Sweater surprise

Today was one of those delightful days on the plains when the morning temperatures hover around 20, but by late afternoon they've risen into the 50s. The early March air still has a bit of bite to it, so layering and wool are my friends.


The morning outfit paired some heavy chinos and gray suede desert boots with a gray shirt, cream-colored wool knit tie, a Pendleton Cowichan sweater, and a wool Pendleton jacket. Amazingly, I just found the driving cap two nights ago for $2, and the tweed matches the jacket nearly to the very color speck.

The surprise in the title of this post has a bit of a double meaning, the first of which is the amazing design that was fully unveiled when I took off my jacket.


With the temperatures warmer at lunch, I left my jacket at home and the sweater basically served as its replacement for the rest of the day. When I first donned my outfit this morning, I'd actually thought about pairing it with a Fair Isle knit tie (which actually would have been fairly interesting given the connection to Cowichan knitting), but the styles clashed too much and I wanted to let the thunderbird rule the day. If that weren't cool enough, it's actually a one-of-a-kind sweater that was sampled, but not produced.

How do I know that, you ask? Well, the second part of the surprise is that the sweater itself wasn't a thrift find, rather I was the lucky winner of a giveaway drawing sponsored by Pendleton Menswear on Facebook. If you're on Facebook and like Pendleton, I'd recommend following them, as they do a good mix of historical posts and product promotion without over-doing things (averaging a post a day or so) like some other companies tend to.

If you've been reading this site for any time now, you know of my love for Pendleton, so needless to say I was pretty excited about having my name chosen.

Walking contradiction

I'm all for following some traditional rules and not throwing everything out the window when it comes to personal style, but sometimes I wake up and simply glaze over some things for fun. If it's comfortable, it looks decent, and if my wife doesn't halt me before stepping out the door, it's a go.

Case in point was today.

First off, I remember reading a blog where a fellow once said,

"As I've mentioned in other posts, I often feel self-conscious about wearing hats (simply because they make me even taller)...

Oh dear, a rabbit fur cap.

Secondly, is that a freaking Australian Open golf tournament v-neck sweater being worn on a day when there's 8 inches of snow on the ground? Why yes. Yes it is.

Some dudes have Hawaiian shirt Friday; I guess this is my equivalent.

Sweater weather

Winter has been particularly ruthless this year in my neck of the woods, and while it would be easy for me to pile on my heaviest clothes day after day for ventures into the tundra, it simply wouldn't work for me. The main reason is that the temperature control system in the building where I work is, shall we say, charming?

Temperamental might be a better word, and because of that I've learned to not wear any one layer of clothing that is too thick in order to compensate for cold temperatures outside, because I know that once I'm inside it will often have to come off. Instead, I've taken to dressing in multi-layered outfits that can be peeled off and still look semi-respectable if I have an impromptu meeting or run into a higher-up that might wonder why I was either sweating profusely indoors on a winter day or kicking it in a white t-shirt and slacks as I wait for temperatures to stabilize.

A fairly routine outfit has become a dress shirt or an oxford of some sort coupled with a tie and a light to medium weight sweater which I then cover with a coat of varying weight depending on the temperature. If it gets hot in the office, I can take off the sweater and not look too silly, but a light breathable wool usually suffices for a wide range of temps.

Not one, but two dummys. Zing.

This week, I turned it down to brown with a pair of dark Eddie Bauer chinos ($2.00), a orangish-brown Puritan v-neck sweater ($3.00 - featured here), a cream-colored J Crew dress shirt ($1.00), and a shiny tie ($1.99) that really popped out the color in the sweater.



The tie itself had a cool enough design that I hated to hide it, but alas, I did.

I'll break this out in spring again, in full glory.

Most of my ties are silk or wool, but I've let a few synthetics slip through into the massive collection simply because there's something in the design that I love. This is one of them. And really, who am I to argue with Beau Brummell?

Just knight him already. Mr. Brummell is not to be trifled with.