I’m particular.
Clothing, cars, spinning wheels, skin care products, chocolate, jewelry and computers. All of these things (and more) I have been accused of being “picky” about. I have an extremely love/hate thing going with shopping. If it’s for yarn or wool I can spend all day doing it without a care. But if it’s for pretty much anything else , I start getting really crabby, really quickly. Clothes shopping is the worst for me. Between understanding what fast fashion is doing to the environment and also to the people around the world who make it, honestly disliking wearing things that don’t fit properly or are shoddily made (no matter how trendy), and just the overall experience of trying-on clothes to try to find things that are well-made and fit me, I start to get really stabby.
Because of all of this, I have had a number of things on my wishlist for a while now in the clothing department and chief among them is a wool vest. I didn’t want just any wool vest (of course), I wanted one that was similarly cut to the fleece vests that I wear all winter long. I have been searching for this for about two years now, and mostly what I had found were hyper expensive “performance vests” for skiers and winter athletes that cost more than a car payment and usually didn’t come in a size for me.
I had shared a post on Facebook about calling out people for trying to say that plastic-based fibers are better for people to wear than wool or leather and in the comments friends were commiserating and also admitting to wearing fleece vests. Another friend on Facebook commented that I needed to check out Stormy Kromer for wool vests made in the USA. I ordered a vest a few hours later.
When it arrived, I brought it into work to get photographs.
I’ve worn it a few times now. It fits exactly the way that I wanted. I’m not wearing it as daily wear however, as I get really quite dirty at my job on a pretty regular basis and I need to be able to easily wash my vest. So for now, I’m sticking with my Patagonia Better Sweater vest that I scored for a whole dollar at my favorite thrift store. I don’t feel too guilty about wearing it as Patagonia has excellent environmental responsibility, makes durable clothing, and I saved it from the landfill by buying it from a locally-run thrift store that directly benefits the community.
So do check out Stormy Kromer for American-made, wool products. They don’t just make vests!!!
Sarah Jane Humke 