Knitting, Cashmere, Thriftiness

Also exams, and hugs

I am watching ‘Game of Wool’. It is the perfect thing for when you are slightly jaded and a bit worried because your children have exams. Not to be a snowflake, but I do think the exam system here in the UK is a bit punishing, and a bit CRAP. My girl is never going to set the mathematical world on fire. This is a girl who pushes away her homework, puts her head in her hands and says “This is just rubbish”. Luckily she has a natural self-confidence which prevents her from descending into a slough of despond after every mark comes in…her personal assessment of her own progress is always positive; “Yes, I did REALLY well” she will say. I cannot tell you how much I LOVE her for this. She is fun and she is kind and she adores her friends, and her netball and she plays the flute and loves crochet, and she is basically a human seal, who can get on in life perfecty well with a smile and undo you with a cuddle. She cuddles perfectly – she melts into you, and she has big seal eyes and three dimples – one either side of her smile, and the other high up on her right cheek. She is, in short, Perfect.

Anyway, Game of Wool follows the same path as all the other craft ‘shows’ on the telly, in that it brings together twelve of ‘Britain’s Best Knitters’ (translation: twelve people who want to be on the telly, and like to knit). Equal numbers of men and women (OBVIOUSLY) and requisite numbers of those with an ‘interesting’ back-story.

I’m getting off track here, because really the point is that knitting might be the last thing you’d imagine would make good telly, but somehow, for me, this works. There’s just enough technical focus, and the judges are properly serious. AND the projects are brilliantly conceived. Last week we were treated to knitted swimwear, modelled by members of the GB diving team. Let’s just say that getting anything knitted to fit well on the body is a challenge and it was very VERY funny. The week before was my favourite because the contestants had to make an outfit plus HAT for two adorable Italian greyhounds. Excellent modelling and brilliant knitting, and all-round good telly. Loved it.

I want to tell you about a very expensive thing I bought (for what it is) but is frankly worth the money and it is this cashmere square. The softest, warmest, thinnest, most lovely thing. A caress rather than a seal-hug (see above). Feather-light. Just. So. Lovely.

I’m sure you can get a cheaper one somewhere but the reason I ended up in this very posh shop is because my Rotter bought me something from there for my birthday, and I was changing it, because the beautiful thing he got for me wasn’t going to get enough ‘cost per wear’. I think I get this propensity for thriftiness from my Granny. I certainly don’t get it from my mother.¹

I was introduced to the concept of ‘cost per wear’ by an app I use, called ‘Indyx’² This is a marvellous tool to MAKE you organised because you have to photograph and catalogue all your clothes (so obviously you end up ‘letting go’ of quite a few things while you’re doing that, and it’s very easy to put in anything you buy new, because you can add it with a bar-code if you like). You can then make outfits with what you have, and (if you care about such things) you can get a rough idea of how much wear you get out of an item, and therefore its ‘cost per wear’.

I started off using the app every day but then that became boring so I now use it exclusively for packing, which I suck at. It is incredibly useful because I can just click on the outfits I want and it will tell me exactly what to put in a suitcase. Zero thinking required. Very useful indeed.

Anyway, when you wear something a lot, and you are aware of that fact, you end up feeling really QUITE GOOD about buying something well made and expensive, because it ends up costing pennies every time you wear it. And so it has been with this small square of cashmere. I wear it all the time; sometimes I even wear it in bed. I should probably wash it quite soon and I should definitely press it, but seriously, if you want to give yourself, or someone you love a perfect present, then I would recommend this item.

Enough! Thank you to everyone who has become my friend over on The Garden Collective (I’m doing a more garden-focused regular compendium over there which is free to read), so if you want to access that, then click the button below and hit ‘follow’.

And lastly I made a shopmy (which is really more of a wish-list for me) but where I’m putting things (mostly outdoor and garden related) that I already have, and things I’m hoping to get at some point. Find it here:

Thank you for reading! Please do heart this if you enjoyed it, or share it, or both? Please and THANK you!

xLaetitia

1. My mother spends more than my yearly clothing budget on raspberries for a month, and I applaud her. Raspberries are essential.

2. You can get a tiny discount, I think, if you use referral code ‘Laetitia’