Monthly Archives: March 2022

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Be KOOL. Level Up Your Style.

Pre-pandemic Willow was exceedingly average in her sense of style. I did make an effort to dress well, but I ran into the small problem that I did not own many pieces of clothing that I actually enjoyed wearing. A lot of what I owned was handed down to me by my older sister, whose style was very different to mine, or purchased during the lovely developmental years of junior high. Needless to say, the pandemic was the kick in the behind I needed to upgrade my personal style. 

 

A few blogs ago I wrote about my favorite Youtubers. They have been a source of inspiration in both finding my personal style and convincing me to dive into the world of thrifting. I highly recommend thrifting over traditional retail shopping for many reasons. Thrifting is affordable, sustainable, and differentiates one from the sea of other people wearing the same sweater from Brandy Melville. I began thrifting in the spring of last year, at an event called Illinois Vintage Fest. 100+ vendors gathered in a muddy field in the middle of New Lenox and sold wannabe hipster teenagers like me vintage clothing. 

 

That event kickstarted my self-labeled style upgrade. Over the past year, I have realized that attempting to adhere perfectly to trends is exhausting and costly. What I find works best for me is to cherry-pick elements from popular trends and make them my own. This is the method I have used to solidify my closet staples. 

 

My first closet staple is bandannas, which started out as a bit of a happy accident. The cool Pinterest girls of the internet inspired me to take the plunge and try out my hand at styling them. I absolutely loved them. Other than their superb functionality on bad hair days, they are basically another accessory I can use to give some visual interest to my outfit. I have received SO many compliments on them too. My personal favorite bandanna experience though is definitely the number of different names people have called them. From head scarf, head wrap, doily, and head napkin, bandannas have both shielded my greasy hair from the world and given me a chuckle. 

My second closet staple is corduroy. Again influenced by the Pinterest algorithm, I caved in and bought my first pair of corduroy pants at the opening of a new vintage store. They were purple AND flared, I couldn’t say no, obviously. Thus, my corduroy obsession began. Corduroy in itself is a trendy fabric, but the larger “funky pant” movement has really carried the pants into a new era. No longer are just jeans, sweats, and leggings the norm. Corduroy is both a more comfortable and interesting option to good old blue jeans and looks just as put together. Since the purple pair, I have acquired 3 new cords in all different colors. My closet has never been more colorful, and I love it. 

Years ago when the only shopping I did was at normal stores, I was often scared to try out new colors because I didn’t want to feel like I wasted my money if I bought a forty or fifty dollar item and never wore it because I didn’t like the color. Thrifting allowed me to try out new colors without worrying about wasting my money. I began incorporating green into my wardrobe because it was trendy and I thought it would go with a lot of my existing pieces. Green has become a new core color in my closet, I am never looking back! 

Looking back at freshman year me admiring all the cool outfits the seniors were wearing, I think she would be proud 🙂 

 

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Knitting is KOOL

You can pick up just about any hobby on the internet. Platforms like Youtube and Skillshare allow anyone to learn any skill at low prices, or for free! The go-getters of the world make the most of this opportunity, stacking on skill after skill, much to the admiration of their friends. I categorize myself in the second sphere of people, “the onlookers”. The onlooker is someone who avidly watches tutorials, yet rarely participates in the activity themself. They might watch the video and think to themselves “Wow! How cool! I wish I could do that” but never actually muster the self-confidence or motivation to get started. 

Somewhere around early December, I began watching a slightly absurd amount of knitting videos on Youtube, all thanks to the overlords better known as the Youtube Algorithm. At first, I had no intention of picking up knitting, it was (as you might guess) “too much effort”. I would have to go to the store and bought knitting needles, and pick out the right color of yarn. No thanks. However, the more videos I watched, the more enamored I became with the craft. And so, a mixture of my increasing cold neck as the winter season trudged on, my life goal to be a cool grandma, and the FOMO from seeing the beautiful end result of so many Youtube videos propelled me and Bernadette (my car) to JOAAN one blustery Friday afternoon. 

I stood in the yarn aisle of JOAAN for thirty minutes, contemplating which yarn color and texture to choose. Finally, I decided the color and skedaddled out with my yarn and needles in tow. Then began the process of actually knitting. I quickly remembered why I am so hesitant to pick up new skills: my perfectionism. I knitted the first 3 rows of my scarf feeling like a pro already. I increased my knitting speed with a flair of confidence. Then my first error struck, I dropped a stitch. The only thing I could think to do was completely restart, This happened about 15 or 20 times before I admitted defeat and chose to embrace the flaws. It was my first project, after all, I should have been expecting it to come out a bit wonky from the beginning. 

15 hours of feverish knitting later, I was finished with my first project! Even though it was far from perfect, I felt proud of myself for persevering to finish it. A couple of weeks later, I had a COVID scare and had to isolate myself to see if any symptoms would develop. What better way to spend a weekend alone in your room than knitting another scarf! Sending my mother off to do my bidding, I got to work a couple of hours later. I binged season one of “The Great” (a great show, would recommend), and a day later, the scarf was complete! It was significantly better than my first one and propelled my knitting confidence. Since then I have also attempted a balaclava. It didn’t turn out great, but I learned a new stitch! 

   

 

For all you onlookers, I would highly recommend picking up a new hobby this year! It can seem daunting, and no one likes to be bad at something, but you can only improve once you start!  Knitting has inspired me to possibly try out some other crafting techniques, like sewing darts in my pants and crocheting. Happy knitting!