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.