Fall has finally hit Austin. For those of you that haven't been here before, Fall in Austin means temps of 15 C (low 60s) in the mornings warming up to the 20s (low 70s) midday. You really only need a sweater in the morning although Austinites dig out fleece pullovers and mittens and talk about how El Nino this year is going to make it a really cold winter. I love it. I almost skipped to the bus stop yesterday morning when I realized I would be able to start wearing my favourite sweater.
There's a dude at work who keeps telling me that the winter wind in Austin is the coldest in all the land. I told him that until he's stood at the top of a mountain at minus 18 C with the wind blowing 60km/h while it snows sideways, he has NO IDEA what cold is. He continues to insist that the Austin wind is the coldest. As far as I'm concerned, he can think that for as long as he likes, because now is the season that I can begin to wear my winter uniform.
At our knitting meetup a few weeks ago, there was some laughter that we'd all turned up in the same general outfit. Cute sneakers with no socks, jeans and a black tshirt. I don't know about you, but that's my Saturday uniform. It's comfy, it's casual and it's perfect for knitting in a coffee shop. My winter uniform is not much different. It's the same basic outfit but I add a black sweater and a scarf. Because it's only been cool enough for a sweater for one day, I haven't got any recent pictures of the uniform but I dug through my archives and discovered (with some surprise) that this has apparently been my uniform for some time. This is the finished object shot of Wavy that I knit in December 2004 where I'm wearing the black sweater. Worse than that, I found a picture of the same sweater with a scarf from a visit to Boston in December of 2003. At least the scarf is different. Gah!
I'm excited about the change in the weather but I'm horrified that I might have to get a new uniform. How many years is too many for a $15 sweater from (Canadians please begin to roll your eyes) Suzy Shier paired with a handknit scarf?