someone help
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 5:55PM 
Clearly.
That is all.
Thank you, and good night.
Except I really do need help, so don't leave yet.
I have taken to doing something in the past two weeks that I have not done in ten years. More than ten years. Maybe decades.
I am wearing a fleece jacket.
There, in the picture, is my leafy green fleece jacket that I purchased recently.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it.
Ten years of East Coast dwelling made me Mrs. FashionablePants. Now I work in a yarn studio and wear stained clothing and Crocs all day long. Might as well add a fleece jacket, I told myself. Press order, I told myself.
Should I even be listening to myself?
Today, I am wearing -- and I swear I am not making this up -- pink velour pants held up with a safety pin because they are too big. (Please do not ask me why I own pink velour pants. I do not know the answer.) My husband's socks. Grey Crocs. A stained navy blue T-shirt -- three sizes too big -- and a fleece jacket. Now I look like Mrs. HomelessPants.
Only foolishness would send you into battle with the yarn and the dye in your good clothes. But the fleece jacket? Even when Yarnista-ing on the Right Coast, I wore my chocolate brown wool coat to and from the studio. Never fleece. I had standards.
Now the cold has won. Fine, it's 45 degrees outside, it's raining, I work at a dirty job, and I can throw my fleece jacket in the wash.
And I now realize that my family is woefully lacking in the mitten department. I would like to make my family a family of mittens before the snow flies. What kind of Yarnista, no, what kind of MOTHER, lets her family go mittenless in the vast Arctic Wilderness of Northern Minnesota? How can we build our igloos and travel by dogsled without mittens?
So in an effort to help my family retain their limbs this winter, what are your favorite mitten patterns?
P.S. Please don't hate me because I'm wearing fleece. I'm still the same person on the inside!
Mostly.
Unless the fleece has done something to my brain. In which case, send help.
Reader Comments (26)
Life in a cold climate changes your attitude to fashion, but pink velour pants may not be the answer. Quick and warm mittens - Theresa Gaffey's family of felted mittens. (online via the Yarnery) All sizes, great pattern. Get the basics down and then go fer them fancy ones.
Don't feel bad. I have a Patagonia fleece pullover that I adore. Sometimes I try not to like it and act as if I'll give it away, but I never do. Nothing has beat it for a top layer when camping, or needing something easily comforting but also tough (I'm very mean to clothes in machines). Disclaimer: I would totally buy pink velour pants if I could find them - my organic cotton ones got thrashed and then given to my mom after they shrunk, they were awesome Yoga pants. I wonder if she still has the hoodie that matched...?
I can't help with a mitten pattern, but have to ask: 45 degrees in SEPTEMBER????
You must REALLY like Minnesota. Here in the land of MCPS, it's just perfect weather low 80sin the day, low 60s at night.
Also, what's a fleece here and there among friends?
M in M
(where M is for Maryland)
Love the fleece, Sharon!! Nothing like fleece to keep you cozy when you need it. Can't help in the mitten pattern department, as I only make fingerless mitts here in the balmy Mid-Atlantic state of PA, but I *can* say that Lindon is wonderful for keeping toasty hands. :)
I am all about comfort and dressing for the job.
I for one LOVE fleece! We keep our house really cool in the winter and that's the first thing I put on (along with a hand knit scarf). They don't have to big and frumpy either. I have some that are sorta 'tailored'. I'm from your old neck of the woods, Maryland, except I live on a small farm so the sheep don't really care what I look like!