2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

[Deleted User]

The best news Laura, hope he is 100% again as soon as it's possible to be.

maddiemay

First time I have purchased from them, impressed by the sizing questionnaire and how it showed my size against everything I looked at based on my answers. I have now tried the T shirts and will be keeping them too.
The culottes fabric is substantial, but I guess contains dressing prior to washing, the pockets are amazing. I am hoping that this is one of those garments which will still look great with age even if it fades and softens, like a lovely pair of denims or a denim skirt in a great fabric does. 

[Deleted User]

I really like the idea of a weekend Holiday at Home, we could manage that and not neglect the veg and fruit too badly because we could still water in the evenings.  Any ideas for activities we could walk to or things to do in the garden that would let us escape from being sheltered in our heads.  We're lucky to live where we have access to open country and lanes to walk without encountering too many people and the back garden although small is private with a high fence and trellising all round so we could feasibly picnic in the garden or walk out with a picnic and find somewhere off the beaten track to eat it.  If we drive we get into the Forest and there are lots of places to walk there but at the weekends it's heaving busy so I'd rather stay local.  If we had a Holiday at Home in the week it might be different but we might have to wait for the summer holiday period to end  and see if things are quieter.  So garden picnic, walk out on the footpaths and lanes and other ideas for making us take time out and not potter would be much appreciated.  

Laura_Elsewhere

You could always "go" for a Farm Holiday, where you spend a set time each morning "helping on the farm", and then "help the farmer's wife" to prepare the picnic because everyone mucks in to help at the Farm and set off hiking, to take the picnic to a specific place looked up beforehand on the maps, and maybe beforehand you could organise one of those online things where you upload a photo and they post you an envelope with the prints done as postcards? You could sit at your picnic spot after you've hiked there and write postcards to your friends and family back home! (I would leave the internet back at the Farm, and try not to look at anything other than checking for urgent stuff once or twice daily). 
then you'd walk back to the Farm, where maybe before the evening meal you spend time with some reference books (ok maybe online for this bit but I bet it would be more fun if you had books!) looking up the leaves and flowers you picked on your hike... 

And I should think a Farm Holiday like that would be very heavily-booked at weekends so why not see if they have a vacancy for midweek? Perhaps you could try a daytrip first of all, arriving just after breakfast? 

[Deleted User]

Genuis xxx.

PipneyJane

Good afternoon All

Are you coping well in the heat?  I'm glad my desk is set up in the coolest part of the house.  Got the back door open to capture any breeze.  Strange to think that, on Monday, I was sitting here in jeans, socks, jumper and fingerless mittens.  Today it's ancient shorts (circa 1995) and a tee-shirt I bought in 2004.

I had a revelatory moment yesterday.  You know how we all say that doing the various Challenges keeps us accountable?  Well, I got to thinking about how much money I had tied up in my yarn stash. I know that since I started going to shows in 2004, I've bought more than I could knit with in the immediate future but I hadn't realised how much more it was.  Ravelry has a handy tool where you can download your stash to Excel, so I did and crunched the numbers.   I'm not happy with myself.  There's £1,643 tied up in yarn in my stash and 141 different yarn listings with more than 20 metres remaining.  (I figured 20 metres was enough to "make something" with it.)   I'm aware that I went completely mad last year buying yarn.  It has to stop.  While it's good having supplies for those times when money is tight and/or the bombs start dropping (a.k.a. "Lockdown"), that's too much. 

It has to stop.   Going completely "cold sheep" is bound to fail - you never know when you'll run out of yarn just half a ball short of a garment - so I've come up with a workable compromise. For as long as I do the Fashion On The Ration Challenge, I will not spend more than 10 coupons on yarn per year. 

- Pip   (I've spent 2 coupons on yarn this year.)  

diminua

Hi folks. 
Hope we're all ok. 
In answer to PipneyJane's question - I am coping in the heat, but I don't know that I'm coping well. I'm on the fourth floor so there is a little breeze through the window, but I'm still very hot. I actually went into the office last Friday and the air con was blissful, but we've been told (repeatedly) that there isn't room for more than 20% of us at once and some of those people have to have face to face contact with residents, so they obviously need priority.  I'm not complaining though, the tube is a whole new circle of hell in hot weather. 
Good luck with the yarn ration Pip. It sounds like an excellent compromise.

Baileys_Babe

PipneyJane said:

  Ravelry has a handy tool where you can download your stash to Excel, so I did and crunched the numbers.   I'm not happy with myself.  There's £1,643 tied up in yarn in my stash and 141 different yarn listings with more than 20 metres remaining. 

I think knowing both the volume and worth of the yarn will help to curb your desire to acquire more, good luck.

maddiemay

I am not having to do much so heat is O.K./avoidable, the joys of retirement, but I have worked in some hot hell holes in my time.
I had a massive "I am not going there" moment reading your post Pip, I have this fab stash of yarns, bought for my retirement and not produced a thing this year also this morning I found a solitary ear-ring which I had made and lost it's pair, decided to look in the bead stash just in case there were more hiding, no - nothing, but rather embarrassed at the amount of stuff that I have. I have had so much fun at craft and yarn fairs, matching colours and planning projects in the past.  Even if I end up giving lots away I really enjoyed it at the time and reason that if I had been a drinker, smoker or had a magazine habit I would not have had anything to show for my monies spent.  (Maddiemay logic!) 

Cherryfudge

I have a 5-coupon spend to declare - chunky comfy ankle boots for winter. That brings my total coupon spend to eleven and a half. I have been tempted to more as I've just discovered what lush fashions I've been missing this year. I've fought hard not to buy but I've not worn my 'nice' clothes once during lockdown: I'm living in uniform or jeans so a lovely skirt and top would just be wasted.
@CAFCGirl , I am nodding in sad unity with you - wouldn't it be great if a spot of decluttering earned us more coupons?! When I looked in my wardrobe after work to find something cooler than jeans and warmer than shorts, I was struck by how any things I'm really unlikely to wear but to which I'm too attached to get rid. (I'm sure there are several things wrong with that unwieldy sentence but I'm tired... ).
As for yarn stashes, I have various oddments that have lost their ball bands and which may end up as experimental socks, slippers or gloves. My friend and I went wool hunting the other day but didn't find a match for the mustard cardi in town. There's are other options to explore, though.