2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

MrsCD

TwibbleDee said:

Just FYI, if your teens can’t remember instructions, do NOT let them use your cast iron.  I swear they’re trying to destroy it between the 2 of them.  One of them cooked on high, which they’ve been specifically told not to do, and the other cleaned it with a steel wool Brillo pad and removed all the seasoning.

😨😭 I hope you laid the law down! Tell them to buy their own if they can't use yours properly.

PipneyJane

TwibbleDee said:

PipneyJane said:

TwibbleDee said:

Just FYI, if your teens can’t remember instructions, do NOT let them use your cast iron.  I swear they’re trying to destroy it between the 2 of them.  One of them cooked on high, which they’ve been specifically told not to do, and the other cleaned it with a steel wool Brillo pad and removed all the seasoning.

Tell them that, if they ruin it, they will have to pay for it in cash, from whatever savings they have.  It's amazing how that concentrates the mind.  (It worked for my sister.)

- Pip

I'm pretty certain there's no way for them to replace cast iron that was my Dad's back when he was in college...it has a bit of sentimental value!

That makes it doubly painful.  Did you show how upset you were?

I can at least help with re-seasoning it.  I have several black-iron skillets.  If your cast iron is oven proof - no plastic handles - then coat all the iron with a thin coat of cooking oil and bake at 120C or 250F for 2 hours.  Leave in the oven overnight to cool.  Wash excess oil off afterwards with dishwashing liquid and hot soapy water.  

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@TwibbleDee - oooh jings! How many decades are they grounded for?!? That is not just wrong, but it's cruel to the pan!!!

TwibbleDee

@PipneyJane  I know how to do it, it’s just a matter of taking the time to.
@Laura_Elsewhere  Seeing as how I’m in Texas, I bet that’s a hangin’ offense. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Argh.

Many years ago I visited one of my first online friends, E. She was lovely, and we had a lovely decade or so of close friendship, before our lives diverged so mcuh that we drifted, in a mutual and friendly way, a bit further apart although still in occasional contact. On my second visit to her, there was a bundle on he spare room bed (on the gorgeous pieced quilt she had made...) - it was a beautiful Alice Starmore pattern jumper, a real beauty - a dark blue almost black, and a rich deep gold colour, in a beautiful all-over angular geometric design with rich deep complex swirling borders and corrugated rib at neck, cuffs and welt. 
She said it took her so many years to knit that she had had children by the time it was done and had never even been able to try it on as it was so much too small for her... ;'( so she sadly washed and blocked it and laid it aside until *someday* when she met someone she knew would appreciate it. And she gave it to me! 
I wore it over the years, as it got a bit battered but still gorgeous. When I moved here, My Intended only had thin wool jumpers, or non-wool ones (why?!), so he started wearing it, and it's gradually become his heavy jumper. 

And I washed it this morning and it has a huge moth-hole bang in the centre-front. If you were pinning a microphone on someone's jumper, you'd pin it in the centre-line about 5-6" down, and that'\s pretty much where this huge hole is, with another smaller one a bit further down to the side by an inch. 

Well... it'll be a challenge. 

Plan A: tack some fine net behind the hole and get it stabilised and into an embroidery hoop. Try to catch as much of the unravelled ends into position as I can. Use some of the pulled strands on the inside to harvest 2-3" lengths to use to mimic stitches to fill in the actual hole. Use fine thread from behind to hold the wool, and hope to patch it all in. Finally, cover the net with some soft dark fabric on the back. 

If that isn't possible, then there is...

Plan B: (thankyou Dad for this idea) patch the holes as best I can, even if they still show obviously. Strengthen the patched area from behind. Unpick the collar and unravel it. Turn the jumper around. Re-knit the collar a few rows shorter to allow for a wider opening that will take in the short-rown  higher neckline at the was-back-now-front.

And if that isn't possible, then there is...

Plan C: cobble it all together as best I can and then crochet up the front in parallel lines, cut between and turn, and make it into a big cardigan-jacket for me... 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Argh.

Many years ago I visited one of my first online friends, E. She was lovely, and we had a lovely decade or so of close friendship, before our lives diverged so mcuh that we drifted, in a mutual and friendly way, a bit further apart although still in occasional contact. On my second visit to her, there was a bundle on he spare room bed (on the gorgeous pieced quilt she had made...) - it was a beautiful Alice Starmore pattern jumper, a real beauty - a dark blue almost black, and a rich deep gold colour, in a beautiful all-over angular geometric design with rich deep complex swirling borders and corrugated rib at neck, cuffs and welt. 
She said it took her so many years to knit that she had had children by the time it was done and had never even been able to try it on as it was so much too small for her... ;'( so she sadly washed and blocked it and laid it aside until *someday* when she met someone she knew would appreciate it. And she gave it to me! 
I wore it over the years, as it got a bit battered but still gorgeous. When I moved here, My Intended only had thin wool jumpers, or non-wool ones (why?!), so he started wearing it, and it's gradually become his heavy jumper. 

And I washed it this morning and it has a huge moth-hole bang in the centre-front. If you were pinning a microphone on someone's jumper, you'd pin it in the centre-line about 5-6" down, and that'\s pretty much where this huge hole is, with another smaller one a bit further down to the side by an inch. 

Well... it'll be a challenge. 

Plan A: tack some fine net behind the hole and get it stabilised and into an embroidery hoop. Try to catch as much of the unravelled ends into position as I can. Use some of the pulled strands on the inside to harvest 2-3" lengths to use to mimic stitches to fill in the actual hole. Use fine thread from behind to hold the wool, and hope to patch it all in. Finally, cover the net with some soft dark fabric on the back. 

If that isn't possible, then there is...

Plan B: (thankyou Dad for this idea) patch the holes as best I can, even if they still show obviously. Strengthen the patched area from behind. Unpick the collar and unravel it. Turn the jumper around. Re-knit the collar a few rows shorter to allow for a wider opening that will take in the short-rown  higher neckline at the was-back-now-front.

And if that isn't possible, then there is...

Plan C: cobble it all together as best I can and then crochet up the front in parallel lines, cut between and turn, and make it into a big cardigan-jacket for me... 

Can I cry for you? Or with you?

I've just had some good news about my colleague.  She's conscious, off the ventilator but (currently) unable to talk.  Weak as a kitten, but alive and healing.  Yay!

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Oh @PipneyJane that is wonderful news!!!! Either 'conscious' or 'off the vent' would be excellent but both together is amazing! 

Forget the moth-hole, I am grinning all over my face at this news - such vivid memories of My Intended's son 18 months ago, the incredible astonished delight the day he could move each of his arms half an inch or so by himself, the day he sat up and saw the world at the right angle for the first time in months, the shock he gave the nurses half a year later when he went back to thank the ones who'd kept him alive on life support all those weeks and they realised he is 6'3", having only ever seen him lying down!!  

Smiling *very* happily with you, m'dear! That is wonderful, wonderful news... 

PollyWollyDoodle

Great news.

Laura, I feel your pain, that jumper sounds amazing. Both the solutions you’re suggesting sound like hard work, but worth it for a lovely jumper (and very in keeping with the wartime theme).

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Oh @PipneyJane that is wonderful news!!!! Either 'conscious' or 'off the vent' would be excellent but both together is amazing! 

Forget the moth-hole, I am grinning all over my face at this news - such vivid memories of My Intended's son 18 months ago, the incredible astonished delight the day he could move each of his arms half an inch or so by himself, the day he sat up and saw the world at the right angle for the first time in months, the shock he gave the nurses half a year later when he went back to thank the ones who'd kept him alive on life support all those weeks and they realised he is 6'3", having only ever seen him lying down!!  

Smiling *very* happily with you, m'dear! That is wonderful, wonderful news... 

The majority of our team were in the office today.  Sadly, the news came through after most had left, but we discussed it in our WhatsApp group and several of us have admitted being close to tears of relief.

My task for tomorrow is to put a script together so that we can record a message for her.

- Pip

TwibbleDee

Yay for good news!
It's starting to "cool off" here - which means our highs are in the 80s and 90s instead of 90s and 100s (and sometimes 110s!).  The problem is, now the air conditioners can keep up, and everywhere feels freezing to me.  I left my sweater at the office.  Apparently it's time to have a sweater I keep in the car again.