Monday, June 12, 2006

What to wear

Not much knitting has been going on in my house. Some, but not a whole lot. I've been in a very strange place, mentally, and knitting just hasn't provided the outlet I need for where I'm at. I have spent a bit of time writing, a lot of time cleaning and even more time reading. I love to read.

Unfortunately, I'm also a very fast reader. Um. Very fast. 678 wpm fast. Yah. So, it makes keeping up my reading habit even more expensive than keeping up my knitting habit, especially since I have around 87% recall. That means that once I read a story, it's very hard for me to read it again within any reasonably short (say two to three years) time frame. I have 13 boxes of paperback books in my garage just waiting to rotate back into the house to be read again at some point. And, that's after having purged my library three times in the last 4 years. I have 3 bookshelves pretty much crammed with books, books under my bed, in drawers, under and around the couch...Ok...you know how you and I stash yarn? Yah...same for books. Only they aren't so easy to cram into those really oddly shaped areas that open up and are perfect for shoving a 25g ball of laceweight into.

The latest books I'm reading - well...read, since I read them yesterday - are The Hidden Stars by Madeline Howard and Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman.

Hidden Stars Was finished in just under 2 hours. It was an easy, fun read. Those who care to ensure they can verbally pronounce unusual words that were created for the world being written about might want to visit Ms. Howard's site to get it right. Me, I don't care. So long as my eyes recognize the words and my brain associates a certain rythm to them, I'm good to go.

As far as what I titled this post. Well, there really was a reason. You see, it appears I have enough clothing to clothe a small nation. And probably have some left over. My closet wasn't even beginning to look bare, and my dresser still had clothing stuffed in it...and I had to do 13 loads of laundry this weekend. Admittedly, I have one of those small, side loading washers so it would be more like 6 or 7 "normal" sized loads. But....still....that's an embarrassing amount of clothing, especially to still have more remaining. When you make your own, I suppose it's easy to accumulate a lot. I have casual wear, workout wear, work wear, clubbing wear, formal wear, etc.....Regardless, what single woman needs THAT many clothes? Really. So, it's time to go through the closet and seriously erradicate the overflow problem. We aren't even going to mention the fact that my winter clothes are still boxed up due to the incredibly mild winter we had this last year.

Also, I was reading Eunny's (I'm not worthy to even type this woman's name) post the other day about the types of clothes she likes. It was so wonderful to read that someone else had the same opinion as myself. I have piles and piles of 1920-60s era clothing patterns, knitting/sewing it doesn't matter. I just love how feminine they are. The baggy, just rolled out of bed, don't have time to brush my teeth much less my hair look has never been one I've understood or appreciated.

The guy I'm currently entangled with is someone who always looks sharp. Even when he's rumpled, he's looking sharp. It's hard to explain, but it's more than just the clothes. He keeps his hair trimmed, his face shaved, his body toned and his presence is just very "together". I think that's a huge turn on for me. I, myself, don't like to go out in public without looking at least partially together. I feel unkempt if I haven't brushed my hair (and that ratty look that I see a lot of people wearing may take hours to accomplish...but...um - no thank you) so that it is sleek, donned something reasonably wrinkle free and co-ordinating. Something that suits my body style, my personality and my coloring. Something that matches. For my particular body style, the nipped waisted, form fitted outfits of the 50s and 60s really suit well. I look good in the much older era outfits as well. By much older, I'm talking early 1800s. My long neck and difficult figure are actually well suited to that era.

Anyway...I just think that's one thing that I love so much about Eunny. Her stuff is classic. Not just nice, but classic. They are the kinds of patterns that will last through the years and my great grand-daughters will be able to look at them and say, "Wow, what utterly amazing craftsmanship. What style and class." There are fad fashions, and then there are the classic designs. Eunny is a classic, and so are her designs.