A few years ago, I helped some friends move into a new house. It was one of those cross-town moves where you grab a friend with a truck and spend a day shuttling things between houses. While the guys were moving furniture, the girls moved clothes and dishes. Stereotypical, maybe, but true. When we went into the house for the first time, I was struck by just how much closet space it had. But as we brought in load after load of clothes, I was a little bit sick at just how small the closets looked as they were filled to the brim. How could any one person use so many clothes? The answer was clear – she couldn’t – since fully half of the clothes still had the tags on them. I watched as she stuffed more and more clothes into the closet. She laughed when she said her husband would just have to deal with not having any closet space. That experience was eye-opening and also confusing for me. I knew there was no way I could want so many clothes, and I also struggled to understand how a seemingly rational and well-educated person could let their wardrobe get so out of hand. When I worked at a corporate desk job, a bigger wardrobe was a necessity. There were suits for the rare client visits, business casual for everyday, and comfortable clothes for after work and weekends. And with time pressures created by long hours, laundry was my biggest bottleneck, so naturally there were a few more items in my closet. Now, though, I have the luxury of setting my own hours and my own dress code. Instead of driving 30 minutes through smog and rush-hour traffic, I walk a mile to work through a quiet neighborhood. The “professional” wardrobe still lives in the back of my closet, but most days my comfortable clothes are also my work clothes. Laundry is still a chore, but no longer a bottleneck. When I made the transition from corporate to self-employed, I spent two months with only my favorite, most wearable clothes in my closet. Many of those clothes have been in my wardrobe for five years or more, and get worn every week or so, regardless of the season. These are the clothes you have a relationship with. The wool shirt Dad bought in the seventies. A favorite top from college. Your first and favorite business casual, machine-washable, wrinkle-resistant layering tank. If they’re made well, if they’re taken care of, clothes can last a very long time. I’m the first to admit I’m a creature of habit. I like the things – especially clothes – that feel familiar to me. When a favorite shirt tears and can’t be mended with my meager sewing skills, it feels like the loss of a dear friend. Actually, I really like the comparison of clothes to friends. I have a few close friends, just like I have a few favorite garments. If I take on too many of either, I feel guilty, as though there’s someone I’m neglecting, someone I don’t love enough. And, in both relationships, I’m in it for the long haul. If you haven’t guessed, I’m not one of those people who has 5,000 Facebook friends, just like I’m not the person who has a closet stuffed with unworn clothes. My closet has expanded again after my 2-month stint with 8 days worth of clothes. There are some friends like my totally impractical but delightful “sheepy jammies” that I’ve been thrilled to reunite with. There have been more cordial reunions, like with the business clothes I’m keeping “just in case.” Time has given me the distance to recognize some relationships with clothes that just weren’t working any more. The distance of time has helped me to let go of these clothes.* Now that my wardrobe is distilled down to the essentials (plus some), I’m eager to keep it that way. That’s fed into my decision to not get too caught up in Slow Fashion October as a making event, as much as I adore making. Instead, I’m using it as a time to reflect on my relationships with textiles. I'm really enjoying seeing the creative outpouring that is Slow Fashion October. If you haven’t heard about Slow Fashion October, be sure to check it out. A more detailed explanation of the whole shebang can be found here, or you can check out the hashtag #slowfashionoctober on Instagram. xx, Pamela *Just because I’m letting go of the clothes doesn’t mean I’m giving up on them entirely. They’re in a box in the garage waiting to be repurposed…something I’m taking my time on too. This year I had a massive lifestyle change - I left my job as an attorney to travel the country and market my family business. We packed up our house, put most things in storage, and loaded everything else into our travel trailer. When we set out on our trip, we planned for it to last 3 to 4 months. Road weary at the two month mark, we called it quits, found a new house in a new town, and moved everything out of our storage unit and into our new house. As we were packing up to leave, we were amazed and a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we’d managed to accumulate. Loads of it went to charity, friends, and as a last resort, the dump. Still, we managed to fill up the largest storage unit we could find. The last “thing” to go in was my car, which we squeezed in with just inches to spare. Then we set off on our journey with the things we thought we’d need for the next few months. Living in such tight quarters for two months definitely changed my perspective on things. With less square footage to live in, I was more motivated to keep things as clean as possible. Nothing was purchased unless it had an immediate use - and a place to go. We bought less food, and wasted less food as a result.
Our closets were no exception. We set out with about a week’s worth of clothes. Here’s my list:
Along the way, I found I had a need for a hat, and ended up knitting two. Besides the hand knits and winter coat, everything I brought with me was machine washable. I carefully selected clothes that could be mixed, matched, and layered to create different looks, and I distilled down my jewelry selections to the most essential (but not too valuable) pieces. In short, I went minimalist. And besides a couple of times when we drew near to laundry day, I didn’t miss the clothes I’d left behind. When we found a new house and moved everything out of storage, I realized I could spend hours washing and putting away dishes, but after three days, most of my clothes were on a pile on the floor. I didn’t mind dusting furniture, or unpacking box after box of books, or putting together my loom, but five minutes of putting away clothes bored me to tears. Finally (when there wasn’t much else to do), I put away my clothes. I weeded out a bunch of things that I don’t want or need any more, and kept the rest. I don’t have to dress professionally anymore, but I kept a small professional wardrobe just in case. I’d like to say that my wardrobe has been distilled down to the ultramodern essential classics, but it’s really more of a jumble. I’m okay with that, though, because I realized that I’m more interested in the process of making textiles than fashion itself. And that’s a valuable takeaway. So this Slow Fashion October, I’m not planning on making any new clothes. This year, I’m going to focus on things beyond my closet. I’ll celebrate what I already have, and enjoy absorbing what other people make this year. If you haven’t heard about Slow Fashion October, be sure to check it out. A more detailed explanation of the whole shebang can be found here, or you can check out the hashtag #slowfashionoctober on Instagram. Well, I’ll admit I’ve fallen off the blogging train yet again. Traveling was fun, but left significantly less time for fiber art than I’d thought. We’ve settled down now, and there’s lots to unpack, both physically and mentally. Happily, making is back at center stage of my life, and I can’t think of a better way to get back to blogging than jumping in to Slow Fashion October.
Slow Fashion October was such an incredible experience last year, that I’ve actually been thinking about it all year long. Here’s what I had to say last year: Gearing Up for Slow Fashion October Slow Fashion October Is Here! Slow Fashion October: Less is More Slow Fashion October: Love Slow Fashion October: Worn Slow Fashion October: Known My goals for making this Slow Fashion October actually don’t really revolve around clothes, though they do revolve around textiles. I’ll talk about this more in my next post, but I’ve come to realize that my clothes aren’t the most important textiles in my life right now. Instead, I’m tackling the concept of fiber waste in another closet in my house: the linen closet. If you haven’t heard about Slow Fashion October, be sure to check it out. A more detailed explanation of the whole shebang can be found here, or you can check out the hashtag #slowfashionoctober on Instagram. Things may have been quiet around here for a long while, but I've been keeping busy in the fiber realm. In case of future radio silence, you can pretty much always find me on Instagram, where I manage to be pretty involved. Somehow, I feel like posts on this platform need to say more, and it can be difficult to work up to more than a short blurb. Life around here got pretty interesting, pretty fast. Mike (DH) has been trying to get me to quit my job for ages, so that we can both work full time on our business. But I've resisted for a long time because I like the routine of going to work, and the social interaction with my co-workers. I've worked from home before, and it hasn't always afforded me as much structure as I'd like. Well, the structure these days is pretty different than anything I'd ever imagined. With the income from our business, we were able to pay off my student loans from law school, buy an RV, and we've both left our steady jobs in good industries. And now, we're on nothing less than a 3 month RV vacation through Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Canada, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. We packed up our entire house, which was a reminder to me that I need to be ever more conscious of the things I buy - there was just an overwhelming amount of stuff. Most of it went into storage, and the essentials went into our RV. Remember Slow Fashion October? Well now my closet is literally what can fit on 20 hangers, four small drawers, and a couple of jackets. It will be interesting living with so much less stuff, particularly clothing. Luckily, I was able to pack a good chunk of my stash and my spinning wheel. So the fibery goodness will certainly continue! (And as I type this, I'm sitting outside a yarn shop in eastern Oregon, waiting for it to open.) Naturally, I had grand plans about all the different kinds of knitting projects I would do on this trip, but of course they've all been derailed - for now. I'm working on actually finishing a project that's been in progress for more than two years - a log-cabin style blanket made out of Noro's Silk Garden Sock yarn. (A good tutorial on how to do it can be found here.) The original plan when I started the project was to make a king-sized blanket. But when I unearthed the squares while packing up the house, I realized I had almost enough to make a blanket for the double bed in our travel trailer. These last few weeks, I've been joining together squares and creating borders to make the blanket a little bigger. Naturally, I'm getting to the stage where things get cumbersome, but hopefully we'll have a nice cozy blanket soon - sometimes the nights get chilly! xx,
Pamela
Slow Fashion October was so much fun that I don't want it to end. Luckily, Kate Davies and Felicity Ford thought up Wovember a few years ago. Wovember is a whole month dedicated to raising awareness of wool's heritage and value, as well as activism around wool trading and labeling standards.
In a lot of ways, Wovember is very similar to Slow Fashion October, just more specific to issues around sheep and wool. It's about consciousness of the importance of wool - how it's farmed, how it impacts our lives, and its place in our future. Wovember also encourages us to look at our wardrobes with an eye towards sustainability and responsible manufacturing. This year, Wovember is all about small producers. As a knitter who works mostly with wool, Wovember is a natural extension of my Slow Fashion October. I've still got that vest to knit, and lots of thoughts that didn't make it onto the page last month. But most importantly, I love sheep. In a world where we value only the soft and easy, we forget that there's value in the strong and difficult. Many sheep breeds are now considered rare because they don't offer the softest fleece imaginable. While Wovember was founded to focus on British sheep farming and the challenges faced by sheep farmers, we are facing many of the same challenges on this side of the pond. We're finally starting to take notice, and not a moment too soon.
So to keep the party going, here's whats in store these next four weeks:
Week One: Why Wool
Week Two: Wool at Work
Week Three: Wool in the World
Week Four: Well-Made Wool
Of course, this is my angle on Wovember - there are tons more ideas over on the Wovember website, as well as a constant stream of updates there. I hope you'll join in for more fun and amazing conversations!
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