On Tuesday 10th August this year, I wrote a post dedicated to knitwear with reindeers on it. In particular, I said that I wasn't convinced that such a piece of clothing was for me. Ha, if only you could imagine the amount of hours that I have spent searching, searching, searching for knitwear with reindeers on it - and all for our 11 year old daughter who has decided that Christmas won't be Christmas this year unless she has reindeers running across herself - not in a stamp your feet kind of way, I have to say. She has just got this idea that a reindeer jumper would make Christmas complete - and who am I to stand in the way of such a sweet, innocent wish? OK so when I was 11 it was a selection box that made my Christmas complete - although I always hated the Bounty and the Opal Fruits really didn't earn their place in at all as far as I was concerned but there again, times change (don't even get me started on the change of name of Opal Fruits to Starburst).
I swear that I spent fewer hours styling a client of mine who got married today than I did looking for this jumper. For a start, Birmingham came up trumps for the wedding outfit - but I had to go to Birmingham, Leamington, London and back to Birmingham again to find said reindeer jumper.
The New Look ones had sold out. The Primark ones looked as though they had been bought, shrunk in the wash and returned, there was such little stretch in them. There was a great one in Jesire reduced from £129 to £29 - which I was thrilled to find, until our daughter realised that she wouldn't be able to lift her arms any higher than her head without ripping the sleeves. The funny bat wing thing going on really didn't cut it in the slightest. The Fat Face ones were £70 and their sale doesn't start until boxing day and as for the the Johnnie B one, the one which started all this nonsense in the first place - that has sold out too. Ironically, if she were a grown man, the choice would have been much greater. Bizarre. Or indeed if we wanted to stretch to £400 and buy a D&G one, that too would have been fine.
The elusive, headache inducing, "I will not give up until I find it" jumper was finally located in a shop called Internacionale in Birmingham (if you too wanted a reindeer jumper) and cost the bargain price of £10. I am not convinced as to the quality but you know, I just don't care. I sort of love it and loathe it in equal measure and I think that there might, there just might, be a tussle on Christmas Day as to who gets to wear it. Equally however I think that there's a possibility that if I were parked in the corner with a selection box (minus the Bounty) I might just cave on that one. It will be Christmas after all.
