Toasties moving into autumn and dusting off the mothballed knits (or buying new ones)

[ToastCosILoveIt]

New thread for us lovely Toasties.

@Laska2Merylswill you be in Porto for the chocolate festival next week?Envy intensifies
oooo...we are in Porto now! I shall look it up..( but probably not, sadly as leaving on Friday)

I am currently sitting drinking mint tea (quite Toast like) in the van wearing old parchment tee with shoulder pleat detail ( super cheap from the days of the fab JL sales) and the Hiko print PJ bottoms... I didn't bring very much Toast with me (except Emma tees).. Hoping to make it to Burel in Porto tomorrow.. ..

@Laska2Meryls - sounds idyllic. I am also drinking mint tea- but on a Yorkshire sofa.

Thanks @dudsville - unfortunately the furry fiend that is our dog quite likes it too. He’s always trying to eat it!

@OftenOrange I want more Toast socks!

Thank you!!

Anyone re my taxes angst?

Sorry I can be no help @NoCureForLove . I haven’t ordered from Europe since Brexit. All I know is that you can’t buy cheap gin in the airport unless you’re travelling out of Europe and it’s very annoying.

@NoCureForLove - about taxes etc. I remember trying to look on the gov.uk website and giving up in despair, but you could perhaps try contacting Jones Arnhem? I know biggish brands like sezane take care of everything themselves. The only times I've ordered from Europe since Brexit was from Maria Black which I believe is Danish and I don't think I paid anything at all except postage

@NoCureForLove , I recently ordered from Arq in the US (side plug for their excellent comfy bras). So not the same as Europe, but I imagine it would be similar. My order was around USD150 plus shipping of around USD25. I did a lot of googling before placing the order, and I was expecting to be charged around £20 or maybe a bit more in taxes/charges, but weirdly, I got charged nothing. My parcel just arrived one day with no fanfare at all. I don’t know why - maybe they only check a random selection of parcels?? This doesn’t really help you except to say you might not be charged anything. But for the price you are talking about paying, I would expect that it would only be a delivery handling fee anyway.
More info here: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

@NoCureForLove i got stung a shedload of money for ordering from Bleu De Chauffe. Weirdly I placed 2 orders in the last 6 months and one of them was charged customs and tax and the other wasn’t. The one that was was with UPS

You should be fine if you spend less than £150. I had a slight complication with my order. Roughly 18 months ago I bought a top from a Spanish company (Lenvers) costing approx £120 and was expecting to pay postage costs only. I was however charged customs duties in error in a separate bill that was initially sent by text ( I thought it was a scam at first so ignored). I discovered however the cost of the item was mistakenly recorded as worth over £200 on the customs form attached to the parcel ( Luckily I’d kept all packaging and paperwork in case I needed to return the item). Lenvers asked me to pay the bill straightaway and they then refunded me in full, no quibble as it was their mistake.

@Snowyowl78 - when you got stung, do you remember how much it was for? This is why I haven't ordered anything from them since Brexit, despite them sending me all sorts of special offer codes. It's not just the official taxes etc, it's the 'handling fees' - seems like a massive rip off to me

@faustina £97.44! Eek! For an order of £414. I can’t remember the breakdown but if I find the invoice I’ll let you know. I asked BDC and they told me that they have reduced prices for the UK by 20% to accommodate charges.
the second time I ordered it was £180 and I didn’t get charged

That's awful! And mostly they're just over the limit aren't they ( the prices). I swindler how much of that was a 'handling charge'

I have just bought this from the Bath shop https://www.toa.st/collections/womens-knitwear/products/tie-neck-stripe-donegal-cardigan-blue-multi Although quite expensive it has brought me joy! The wool has little flecks of bright colours - orange, turquoise - and more. It is very warm and versatile to style. My current Toast Cardi is 7 years old and still going strong so hopefully the cost per wear will be miniscule.

That's a very joyful cardigan @Astrabees !

I also went into a shop today. I liked things more than I did last time I was in, must have been in a funk last time, but I'm still not chomping at the shopping bit. I was in some brown cords, the pistachio jumper and the orange dogtooth coat. I'm not sure it went together as an outfit, but I felt cosy and content.

I'm still on my non-clothes based home upda⁹tes. Napkins, placements, a new tea set, wine glasses, trays, tea towels, oven mitts... today I moved on to my office, which is also the dining room. It's not grand enough to be called a dining room, and there's a monstrosity of a book case in there that's a bastard to dust. Just bought vintage glass enclosed shelving units from etsy and emailed my local charity to beg then to take my monstrosity away.

I've also bought christmas bedding and fairy lights, which I suspect are v non toast, but i love the print. They're washed and waiting in the airing cupboard. I think I'm done now.

Love catching up with everyone's Toasty doings, especially cosy season

@dudsville "home upda⁹tes" ok maybe a typo but I'm interpreting it as very elevated conceptual design😁

@faustina I used this Johnstons cashmere from colourmart, tripled so no biasing. Julie Hoover is an understated design genius, the asymmetrical sleeve shaping on Cline is just chef's kiss

@NoCureForLove I think it's: nice things + actual shipping < £135 = 👍unless you're randomly lucky. Please link the socks so we can enable!

@Laska2Meryls Chocolate festival starts 19th. I got a flyer when ordering some bougie advent calendars, it looks fab!

🤣 I don't even know how to type that! Ooh⁰ found it.

I wore the brown Bernie Sanders gloves today. They were from last winter I think, I got them in the late spring sale, they also came in a berry colour. My goodness they're soft!

Today I’m in an Emma tee, a cotton wool cardi, kindred socks and Novestas. First time I’m wearing some Alix trousers and oh my gosh they are incredible. So comfortable and the perfect cropped length for my frame. Like @dudsville I’m not sure it made a great outfit, but felt really comfortable. Will need to buy more Alix trousers, just hoping they haven’t messed with the sizing of them.

I have just received a Toast order and have some weird sizing inconsistencies to report. I ordered the old style denim pinafore and the harissa neat cardigan. I knew the sizes I needed, because I had tried both previously, and I have the cotton linen version of the pinafore. But somehow, in placing the order while trying to do a bunch of other things, I managed to order two of each. 🙄 And that is where the sizing inconsistencies begin….
One of the denim pinafores sat very oddly at the top, as if the fabric was pulled in one direction. So I tried the other one. It was enormous. I measured them against each other and sure enough, it is about 2 inches wider the whole way down. It is also that much wider than my cotton/linen version.
The cardigan has a lump where the arm and body seams are attached (this is actually the reason I sent it back previously, so not a one off problem) - but just on one side. So I tried the second one. It is a good size smaller! Measured up against each other there is again at least a 2 inch difference! What is going on??
What this means is that I am sending them all back and giving up on these two items. Which is a shame because I was sure they were going to be keepers. But I cannot be bothered ordering yet another one of each.
Sorry, that was a bit long!

That is shocking @ScottishMouse Toast quality control seems almost non-existent recently. Surely this sort of thing must have a dreadful effect on their bottom line.

Right @Theteapotsbrokenspout ? I had planned to keep both items, but now they have lost a sale of around £300!

@ScottishMouse Plus of course the cost in postage and returns, and surely ultimately some of these faulty items will end up being scrapped (unless of course they make repairs and sell them as 'renewed' with a substantial mark-up).

Indeed @Theteapotsbrokenspout. I recognise that I am quite pernickety, but at Toast prices I don’t feel it unreasonable to be so.
Onwards and upwards, maybe there will be some even nicer pieces in the next drop that I can try.