2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

MrsCD

https://www.thehealthybackbag.co.uk/shop/active-traveller-raspberry-poly-s#features
I use this type of bag when I'm out and about. It holds all my bits and bobs, and I feel that everything is as safe as it can be, with the zips beside me! I have a few of different sizes so I'll use my small one for my keys, phone, inhaler etc when we go out for a walk, or in a hotel going to the restaurant, for my purse and passport etc. My largest one has a padded pouch inside to keep my kindle safe when travelling. I just love my hbbs!  Although my DH would say I have too many handbags of various shapes and sizes!
P.S. I don't work for, or get commission from HBB Co. 

PipneyJane

MrsCD said:

https://www.thehealthybackbag.co.uk/shop/active-traveller-raspberry-poly-s#features
I use this type of bag when I'm out and about. It holds all my bits and bobs, and I feel that everything is as safe as it can be, with the zips beside me! I have a few of different sizes so I'll use my small one for my keys, phone, inhaler etc when we go out for a walk, or in a hotel going to the restaurant, for my purse and passport etc. My largest one has a padded pouch inside to keep my kindle safe when travelling. I just love my hbbs!  Although my DH would say I have too many handbags of various shapes and sizes!
P.S. I don't work for, or get commission from HBB Co. 

Healthy Back Bag Company?  I know them! A colleague at work recommended them and raves about them.  I have a tiny (maybe 8 inch) pink bag from them and have considered getting a larger one but, right now, so much is up in the air work-wise that I’ll just keep them on my watch list.  A lot depends on where I will be working, how I get to work and what kind of kit I’ll be lugging around with me.  For example, the reason I stopped using the Brics bag the first time around was that I was lugging a laptop in a backpack and you can’t easily wear two backpacks at once.  It was a right pain to carry, even if I was just lugging my “portable office” from the car park to my desk.  At least with a convertible bag like my “new” one, I could put the backpack on then put my handbag over my shoulder and have my hands free for doors, etc.  When I’m not lugging a portable office, I can wear my handbag as a backpack, keeping my shoulders level and taking the strain off my upper back.  (Have you ever noticed how many women wander around with one shoulder hitched up to keep their bag on it?  Not good for your neck.)

FWIW, when I’ve flown or taken intercity trains for work trips, I usually swap to a Chanel-style clutch-on-a-chain**, worn cross-body, which takes keys, phone, purse, sweetener, lipstick, painkillers and glasses wipe.  (My book/iPad, knitting, umbrella* and sunglasses will go in the laptop backpack.)   I usually have a carry-on wheely suitcase and I can get around the “two bag limit” by stuffing the clutch in the backpack before boarding.

@MrsCD, how small do the HBB bags fold up?  

@basketcase - that’s a lovely story about your daughter.  I hope she feels much calmer now she is knitting.

@Laura-Elsewhere, would you be able to share a picture of your bag?  (I’m having problems visualising it.). I completely get the issue with the skirt fabric.  Sometimes things only look right close up.

Thank you all for your support on the job front.  I can “hear” you, even if you’ve not openly spoken up.  It’s in your smiles.  In other news, I’ve replenished the cake in the village hall.  Today’s cake is Flora’s Famous Courgette Cake from Nigella Lawson.  I harvested a 534g whopper of a courgette earlier, so there are two cakes in the kitchen for people to eat.

- Pip

* What can I say?  I’m from Melbourne, where you can have four seasons in one day.  We all carry folding umbrellas.

** Another long term survivor, the clutch dates from my days as an auditor and must be at least 22 years old.

CraftyLittleLisa

I like the look of that bag Mrs CD.  I may have to think about getting one of those.  Far more practical than what I currently use.  I wonder if I can get it and then perhaps ask someone to give it to me for a Christmas present.  I was thinking about asking for trainers for Christmas though.  I will have to think on that for a while.

tgroom57

Popping by for a coupon update.  Newest purchase is teal cardigan from Debenhams in the sale. 5 coupons.

Summary to date: Purse 2 coupons, Cardigan 5 (!) coupons, total 7 coupons. 26 coupons left.

I agree, knitting is soothing plus it gives me time to mull things over and put my feet up.  I've given up looking for a free pattern for a baby cardigan in first size and am using guesswork.  Wish me luck. I am halfway up the back so far, using a slightly larger baby cardy as a guide.  Am repurposing wool so no coupons there.

Laura_Elsewhere

@tgroom57 - these are all free patterns for cardigans for newborns  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=knitting&availability=free&photo=yes&pc=cardigan&fit=newborn-size&sort=best&view=captioned_thumbs

You can change 'newborn' to 'baby' by scrolling down he lefthand size to 'Age' and changing it there...

Cherryfudge

Hello everyone, have been catching up over a coffee and a slice of courgette cake (thanks Pip, it's jolly good).
Apologies for not doing an orderly tagging but Laura, I wish I was as far on with bike riding as you are! I've actually been having lessons courtesy of my DD's lovely partner who is good at analysing what I need to work on (apparently the body needs to stay core-strong - and there's me thinking cycling was about legs!). However I did so well I stayed on far too long and a week later the bruising is nearly gone... so I'm borrowing DH's cycling shorts next time.  

Of course there will be coupons spent when I find myself a nice pair of cycling leggings with padding in all the right places. I spotted some capri-length ones and am havering whether to get them for next summer as the plan is for me to accompany family on their cycling expeditions in future, but I don't think we have many more weeks of shorts weather left this year.

I have also been admiring bags, particularly Pip's 'old bag' (excuse my language ladies, I'm sure you know I wouldn't normally condone such a description ). I have a favourite black leather shoulder bag with zips which I bought from a car boot sale years ago and which gets a coating of black leather dye about once a year to renew it. It would be better for my posture were it a backpack but it ain't and I have long hair so backpacks can cause problems there. Favourite bags need to be cherished and made to be used forever, though.

basketcase, I will second what Pip says about nerves re-growing. In my case I lost some skin sensation after an op a couple of years ago but I think I'm about back to pre-op condition now. The human body is amazing.

Talking of Mapp and Lucia, I downloaded EF Benson's Dodo trilogy while investigating. Lucia was one of my Mum's favourites so I have that in the virtual book pile: I don't know how the two compare but Dodo is turning out to have more to it than the light social comedy I expected. I took it down the shelter (AKA sleep in shift at work) last night and am wondering how Dodo is going to cope with the attentions of the Austrian prince whom Our Hero doesn't trust.

Has anyone read any Elizabeth von Arnim? Another of my Mum's favourites, not in the same vein as Lucia but recently republished by, I think, Virago. Not quite the same genre as Lucia but entertaining nonetheless. Comes recommended.

TwibbleDee

I tried to shop yesterday.  I’ve been wearing tank tops with a padded shelf in them for quite a while, but probably need to switch back to bras for more support.  However, some of my shirts become practically indecent when I bend over then, as the bras make the girls and thus the shirt stick out further. I’m odd to fit when it comes to shirts, and I’m not buying them if I can’t try them on first.  Currently, very few places have fitting rooms open.  Lane Bryant (a store for larger gals) has theirs open, but everything is tight across the bust and too loose everywhere else.

Laura_Elsewhere

@TwibbleDee, that sounds like the kind of thing where a spot of sewing might help? You could put a pair of darts in the back of a shirt that fits your front, perhaps? 
Almost everything in Britain these days is cut to make it look like you are bustin' out all over, workwear, casual, everything. It drives me bonkers as I really prefer just to wear a shirt or blouse that fits me, instead of one straining at the buttons in fashionably-sexy style. Why on earth does everyone have to look sexually-alluring at all times, and in that particularly cheap-and-nasty sort of stereotypical way at that? 
I have started making my own blouses now, in protest at not being able to buy any! 

PipneyJane

TwibbleDee said:

I tried to shop yesterday.  I’ve been wearing tank tops with a padded shelf in them for quite a while, but probably need to switch back to bras for more support.  However, some of my shirts become practically indecent when I bend over then, as the bras make the girls and thus the shirt stick out further. I’m odd to fit when it comes to shirts, and I’m not buying them if I can’t try them on first.  Currently, very few places have fitting rooms open.  Lane Bryant (a store for larger gals) has theirs open, but everything is tight across the bust and too loose everywhere else.

If you ever come to the UK, @TwibbleDee, I can recommend Bravissimo.   Not sure if their website sells to the US, but they are for bigger busted ladies (DD+) and sell their own line of clothes as well as underwear.  Their strappy tops are wonderful. (They have a shop in Covent Garden.  Last time I was there, I got chatting to a girl from Philadelphia.)

@tgroom57, my favourite sweater for babies is the Five Hour Baby Sweater, which uses aran-weight yarn and takes - you guessed it - about 5 hours to knit.  The pattern is free via Ravelry and you can make a larger or smaller size by using larger or smaller needles.

Hi @Cherryfudge.  Padded bike shorts are wonderful and worth the coupons. If you are using your own bike, then swapping the seat for a broader one may help too.  (I was stupid enough to buy a racing bike when I was 19 and madly in love with a bloke who cycled.  I can remember not being able to walk after my first or second ride and being totally bemused as to why the seat was so uncomfortable.  Racing bikes have narrow seats.)

- Pip

TwibbleDee

@Laura_Elsewhere I do need to start figuring out how to fit clothes.  I probably should have decided that before I went and stayed with my mother for a week!  She used to make her own swimsuits and made lots of my dresses and such growing up.

@PipneyJane I'd probably be on the border line of what they fit.  I'm only a D, but that's just large enough that button down shirts always gape unless they're a tent and any top that's designed for my bust assumes that I don't have a waist.  Bravissimo does sell in the US, but I'd still much rather be able to try things on first.