And She Knits Too!

Just a little rant about shopping

The Canadian dollar is at a record high.  Right now it is trading at $1.07687 USD.  This is the inverse of what it has been for most of my life.  It means our economy is booming.  It also means that goods which sell in both markets should be approximately the same price.  No let me say that again, they should be the same price.

I'm taking your advice and going for something down.  I plead temporary insanity for my last few coat posts likely caused by watching too much What Not to Wear.  I loved my last down coat and see no reason to go back.  (I may keep one of the wool ones for right now, but come January I'll be walking in some sort of duvet).  What clinched it was seeing a woman looking tres warm and chic in a North Face down parka like this.

(It's a bit eerie without a body in it).

I thought it a tad warm to be wearing this already.  But it was pouring rain and windy and really damp and she clearly didn't own handknits, so she can be forgiven.  She looked cozy and I'm all for that. 

I did a bit of online browsing (since actual in person shopping time is tough for me).  The above jacket (Metropolis parka)  is about $279 USD and $400 CDN.  Taking my trusty currency converter it should actually be about $259 CDN--that $140 difference is a lot of yarn money.

I also really like this one--the Arctic parka.  I like those furry hoods.

$299 USD, $450 CDN.  Should be about $277.

Now I know that retailers probably bought the coats for more since they probably bought stock last year and shouldn't completely bear the brunt of this rant.  But really--everyone is making a bundle here.  I know that wholesale is 50 to 75%  less than retail so they're not losing out.  Usually, the more upmarket something is, the more the prices are marked up from wholesale.  I know they're a higher end coat, but I also know that my Gap puffy coat lasted only 3 years before the down fell to the bottom (I was cold for the last half of last winter) so I'm also a proponent of "you get what you pay for" and frankly, I can afford it so why not?

So I'm going to try some on here and figure out how to get one from the US.  (This place in Florida(?!) has them on sale.) 

Interestingly, most of the big places like Altrec say they can't ship them outside of the US.  If I was Fox Mulder, I would say it's a conspiracy to keep me cold.

Rant over.  I won't even get into the price difference for TVs or books.

Less inspired this time around

Last night I had a great post on the go about Ravelry and the re-energization of my knitting and my new coat and well, my laptop ate it.  Fuck.  There were photos, but the camera battery died.  Double fuck.

I'm finding my beloved Dell is being a tad weird lately.  It runs slow.  It always sounds like things are running in the background and sucking up bandwidth.  Like my house it probably need a big clean to clear out clutter, but unlike my house, I have no idea how to clean a computer except to delete files, and I'm actually quite good at that.  Though I suppose I could start with a clearing of temporary internet files and cookies and a good defrag.  Then see what happens.

So back to to Ravelry.  I love Ravelry.  The "must-be-organized" part of me loves the ability to keep track of stuff (though I confess I have not done enough of that--see the bit above about my house and clutter--the battle continues) and the "I want to knit everything" part of me loves to browse and see what's up with other Knitters.  My queue is outrageously long, but since most of it is from stash I see it as a way to connect my wants with my resources.  And while I doubt someone from the brains of Ravelry will come and smack me for not knitting everything in my queue, they are certainly welcome to come to Toronto for a visit because they're fun people.  Come for Drunken Knitters!

I did find a coat, well two, the one that I really love which is totally impractical and doesn't go with my Earth Stripe Wrap and the one that I also love which is more practical and does go with the wrap and a lot of my other winter handknit accessories.  The two I chose from photos were bad.  The grey one looked awful on me and the plaid one closed only with the toggles--not good for Canadian winters (even wimpy Toronto ones).

Here's the one that's going back.  Note to self: don't take fashion advice from an 8 year old.  Yes, the jacket looks great on me.  But my ass will be frozen solid if I try to wear this in January.

Here's the one I'm pretty sure I'm keeping.  Nice, classic, slimming, chocolate brown (my favourite colour--more wearable for me than black and still neutral) and ass-covering.

But is it warm enough?  I'm not totally convinced.  The last three years I've worn a puffer down coat and I was toasty.  I know many of you don't think Toronto is cold, but after 25 years in Thunder Bay which is COLD, I think Toronto has a damp dankness to it in winter that keeps me colder than -40c.  And it's windy.  So I'm still on the fence about a not-very-expensive wool coat.  I don't think they line them anymore with a chamois or extra layers of wool or thinsolate.  Or at least this RW version, doesn't seem like it does.

Mom is coming for a visit and Mom's know about this stuff.  So the coat is on the fence for now.  Or maybe I'll keep it and get a puffer too (my old one is toast).   I love down coats, but find they're not so good for the accessorizing.  Sheesh, this knitting thing is making me go for style over warmth like I did as a teenager (imagine me with shoes and no socks in -20c--stoopid).

And maybe I'll extricate those photos of knitting from my camera tonight.  If I remembered to charge my battery.  I've finally hit my stride with work and kids and my evenings are less crazy.  It is great to work a nice groove into the couch surrounded by yarn.