I [heart] Down Sweaters

I love the Patagonia down sweater so much that I pretty much live in mine for three seasons each year, indoors and outdoors. They're really light, warm and packable, all features equally functional and important for "Alpine" activities and, in my case, tooling around Boston. Thanks to my incessant sales pitch, plasticmom, Adam and Adam's dad have all been converted to the down sweater. I'm now working on Adam's mom next so we can all be matchy match at the next family gathering.

I bought my first one back in 2006, the first year they had them, with my "birthday cake" money. That first year, they only came in super bright shiny primary colors that were a little bold for the average person to pull off: bright red, bright green, bright blue and black. I went with the shiny black and I endured some teasing from Adam who said my jacket looked like it was made from a black garbage bag. Fortunately, Patagonia started making them in more accessible colors that weren't so shiny, but I grew to love my shiny black look so much that when I ripped a hole in it, I was pretty bummed. I took it down to the Patagonia store hoping they could patch it for me. When they generously offered to give me a brand new [not shiny] jacket, I was pretty torn. Fortunately, they let me upgrade for a few extra bucks to the "new" and improved special edition down sweater that's even lighter, if that's even possible. It's accented with awesome magenta zippers and most importantly, it's shiny like a black garbage bag.