A Wooly tale for Valentine's Day

This winter has been less than winterlike. To me, one of the best things about winter is bundling up in warm, soft clothes. Growing up with a Scottish mother wool was part of life. I was happy to wear my wool sweaters as long as they didn't touch my skin. A blouse with the cuffs and collar pulled up to protect my skin from getting "itchy" or a turtleneck. made wearing those scratchy things bearable. I was on the cross-country ski team for all 5 years of high school and wool was a neccesity as a layer to keep warm during long practices and races. For skiing I wore my Grandfathers wool long johns and long sleeved undershirt but still not right against my skin.
Whenever anyone complained about being cold anywhere near my mother her response always was "Put on some wool!"
Through most of the winter you will find at least one wool garment on me, and now I can wear even the most "scratchy" sweaters right against my skin. I think it's a Scottish thing.

I remember reading about cashmere and understanding that not only was it soft and lovely but it was also an expensive status symbol. As a grown up I've been given a few pieces of cashmere. Some vintage, some new. No matter what, I tend to wear them until they are threadbare. Cashmere brings the best of wool and crazy gossamer softness together.

A couple of months ago after trying for years to get to the One of a Kind Show in Toronto during the holiday season we finally got there! It was a couple of days before my birthday and while walking the aisles of the show I knew by the questions he was asking Tim was trying to work out what I might like for my birthday.
We found this amazing booth with lots and lots of gorgeous colours of cashmere garments, lingerie it looked like. With a deeper look we discovered that their specialty seemed to be that they made longjohns... right there in front of you. You picked a pair of underpants, and the legs you wanted and they made them for you. How cool is that!? My birthday gift ended up being a lovely purple cashmere undershirt/ singlet with co-ordinated underpants from this lovely company Sartoria.

This Saturday February 11th we have the pleasure of bringing Sartoria to the ellenoire boutique. Sara will be at the boutique from 12-5 showing a selection of her ready made garments and sewing up longjohns for some lucky people.
There will be lots of fun Valentine's day things to choose from to go along with these cashmere and merino (I could write a whole blog about my love of merino wool too!) pieces too. I hope we see you!