When it comes to style I wouldn’t say I have rules like “never match pink and red!”. Of course you can do that if you want to. I do however have some guidelines for myself and even if I don’t always care about dressing good and stylish, I always have opinions about it. Something that I always come back to is that there has to be a balance for everything to look good. If there is lot of texture, there should not be lots of color and so on. If I have one colorful piece of clothing, I wear it with black jeans.
For me the goal is to find those weird garments that catch peoples interest, without the reaction being; look, the circus is coming to town!
Me being all serious and Lab-Coaty even with my fancy hair.
Here’s a little story about social signals. I like to dye my hair really colorful, and that will always generate a reaction from some people. I can say it really helped me get over social anxiety in my teen years, but I grew tired of it at times. Especially “older” people did not often see me for my personality, it was either: “She’s some scary punk and I will be rude now” or: “Oh how nice, you’re one of those manga/cosplay people, my granddaughter is also into that”.
It was exhausting at times, because I had to be much nicer and more social when meeting new people, to show that I was a reasonable person. I’m sure it’s like this for every situation where you are in minority and at risk of being wrongly judged.
I’m sure the colorful hair will be back at some point soon because I can’t keep away from it, but it’s often nicer to choose for myself when I feel like getting positive attention and socializing, or when I prefer to be left alone. And for that purpose, clothes are a really good social signal since you can change them every day!
To get to the subject of weird garments, I’ve found quite a few that i actually would like to knit! Many are in the category shawl/shrug/sweater.
- Amalgam is a “mini poncho/skirt” that was recently released in Knitty. It also has an interesting construction.
- Delirium is a “multi-garment” named after and inspired by a Neil Gaiman character. I will surely knit this at some point!
- Boko-boko is strictly just a cowl, but just look at it! It’s so weird and has a very japanese look. I love that you can even knit such a textured thing in one piece.
- Kappa is a garment by Veera Välimäki, who I totally adore. I once thought I had invented the idea for this type of garment, until I found this pattern. I imagine wearing this as a scarf when you’re on a hike, and when it’s time for fika break and there’s a chilly wind coming – bam! Kappa time! And there you have this awesome tube thing keeping you cozy. The reason I haven’t knit this is that it’s listed in lace weight yarn, and I just don’t do miles of stockinette in anything thinner than sportweight. And lace weight I don’t do at all. So I guess I’ll do the math for a heavier version at some point.
- Diplodocus dinosaur scarf or really any scarf out there that looks like an animal. (Why are these things so often only available in kids’ sizes…)
- Garlic because I love to eat garlic and this thing has a really unique shape. I recommend everyone to look out for the designer Chantal Belisle in the future, she is so cool and seems to be full of good and unique ideas!
- Outer Space by Stephen West is an asymmetric, over-sized sweater. It’s the chunky weight version of Enchanted Mesa, and for some reason I think the chunky version is much cooler looking. I also like the colors of the sample sweater.
- Pearl Clutcher is a cardigan with a classic shape and quite normal color choices.
- Hoodie Shawl cardigan is a hoodie that starts of by knitting a shawl. So clever! And Shawl shrug is based on the same concept. Shusui shrug by the same designer is also cool.
- Feather weather by Beata Jezek of Hedgehog Fibres is a sweater designed for you to be fabulous in. Just imagine it flowing behind you in the wind, making you feel like a superhero knitter wearing your cape. I will knit this some day when i have the right yarn for it, and when the city needs me.
That was all for today, happy weird knitting! // Nelly
Nelly knits 