2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

thriftwizard said:

Herewith:
I am quite chuffed with it! It's the remains of 3 old moth-eaten wool blankets, woven on a warp of raggedy old polycotton duvet cover. A quick technique, once you've cut or torn your materials; luckily I have an American gadget that helps. It took the odd hour here & there over 3 days to make.

That is stunning, @thriftwizard.  Please tell us more about your "American gadget".  

- Pip

thriftwizard

It's a strip-cutter, PipneyJane. A smallish hand-cranked gadget that clamps onto the kitchen table & runs a cutting blade (or 2, or 4) against a steel cylinder, under tension. Sort of like a horizontal rotary cutter, but much sturdier: https://www.fraserrug.com/products/fraser-model-500-1. (It wasn't nearly that much when I bought mine, probably about 15  years ago; less than half that, IIRC.) I had it sent to DS3's godmother in Las Vegas, and when the twins went out to visit her, they cut up an old sheet with it, thus were able to bring it back here "used" and not eligible for import duty. Extremely useful in rug making.

PollyWollyDoodle

Wow. That looks absolutely gorgeous, really soft. I had been making a rag rug out of cut up T-shirts, it was one of the things I decided I was never going to finish. It was taking ages, the hessian backing used to shed bits every time I worked on it, and it was making my hands hurt. I don’t know if it was the wrong technique, but it definitely would’ve taken me more than three days to make!  

I wrapped it up, complete with the rug hook, spare strips and a note saying ‘unfinished project’ and donated it. Yours looks as if it’s been knitted or woven, it’s beautiful.  

thriftwizard

Thanks, all! Polly, it's woven, on a frame loom, in "twined weave", where you have two weft 'threads" crossing in between each warp & creating the knitted look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNATJ2_FHd0&t=162s shows how. It's the same weave used in most baskets, and you can do it without a frame, but I think it'd be hard to keep the tension on anything bigger than a placemat! Once you get going, it takes about a minute to weave each row, and each row is about 1cm, so it does work up quickly. But it's quite physical & I wouldn't want to do it all day or I'd end up quite stiff!

skogar

Have decided that trying to knit the hat with circulars and a short 40cm circular is not going to work, too little cable to be able to knit comfortably, back to the dpns, I'm going to need those 4.5mm ones i don't have sooner than I anticipated so better get some ordered..... grumble grumble....serves me right for not ordering any last week as I intended.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I absolutely love the rug and I have put this on my list of things to try, it is a long list but I will have the time when I retire, hopefully. I just need to find someone with a loom for sale  . I bought a ball of wool this week to make my OH a hat. I am trying to make it using a 40cm circular needle, something I have wanted to try for ages, and so far it is going well apart from the colour which is navy, as requested, and I find it hard to work in the low light levels at this time of year.  I tried to make a hat for my colleagues baby earlier in the year using circulars but it was to difficult so made it using sons, another first for me. Thought I would need to learn if I am going to attempt a pair of socks at some point in the future.  I have been seduced by Laura's beautiful creations. I have nearly finished the baby shawl, about 7cms to go and the border.  It became a bit of a rush job when we found out the mum to be will probably be induced at 36 weeks due to her non pregnancy related health issues so it will be finished today to be wrapped up and delivered tomorrow, hat now on the back burner.  I hope you all have a lovely day.

Liverpool_Anne

I must remember to check the auto correct, I made the baby hat with dpns lol

skogar

Hello Liverpool Anne, I have just read your post and I think I may have an idea of what the problem might be. Please can I ask what type of circular needle you are using. I am using knit pro interchangables and the length of the actual cably bit of the cable (not the metal bits at the end) is only 20cm. I'm wondering if non interchangable circulars would give more of the flexible cable bit? Could you tell me please how long the cable bit is on yours please.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi Skogar, the whole length of the circular is 40cms from needle tip to needle tip but the cable bit is very thin, just a wire really. It might be because the cable is so thin the stitches sort of drop roblem even though and seem to fit with no problem even though the hat 

Liverpool_Anne

Sorry to finish....the hat will be about 56cm.  I am still doing the rib bit and I am using chunky wool so maybe I have a lot less stitches than you but so far it seems to be manageable. Hope this helps but I am no expert, I am not even following a pattern, just sort of making it up from something I googled a video for when I made the baby hat working on the principle that I can always undo it and start again if it's not right.