Hot Chelle Rayon--The Comeback Commences

You know when you have a friend on social media and all of a sudden it's radio silence? Did they "unfriend/unfollow/block" you? Do you blame some new metrics on this platform (thanks, Mr. Zuckerberg/Tom from MySpace), or has this casual acquaintance simply moved on with real life (one without whimsical backgrounds and Carlton giphys)? Well, in some way, the same could be true of this blog. Did you get ghosted by 100 Days of Sweaters? The better question probably is, like Hot Chelle Rae before it, why did this blog suddenly disappear, just when things were (literally) heating up? 

The simple answer was that it was a lot to keep up with. I took this blog more seriously than I ever have any diet/health regimen/skin care routine--but it took its toll. When one is still coming up with "clever" asides about J. Crew mock necks (which are back--dare I?) in mid-July, fatigue is inevitable. Yes, I did wear 100 different sweaters for 100 days. And because I started so late in the year, I was actually wearing them in late May (I was the sole person who was excited for the "unseasonably cool" spring). I felt like a (somewhat) changed person. No longer would I buy sweaters in multiples. Keep a sweater around merely because it was the lone representative of a particular color? Perish the thought. And the overriding gestalt shift for me was that the world would never stop making sweaters. There was no need to hang onto a painfully itchy Old Navy cowlneck for fear that said knitwear represented the very last opportunity for warmth that I'd ever be granted. While I don't usually see cable knit v-necks being donned in post-Apocalyptic film scenarios, I still feel quite confident that I am amply prepared for the unlikely event of a sweater scarcity.

Looking back, I'd like to say that I have hung onto to those lessons (like a unnecessarily cropped Hollister hoodie from the aughts). Alas, such is not the case. With challenges like Stitch Fix (so you mean I can write an anonymous person and tell her that I want a package of all sweaters? Is this real life?) and the proliferation of online shopping opportunities, did any of these aha moments really stand a chance? Marie Kondo or no, I will always find room at the inn for a sweater seeking shelter from the storm. And now more than ever, I need not worry that those pants with the faint thread of chartreuse will not find a coordinating sweater with which to pair because, real talk, don't we usually just give up and throw on a black sweater anyway?

Although I'm not looking forward to getting the side-eye from the public when I sport one of The Limited's finest rayon shrugs, I realize that the time is probably right for this blog's comeback. I don't see any end to my romance with this particular genre of clothing, nor do I plan to spend this winter cozying up in one of those corduroy blazers I thought I needed back in 2006. I'm not promising that I'll have tougher standards at the sweater border this go 'round, but I also don't feel great about some of the pullovers that narrowly escaped from100 Days of Sweaters, now living in cozy conditions in a rent-controlled storage unit. And like Dancing with the Stars this season, the rules will be loosened up a bit, mainly so that I'm not wearing a Sean Spicer caliber cardigan when I'd rather give some airtime to one of my (gulp, many) Anthropologie additions from this season. 

To quote those great bards from Whitesnake, here I go again (Tawny Kitaen not included).


Aside--I never got to blog about this beaut. It was slated to be Day 101 (talk about going out with a bang). Had I actually completed this entry, I might have called this a crime against knitwear (would I have said, "You give cowls a bad name?" We'll never know).