winter chic: faux fur collar

IMG_1352I have an extremely warm pimp-style coat for winter, with a broad shearling collar and wrist + hem accents but, for the most part, it hasn’t been cold enough to warrant it. My wool coat serves…does this mean I don’t get to have a massive fur collar?

Happily, it does not.

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This one was solidly inexpensive and just what I was looking for. Like the idea of wearing it over a motorcycle jacket, too, but I haven’t found the right one yet.

Added monster pearl drop earrings for a look that is says… Anna Karenina.

Faux fur collar: eBay, pearl dangles: eBay, wool coat: Kenneth Cole, Celtic patterned acrylic scarf: gifted, leggings: Topshop (thrifted), boots: Sorel, legwarmers: who knows, gloves: Bon-Ton, alpaca muff: eBay, on the lips: Korres lip butter glaze in wild rose.

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P.S. Thanks to CPL for taking these shots.

crafted: I knit a thing!

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I have knit a few things, actually. Pretty much all scarves, but scarves of increasing complexity and (to me, though I give them away) appeal.

The beauty of knitting something yourself is that you can get (skill/fortune willing) just the design you want. Again and again I come up against this wall of knowing precisely what I want, and not being able to find it anywhere [ex-cerebrum]. Or perhaps it can sort of be found, but is not realistically purchaseable. This doesn’t mean I can’t have what I want, though…it just means I can’t have it yet. And that it may require a crafting adventure of no small effort/duration. [Possibly years. But I can be patient.]

This is the scarf I knit my little brother for Christmas. It was a kind of dry-run of the pattern, to see if I want it for myself. Which I do. In cream, and a slightly smaller gauge as this one turned out so wide as to border on editorial (I didn’t quite follow the pattern. Typical.).

[Though that’s going to take a year or more. This scarf is 6′ long, and I am only sporadically in the mood to knit.]

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I like the simplicity of this pattern*; the end product looks kind of intricate but the pattern itself is all intuitive repetition and doesn’t even require consulting a guide.

*Lion Brand Harbor Scarf pattern, in Loops & Threads Cozy Wool in ‘moss’