power through it.

Or how about the ubiquitous (in my social knitting circle) Grace? It's in one of my favorite colors, madelinetosh's brothers grimm (whose discontinuation god himself can't explain), will perfectly match one of my fave summer dresses from Anthropologie

and be amazing with nearly everything else I own (ok so I own several dresses from Anthro that will go well with a cardigan)

AND I solved my problem with the cardigan which is that I didn't like the plain shoulders next to the lace rest of it so mine has lace all over the yoke. It is also finished to around my waist.

There is no reason, I repeat no reason, why I don't have a finished Cocktail(Dress). I am making it in the phenomenally amazing Duck Duck Wool Singleton in metalware and this photograph DOES NOT DO THE YARN JUSTICE

because the yarn legit glows. To prevent attention from being drawn away from this awesomeness, I've used madelinetosh merino light in onyx and dirty panther, aka black and as dark as grey can be without being black, as the contrast colors. It's so friggin' cool. To say nothing of the fact that this is a wheelhouse dress like no other - I own at least 1 million pairs of shoes that would go with this (1 million might be a slight exaggeration, but I do own quite a number of shoes I can wear with this dress). Including, should they go on super duper extra holycrap sale, these eminently covetable (and seriously unaffordable) Gucci booties which, I assure you, look ridonkulous on.


On another tangent, do you ever find that while you love a designer, you haven't actually managed to knit any of her (or his) patterns? This is my monumental problem with Julia Trice (aka mindofwinter). I have stashed for her patterns, swatched for her patterns, and the closest I've come to knitting any of her patterns is the 3/4 of the yoke of Yukiya Pullover that sits in a pile with the other accusatory WIPs. And again, I couldn't be more fond of my yarn choices: I'm using various Buggas in grey, black, and red - so again, just my kinda thing. I think I'll don a cheapo black tank dress from H&M or Forever 21

(this is among the best 7-13 bucks you can spend - I own gobs of these cheap, disposable dresses which are totally camouflaged by a blazer and completely wonderful on the kinds of vacations I take - size up, this stuff is made for tweens - in fact, I took a break from writing this to purchase 5 more), and wear booties or knee-high boots.

I wasn't going to admit to all the WIPs I want to get through in 2015, but I think it will keep me honest, so here goes. I've had Cromarty on the needles since 2012 and despite the fact that I'm making it in a decidedly purple yarn,

no longer have the black pants it would go with (they were from Uniqlo and died a sad, though not wholly unexpected, death-by-hole), and really don't know when I will ever wear it, I feel compelled to finish it. This, realistically, might not get done in 2015.

The same cannot be said for Birchbark which I would happily have worn today with my flippy bcbgeneration skirt

and my riding boots

and which is going to make me so happy in this wonderful Polo & Co. neutral,

so why is it not already mine?!? I would also wear it with the jeans I need to buy from Old Navy

now that I know the secret to Old Navy jeans is to bring 10 pair of the same size into the dressing room and buy the one that actually fits because their quality control is shite.

And finally, 2015 will be a WIP success if Northdale becomes reality. I have a couple of inches knit and it's so much fun, but also tedious, time consuming, and not something I can do mindlessly. I also don't know what I'll wear it with, though guessing a navy skirt isn't the most ridiculous guess one could have.

I'd also like to say that there won't be a Part 3 of this series, but there will be, because we haven't tackled things I want for 2015 that I have managed not to cast on and abandon - and believe me, I have a list for that too.