Not The Boss Of Me

Sweater: Effervesence Cardigan by Olga Buraya-Kefelian; madelinetosh pasmina in citrus; my notes and modifications on Darling Clementine
Dress: Lilly Pulitzer; not a lot from Lilly this season that's similar save this one, however check out this Jessica Simpson and this A.B.S. for your strapless summer needs
Shoes: Manolo Blahnik; I would seriously buy ALL of the following orange sandals if I could justify it: floral lace heels by Kurt Geiger, espadrille wedges by Charles David, this brand doesn't fit me well but I still think they're great Schutz strappy sandals, trying to find any justification to buying these Charlotte Olympia sky high platforms which are available in my size and my size only, these amazing and bizarre MSGM mixed media-looking things, and these reasonable high and reasonably priced Lauren by Ralph Lauren multi-colored jobs
Lips: Yves Saint-Laurent Volupte Tint-in-Oil in Crush Me Orange
Toes: Essie in Blanc

Only a dreadful spoilsport would advise against matching one's cardigan, shoes, and lip color. And I am not a dreadful spoilsport. I am a woman who is deeply deeply pleased that winter is over, that summer is coming, that this dress still fits me despite a metabolic catastrophe that not even 30 days of consecutive sweatyoga can arrest (and I am not pregnant, this I know), that I actually do look decent in orange lip gunk, that I am about to go on vacation. Everything is pretty much coming up Millhouse.

I still kinda hate cardigans, though. I am nearing the end of the body on my Grace, the cardigan everyone I am friends with already has and which I needed to have to so that I could fit in. I tried knitting it a size bigger (which will also help since I am at least a size bigger myself) and I've determined that anything below high hip for a cardigan I plan to wear with dresses is too long. Still, I have a bunch of fingering weight lying around the house and I have been toying with the idea of turning some of it into a cardigan design. If I try to make myself a cardigan from the ground up and I still hate it, I can just write off cardigans (tailored cardigans at least, there is still plenty of room for gee it's cold in here cardigans) altogether. So I've been looking at stitch dictionaries and trying to assess what I hate about my existing goes-with-dresses cardigans. Here's a short list:

• Neck too high
• Neck too low
• Shoulders all kinds of arsed up
• Fronts too narrow --> button band gaping
• Fronts successfully wide enough, back ridculously oversized
• Too precious
• Non-uniform length all around
• Terrible button band ribbing at complete odds with aesthetic vibe of the rest of the sweater

As I regard this cardigan, I think I might find it the perfect length and am now pretty sad I didn't bring Grace to work because I could know right now, at this very second, if it was long enough to start ribbing. I also worry about a design element that will be pleasing to the eye, interesting enough to knit, but not prohibitive in its application: some stuff is just too cutesy for the boardroom. I know people love allover lace patterns, but in addition to their making the garment less warm, I also feel like allover lace looks "knitterly" for lack of a better word. Unless it's crochet and it's boho, you don't see a lot of allover lace in fashion. I'm pretty sure there's a reason for that.

So I'm in the thinking stage of a cardigan. I have two lovely SQs, one from Western Sky Knits and one from Plucky, both of which would make perfectly nice cardigans. I'll let you know how that progresses. In the meantime, All Hail Orange!

Lalalalalala I Can't Hear You

Sweater: Chuck by Andi Satterlund; Western Sky Knits willow worsted in Quarry; my notes and modifications on All-Star
Dress: Lilly Pulitzer Blossom dress in yellow seersucker; similar styles available at Zappos and at this person's ebay store (I own the blossom dress in pink and yellow seersucker as well as in the blue silk organza - I love this dress)
Shoes: Giorgio Armani brown leather sandals, similar styles by Givenchy and Jeffrey Campbell
Lips: Dolce and Gabbana passion duo gloss fusion lipstick in Sensual
Toes: OPI A Roll in the Hague

It's not cold out. No. It's, um, cold in my office (it is, actually, really cold in my office).

In honor of the temperatures being uncooperative, I have decided to flout all convention and good taste and wear a decidedly summer seersucker (strapless) dress with a wool worsted weight cropped cable pullover AND strappy sandals. Take that, summer (and the calendar tells me it is still summer)! The dress is amazing. I bought it for my fake wedding (that would be the just-the-two-of-us moment at the place we had planned to elope before we discovered no one wanted to come elope with us) and it was perfect for that and perfect for so many other things. So perfect, in fact, that as referenced above, I have purchased it two additional times. It fits great, flatters tremendously, and is fun (something my wardrobe used to be sadly lacking). You know what else is fun? This cropped sweater. Do I wear cropped sweaters a lot? No. Should I wear cropped sweaters a lot? No. I am neither teenager nor twenty-something and the only work I do on my abs is rewarding them with cake. But I love this sweater and need to find more ways to make it acceptable clothing. So: this silly experiment. Much as I love to knit, I'm rather anti-cold weather. And by rather, I mean extremely. I love the wardrobe: fur hats, chunky cables, leather, boots, etc. but I do not like being cold. I don't like the dry air, the frigid toes and fingers, the muted sun - it all sucks. Which is why when the air was chilly this morning, I needed to rebel in the most you-can't-wear-that-after-labor-day way I could.

But I'd also like to talk about this yarn. Kim of Western Sky Knits makes beautiful yarn that I have been fortunate enough to knit with on several occasions (and plan to knit with on many more). While she has some very loyal customers who use brightly colored rainbow yarn for...something...she also dyes colors like this one, Quarry, and Barnwood which I made my Cheyenne out of. I also made and then frogged a cardigan out of her Winter Wheat and am trying to find the perfect pattern to reuse the yarn for. In short, she has a way with what I can only call nature colors. And I love them. I also love her excellent customer service and that she's a really lovely woman. Seriously: try this yarn!

And while I think I've said as much as can be said about this slightly ridiculous getup, I will renew my enthusiasm for the orange toe. I had been in navy for a couple of weeks, which I also loved, but knowing that this would likely be the last pedicure with a summer color I'd get until the next tropical vacation (which might come up sooner than anticipated), I happily painted them orange again. Summer I feel I barely knew you (and may have overcompensated by buying ALL the clamshells of greengage plums at Whole Foods yesterday), but you gave me these orange toes, and for that I thank you.