2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

CapricornLass

Is the Portsmouth one in the Naval Dockyard by any chance?  if so, the train terminal for Portsmouth Harbour is about a hundred yards away from one of the Main Gates.....

CapricornLass

Just remembered - I've got some spends to declare!  The first is a pair of walking trousers, the other is a bright yellow linen shirt from the M&S sale.  Did I need a bright yellow linen shirt?  No, not really.  But the colour is so me!!!!  It was love at first sight.

So that is 11 coupons.  I'll have to hunt through to see how many coupons I had left, because at this stage I haven't a clue!

Laura_Elsewhere

maddiemay said:

Laura - this may not be useful,  once a week I put in 2 butterflies to my tum and inject 20 ml into each. I find it is more ouchy if I am warm, recently I have been holding a wrapped ice block from the freezer over my knicks for a while to cool the area down.  I once had a warm shower an hour beforehand and it was awful, I gave up and waited until the next day.  You can get a numbing cream, not sure if OTC though, my GP did not seem keen to prescribe, nor the hospital that trained me on the procedure

@maddiemay - My Intended wasn't keen on this idea (he moves slowly on new ideas sometimes...), but after last night, when I only merited a B- (having previously scored a he actually suggested this, so we tried it, and he says that although he needle going in was no different, there was absolutely no sensation of the stuff going in, which previously had been just as bad, in a different way, as the needle bit!

So thankyou very very very much! Whenever we can eventually meet up in Ludlow or wherever it may be, I shall buy you an ice-cream or frothy-coffee or whatever in very deep and sincere gratitude! Bless you for suggesting it! 

TwibbleDee

Goal for this week: Get socks cast on in the midst of everything else going on.

Laura_Elsewhere

@TwibbleDee - I can't believe none of us mentioned it, but as well as knitting your own socks being ace in all sorts of ways, the actual process is very soothing to most of us. When things are tough and fretfulness abounds, a nice sock to retreat into can be seriously therapeutic! I hope you'll find your sock-knitting is lovely and soothing...

maddiemay

Laura - thank you for your lovely comments. I am pleased that it helped, our bodies are unique to us and things that help one are not always effective for another.  
I would love for us to meet up sometime in the future, it may take a while, but I have to have hope that there will be an effective vaccine suitable for me eventually, in the meantime I will do as much as I safely can and keep fingers crossed that no spikes in Covid19 happen here (or anywhere else for that matter). 

PipneyJane

Thanks for your support, Ladies. I appreciate it.

CapricornLass said:

Is the Portsmouth one in the Naval Dockyard by any chance?  if so, the train terminal for Portsmouth Harbour is about a hundred yards away from one of the Main Gates.....

Sadly, it would take me considerably longer to get to Portsmouth by train than it would to drive - nearly 4 hours, compared to 1.5 - and cost a great deal more money because I’m travelling from London.  There’s a huge premium on the railways for travelling within the M25.  (I live just off the M4.  Years ago, I applied for a job in Bristol which would have been do-able by train. If I drove to my local station, got the train to Slough and changed for the Express, it would have cost me double when compared to driving to Slough and getting the train from there.). Rationally, I don’t expect to get an interview if their HR has any concept of geography, but you never know.

Getting back on topic, I resurrected a handbag yesterday.  The lining went in the bag that I’ve been using for the last 18 months and, since it had been annoying me for a while before that, I decided enough was enough.  (How can a bag so big not take everything without a great deal of shuffling?)  I swapped back to a bag that I haven’t used since 2006.  (I only stopped using it because I was seduced by a Brics “Life” small backpack while waiting for a plane in Malaga airport. Similar to this one.  )  

I like handbags that can be worn on your shoulder or as a backpack thanks to clever straps. You can rarely find them in the UK, but I know they’re sold in France.  (The “new bag” was purchased during a girls’ day out to Citi Europe in Calais in 2004.)  I gave the “new” bag a good clean with Urad Leather Cleaner, trimmed some stray fibres from the straps and it looks good.  Better yet, everything fits. (Old Bag is the one hanging; New Bag is on the floor.  Doesn’t it look smaller?  Yet it holds my sock knitting and will take my iPad without stressing it, unlike the Old Bag.)



- Pip



PS:  @TwibbleDee, Laura’s right about sock knitting and knitting in general being soothing. There are studies showing that knitting calms your brain.

PPS:  I may yet go back to the Brics backpack.  It was great for travelling.  I only stopped using it because the strap came out.  Got that stitched back on ages ago.

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane I'm waving in support too, just being distracted and not posting overtly to say so! 

Nice bags, congratulations on resurrection skills!

One of my must-get-back-to-that projects is making some bags for a family friend who saw mine and was excited - imagine a tube of fabric, with a circle sewn in for the base, and a drawstring channel in the top opening with two drawstring tapes in, the ends stitched to the bottom corner - a basic drawstring little backpack, like a kids' gym-bag, yes? But now, add pockets - on the front, a row of three, a flat one in the middle that neatly takes eg sunglasses in a case or tube of suncream, or my rolled-up "skirtbrella" waterproof overskirt in vile weather; either side is a tubular pocket with a strong elastic loop for carrying a 500ml plastic bottle of drinks. And on the back, a square pocket with a strong button and loop fastening for wallet and purse, so they are against my back, unable to be pickpocketed or to fall out. The family friend added a request for a pocket inside on the back (sort of backing up against the wallet-pocket), sized for a phone, and a little loop inside for clipping keys into. 
I love them as they fold up into very little, will carry a full supermarket-basket of stuff, and you can get at the important things without having to guddle around... I intend the next iteration to include small quilted squares buttoned over the drawstrings to pad them against your shoulders if carrying very heavy loads. 

A good bag matters  

Currently hand-sewing the mile-long hem on my new skirt - I am thrilled to bits that a friend in Glasgow loves it and so after I've worn it a few times to work out what changes to make to the pattern for the next one, I am posting it off to her in exchange for fabric costs (a tenner), and she will then enjoy wearing it, which is lovely as I am really really disappointed by how ugly the fabric looks to my eyes once it's more than a few feet away. Hanging up it looks vile to me from 6 foot away, worse form further. I assume it's my deteriorating eyes, but what is a lovely fabric of blue stripes and narrow floral stripes close-to becomes an ugly geometric print, and it depresses me every time - so I am pleased as punch to have found someone who will take it gladly!  

basketcase

PS:  @TwibbleDee, Laura’s right about sock knitting and knitting in general being soothing. There are studies showing that knitting calms your brain.

   I like the new bag, Pip.  But does the Mendings WI not frown upon expressions like Old Bag?  Have been meaning to say good luck with the job hunt for a few days - my thoughts have been with you throughout, anyway.

   Odd that you and Laura should both say that about knitting.  DD's staying here at the mo prior to an op.  (Wisdom teeth, very near the nerve with a higher-than-usual risk of permanent nerve damage - which bothers her more than the actual op.  General anaesthetic required.)  I admit, I've been more worried about her mental health than her teeth.  Her anxiety and depression have been flaring recently due to job pressures, having to move flat, the pandemic, her dad and brother both being high risk etc, and it's not been made any better by the thought of a gruesome - though not life threatening - surgical procedure. 

   Out of nowhere said "Mum, I've suddenly developed the urge to knit again.  Do you have any spare wool?  And needles."   Now, ladies, firstly I realise that most knitters would fall about laughing at the question about spare wool but I don't have a huge stash.  She's knitted scarves before but fancies trying her hand at a jumper (ie she can knit and purl). 

   I find it interesting that her brain said "I know, I'll knit!", but I can testify to the fact that it really does seem to soothe the brain. I originally taught her to knit when she was about 6 and was in hospital waiting to have some cysts removed.  Not only was she the calmest child there, but she was laughing at her failed attempts.  We spent a very relaxing afternoon with me reminding her how to cast on and off, showing her how to do "you know, making columns of stitches" aka ribbing, k & p into the back of a stitch and knitting in 2 colours. (She was enchanted by her little swatch of 2 colour ribbing!).  At the end of it, we both felt a lot better!

   She actually toddled off with the relevant size needles and 2 enormous balls of navy blue DK which I bought ages ago to knit some sort of jumper and never got round to it.  So no coupons were involved for anybody.

Laura_Elsewhere

Oh, even had coupons been used, I suspect they may well have come out of the Charitable Lady Almoners' account for your pre-op daughter! How lovely of you...

If it helps her, I had to have an unusual wisdom-tooth extraction several years ago, and there was some nerve damage - as is simply the unavoidable case in a tiny percentage of us. The good news is that over the following couple of years it all got sorted out. And I was jolly glad I'd had the removal because during preparatory x-rays it turned out I actually had an area of infected jawbone, ie the tooth had been infected but instead of flaring up as my usual (!) infected abscess, it had simply quietly been draining poison into my bloodstream for 2-3 years by the oral pathologist's estimate. They monitored it over the following two years and after a nasty 6 months or so while my body fought it, it finally gave up, now the source of the steady trickle of poison was gone. So even though I did have nerve damage from the op, I have none now, and it even turned ou to the good anyway! 
No idea if that will reassure her at all - it would me, but you can be the judge of whether to let her know that nerves can - and do! - regrow to a large extent and sometimes even completely.