2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

MrsCD

👏👏👏👏👏👏 well done Laura! I'm very impressed with your walks with YI. I need to take a leaf out of your book.

SophiaDJames

That's good enough!

PipneyJane

Well done on the walks, @Laura_Elsewhere.  Also, your hiking gear looks stylish and very practical.

Hello, @SophiaDJames.  Welcome to Much Mending On The Borrow.  Do grab a cuppa, pull up a (socially distant) chair, join us around the fire and tell us all about yourself.  Don’t mind the dog - he just wants to know if you’ve got a piece of cake for him.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

What is that dog doing in here?! I thought we'd decided he should be in his kennel except in really bad weather... out, Spot! Out, damned Spot!  

Thankyou for the nice comments - the Ramblers I went hiking with were completely baffled, exclaiming and commenting, and concluding none of hem had seen anyone go hiking *in a skirt* in thirty or forty years...!  
(I was equally baffled as every single one of them was head to foot in hi-tech synthetic - I had thought, in a group who loved the outdoors, that at least a few of them might have natural fibres, but no... plastic all the way, fleeces to socks, all of it!)

PollyWollyDoodle

Your outfit looks very practical Laura, and I love the cap. It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it – most of the equipment for enjoying the great outdoors is, as you say, made from synthetic fibres. Even the base layers that you’re supposed to wear under things are not usually cotton. I used to have some silk longjohns for walking/outdoor work and they were fabulous. As I look as if I’ll be endIng the year with both coupons and funds in the wardrobe budget, perhaps they are something to invest in.  

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Your outfit looks very practical Laura, and I love the cap. It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it – most of the equipment for enjoying the great outdoors is, as you say, made from synthetic fibres. Even the base layers that you’re supposed to wear under things are not usually cotton. I used to have some silk longjohns for walking/outdoor work and they were fabulous. As I look as if I’ll be endIng the year with both coupons and funds in the wardrobe budget, perhaps they are something to invest in.  

I totally agree, re synthetics.  The one thing they have in their favour is that they dry fast and don't take up much space.  (OK, that's two things.)  I have silk longjohns and matching top, which I bought for a skiing trip 20 years ago.  I have worn the longjohns A LOT and they're still in great condition.  I'm currently stalking the local ski-shop - only recently reopened - to see if they have any silk ones.  I'd like a couple more pairs and I have the coupons...

- Pip

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

What is that dog doing in here?! I thought we'd decided he should be in his kennel except in really bad weather... out, Spot! Out, damned Spot!  

It was cold last night and he looked so chilly.....

Seriously, I think we were only a couple of degrees off a frost this morning, when I went out for my run.  No wind, thank heaven, but I had very cold hands.  I'm wondering where my spare pair of fingerless mitts are, so that I can run in them.  (There's a pair in my bag, a pair on my desk for when I'm working, a pair in the laptop bag - I suppose I can use those - and a pair that are somewhere....)

- Pip

Baileys_Babe

My long johns are merino wool, not bulky but very warm. I have plans in the future for silk long johns but alas not the funds. I have a pair of silk glove liners and they are so toastie.

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

I totally agree, re synthetics.  The one thing they have in their favour is that they dry fast and don't take up much space.  (OK, that's two things.) 

And silk and fine wool like merino also are light, pack down very small, and dry faster than you'd expect... 

BUT I think people are lulled into the synthetics for outdoorsy things by "oh I can just chuck everything in the washing-machine" and by being able to have lots of different things in bright colours and so on. So it's partly fashion/trend and partly laziness...

Much like so much of our plastic-reliance, convenience plus throwaway-option...! Older Niece is just starting to knit and being vegan she won't countenance silk or wool, so I've been having to steer her away from synthetics but also away from the hideously pesticidal cheap cotton and bamboo, so now she's searching for organic plant-fibre yarns....! 

TwibbleDee

No long johns required here - we're still hitting 90F for our highs.  Next week should be in the 80s.

Small party at our house tomorrow - planning to pretty well keep everybody outside, cook burgers, space out the lawn chairs, and watch Hocus Pocus on the portable screen with a group from church.  Y'all want to come?

(Note that the only restrictions in place here currently are against bars, very relaxed capacity limits indoors, and that you have to wear a mask when inside indoor public places...and about 1/3 of the people don't wear masks and nobody says anything anymore - we're not violating any orders or restrictions)