x factor: the cowell effect

As I type this from the guest room, where I have taken the laptop (and the cat) I can hear my husband laughing his head off. 'F****ng hell', he says out loud, laughing, every once in a while, then it goes quiet as he resumes reading the Times. Then another outburst of laughter.

A few minutes earlier, he glanced over at me and saw me staring at the wall. 'What are you thinking about?' he asked. He so rarely asks that question, so I answered honestly. 'That jumper, the one I gave you for your birthday'. 'The one you fed to the moths?' (I didn't: he didn't want it anymore. It's a Brora jumper which, in an act of extravagance, I gave him one year, along with a vintage Cartier tank watch. I thought it was our favourite 'Greek' blue. I don't normally buy him clothes because he says I have no fashion sense whatsoever. This was way back in the late 20th Century. After wearing it for a few years he admitted he 'hated' the colour - I can kind of see his point, it's really quite middle aged, poor old thing - the jumper I mean - and I was storing it under the bed with the rest of the victims of the Moth Massacre.)

'I was thinking of cutting off the arms, you know..' (demonstrating, in bed, with my hands) 'cutting little holes for the thumbs and making the sleeves into fingerless gloves and then opening the neck and making it a cowl.' That's when the laughter started.

'F*****ing hell, Jill, you'll look like a F******ng mental patient!'




This is Jennifer, the Style Crusader, top shot, and above - from a shot in a previous post ('snoodie'), which, I might ad, it has come to my attention has just re-surfaced by Carmen B, a blogger for Spanish Elle. I've spent much of the morning trying to write to Carmen B, but can only do so via comments on the post, which are a kind of retrospective 'Best of Polka Dot' - but no credit, or link, even tho - God knows why I still do this - I had my watermark on almost all of my shots.

Does anyone else have this problem? It just seems so unfair - after all, I know she knew where she got the photos, and I'd have given her permission to use them. All she had to do was ask. And credit me! I mean, it's flattering - except, it's not. Because no one knows it's from my blog.



Anyway, I was just about to cut the jumper - which is really difficult for me to do, this is why I don't do DIY, I am SUCH A WOOS. Then I realised: I've got about 7 or 8 pullovers in navy or black- I'm not just jumping on the current navy/black trend, this is how I am, I'm a Virgo and we're drawn, apparently, to navy and black (and camel, and nude and white: this is SUCH a Virgo season) and I tried pulling the top jumper over my head and styled it as a cowl - (or snood, to some of you) and was able to kind of tie the sleeves in a little discreet knot.

The beauty of this version is, no jumper has to go under the knife. Speaking of which, AS WE SPEAK, hopefully Jen's husband, the brave Mr. Crusader, will be. In surgery. For a mishap in the kitchen (see today's post). So big shout out and GET WELL SOON to him!

BTW: I showed my new look to my own husband, asked what he thought. He didn't say a word.