Warm in Nets

by Geraden

Besides hosiery, one of my interests is choral singing. I sing bass in a local Choral Society. Since this is the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, we are currently rehearsing Mozart's Requiem. We rehearse in a Church Hall on the outskirts of Birmingham. In the winter this hall feels freezing. The heating is put on at the start of the rehearsal and it has almost reached a reasonable temperature by the end! So warm clothing is a must.

This week has been quite cool, so I decided to test out a theory of mine about tights and thermal insulation. The theory goes something like this: One of the best insulators is air, if only you can get it to stop moving around and to stay in one place. If you can trap air in your clothing, that will provide excellent insulation. My father used to wear string vests. He said it was the holes that kept him warm.

Applying this to legwear, you think straight away of fishnet tights. As it happens I got hold of some net tights in TKMaxx recently, Under the brand label Ann Klein or Via Spiga, they have been selling for £4.99 for a two pair pack in one of four sizes, and in various patterns: conventional nets, stringers-type with ultra large mesh and patterned nets. The ones I got were honeycomb patterned nets. Very soft and stretchy they are, and I had no problem getting them to fit my long legs. I took a picture of the pattern with my mobile phone camera to send to a hosiery loving friend.

So these honeycomb tights were key to my plan of keeping my legs warm in the cold church hall. Being very soft and stretchy, they are also very clingy, so wearing them directly under trousers was not a good idea. And I did not want nets showing at my ankles – I am not that brave! So I decided to wear some black opaques on top. These would also trap the air more closely in the honeycomb pattern. I had thrown away my Activskin A869s because they had developed a large tear at the top of one leg, though otherwise they were still in perfect condition.

Hunting through my opaques drawer, I came across my Lida Man's World and decided that they would do. They are not as dense as the Activskins, for all that they are rated as 100 denier appearance as opposed to the Activskins' 70. So all I wanted now was a pair of thin sheers to wear under the nets to stop the toes going through the holes. (That can be painful after a time.) Marks and Spencers 3D Ultra Sheers seemed to fit the bill - comfortable, light and fit well.

So that was my bottom half nicely taken care of, with the addition of a pair of jeans. To keep my top half warm, I wore a long sleeved cotton-lycra leo with a zip back, then a T-shirt, long sleeve polo neck top and a fleece.

Well, if you think 3 pairs of tights and a leo was excessive, you don't know our church hall! But with the layers to provide insulation and warmth, I was warm enough even at the start of the rehearsal before the heating had kicked in. By the end I had taken off the fleece, but it was not warm enough to think about removing anything else.

Most of the other men in the choir were looking decidedly chilly and were complaining of the cold, as were many of the women. No doubt the sensible ones had put some warm tights on underneath their trousers, but whether any of the other men were sensible enough to do that, I do not know. If anyone had spoken to me directly about the cold, I would have said that it was the weather for thick winter tights and I had made sure I was wearing mine, but the occasion did not arise.

My experiment with the nets was a great success. I had to take them off immediately I got back to a centrally heated house, but I kept on the M&S sheers, despite the fact that a hole had developed on my big toe and a fine ladder was creeping up.

The secret of keeping warm is layers - and tights make a good layer (or more than one!) I do not see why men as well as women should not take advantage of this!

If you would like to comment on this entry, please click on the 'Comments' link below.

links: technorati