Thursday

Continuing my effort to wear my skirts more and not just default to jersey dresses, I thought I’d wear the White Stuff skirt that was one of my favourites last winter. I love how versatile it is; the different colours in the print mean it goes with just about everything in my wardrobe, and it was really nice to be wearing it again. Especially as it’s the kind of garment which always seems to attract compliments!

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Jacket – Jigsaw
Top – Gap
Skirt – White Stuff
Tights – M&S
Boots – Duo

Meh

Today’s outfit seemed like a great idea in theory but didn’t quite work out. The jumper went saggy around the waist quite quickly, the shawl slipped out of place, the skirt is a bit tight and the jacket felt slightly contstricting even though it’s normally fine. None of these things would have been that big an issue in themselves, but somehow all together it just felt a bit meh – as, in fact, the whole day has done, mainly as a result of a similar combination of small and insignificant-in-themselves things.

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Jacket – Jigsaw
Top – M&S
Skirt – Boden
Tights – M&S
Shoes – Clarks

Spring green

I’m not sure this dress isn’t too short to be appropriate office-wear with tights. I thought it was OK when I wore it a couple of weeks ago but I think it may have shrunk slightly in the wash. Or maybe I was just feeling braver that day. Anyway, I think I might stick to wearing it over leggings in future.

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Cardigan – Per Una
Dress – Fat Face
Tights – M&S
Shoes – Clarks

Then again, the shops are full of very short dresses, so maybe I should just embrace the trend and get used to showing off my legs again. I do like to think they’re one of my best features. Although even so I’m not sure the office is an appropriate place to show them off.

Bonjour la semaine

I doubt any self-respecting French sailor would be seen dead in purple and white stripes, but I still feel vaguely nautical whenever I wear this top.

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Top – Gap
Skirt and tights – M&S
Shoes – Clarks

A tale of two yarns

I sometimes worry that wearing more than one handknitted item at once (socks and outerwear excluded, obviously) makes me look like a crazy knitting lady. And then I think that probably everyone I know who doesn’t knit thinks I’m a crazy knitting lady anyway, so if I want to wear a handknitted cardigan and a shawl I might as well just go ahead and do it.

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Cardigan – February Lady
T-shirt – M&S
Skirt – White Stuff
Tights – M&S
Boots – Dune

I love both the cardigan and the shawl as finished objects, but I have very different views of the yarns I used to make them.

The cardigan is knitted in Rowan Summer Tweed. It’s 70% silk and 30% cotton; I loved the tweedy texture of the yarn and when I saw it on sale I snapped up a cardigan’s worth, thinking it would make a wonderfully cool, luxurious summer jumper.

And then I started knitting with it, and couldn’t rid myself of the suspicion that I was actually knitting with a yarn spun from recycled bathmats. It doesn’t feel luxurious at all; it was stiff and splitty and I had to fight to get my needle through the stitches, especially for the ssks in the lace pattern. I suppose I should have expected that a cotton/silk blend wouldn’t have any give to it, but I’d used Cotton Glace before and found it much less trouble. I’m not entirely sure how I managed to have the sheer bloody-mindedness to finish the cardigan, but finish it I did and I do love it now; the yarn has softened with washing and drapes nicely, and I managed to get the fit just right. I wear it a lot, even if I do occasionally still think it kind of resembles a bathmat (and the yarn has recently started to shed little specks of pink fluff, too). I’m never, ever going to knit with Summer Tweed again, though.

The shawl, on the other hand, is knitted in one of my favourite yarns: a 50:50 blend of merino and tencel in a 4-ply or sock weight. This particular yarn is from The Knitting Goddess but I’ve also bought the same blend from The Yarn Yard (as Lochan) and from Posh Yarn (as Sadie Sock – how can I resist?). The merino gives it softness and a bit of springiness, while the tencel makes it shiny and silky. It drapes beautifully in shawls and scarves and is a little bit lighter and cooler than more wool-heavy blends, so it’s perfect for scarves that can be worn in spring and autumn and even cooler summer weather. I have quite a lot of merino tencel stashed, and definitely intend to use it all up!