Project 333 (again)

I've mentioned Project 333 in past posts.  (I must have as I have a tag for it.) For those of you who aren't familiar, I'm not going to make you dig through my old posts to find it. Follow the link and you can learn all about the project.  The idea, in a nutshell, is a minimalist wardrobe experiment to wear thirty-three items of clothing (shoes and jewelry included, but pajamas, gym clothes, and socks not) for three months. I did this a couple years ago and was pretty good at keeping my wardrobe to about 33 items. This winter I went a tad crazy, thinking that more was better, and now have a very mish-mashed collection of un-matching clothes. It's pretty hideous.

The last time I did Project 333 I was living in Florida. Florida has two seasons: Damn-It's-Hot and Today-Isn't-Quite-As-Hot. When the temperature would dip below 40°F we knitters would put on all our scarves, hats, mittens, and shawls because we could. I had two basic wardrobes when I lived in Florida. One included lightweight skirts, pants and shirts plus a few pair of shorts. The other one included 3/4 length sleeves, long pants, sweaters one could layer and closed toe shoes. The sweaters were really for only wearing outside. Most of the time the temperatures were so hot indoors that one needed to peel a layer or two off to remain comfortable. (Movie theaters have their own temperature realm and it is always wise to bring along a shawl or blanket when you go to the movies.)

Now I live in Ohio. We have four real seasons (although it is officially spring and it has snowed two out of the past three days - go figure). We are edging out of winter, and while I will probably still need a light sweater or shawl to get through the season, I don't need all the millions of layers I have purchased this winter. So I'm starting over. I still need to go through the boxes I put away from my summer wardrobe, I am starting this year off with a cute black polka-dotted tank dress and black lightweight cardigan and a pair of almost new khaki linen pants. so that would be 3 things to my wardrobe. I have a couple of really nice shawls that I want to wear this spring that will accent well against more neutral colors, so we will see how this works out for me.

I love the idea of Project 333 and while I don't follow it exactly (I have 7 pieces of jewelry that I never change out and generally do not include my hand knit shawls in my count), I do attempt to keep my count down to around 35 pieces. I like to think of it as more of an intentional wardrobe rather than a minimalist wardrobe. Most people tend to wear the same 25 items of clothing anyway. They tend to reach for the same pants, shirts, and sweaters over and over again while their closets and wardrobes are bursting with the the things that they bought because they were adorable but that they wear only once or twice a year. Then they feel guilty for not wearing them so they don't get rid of them, vowing that they will wear them again, someday. By the time they realize that they should really have worn them all along they also realize that they are now out of season or grossly out of style.

I want to have a wardrobe that is simple, interchangeable, and shows off my handknits. I also want to make more seasonally appropriate handknits so I have things I can wear all year long. I'll keep you posted as I start putting my spring attire together. In the meantime, check out Project 333, especially if you are unhappy with the way your wardrobe is looking.

A brand new job!

Each Monday night I go to my local Barnes and Noble bookstore for knitting night.  We are one of many groups of "Noble Knitters" who meet at their bookstores to share our love of knitting, drink a beverage from the cafe and surround ourselves with books.  I don't know about the other "Noble Knitters" around the country, but I can say that our group of knitters loves books.  Adores them in fact.  We often share books around or recommend new books or break out into mini book club discussions while sitting with our knitting in hand. 

Recently a sign was posted at the store that they were looking for a new bookseller, particularly for the Digital Section.  In other words they needed a Nook salesperson.  My daughter immediately said I should apply.  Three people in the group asked if I had.  I mentioned it to my spouse and he said I should definitely go for it.  So, oddly, I did.  I wasn't looking for a job.  I don't need a job.  Somehow, though, I have found myself employed.  So tomorrow is my first day of real work.  I have already been to the New Employee Orientation, wherein I learned what to do if I am robbed at the cash registers, what to wear, and gave them the name of who to call in case I fall, bash my head open and have to go to the emergency room.  (That isn't as funny as it seems as I am a complete klutz. The likelihood of that happening are greater than you would expect.) 

My biggest concern hasn't been if I will do well at my job.  I love books.  I've been a librarian and have worked in a bookstore in the past.  I adore my Nook.  When the cat knocked it off the table and cracked the inner screen I cried (and bought a new Nook and now I have insurance for it).  I am not afraid to cross train to help in other departments.  I'm not even worried that they will like me as I know most of the employees and they know me.  None of the normal things that a person is worried about when beginning a new job are much of a concern.  My big concern was "What am I going to wear?"  Yep.  My wardrobe.

Now if it were winter I wouldn't worry too much as my winter wardrobe is much more work-friendly than my summer wardrobe.  My summer wardrobe is made up of flowing skirts, camisoles, lightweight shirts to layer on top of the camisoles and espadrilles.  Not really bookstore friendly clothes.  So I went to my favorite clothing store chain (aka thrift stores) and spent under forty dollars to spiffy up my wardrobe.  I came home with four pair of nicer slacks, three buttoned tailored shirts, and a new purse.  OK, I didn't need the new purse, but it was brand new, never used, and met all my needs (a place for my Nook, a place for my knitting and a place for all my other crap that I have to carry with me).  Surprisingly (or maybe it shouldn't be) I had all the grown up shoes that I could possibly need for work.  I have hemmed the two pair of pants that were too long and ironed everything nice and crisp for this week. (The down side to having grown up clothes is that so many of them require grown up work like ironing.)
I will say that Project 333 really helped in making this wardrobe as I was able to think of the things I was purchasing in terms of how they would work together to create a bigger looking wardrobe than what I actually have.  How do the pants, shoes, and shirts all tie in together to create more outfits than just four?  It helped me limit what colors I aimed for at the store and kept me looking for things that could cross over seasons as well.  I'm looking forward to experimenting with this new wardrobe to see how much I really did learn from that experiment.

The big challenge is going to be remembering to blog.  Hopefully work won't get in the way of my fun times.

PoMoGoLightly prompts me to Project 333

I have been considering Project 333 over at the Be More With Less blog. I'm a minimalist at heart. Truly I am. I followed Beverly on her blog and Twitter the past few months as she worked through the project. The basic principle of the project is to select 33 pieces of clothing (not including underwear or pajamas) and only wear those three pieces for three months. I loved watching her transform her wardrobe into very unique different outfits using these 33 pieces. She took pictures each day and her outfit along with a quick listing of what she wore. It was cool. And she also has ceased making me run over to the Fluevog website twenty times a week to see what cool shoes she's been drooling over.

Here are the problems I'm having with the Project 333:

1. My wardrobe sucks! Seriously sucks. I've been trying to buy more intentionally rather than "Oh, this is on sale and it fits so let's buy it." The problem with this is that when I do purchase intentionally it is very difficult to find exactly what I want and I get frustrated and buy three things that I don't like. This happened last year when I wanted cute lacy camis to wear under things like sweaters or as another layer under thinner shirts. I wanted this cute layering look that wasn't quite in style yet. So I ended up buying two camis that only sort of fit and weren't all that cute. Fortunately style has caught up with me and I now own a bright pink, a lime green, a grey, and a purple cami. This year's dilemma seems to be pants. I have a pair of jeans and a pair of dressier black and gray striped pants that are comfy. And one black skirt. I need at least one more nicer pair of pants, but haven't found the exact thing I'm looking for. Anyone seen some nice soft corduroy pants with just a little bit of pleating at the waist and pockets preferably in charcoal or rust in a size 20 petite?

2. My children already complain that I wear the same things over and over again. I think this is less about minimalism and more about being in a rut. It's just too easy to pull on a pair of jeans and a knit shirt and call it good with my art shirt and a pair of Crocs or Birkis. I want to look cute or artistic and come across looking dumpy and sloppy. Which means I'm not happy with my wardrobe no matter if it is minimalistic or full.

3. I have a hard time releasing things, even those things that don't fit, I don't like or are tired or out of fashion. It's that "I paid good money for this and I haven't gotten my money's worth so I am going to hold on to it until I do." That would be all well and good except I never will "get my money's worth" because it just hangs in my closet and collects dust on the shoulders.

4. I live in Florida. Today the high is only supposed to reach 42°F. This weekend it is supposed to get up to 70°F. We've been known to have 80°F days in February and by March our days are much warmer than in January. I'm thinking I will have to definitely use the additional rules of having clothes I need to rotate through just to keep up with our wonky weather.

5. A jewelry issue. As I have a fairly boring wardrobe, I also have a fairly boring jewelry collection. I wear the same two rings (both sterling, neither a wedding ring), the same two bracelets (both sterling bands that I've worn for 20 years) and the same two earrings (one sterling and one titanium both in the same ear) all the time. I never take them off. They are a part of me. So do these six pieces count as six items or just another layer of skin? I have maybe three pair of earrings that I rotate through if I actually remember to wear earrings.

6. I knit. And I love my knitwear. I probably have twenty pair of hand knit socks (are those underwear?) and four shawls. And you do not want to know about all the projects worth of yarn that I have in two three bins in my hobby room. I've actually been pretty good about being on a yarn diet since Stitches South in April and have been good about knitting from my stash. In fact the gifts I'm knitting for the kids all came from my stash. I have planned projects, I just don't have enough time to knit what I currently have and am trying not to get sidetracked by new patterns. This is very difficult to do when Interweave Knits keeps putting out such cool stuff and there are all these talented designers on Ravelry.

I am figuring that I have sixteen more days to decide if Project 33 would actually work for me or not. I like the idea. I want to be cute and fashionable. I think I had this same dilemma in the spring when I wanted to look cute and charming like one of my characters. Perhaps it is a seasonal thing. (I'm still looking for blue espadrilles.)