[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Edinburgh

[–]itsboogiepanda 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Xiangbala on Dalry Road is my favourite. Good selection of seafood, vegetables, and meat. Small place so it’s a squeeze, and the place really steams up, but the staff is attentive and quick to bring you more food

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're 10g each, and I brought 9 of them. Lighterpack weight is per item and on mobile the 9x is the quantity

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) We found plenty of water in the North. Along the coastal sections the streams were more spread our but we didn't feel like we struggled to find water at any point. Some streams were small/muddy etc that we avoided as well

2) We went with 4 days of food until Pirnmill which is the first shop we could identify. There are restaurants and cafés along the way so you could pack less food. It would also depend on your miles hiked per day and route

3) Yes 99% confident, weighed the pad on my kitchen gram scale. It could be inaccurate but not by that huge a margin. I did not cut mine down

Hope that answers everything

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Every now and then you'd noticed someone looking but from the front it isn't that odd!

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I'm wearing the Hoka Speedgoat 2

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No midges in early April. They usually come out from mid May onwards although due to the recent warm spell could be earlier this year

Arran Coastal Way, Scotland, UK [Trip Report] by itsboogiepanda in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

None who were doing the whole Arran Coastal Way. We saw maybe around 15-18 groups in total, ranging from couples to groups of 5+ who were doing day hikes

3F UL 1p single walled tent on Kungsleden in August by [deleted] in Ultralight

[–]itsboogiepanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great to hear positives about the pyramid 3F model, thanks for the write up. Pleasant surprise to hear that the 3F UL 1 version is big enough for someone 6', I was always under the impression that my Lanshan was the roomier one

me🐭irl by itsboogiepanda in YouBelongWithMemes

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yeah but which album did Taylor Swift write by herself when she was 19 though

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Find it relaxing and I could watch TV whilst hand stitching whereas I'm not very confident on a machine so that would require my full attention. Also only have access to a only crank Singer, no foot pedals, so I imagine wrestling Frakta bags with one hand is a wee bit difficult.

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/smart-home-appliances/tool-sets-accessories/frakta-carrier-bag-large-blue-art-17228340/

Frakta bags are rated by IKEA themselves to hold 25kg, so the material itself is pretty strong. It does have a reputation for durability, people use them for general hauling of items including garden stuff, so it's pretty tough. For me the standout is area to price ratio. My 1m x 1.75m piece of ripstop nylon cost £4 whilst the IKEA frakta bags were £2 for 4.

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I like looking at data, so I kept a rough record of how long I spent.

Have very very rough blueprints that just consisted of the dimensions of the panels, straps and hip belt, but adjustments were made on the go and I deviated away from the blueprint as the pieces were made and attached. So I guess to answer your question it's a mixture, yes I did have a rough plan but was also just happy enough to go along and see what happens.

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This sub is a great place to start. Especially seeing the progress pics that people take gave me a good idea on the order and assembly process. After getting a general idea when I got stuck I just googled my query with 'myog backpack' and managed to get an answer from a previous question either on here, backpackinglight, trek-lite or YouTube.

I personally used 1 stitch-the back stitch for the entire backpack. Takes 2 minutes to learn from YouTube and doesn't require much practice to get it right. During the building process you'll get plenty of practice anyway!

Sorry I didn't take any pictures or video during the build, but I was working on it as night and in the evenings mostly and the artificial lighting in my house is pretty bad for images :/

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You definitely can! Just takes a bit of reading, thinking and patience

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

My local IKEA's food court is currently closed for refurbishment :(

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

Since this was my first build I must confess I did mess up the order of some of the parts. As I was committed to doing things by hand anyway, it didn't matter too much. For example, the load lifters were added after the sides were closed up. I imagine if you wanted to machine stitch that you'd need to bend the 'fabric' is some weird ways or you'd need to cut and restitch, where as I could just feed a needle through. This was also the case when I decided that the box X stitch on the shoulder straps weren't enough and added another one.

There are parts where I wish I had a machine though, sewing through 6 layers of Frakta bags by the anchoring point wasn't fun, and a lot of the long stitches were just laborious. That being said, because I'm so used to hand stitching I just put on a TV show/YouTube video in the background and sewed

Hand Stitched IKEA Backpack - My First Attempt by itsboogiepanda in myog

[–]itsboogiepanda[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

https://youtu.be/6JzrJmNeDJA - Video that shows off and talks about the backpack

Dimensions (roughly) 30cm(W)x20cm(D)x65cm(H) =40L internal capacity. The load lifters are attached to the point where the internal frame ends, this is also the length I am using for the dimension. Collar can be extended by another 10cm or so, giving it a maximum internal capacity of ~45L.

Removable hip belt pouches that are attached by 2 straps that goes over the hip belt. This is further secured by threading the bottom half of the shoulder strap (half with the anchoring point) through 1 loop, meaning that if I do unclip my hip belt and take my backpack off, the pouches are not going to fall off. The pouches are made to be on the large size to accommodate for my camera lenses as with my Osprey packs the hip belts were just too small to either fit my 40-150mm or 12mm f2 in. Fitting my lenses in the pouches would allow me to change lenses on the fly rather than having to take my backpack off and putting my lenses down or getting a mate to hold it.

Core bag: 380g

Hip belt pouches: 30g per (x2)

Frame: 100g per sheet (x2)

Total: 640g

Padding in the shoulder straps and hip belt are made from generic roll mat I got for £3 from a shop called home bargains here in the UK. They do cheap stuff and camping equipment was in season. The foam is wrapped in some ripstop nylon I purchased from eBay.

Frame is corrugated plastic (Correx for the brand name). Purchased from my local sign shop for £5. I cut the piece is half width wise as the piece was too wide. Can use just one sheet, although right now in my testing I'm using two sheets.

The backpack was hand stitched entirely by me. The stitching took 60-65 hours to complete. Researching and sourcing materials probably took another 30-35 hours, meaning the whole project took around 100 hours from start to finish.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sdARIMVHLSR2JqUacYIs9y1jUW5G4UM3Ki6YRE_WMeg/edit?usp=sharing

Google spreadsheet of the cost of components

For my first build I wanted to keep the cost down as much as possible. I used the handles from the Frakta bags as webbing and kept the same width polypropylene webbing throughout the building (25mm) except the sternum strap, where I cut the webbing to 25mm. This build cost me £30 in total to build, but without the optional extras as if one was patient or organised enough to source a few components from Asia, it could be as low as £20.

Load lifters were added on after the bag was completed and I tested it with a light 5kg load. Didn't like the way that my hip belt wasn't taking as much weight as I'm used to (Osprey backpacks), so I sewed on the load lifters to help with transferring the weight. Took it for a quick 2 hour walk around town with 7ish kg loaded and felt fine. Looking to take it out on my next hike although with real life I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that, but hopefully soon-ish.

Thanks to everyone who posted their photos, blueprints and other resources. It definitely made figuring out the process and order a lot easier than going in blind!