2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

sevenswans

Thank you all for the warm welcome, and I'm so pleased to find other crafters here too! I knit a lot and crochet a little and sew not at all (I only wish I could sew!) and am currently knitting up (stash yarn) a cardi to start my next year off as in-credit, coupon wise, as I can. 
Of course I should be finishing off Christmas presents which are 99% done but shiny new thing syndrome has taken hold. Zero self-control, hence, um, deciding I need to follow a challenge like this

thriftwizard

Oooh, shiny new things... I nearly fell into temptation today, thinking I need a pair of thermal leggings, having been sitting out in the gazebo with DS2 & DiL for a socially-distanced birthday cuppa & some gingerbread, freezing gently as the rain dripped around us. My top half was toasty, which is another story, but the legs were - not! So afterwards I spent half an hour tracking down thermal leggings that actually come up to one's ex-waist, before remembering A) I already have a pair, somewhere, and I spent my first few days with my new overlocker carving up an old, felted jumper into leg-warmers, 2 pairs of fingerless gloves and a warm mini-skirt/derrière-warmer! Luckily I had managed not to press Buy-It-Now...

The top half was toasty because I'd been hunting for a new winter jacket, as my beloved old khaki jacket with the paisley-printed quilted lining bit the dust & finally disintegrated irreparably last March. I've hunted high & low & was prepared to part with serious money to find one that was waterproof, wind-proof, covered the derrière AND had a hood. I'd hunted through all the charity shops, when open, and rejected nearly all of them for being too short (I'm a towering 5'4"!) not having a hood or generally being depressing. I'd looked at all the sales and even the stuff that wasn't in the sales, and nothing said, I'm yours... But I was down at the recyclers with DD2 mid-week & chanced upon a green check jacket that ticked all the boxes AND had a sparkly silver lining with loads of pockets, just about pristine, for £3. SOLD! Turns out it's a Columbia Sportswear mountain & ski jacket, which now cost around £279 new. It's not a current model but shows no signs of wear, apart from a tissue (unused) in one pocket. The sparkly silver lining works like a space blanket, to preserve your body heat, and it's just fabulous, more than I could have hoped for, for approximately one-tenth of what one of our local charity shops is charging for jackets with any "body" to them at all. Best of all, no coupons spent!

ETA: so, capital-B-closing-bracket brings up a sunglasses smiley! New trick...

TwibbleDee

I haven't spent anymore coupons, and am not likely to (unless...I go shopping with Mom after Christmas).  I'd like a new pair of boots, but the money isn't there right now.  Trying to throw all I can at a credit card.  My cowboy boots will have to do for this winter, unless I find a fabulous deal somewhere..  Hmmm...I may have to investigate whether I can waterproof them with mink oil.  If so, I'm good to go for daily wear, just have nothing warm for my feet for hiking.  My hiking boots are ventilated, so they don't keep warm, much less waterproof.  My older brother and I used to waterproof our boots - either military surplus or Doc Marten's - with beeswax.  Just set them and the wax in a cleaned out tin in the oven on the lowest temp and kept baking layers in.  I think that might do bad things to my spiffy cowboy boots, though.  I'm hoping I can get a new pair of boots for next winter, but I haven't been impressed with the military surplus ones the last 15 years, and the Doc Marten's just weigh too much.

ETA: I've ordered mink oil paste.  From my research, it looks like it should do exactly what I want it to do, and is fairly cheap and a container lasts forever.

Cherryfudge

This thread is brilliantly enriching my vocabulary. So far today I've learnt 'shiny new thing syndrome' and 'ex-waist'! Not to mention

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

This thread is brilliantly enriching my vocabulary. So far today I've learnt 'shiny new thing syndrome' and 'ex-waist'! Not to mention

Yes, I loved *ex-waist* and have cheerfully added it my vocabulary! 

I'm too tall to co-opt *towering 5'4"* but shall borrow it for next time I wind up my oldest, dearest friend who is a *towering 5'1/2" and don't forget the 1/2*  

Cherryfudge

P.S. You are also the best for marvellous methods and fabulous finds... that's before we get to 'here's one I made earlier'. Truly Much Mending is a honey pot for lively minds... and fingers too.

I nearly pulled back the knitted bag the other day as it's so scruffy but I've decided to plough on, on the basis that a) it will look better when sewn up, b) it will look better when full of veg and c)it's not a fashion parade. (Oh, yes, I also learned 'reverse knitting' - I think I've done my share of that @skogar!)

@thriftwizard, if your shed does happen to contain any Lyscord, I'd be really interested though I quite understand it's in hibernation at present and it wouldn't be good to disturb it. Have you thought of moving your business online? I'm sure you'd soon have a healthy turnover.

PollyWollyDoodle

Will you have all been very busy, I’ve been sitting quietly at the back of the Village Hall and listening to everything but not joining in. Very impressed with all the crafty stuff, I have made Christmas stockings for my friends two boys but nothing else much has been happening here. 

I have to declare another purchase, like Pip I bought some running shoes.  I think that’s another five coupons? I’m not sure where I stand overall, I’ll have to add it up but I have mostly only bought shoes this year. Pip, I definitely recommend going somewhere that does gait analysis.  I promised myself that I would get some decent shoes if I stuck it for four weeks of “Couch to 5K”.  I can’t quite believe it, but I am on week six!  I had to wait for lockdown to end, I made an appointment at a local running shop and they videoed me running (very slowly) on a treadmill and I bought some shoes which feel really comfortable.  The assistant said they should last me a year, I think she said 300?  I am never likely to do more than 3 miles at a time I think. Although who knows, I would never have believed I could run for 20 minutes without stopping a few weeks ago 😂

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Will you have all been very busy, I’ve been sitting quietly at the back of the Village Hall and listening to everything but not joining in. Very impressed with all the crafty stuff, I have made Christmas stockings for my friends two boys but nothing else much has been happening here. 

I have to declare another purchase, like Pip I bought some running shoes.  I think that’s another five coupons? I’m not sure where I stand overall, I’ll have to add it up but I have mostly only bought shoes this year. Pip, I definitely recommend going somewhere that does gait analysis.  I promised myself that I would get some decent shoes if I stuck it for four weeks of “Couch to 5K”.  I can’t quite believe it, but I am on week six!  I had to wait for lockdown to end, I made an appointment at a local running shop and they videoed me running (very slowly) on a treadmill and I bought some shoes which feel really comfortable.  The assistant said they should last me a year, I think she said 300?  I am never likely to do more than 3 miles at a time I think. Although who knows, I would never have believed I could run for 20 minutes without stopping a few weeks ago 😂

I totally agree.  I had my gait analysed in 2000, when I did the Great North Run.  (Madness, I know.  I walked most of it.)  I overpronate, which makes Asics the best shoes for me.  If I keep running 3 miles on 3 days a week, 33 weeks will get me to 300 miles.  On the C-to-5k, I seem to be perpetually stuck on the last day of week 5, where you swap from 3 running sessions and 2 walks, to 2 running sessions (8 minutes plus 10 minutes) and one short walk.  I've got the second run up to 9 minutes now without stopping in the middle, so I reckon I'll be able to do the full 10 minutes by Friday.  I've promised myself a week of doing it properly before I move on to week 6.

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

I must admit that I’m puzzled by the way it works, I did a 20 minute run last week then it was shorter runs again, this morning two x 10 minutes and next time it’s 25 minutes 😱  I run very, very slowly. However, I am so amazed at what I’ve achieved with this program. You would have to know me in real life to understand just how unlikely I am to be a runner. Overweight, not particularly fit, I am someone who wouldn’t usually run to catch a train. If I can complete the whole nine weeks I’m hoping to keep it up. I swim regularly, but that takes more effort and organisation – running is so easy and quick to do. 

Anyway, time I added up the coupons to see if I’ve got anything left this year.  I doubt if I will be spending anything until the new year begins, if then.

TwibbleDee

One of my goals for 2021 is a basic foundational level of fitness.  I intentionally set the bar rather low so as not to get discouraged.  By the end of the 2021, I want to be able to walk/run a 5K, do 10 proper pushups and pull-ups, and have been doing my yoga and chiropractic care and such often enough that I'm generally pain free.