2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

thriftwizard wrote: »

You'd all be proud of me! Having cleared a space for the overlocker to "live" in, I started to tackle the UFO pile today. First item up was a Fair Isle type cardi snapped up at the recycler's for 50p, due to be chopped into a pair of leg warmers and possibly a skirt.

BUT on closer inspection, it turned out to be a pure new wool hand knitted Susan Duckworth cardigan, underneath a fair amount of West Highland Terrier hair! It had one hole, which I've darned with wool reclaimed from various remains-of-tapestry-kits; it wasn't possible to do an invisible darn, so I've made a little feature of it & changed a small flower shape into a heart. As the (acrylic) cardi I'm wearing is fast reaching the end of its useful life, it'll make a very good replacement for that once the dog hair's safely removed. Provided it doesn't shrink in the wash... (autocorrect seems to think it might "drink" in the wash!)

A kimono has also been re-hemmed, by hand, but that's as far as I got. Next job is to attach an elastic waistband to an ex-jumper skirt, then using a short piece of left-over elastic to join a tribal-style dance belt.

Susan Duckworth? You lucky thing! That is quite a find! Fingers crossed it washes up nicely. Is it any one of these?

- Pip

thriftwizard

Trying to add a pic to my Ravelry projects, but my computer is objecting to the camera just now so I can't upload it! Laters... but it's not one of those. It's washed up fine, with a lot less dog-hair, but the darn is more obvious now so I'll make it more "official" before classifying it as a "completed" project!

Laura_Elsewhere

You can always sit listening to a good radio programme or audiobook and just dab the hair off with sellotape wrapped round your hand...

Well done, though! I still remember the disbelieving excitement about ten years ago when a local charity shop had two hand knitted jumpers for 6 quid each - I even queried whether they should be priced higher because they were handknitted and the bored till-girl just yawned, "naw, six quid a jumper, hen" so I snapped them up and have appreciated them... I even think I recognise one as a specific New Lanark yarn!

thriftwizard

OK - by devious means involving dropbox & Ravelry, here it is:

Laura_Elsewhere

50p? Pure new wool? Hand knitted? Coo, you did do well!

And no coupons! Wow!!!!

thriftwizard

The darn, tidied up - best I can do! There were too many colours involved in the hole for me to match it perfectly, but I'll be happy to wear it.

Laura_Elsewhere

thriftwizard wrote: »

The darn, tidied up - best I can do! There were too many colours involved in the hole for me to match it perfectly, but I'll be happy to wear it.

Well, I had to look closely to see it. I know my eyesight isn't the best, but I think that darn obviously does exactly what you hoped for: stabilises and replaces the lost fibres, and blends inconspicuously with the rest!

Nice work!

Laura_Elsewhere

Mr Nice was going to buy me fabric on his points to make myself a lovely everyday skirt, but we've just been to the really good fabric shop and couldn't find anything we liked...

So I'm going to go back to my fabric collection when we get home and see what I already have that I've forgotten about...

There is still Wotsit & Thingie's in Shrewsbury to check, and we're also going to TORM, the original re-enactors' market, in Coventry, so we may find fabric there but I would be pleased if his Xmas present to me ended up being a non-purchase! His present could be the encouragement and prodding to get it made by then

PipneyJane

It’s a stunning cardigan, Thriftwizard. You’ve matched the colour beautifully with that darn and it looks knitted in. Well done!

The only suggestion I have to make is how about overlaying a couple of black, Swiss-darned stitches at the bottom? When you look at the big picture, the only thing that makes that “flower” stand out visually is that it encroaches on the black stripe below it. Seriously, you have done a brilliant job.

Good luck with the shopping, Laura.

Roll on the rugby today. I have half a sleeve to finish and Hand Knit Charm will be completed. Also am desperately trying to finish off a sock before tomorrow’s NFL match, not because I want to wear it, but because the pattern requires too much looking and I want to free up the needles to start a self-patterning sock to take to the game. At last week’s game, I kept missing plays because I had to look at what I was doing. I gave up knitting at half time, which is a first. < sigh > All that knitting time wasted...

Speaking of the NFL game at Wembley last week, I foolishly didn’t wear my thermal long-johns - didn’t think it would be cold enough - and spent the match getting colder and colder. Those long-johns are silk, 19 years old, and have seen a lot of wear. At some point they’ll wear out, so I’ve been looking for suitable replacements and succumbed to two packs of thermal (top plus long-johns) in Costco this week. I’ll need to work out the points - do I treat them as “combinations” (four coupons per pair)?

- Pip

thriftwizard

I stitched over the stray pink stitches on the "second pass" after washing, PipneyJane, having found some Navy blue in a different stash, and I'm wearing it now, over a cotton polo-neck - blissful!

I can't remember what we did last year when I bought some thermals but I think we did decide they were equivalent to "combinations" - which, on reflection, is exactly what they are. I've been perusing some old copies of the Shetland Guild of WSD newsletters, amongst others, whilst looking for ideas to revamp our own Guild's editions, and have been amused to see mention of "spencers", which IIRC were a kind of lightweight, slightly lacy woollen vest. Another word that "thermals" has replaced?