Put away your purse & become debt-averse

marionmgcars

I decided to have a day off from house duties, and sit and knit.  Delighted with myself for managing to find the free talking books section of my local library. (even tho it took up some of the valuable knitting time),  this means I can knit and listen to story, a nice change from watching tv.  My little chilli challenge has decided to produce some little shoots, so will look forward to transplanting them when they are more established, that was a lovely gift I received, so free chillies hopefully.  Now I will go and reknit my Grandson's cardigan.  I have just finished knitting a pair of socks, which I could never understand anyone knitting. However they were a lovely portable project to do on the long bus ride to work. 

DawnW

Baileys_Babe said:

Nanny tried to teach me to knit many times without success but my Sister learnt and she now supports dd

My Mum was a skilled knitter, and used to design her own patterns back when those jumpers with pictures of carthorses pulling ploughs and others of that ilk were in vogue. Luckily my Dad was the recipient and not me   Anyway, she taught me to knit when I was 4 or thereabouts. I knitted endless scarves for my teddy bears and dolls, with many holes from dropped stitches and uneven edges where stitches had been lost, I assume, from the row ends. The trouble is, I never really got any better at it, despite trying intermittently. I even started to knit a little cardigan when my first baby was on the way .... but Mum ended up finishing it for my third, 9 years later. Haven't done any since, except for showing one of my grand daughters how to cast off recently, which for some reason, I still remember how to do. And guess what she had been knitting - yes, a scarf for her teddy

ladyholly

My mum knitted lots for us when we were little. Unfortunately this included vests (I was a late developer) and at about 14 I was the recipient of a pale green one which attracted a lot of attention in the changing room at school. (The cream ones were bad enough but pale green!!!). In a jumper it would have been pretty but not a vest.   They also had a knitted cord to pull the neck up a little.  Everyone else either wore a bra or had very pretty fancy vests from M&S. I have never forgotten the embarressment although my Mum didnt even remember it years later when I mentioned it.

Baileys_Babe

Thankfully my Mum never knitted us vests.

I remember that green and I was never a fan.

Honeysucklelou2

My grandmother knitted for my brother and I. She used to knit items for charity too. I always used to marvel at how she could keep up a conversation or watch a TV programme and still keep knitting! She tried to teach me but I always got the tension wrong and had that awful squeak of too - tightly - pulled wool against the knitting needles.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I remember helping my grandma to roll skeins of wool into balls as a child. Grandma used to knit us cardigans when we were little which we were always pleased with. My mum knitted me a cream arran jumper once with a very complex pattern, although she got halfway through and lost the pattern ( I think it blew overboard on a ferry 🤣) and it took ages to find a replacement pattern so that jumper took a long time to knit but I loved it 🙂.
My mum also used to make us lovely summer dresses in flowered material. She made me a pink one and I loved wearing it as it was so pretty 🙂

Sadly I haven't inherited any knitting talent or dressmaking talent. I was taught to knit by my mum or grandma but I always dropped stitches and my knitting was full of holes. But it's a lovely thing to be able to do if you're not cackhanded like me 🤣.

marionmgcars

I've just visited C*stco,  I know it is good to stock up on things, but I always spend and absolute fortune there, even tho I originally went to fill the car with cheap priced petrol. what does everyone think of shopping there.  Am thinking of cancelling the membership. ??

Onebrokelady

I love knitting. When my girls were babies I knitted all their cardigans. When they went to school I knitted their cardigans and jumpers until the schools swapped to sweatshirts. The last two items I knitted were a baby blanket and cardigan for my eldest DGS. I had found a pattern to knit myself a nice comfy slouchy jumper for wearing at home just before lockdown but I haven't been able to go and get it or the wool because the shop is still closed, I will go and buy it though as soon as they open again, it's only a plain stocking stitch so won't take long to do. I was looking for an Arran pattern but haven't found one yet, I'd like a nice chunky arran cardigan for snuggling up in the winter 😊

foxgloves

I don't know anything about C*stco, Marion, I've never used them, so I can't really comment. I think it is quite easy to go overboard in shops which are promoted as being cheap. I went for a look in one of the big bargain chains when it appeared in our town & bought........precisely one bottle of chilli sauce! I thought the household stuff was all crowded up so tightly together it was hard to see properly what there actually was, there was a lot of tat & the groceries didn't seem to be particularly cheap. For instance, the specific gin I like was on promotion right by the entrance last time I visited & it was the same price as I'd just paid in W*itrose! I'd got Mr F with me & we had a quick perusal of the grocery shelves but nothing really struck us as being truly bargainaceous. I've seen people coming out of there with huge trolley loads though, so they are either finding a lot more than I did or, it's that fatal thing of being sucked in by the publicity that this is a really cheap shop because it has a bargainy sounding word in its name.
F

foxgloves

Hello Rainy Diary Readers,
Well, today could not be more different. I woke at 4, but relaxed listening to the dawn chorus, fell back to sleep & didn't wake again till 7.30, which was too late for my intended plan of getting down to the local market for 8 a.m so as to get near the front of the queues. And it's raining! And chilly! So I got up & put a long sleeved dress on, footless tights & my purple mary-jane shoes, rather than the sandals I've been living in for a while now. Hours later & I'm pleased to say it's still raining. It hasn't stopped. I popped down to the postbox & thoroughly enjoyed the feel of the rain on my face, as it has been so hot & muggy of late. The greenhouse, which I usually have to open first thing so that my planty friends don't shrivel in the heat, has been left closed. I have actually moved the sweetcorn & celeriac babies back inside.....there'll be a good few sluggy scoffers around in this weather & I don't want to come down tomorrow to 8 trays of holes! 
So indoor pursuits today. I've done a little admin, made some bread rolls & pizza dough (on 2nd proving) & progressed some online research. I am going to decamp to the front room shortly, to re-knit the panel of my knitting which I had to frog over the last couple of days. I managed to get it back to that silly error last night & it won't take me long to re-knit it, then I can start the final panel of the back before joining the shoulders together & starting the neck gussets. They're a bit fiddly so will make sure I'm not watching any complex Scandi-dramas with subtitles.
It's been so interesting reading about everyone's memories of older family members knitting. My Mum could knit, although she didn't knit clothes for us. She sewed us pretty dresses when we were small......they were very short (it was the late 60s/early 70s) & barely covered our pride! They also had the obligatory double rows of ric-rac around the hem. My Nana was the knitter. She was very thrifty with yarn. She didn't have very much growing up & also when bringing up my Mum in the 1930s/40s & she wasted nothing. Yarn was pulled out & re-used, with my Grandad sitting there with his arms held out as she used to wind it as she pulled it out. Her speciality was mittens. She was still knitting those right up until she died, despite having terrible arthritis in her hands. When we were children, & were taken over to see our grandparents at October half term, Nan would always take us through to her spare bedroom where all her latest mittens would be laid out on the bed & we were allowed to choose a pair each. She sold the rest at her church bazaar or gave them as gifts. They were lovely mittens. I kept a tiny pair we must have found when she died. Pink with cream patterns. I popped them away safely in case they would do for any offspring produced by me or my sister, but I didn't have any & my sister only had boys, neither of whom would be impressed with pink, so I still have them in my family treasure box where I keep all sorts of lovely things. Nan was obviously very taken by the fair isle knitting craze which I think took off in the 1930s when one of the Windsor family was photographed wearing a fair isle tank top. It was perfect for her, as she could use every single little scrap of yarn in rows of coloured dots & other shapes & bits of patterning. I remember that even in her early 80s, when being thrifty was no longer a necessity, if you gave her a small amount of scrap yarn, she'd carefully fold it in half, cut it in two & say it was to make sure she had enough to use that colour in both mittens so that she'd have a matching pair. I don't often knit mittens, but I have found a nice pattern in one of my charity shop knitting books & I am thinking about using some of my yarn stash to knit a few pairs for the presents bag, using my Nan's logic about incorporating lots of pretty colours to use up every scrap. 
Well m'dears, I must go & get the oven warmed up for my bread rolls & then ask Mr F who I have to snog around here to get a cup of coffee, then I'll be getting my needles clacking again. It's quite nice to have a cooler day, actually, & sufficient rain for the garden to have a proper soaking.
Look after yourselves,
F x