Morning all, my laptop says that it is –1 degree F out there. Which is –18 C roughly for those of you who use real temps. Duke and I have already sung the song of his people, and he’s taken over the bed for the rest of the morning.
I’m settled in as usual with shawl, sweater, cowlette, socks, slippers, and blankets. Having my desk in between 2 windows in the corner of an older house rocks my socks for 2/3 of the year. However, the upstairs is unheated, so there’s that.
Back to the topic of clothes.
I make quite a bit of what I wear. Once a garment is no longer suitable, I convert it to a bag or other garment. I use and reuse fabric until there just isn’t much left to it. Then I use it for tinder for starting camp fires.
Yep, I’m weird. Since most of my clothing is pure cotton in one form or another, this works. That said, there are still garments I actually buy.
Bras, underwear, and medical stockings have all graced my Amazon cart this year. In fact, the socks arrived earlier this month, along with the device I desperately needed to help me put the suckers on.
Being of the rusty joint brigade, and of the type that they just won’t give me surgery to fix things unless I win a mega mega lottery, I use adaptive devices to get dressed and do personal cares.
Back to the medical socks. Why? Surely I could knit a few pairs of socks that would work, couldn’t I?
My feet swell, horribly. It doesn’t matter whether or not I am eating the right foods or not, my feet and ankles look like those of a much larger beast. I’ve ruined socks wearing them.
Now to the bras, for awhile I toyed with the idea of making my own bras. I mean personally made clothes do fit better don’t they?
The problem, patterns. Yes, there are tutorials on making them, I just have too much else to do rather than screw around adapting a tutorial to fit my freakishly large frame.
Under britches. There’s a medical need for a certain type of those. Either I buy disposables, or a certain type of reusable, and wash quite often. Then there is the question of fitting my frame. I tried in the past, and ended up cutting off circulation to my limbs because one company’s 4x is a 1x for another.
Now for other garments. Eventually, my resource of fast fashion thrift store finds will run or wear out. Will I go out and buy large amounts of clothing?
Nope. At that point, it is going to be, buy the fabric. I use the cheapest fabric a certain company sells. If it’s $2 per yard, I don’t care if it is scratchy, I can wear it. I’m not saying that someone who goes out to buy their clothes is being judged by me. Heck, even the sweater I am wearing went through retail at some time, I got her 2nd hand.
What I am saying, is that my disability and freakishly large frame makes fast fashion more problematic as the years pass. Even if I could run again, and go to a gym, it would still probably take years to get me back down to a ‘fashion acceptable’ size.
For being a larger human, many have expressed that I should just stay home. Yet, I don’t see them volunteering to pick up our groceries, or help with the errands. So, I still have to appear in public. Sighs. Even if I was a ‘fashion acceptable’ size, I’m sure there are those who would rather I just not appear in public.
Chuckle. It’s a bitterly cold day, and I’m venting/ranting a bit. Lastly, if I could get out of the wheelchair and run, you bet your sweet arse I would. To be honest though, I’m just happy that in the cold winters of Minnesota, I have options. Focusing on what I am grateful for, I have hot coffee, a sweet husband, and a dog who knows he’s king of the house. That’s good enough for me.
Meanwhile, I have to get back to my stitching. Those projects in progress keep multiplying, and I swear, they breed and reproduce every time I turn around, thus creating more mischief and mayhem for me to get into.
Hugs, take care, and stay warm if you are in a cold country right now. –L
AnonymousKnitter 