Polainas

I bought several things in Bolivia. The sweaters and the poncho I purchased because they are beautiful and fit me well. I think one of them is handmade. The socks are machine made, almost the same sort of thing one could get here, except that they're good socks and they fit my smaller feet well. Yes, the label says "Kiddie" on the top, but I haven't had a problem with them sliding down and bunching up.

But the polainas were an afterthought. I bought them from the same woman as the sweaters for about a dollar, an amount of money that at the very least means more to her than it does to me. They are handmade, probably from alpaca or an alpaca blend, and they are the first pair of legwarmers I've had since the nineteen-eighty-somethings.

Yes, legwarmers. They're not hot pink, and I won't be matching them to my shirt. In fact, I won't be showing them off at all, recent "retro" fashion trends notwithstanding. They go underneath pants, and they keep everything between my knees and my ankles fabulously warm. I returned to one of the rainiest weeks California has seen in some time, and I've scarcely had them off.

I've also turned my furnace down, at least in the mornings when I'm the only one around. Somewhere between the polainas and the sweaters, I'm keeping quite warm without it.