Winter is Coming

“There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.”

Compliments of my brother, this great line, that I regurgitate over and over again, much to the chagrin of my children, is my current mantra for living in a climate that has very cold winters – Chicago.  Prior to hearing this pearl of wisdom, I spent the better part of my life freezing in the winter –  literally.  I wore cute little coats, constantly forgot my gloves and mittens, would dash out of the house to run an errand in a sweat shirt, and I avoided wearing winter boots because they looked “clunky”.    My brother, who kayaks in the wintertime, is snug as a bug in a rug because of his “good clothes”.  Now that the temperature is hovering around 5 degrees, I thought this post most appropriate.

So, my New Year’s resolution a few years ago, after hearing this mantra, was “to not be cold in the winter”. Sound foolish?  This resolution has changed my life and I am now free of worrying about how I look and enjoying winter wear and the winter season in general.   My first step to accomplish my resolution was to purchase a long down coat – another item I avoided because it was not fashionable.  After some research,  I went online and found a great Eddie Bauer long down coat with a furry hood.  I purchased it after the holidays at a fraction of the price.  It comes to just above my ankles so I feel like I am walking around in a blanket.  There are dozens of down jackets to choose from – what to look for?

A down jacket’s fill power is a number that represents the fluffiness of the jacket or the number of cubic inches of the jacket that one ounce of down fills up. A bigger number usually represents better insulation. Fill power depends on several things, including the type of down used (such as more feathers, duck, or goose). Generally, a down jacket with a fill power of 550 and above is a good buy, and anything above 750 will provide excellent insulation. A down jacket with a higher fill power is also usually more compressible.

Beside the jacket’s fill power, another number that is usually listed in a down jacket’s information is the percentage of down in comparison with regular small feathers in the jacket. The number may look something like this: 80/20, 90/10, and so on. The first number is the percentage of down in the jacket, while the second number is the percentage of feathers. The higher the first number, the better the quality of the down jacket.

SOCKS
What can I say about socks?   These little items became my next purchase – not that I hadn’t ever bought socks before, I had just never purchased good WARM socks.   They make or break your experience in the cold.  After researching my options, I turned on to Smart Wools.  The Smart Wool company makes socks primarily from treated merino wool.  The wool is treated somehow so their socks are itch-free and resistant to shrinking.  They have a moisture-wicking performance and are the best socks to wear in the winter, in my book.  They are a little pricey, but you get what you pay for.  It’s the total warmth of wool without the itchiness. That is what makes them so great.  I cannot say enough about Smart Wool socks.

HATS / MITTENS
Although there are now skeptics out there that say you don’t lose most of your body heat from your head, I disagree.  Since I started wearing hats in the winter, I remain toasty.  Granted, they can mess up your hair, but that is due to the hat design you select.   Avoid the tight, itchy wool hats and go with a knit beret. These darling hats accomplish the rare feat of being cozy and chic, and with a wide array of warm fabrics available (wool, cashmere, Angora), they hold all of the heat in your head. They’ are also pretty slouchy, which means they don’t cling to your head so much that they’ll crush your curls.

Last but not least, we have mittens or gloves?? What to do?  Mittens are often warmer than gloves because the fingers are allowed to stay together. But the benefits of gloves weighs out too because of the use of individual fingers to grasp tools and open buckles.

But there is and has been for many years the multi-glove/mitten, known as “Glomitts”.   The fingers are allowed when needed to be use individually while when needed the mitten section is pulled over to help insulate them more.  Glomitts are my hand covering of choice.

If all of this seems like a great amount of work to pile on layers before going out – it is.  But the satisfaction of being so warm when it is so cold out always makes me feel cozy.  I know people who have flocked to the south to avoid the cold, but I have to look at the winter aspects of life that I would miss if I chose to do the same:

1. Roaring Fires
2. Sitting in a hot tub on a cold snowy night
3. Soups, stews and chili – comfort food
4. Cross country skiing
5. Sledding and ice skating
6. The first crocus appearing through the snow
7. Peppermint hot chocolate
8. Making snow angels
9. Sweaters
10. How pretty everything looks in a fresh snowfall