2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

You mean like this?  I have never worn one but I can see it would be useful - I often wear a camisole under a v-neck jumper to avoid exposing too much. 

skogar

Those sleeves are going to look great Laura - I love the stripes and the bobbled cuffs. Lovely colours too.

I'd never thought about the skirtbrella for cycling until I saw this rainwrap skirt. It looks nice but is rather expensive.

https://www.georgiaindublin.com/product/the-rainwrap/

That's why I wondered if you cycled in yours. I was more thinking one would be useful for walking to the shops etc. walking dogs in the forest and so on, had never thought of using one for cycling in.

The ladies dikie looks like a very elegant solution for a cold neck.

I do have a cashmere camisole that was bought much reduced in a sale which is very handy for going under things to make them warmer without adding bulk. I was just thinking maybe I should consider knitting another then remembered I am supposed to be using the wool I have. Only just avoided going in the lovely wool shop in town this week, going in without a plan is a recipe for disaster.

Nonnadiluca

Polly, it's similar to that but more square, the pattern is on 'Grandmother's pattern book'. I've made myself one and it does keep the neck lovely and warm - really easy to make too. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@skogar, you could always ask someone to buy you the cashmere yarn to knit another for Xmas, then it's on their coupons and not yours  
Do you know Colourmart? An American friend put me onto them, but they're only 15 miles from me, just outside Shrewsbury! They sell the yarn left over from weaving things like cashmere, so it's really good quality, and it's far far far cheaper than you could ever buy good cashmere yarn elsewhere. 
If you sign up new, you get a tenner voucher to use next time, but if you mention my username (Message me if you are signing up, anyone!) when you sign up and then make a purchase, then I get a fiver of credit on my account!  

I have two cashmere vests my aunt bought me 15 or so years ago - grey cashmere strappy ones, probably intended as vest-tops, but I wear them as an under-layer, and as you say wonderfully warm without adding bulk. They were starting to look a bit tired, so a couple of years ago I crocheted a lace edging onto the V of the neckline and they look brand-new all over again! 
Proper long-staple cashmere - suddenly, you realise what all the fuss is about!!!

Laura_Elsewhere

Nonnadiluca said:

Polly, it's similar to that but more square, the pattern is on 'Grandmother's pattern book'. I've made myself one and it does keep the neck lovely and warm - really easy to make too. 

I might go and look at he pattern for making myself one - I almost always have bare forearms with sleeves pushed up, but if there's one thing I can't stand, it's having a cold draughty neck!!!! 

skogar

Laura many thanks for the recommendation on where to get the cashmere yarn. Yes, my mum is a knitter and would be very happy to buy me nice wool too knit with, its not really the coupons , its more that I have some lovely wool (quite a lot) that I haven't used yet and it seems a bit silly to buy more and not use what I have already as I do really like it - hence why i am looking for little projects to use it. I have had a look at the site and it does look good.

I think part of the problem is that when I bought it originally I was looking at very basic projects (literally all I could do was cast on and cast off and knit) and now I can knit a bit better and in the round I have more options on what I can do, also the arrival of my little nephew meant that I started making different things and the wool I had wasn't suitable for those projects. I have lost interest in doing the original projects that I bought the wool for. A few things I made when I first bought the wool I have now unpicked because I know now I could knit something more useful / nicer and they were selected as things i could make rather than what I would have liked to make.

I even bought enough wool for a simple chunky cardigan which was going to be my next project before I heard my nephew was expected - its a lovely pattern and lovely wool but now thinking about it I am not sure it would get much use due to the style and also as it is quite a close fit I think it would be a bit of a risk that I would make it and it wouldn't fit properly. A cashmere camisole might be a better first project of an easier thing to knit to fit so it probably wouldn't be as difficult to fit. You see I am dithering again....

PollyWollyDoodle

Nonnadiluca said:

PS. I seldom post but read this thread daily and think you're the nicest bunch of people on the internet!

What a lovely comment! I would second that, whenever I have posted about something there has been really helpful support and advice on here.  You only have to read the comments on sock knitting from Pip and Laura to get a flavour of that!

PipneyJane

Nonnadiluca said:

Last year my son's GF, a trendy young London based woman, asked me if I could knit her something she'd seen, she didn't know what it was called, but drew a picture, we looked it up and it turned out to be a ladies dickie; I found a pattern online, from the 1950s I think, and made one for her. She absolutely loves it and it seems like a really practical item of clothing, the function of a scarf without the bulk. I wondered if anyone had made/worn/ heard of this, I'm 66 , so have been around for a while, but had never come across this before.
PS. I seldom post but read this thread daily and think you're the nicest bunch of people on the internet!

It’s very sweet of you to say so.  

I have heard of “dickies”.  There’s one in The Lux Knitting Book for 1936.  It’s a knitted collar and front, attached to a canvas/cotton back, which had a headline “for wearing with your new suit”, if I recall correctly.  (I have my mum’s copy, which she purchased in Sydney in 1936.  Sadly, it doesn’t appear to have been scanned by the Trove Project or I’d link to the pattern page.  Trove is a goldmine of newspapers and magazines, scanned by the National Library of Australia and made available for free online.  There are thousands of knitting patterns available.)

 - Pip

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Nonnadiluca said:

PS. I seldom post but read this thread daily and think you're the nicest bunch of people on the internet!

What a lovely comment! I would second that, whenever I have posted about something there has been really helpful support and advice on here.  You only have to read the comments on sock knitting from Pip and Laura to get a flavour of that!

Awww....  Thank you, Sweetie.

- Pip

thriftwizard

Laura, I'm so pleased to hear your chap's news! Wish I could persuade mine to take a PSA test but it's all I can do to keep him on his BP medication - he "forgets" to tell me he's run out virtually every month. 

I really, really didn't need to know about Colourmart - but oooh, some lovely stuff there!  I've just finished my first project just about since lockdown began, re-covering an old stool with strips of old blanket in a twined weave, as my mother's in need of a small footstool, and my mind had wandered off to weaving scarves on my Knitter's Loom just because it's so relaxing - I don't actually need any scarves! Though they do make good presents... But I must use up some of the yarn I already have before buying any more. Quilt projects have also been wandering gently through the pathways of my brain; I could probably make 4 or 5 quilts without buying any fabric at all. And that would give me rather more space to work in...