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New Scarves for the Season

Instead of resorting to my usual plaid scarves this year, I thought I’d try something different with two new unusual patterned scarves from Drake’s and Nigel Cabourn. Arriving just in time for the lower temperatures, both are nicely knit and it’s easy to get great knots with each.

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Left – Drake’s snowflake patterned scarf. Right – Nigel Cabourn’s hooped scarf.

The snowflake patterned scarf from Drakes can be found through several online retailers – Mr. Porter, J.Crew (which also has the fair isle scarf), and Frans Boone (in the white/chalk base colorway).

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The hooped scarf from Nigel Cabourn came in a few different colorways this season and are still available through many stockists. Its construction is very basic as far as an old-fashioned knit scarf goes, and this gives it a tendency to roll inward (a feature to love or hate). The only detail I could have done without is the leather patch, which will soon be fixed with a seam ripper.

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Game Day

Vintage football photography via the Library of Congress (largely from a collection that came from the Chicago Daily News).

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Corgi Fair Isle Socks

Now in the stock for the season, Corgi’s fair isle socks have the right dash of colors and patterns for those who are looking for something more interesting to go with their winter footwear. Mr. Porter seems to have them for the best price here in the U.S. and still have a few pairs left of the red and blue versions.

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In cases where I cannot decide on which color to pick, I usually just get both.

La France Travaille – The Seafarers

Published during the early 1930’s to highlight the various trades and professions in France, La France Travaille captures a snapshot of time with photography and essays by a number of noteworthy French writers. There were over a dozen volumes created, and I’ve managed to gather most of them over the past several years – the photos in this first post are from the issue for Gens de Mer (seafarers) and show fishermen, boat crews, and longshoremen, all at work around the coasts of Brittany.

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Nautical Stripes

The weather is now cold enough for heavy knitwear and I was able to finally track down a Saint James Matelot in my size thanks to the team at Archival Clothing, which carries a good selection in its webstore. Very close fitting, the thick knit wool of the Matelot is designed to keep the elements away from the body and is a great alternative to the Binic II if you have long arms.

Saint James Matelot
Saint James was also recently featured in Men’s File Issue 4 where they visited the factory and wrote a short piece about the manufacturing – apparently some the equipment is so old that punch card programming is still used. During their visit, they were able to check out a number of vintage sweaters shown below and it inspired the creation of two modern pieces for bikers and cyclists (both made by Saint James).

Saint James Vintage Knitwear
More reading – Archival Knitwear: Saint James Matelot

Lock & Co’s Tweed Caps

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I was glad to see that Mr. Porter is now carrying a small selection of wool caps from Lock & Co. Hatters, including several made with Harris Tweed. Compared to caps that I have from Wigens, Christys’, and Borsalino, those from Lock & Co. feel much more substantial and look better finished (I can appreciate that the company’s cap maker takes care in matching up the fabric patterns on some of the main seams). For this season, I picked out the greyish-brown version made in a rough donegal-like tweed which features small bits of color strewn about the wool.

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I hope Mr. Porter expands its selection over the next few seasons – ordering hats online is not quite ideal, but at least the company makes the return process easy if there are fit issues.

Extra reading material: Lock & Co. has a care guide [pdf] for its tweed hats. It’s interesting to note that they recommend a strong spirit such as lighter fluid to help clean stained spots.

Harris Tweed – From Land to Street

From the forward to Harris Tweed – From Land to Street:

“Harris Tweed has always resonated in the minds of the few. But increasingly the people of Harris and their traditional ways are striking a chord with the many. It is hard to think of another product so deeply connected to both the landscape in which it is born and the people who create it. It has life, this tweed: it is filled with life by those who weave it it, it is coloured by the land in which it lives.” – Patrick Grant, Norton & Sons

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In the book, Lara Platman follows the production of Harris Tweed fabrics over the course of a year and along the way profiles many of the people who are involved in the process, from those raising and shearing the sheep, to those who inspect the final product before it’s shipped off to suppliers and designers. When I was finally able to sit down and go through it, I couldn’t help but think of my own Harris Tweed jackets and the work that went into them – likely many of craftsmen featured in the book could have worked on the very same fabrics that my jackets were made from.

Along with tweed fans, anyone in the industry who is in the business of selling Harris Tweed garments should have this book on hand. I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it that captures the entire production process into a single volume and presents it in such an appreciative way.

A few examples of the photography included in the book can be found through Platman’s photoshelter website and it can be easily ordered online through several sources.

Fall Inspirations – The Purdey Catalogue

Available through Purdey’s website (pdf).

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New Cold Weather Shirts

Engineered Garments and Our Legacy Shirts
Our Legacy Two Pocket Shirt
Olive is not the first color that comes to mind when picking out a shirt, but this particular one on the right from Our Legacy has been a nice alternative to a jacket this month when the weather is still on the warm side. Its design is simple and the angled flap pockets are reminiscent to older outdoor shirts, most notably from LL Bean. The most interesting part is the sueded heavy cotton twill that it’s made from giving it a very soft hand. Where to find: several online stockists are carrying this shirt in olive and navy, just search for “Our Legacy two pocket shirt”.

Engineered Garments Flannel Workshirt
The Engineered Garments workshirt design is available in several cotton flannel patterns this season, and the one I picked out is as close as I’ll be able to get to the colorway used in the older flannel binocular shirts (years later I still regret not getting one). While it can be a bit too bold to wear on its own, it will be perfect for layering under other casual items like a corduroy Bedford and ripstop field vest. Where to find: a good variety of flannel workshirts are available through Blake, Drinkwater’s, and Inventory.

Hearty Meals for Fall

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My favorite season brings my favorite dishes and it’s now time for squashes, chanterelles, slow roasts, and Dogfish Punkin Ale. While I’m always learning new recipes and techniques, there are a set of meals that I routinely make which I’ve pulled from my two main cooking inspirations: Thomas Keller’s cookbooks and Le Pichet, a local restaurant. All of these are relatively inexpensive and easy to make:

Butternut Squash Souprecipe
This recipe is time consuming but worth it. For turning the squash mixture into a soup, I use a food mill instead of a blender (this one in particular) – this works well for most soups I make, and if it’s for an occasion where presentation is important, I also put the soup through a fine sieve to make the texture consistent.

Roasted Chicken on a Bed of Root Vegetablesrecipe
My favorite part about making this is that there is not much of a mess to clean up afterwards – all of the work can be done in a single roasting pan or cast iron roaster and I often just cut up the vegetables right over the pan with a paring knife without bothering with a board.

Baked Eggs (Oeufs en Cocotte)
This is a nice treat for anytime of the day. Basic steps, borrowed from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking: boil some water, turn your oven up to 375F, line the inside of a ramekin with butter, crack two eggs into the ramekin, pour in a little bit of cream or olive oil, add salt and pepper, place the ramekin into a deep sided baking dish, pour the boiling water into the baking dish so that the water comes up to about half the height of the ramekin (this will help the eggs cook through consistently), place the baking dish with the ramekin in it inside the oven for about 10-16 minutes depending on how firm you’d like the eggs to be.

There are countless variations and techniques for this, and you can add all sorts of ingredients. At Le Pichet for example, they have a signature egg dish which is baked under a broiler called Oeufs Plats, Jambon et Fromage (eggs cooked with ham and cheese).

Sauerkraut Platter (Choucroute Garnie)
Choucroute Garnie is very common in France and Germany, and it is basically cooked sauerkraut served with different preparations of pork (I prefer bratwurst, blood sausage, and pork loin). While my method is not this complicated, I like the steps outlined in this piece on Saveur.com and will try it next time I make it:

He began by melting a generous dollop of duck fat in a Dutch oven, the first step in making silky sauerkraut. He pointed out that it’s also important to rinse the choucroute before putting it into the pot: “In the end, the flavor should be delicate, like wine, not brine.” After seasoning the fermented cabbage with salt and pouring in a few cups of dry Alsatian riesling, he added a bouquet garni of bay leaves, cloves, and juniper berries. Now it was time to add the cured pork. There were two types of slab bacon, salty and smoky, and échine, a delicious cut from the back of the pig’s neck that I’m sorry to say isn’t available in the United States. While the pork and sauerkraut baked in the oven, chef Schillinger simmered the sausages on the stovetop: frankfurter-like knackwursts; garlicky, cumin-flecked Montbéliards; and mild, white boudins blancs. A thick round of boudin noir, or blood sausage, was cooked separately and sliced before serving.

Note the use of a bouquet garni, an important part of many preparations. If I have leeks on hand, I make them by binding up the herbs into two wrapped leaves. For a drink pairing with this dish, try a hard cider – my favorite being a recent vintage of the common Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie.

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