This & That

 

Autumn equinox this week, and in nature, autumn colours are also taking over more and more here now. (The photo above + the next four following below are from today.)

 

Fly Agaric

At home, I took in one of my two pelargoniums (geraniums) from the balcony yesterday - and will probably soon be taking in the other one too. (In the photo below you see them both!) Just now the weather is still rather mild and cloudy/rainy - but next time we get a clear sky, frosty nights may also be just round the corner...

 

On Monday I walked into town with my mind set on looking for an autumn/winter skirt. Found it in the first shop I stepped into! It looks/feels like suede, but is actually made from synthetic recycled fabric - so is also lighter than it looks. And the plum colour matches well with several other items in my wardrobe. 

 

To continue the discussion from my Monday post about The Little House on the Prairie, today (getting back in from my walk in the afternoon) I decided to start over with episode 3 of the new Netflix series (which I left unfinished back in July, to dive into the books instead...)  Alas, I have to say I still just don't take to it! It's not just the "story"... the characters/actors just don't feel "right" to me either... 

It struck me that this was a lot like how I also felt last winter after having watched the new TV version of the Forsytes - and then ended up not only re-reading that series of books, but also seeking out the old b&w TV series on YouTube, and watching that in full!

... So now I went looking for the old Little House series on YouTube as well...  I watched the first half hour of the very first long pilot episode - and immediately felt "at home" (lol)... Remains to be seen whether that will lead me to continue to re-watch more of the old series on YouTube rather than continue on the Netflix version!!

UPDATE (24 Sept): I have now watched the whole pilot episode on YouTube; that one is available full length (about 1½ hour) with a few commercials inserted. The rest of the Little House videos on YouTube seem to be just shorter "snippets" though, and not full length episodes. So I'm not going to try to lay that puzzle! ;)

Weekend Reflections

 

Yesterday was the first day in quite a while that was just offering "nice" summer weather (neither too hot, nor threatening with rain and thunder). So I seized the opportunity for a walk into the city centre just to have a leisurely look around some clothes shops - without any other more urgent errands to tick off my list. (I think that's the first time in nine months - because of the limitations that followed my fall and knee injury last autumn.) 

The photos above show the outdoor terrace of one of the popular restaurants/cafés along the river - currently decorated with white balloons. (I'm not sure if for some special reason - or just "summer".)

Before I went back home, I did sit down for short break myself - but at the ice cream café in the park on the opposite side of the river:

Before that, I had visited three or four clothes shops. What I was looking for was a pair of wide summer trousers, in a different colour than blue or black (which I already have). In my opinion this is an excellent garment for hot summer days - and not least when one also needs to wear a knee sleeve or two underneath... So I wanted to get another pair before they perhaps go out of fashion again (one never knows!). And in the last shop I visited, I did find a pair of mauve ones that I knew could be matched with a few tops I already had. So after trying those on in the shop, I bought them. Mission accomplished!

Dressing for the Weather

 

Image by Bing Image Creator

As I can't take photos of myself walking in the snow, I asked Bing for help. It actually provided me with some surprisingly realistic illustrations.

Still around -11°C here around noon today, but no wind, so didn't feel too bad. When this cold, it's actually also less slippery than when closer to 0° (freezing point). So I decided to try a somewhat longer walk than yesterday, to post a couple of cards at the main post office down by the railway. 

I've been getting so many comments on my recent winter-themed blog posts, to be careful and just stay in etc, that I thought perhaps I'd better show you how one actually dresses for cold Swedish winter...

First of all: layers! I have a long, padded skirt that I can use on top of my trousers in cold weather - a lot simpler than putting on long underpants underneath.

This is my warmest padded winter coat to the right; and to the left my warmest leather gloves (lined with fur inside) - and my walking poles. (Each with a steel "spike" at the bottom end - in summer covered with a rubber foot, but those I take off in winter.)

These are my winter boots for icy streets - with both steel and rubber studs all over the sole.

Scarf, warm hat + hood up...
Ready at last for my winter walk!

 And after all that... It really usually feels like I might just as well continue at least a little bit further than just the few metres to the rubbish bins... ;-) (Today I was out for about 45 min.)

Some buildings I passed on my way back home. I only stopped in one spot for a couple of photos, as that's a bit of a hassle in the cold - with gloves and poles, and getting the phone out of the handbag, etc etc... 

These are the two first Postcrossing cards that I received in 2024. The card on the left was sent from Baltimore in the US, but had been bought in Ireland, according to the sender. And the one on the right was sent by a 7 year old (!) boy in Moscow, Russia - neatly written in English, but still did look like a child's handwriting, so I do think he'd written it himself. (I think the printed text on the front of the card says Happy New Year in Russian.) 

So... I was inspired to also write my first two Postcrossing cards for 2024, and those went to  Taiwan and the Netherlands respectively. And it was those I went out to post today. One profile had Christmas cards on their wishlist; and the other said they liked snowy landscapes, and art from the writer's country... I was able to oblige! ;-)

 

Pretend Shopping

It feels like ages since I last set foot in a clothes shop. I think it was early/mid January. Before the corona outbreak anyway. Not that I'm sure I'd actually have bought anything during this period of early spring anyway. But in normal circumstances, I know I would at least have gone inside a few shops in the city centre for a look. But as things are, I have avoided that.

Today, I played Pretend Shopping at home, by going down to my storage room in the basement to fetch my summer clothes. While most of my clothes are kind of all-year-round, there are also some summer/winter clothes that I switch with the seasons. (Like, in summer I don't need my warmest winter coats and boots taking up space in my wardrobes upstairs; and in the winter I don't need my summer dresses, shorts or tank tops.) 

The older I get, the more exciting the spring/autumn "pretend shopping" gets. Especially with my summer clothes, there's almost always something nowadays that I had forgotten about (until I see it again)... So, the present social distancing situation aside, it's really a good idea anyway to go through my wardrobe properly before I decide if I really need to make any actual new purchases!

 
 

Black & Purple

An attempt to take photos of the clothes I bought yesterday. (Grey weather again today, so the indoors light not the best either.)

The top on the left is 100% cotton and combines a black t-shirt with a blouse-collar and details adding bit of colour. It will go with several other items in my wardrobe. What I'm not 100% sure about is the 3/4 length sleeves - I really prefer full length sleeves in winter, as I always get cold. On the other hand, this time of year I'll probably be wearing an extra cardigan over it anyway!

The one in the middle goes with a lot of things in my wardrobe too. (I tend to wear a lot of black, purple, lilac and wine-red in winter.) I wanted something with a pattern, more festive than a plain t-shirt but still kind of casual. And it has the full length sleeves!

The black jacket/cardigan to the right is sparkly and might lift a plain black skirt or black trousers to a more festive look. I don't go out very often to parties and such - but it can still be good to have "something" like that in the wardrobe...

The trousers I bought are made of stretchy fabric in a subtle black-and-grey pattern, and will go with just about anything, I think.

Clothes Swapping

 

The weather is getting more and more autumn-like, and I'm beginning to feel the need to change the contents of my wardrobes from light summer dresses to warm woolly cardigans...

Living in a textile-focused city, every now and then I read/hear about various clothes swapping events; but as far as I can remember, I haven't yet really taken part in one. (I have handed in a few items for one or two such events - primarily wanting to get rid of them! - but I can't recall finding anything I wanted in return.)

Luckily, I have my own private clothes-swapping system, though - which means that every spring and autumn I shift some clothes between the wardrobes in my flat, and my basement storage room - and forget about the ones in storage for a while! Yesterday, in connection with washing day, I felt it was time to start the autumn swap. In particular, there was a certain long cardigan and a pair of "winter" trousers that I wanted, and did remember that I had put away. However, when I got down to the storage room, I discovered several more items of winter clothing that I had totally forgotten about! (Or at least had not been missing them yet...) Probably a good idea both in autumn and in spring to check my own storage spaces before I'm tempted to go out and buy something new (only to come back home with something and then later discover that I already had something very similar - which I have to confess has happened... As I do tend to feel drawn towards certain styles and colours!) 

As for the photos above, I may possibly have blogged these before - but I'm pretty sure they're not from my own wardrobe...! ;)  (They are from a fashion exhibition at the Textile Museum last summer, 2018.)

Button Up

The change from winter to spring/summer involves shifting some clothes between my basement storage and wardrobe(s) in the flat. I started taking down some of my wintriest coats and boots last week, and continued with bringing up some summer clothes today (when I had laundry day, involving repeated trips up and down between my flat and the basement anyway).

This one-button jacket seemed to have shrunk somewhat over winter (hm) but I decided to give it another chance by applying this “button trick”. All you need is a spare button of the same kind + a piece of string or something (I used a thin black leather strap, more or less invisible against the pattern). Put the string through the button, adjust the loop to the size you need, and tie a knot at the other end. Then just put the extra button through the button hole in the jacket, and the loop around the original button – and there you are. It keeps the jacket more comfortably together, and the “cheating” is not too obvious unless you take a very close look…

Textile Power

Last weekend I went to visit our Textile Museum - as I do now and then. It's been three years since they moved to new premises, and they've had a number of different exhibitions since then, but it's taken them all this time to get the basic one with all the old heavy textile industry machines re-opened. In the old premises, the machines were all gathered in one huge hall, very high in ceiling. While that did perhaps give an impression of what it might have been like to work in such a place, at the same time it was hard for visitors to get an overview of all the steps in the manufacture. 

In the new exhibition, entitled Textile Power, they have chosen to display machines in a more logical order so that you can better follow the process, from the first steps in refining the fibres, to the final products. 

 

 

Various machines combing and spinning the cotton into thinner and thinner threads.

This is a jacquard loom, weaving patterened ribbons using a technique involving punch-cards that was sort of a predecessor to computer technology.

This is a knitting machine which at the end of the process spits out a complete glove with five fingers. 

Seeing these patterns displayed reminded me of my mum, because she used to sew most of our clothes at home herself, back in my childhood and youth. 

The exhibition also spotlights the conditions for the textile workers in the factories, and how much our whole society and industry has changed in the last hundred+ years. It is easy to forget that only about a century ago, most factory workers in Sweden were still living and working in conditions not all that different from the present-day countries where, in fact, most of the production now takes place - i.e. mostly in Asia. (Low wages, long hours, large families in crowded living quarters etc.)

Borås is still a town with a strong textile focus, and home to various businesses to do with fashion, design and clothes. We have the Textile Museum and also a Textile College; and various companies working with fashion design and smart textile inventions for the future; and shops and mailorder companies selling lots of clothes. But nowadays not much of the actual production takes place here. That has all been moved abroad to far-away places where workers are still living in conditions no longer regarded as acceptable in Sweden... The exhibition at the museum reminds us of that.




Once upon a time, the colour of the water in the river running through this town would shift from day to day, depending on what pigments they were using in the dyeing works at the moment. Nowadays, our river has been cleaned from the old toxic substances from the dyeing industry. A couple of years ago, when a new walk was opened along a part of the river near one such place, as a reminder, they installed lights there that can shift colour. (I wonder if future generations will remember the reason?) 

At the museum, they also had this display of A Teenager's Wardrobe from 1950, 1980 and 2010. Another powerful reminder of how consumption has increased. Born in 1955 myself, I can relate to this. I have a lot more clothes and shoes now than I did back around 1980. (And it's not because of never getting rid of old things.)

At another station in the exhibition, visitors are asked to look at the labels in their clothes to check where they were made. It was not very practical for me to do that just then and there - but I gave it some thought when I got home. The only item I had on that was actually made in Sweden was my socks...

In this recent photo, I'm wearing leggings and skirt made in China, and t-shirt and sweater made in Bangladesh... An inspection of my wardrobe showed the majority of my clothes to have been made in those two countries + India. (Not really surprised, but have to confess I've never really given it much thought.)

Yesterday, I went shopping for a (rain)coat. The one I fell for and bought was neither cheap, nor on sale; and for a change it's from Denmark. Well - er - at least the label says "Danish design and fine processing", and also claims to meet "high ethical standards and health requirements"... Whether that actually means it was made in Denmark, I can't tell from the labels... Really, being a "conscious consumer" is not made easy!!!

(herluf-design.dk)


Anyway, besides being water repelleant and breathable and washable... this coat is also reversible! Which means it can be turned inside out and worn that way instead (mauve outside and dark purple inside), still with pockets and buttons etc in the right places. So it's really two coats in one. I love that, and also the flexible collar, which can also be pulled up over your head and used as a hood. It really is a very smart design. So I hope I'll be able to use it for several years to come.

 
The exhibition really did set me thinking a lot about these topics. If only it were as simple as paying a bit more for a certain item and knowing the money would end up in the right pocket. Or buying less, and be sure that this would improve the environment... But it's never quite that easy - is it...?

Instead, it's all more like this room in the exhibition, where they had turned the manufacturer's office into a giant board game... Two steps forward, three steps back etc.

Now I'm curious to know what you think....
For example:
How has your wardrobe changed over the years?
Do you buy things on impulse, or do you plan your purchases carefully?
And do you check labels to see where things were made??

Through My Lens

Mosaic Monday
 

Mixing and Matching

or: Fifty Shades of Red

Spring this year has been a slow and rather chilly affair; and with no “special occasions” on my agenda, I’ve not been feeling much need or inspiration to go shopping for new clothes – until this week, when Summer decided it was time to make an appearance after all. Then all of a sudden when I opened my wardrobe, it mysteriously turned out to contain almost only winter colours; especially in the tops and cardigans section. Or else odd colours that did not seem to go with anything else I owned…

I’ve probably complained about this before; but it’s an enigma to me what secret world council is behind the changes of fashion colour schemes from one year to another. It doesn’t matter which store you visit, or which brand you look at – setting out to match, for example, a certain shade of pink or red bought two or three years ago often proves to be next to impossible!

However, as it turned out, I had some luck this week (or year) in actually finding some things to match two cherry (?) red items bought last summer.

This is the skirt and top from last year. Actually I did not really buy those two on the same occasion or with the purpose of wearing them together – but they turned out to be of exactly identical dye although different material.

Earlier this spring (as perhaps one or two of you with an eye for these things might remember) I bought a “pink” handbag on sale. This, rather to my surprise, turned out to go better with the cherry red than with other shades of pink in my wardrobe.

And even better with some new items bought this week - a button-less long cardigan, and a cotton blouse:

 

(The back of the cardigan)

Before you faint from the colour shock, perhaps I’d better add that I doubt I’ll ever wear all the red items together (from top to toe). More likely I’ll be mixing them with white, grey, beige, black and/or dark blue.

I also bought this sleeveless long top, and a pair of shoes (flat, soft and comfortable).

 

I think the cardigan will also go quite nicely with this (also sleeveless) dress from last summer, even if the red “belt” on that is a slightly different shade of red:

Now all I need is the right weather to show them off in!