Skip to main content

Shopping: a Good Hunt

It is so nice when the exact item you are shopping for is on Clearance or Deep Discount in several stores. I got five short-sleeved polo shirts for an average of $15 each. And these are nice brands: Liz Golf, Martin & Osa, and Eddie Bauer. So, they should last a few seasons longer than shirts that are usually at this price point. It was a Good Hunt.

(I've been using that phrase for a successful shopping trip since I was much younger. Arriving at home with my Mom after an outing to the Bridgewater Commons, Dad would ask us how it went. If we found what we were looking for a good prices, the answer was, "It was a Good Hunt." If you think this implies that shopping would often be frustrating, with us unable to find anything that fit, you'd be correct.)

A piece of information that I had not realized until I read it on a blog, possibly this bra blog, is that all ready-to-wear women's clothing is sized for a B cup. It makes everything make sense now: why have I NEVER been able to find a blouse or button-down woven shirt that fits, no matter what store or what size I try? Because none of them are meant to fit! If I buy large enough for my chest, it fits the rest of me like a tent. So, I do not bother trying these styles on anymore. If I ever really need to buy another one, I'll get a larger size and have it altered. For me, knit is the way to go.

I do sew, and I have sewn my own clothes, but this is not an easy way out. They decided that if you are not a B cup, you do not deserve an easy time of anything. All easy-to-find patterns for home sewing are standardized to - you guessed it - a B cup as well. You need to do an "FBA", or Full Bust Alteration, manually to each pattern. There are a few patterns they put out occasionally that include pieces for the other cup sizes, and I buy them when I notice them. And there is software around that will take your measurements and custom-draft simple patterns. But, really, how much more effort would it be to provide cup-size grading for all patterns?

To end on a higher note, and bring the male readers back into the conversation, here is more LEGO stuff. You know those beautiful modular house kits? They are built on a standardized set of dimensions, so we can design our own houses and interchangeable floors and roofs. I do like having the guidelines to work from, sort of like a building code for the mini-fig scale world.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Poll: Vacation Days

We only get 12 vacation days per year. It increases to 15 days after 10 years of service, then 20 days after 15 years of service. Is this good, normal, or poor? It doesn't seem like enough, especially to both take a see-new-places trip and do a family visit in the same year. We do get 12 holidays as days off with pay, mostly clumped at the end of the year for Christmas shutdown. Also, sick days aren't levied against us, so that is fair. Comp-time is an option, but that doesn't really count in my mind as time off (we can get paid for any overtime instead). So, a quick poll: is your vacation policy better or worse than mine is? Do you feel like you get enough time off? Do you even get to use your vacation time?

Cat Story and an Alternative to Donuts

We've had our cat, Nigel, for about six years now. Like all cats, he has an aversion to water or getting wet. When Nigel does something he isn't supposed to be doing, and we see it, he will get squirted from a water bottle. Now, however, I think he is trying to train himself to not fear the water! When the tile in the shower was replaced at the end of last year the shower door was also removed. Instead of the metal track on the rim of the tub, we now have a shower curtain that goes outside of the tub and a shower curtain liner that goes inside the tub. This forms a tent over the rim of the tub. At first, Nigel just played in the tent. Then he would hop into the bathtub (when it was dry) and wrestle with the liner. Or just stand in the bathtub. Now he'll hop into the bathtub when it is still wet from a shower. Or he'll perch on the rim of the tub and try to catch the water still dripping from the faucet. This may be one of those "you had to be there"...

Sinusoidal Scarf

This is an easy pattern for a knitted scarf.  I made it up to practice knit and purl stitches, to build up speed and work on keeping an even gauge as I go.  It is supposed to be wavy when finished, resembling the shape of a sinusoid curve.  This is done simply by alternating garter stitch sections, which lay flat, with stockinette stitch sections, which tend to curl towards the knit side.  I alternate the side the stockinette faces to form the max and min points.  So, this is a very nerdy project. (Any yarn and needle size can be used, gauge is not important, adjust stitch count for the width of scarf you want.) Yarn: St. Denis Nordique, 100% wool, 50g per 150 yards, 2 to 3 balls, blue eggshell Gauge: 19 stitches for 4 inches Needle: US 8 or 5.00mm Cast on 30 stitches. Rows 1-4: knit all stitches. Row 5: purl all stitches. Row 6: knit all stitches. Row 7: purl all stitches. Rows 8-13: knit all stitches. Repeat rows 5 through 13 until scarf i...