2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

Haha, they are handy aren’t they - I used one to try and clear the pump in the dishwasher, without success though. That’s a great collection from you and from Laura. @Cherryfudge , one of yours has a chased pattern on the handle, I am sure I have one like that. I’ll see if I can get a photo later.

Laura, I love your colour combinations. I think I might start a new project to try and boost my spirits, they are pretty low at the moment. I don’t think it’s the time to pick up one of my UFOs and try and finish it.

PipneyJane

TwibbleDee said:

Worst way I've abused a crochet hook:  Cleaning hair out of the shower drain.

Yuck!  Ingenious, but yuck!  (I've ruined a pair of tweezers doing that.)

My thinnest crochet hooks have been used for beaded knitting.  You slide the bead onto the hook, then use the hook to pull your to-be-knitted stitch through the bead, slide the stitch back onto your left needle, knit it and voila(!) the bead is securely attached to your knitting.  (These days, I use Oral B Super Floss.  It'll hold multiple beads at once - very useful - it's very flexible and easier/less frustrating to use.)

- Pip

TwibbleDee

I have my great-grandmother's sewing/knitting bag, but I no longer know what was hers, what was Mom's, and what I picked up somewhere else along the way.  But I have enough knitting and crochet needles to arm a small army.

PollyWollyDoodle

Here are my smallest hooks, black cat conveniently used for contrast!  The second from right is marked ‘4’ and is smaller than the modern hook on its left marked 0.6 mm. I have no idea where these old ones came from, the far right-hand one has a very pretty floral design. 

Cherryfudge

PollyWollyDoodle said:

@Cherryfudge , one of yours has a chased pattern on the handle, I am sure I have one like that. I’ll see if I can get a photo later.

It's very like, but the leaf pattern on mine is more stylised without a flower.

Another of mine is patterned too, but that has bars and curves. Do your patterned ones have little finials at the end? Mine do but they differ and there's no maker's name so I don't know anything more about them. It would be great if we knew but, like @TwibbleDee's, mine are mixed in together - Mum's, some from her mother or my Dad's mother, some from whoever owned the sewing box I bought at auction. I like to think they carry their secrets with them and only talk out of human hearing, carrying tales of projects long forgotten by those of us who are just the agents of their work...*

*Of course, at midnight on Christmas Eve the contents of the sewing box and the knitting needle cases and the pincushion gather for a ceremonial reading of The Tailor of Gloucester while the women of the house are safely out of the way wrapping the last of the presents.

PollyWollyDoodle

Ha ha, I love that image! That’s my favourite Beatrix Potter book.

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

PollyWollyDoodle said:

@Cherryfudge , one of yours has a chased pattern on the handle, I am sure I have one like that. I’ll see if I can get a photo later.

It's very like, but the leaf pattern on mine is more stylised without a flower.

Another of mine is patterned too, but that has bars and curves. Do your patterned ones have little finials at the end? Mine do but they differ and there's no maker's name so I don't know anything more about them. It would be great if we knew but, like @TwibbleDee's, mine are mixed in together - Mum's, some from her mother or my Dad's mother, some from whoever owned the sewing box I bought at auction. I like to think they carry their secrets with them and only talk out of human hearing, carrying tales of projects long forgotten by those of us who are just the agents of their work...*

*Of course, at midnight on Christmas Eve the contents of the sewing box and the knitting needle cases and the pincushion gather for a ceremonial reading of The Tailor of Gloucester while the women of the house are safely out of the way wrapping the last of the presents.

I love that idea, @Cherryfudge.  The Tailor of Gloucester is one of my favourite stories, too.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

I had always wondered, @Cherryfudge! I have once or twice heard a distant tiny metallic tinkling sound, but had assumed it was the bells of Father Christmas's sleigh.... now I know it's all my crochet hooks and steel knitting-needles making their way over to the 1902 Singer treadle sewing machine with all its bits and pieces, to settle down for their story...  

PipneyJane

My boots have arrived and, amazingly, they fit me comfortably over hand-knitted socks!  That almost never happens with boots or shoes in my “proper” size, since I have wide feet.  I was dreading having to return them, so am very pleased that they fit properly.  Now, if only Celtic Sheepskin would branch out into loafers, I’d be set for life.

The soles are quite heavy and thick rubber, very suitable for bad winter days when you’re waiting in the cold and wet to catch a train to work.  (I might live near a Tube line, but ours is definitely not underground.)   I’ve put them carefully in the wardrobe.  Hopefully they’ll get worn before 2022, but right now they’re being saved for “good”.

On a totally different subject, how do you size crochet hooks?  I know that, for knitting needles, you can buy a gauge that has multiple holes in different sizes and, normally, when you reach the hole where you can’t push your needle through, that’s either the size of your needle or it’s the previous hole into which the needle slide through.  They don’t work for crochet hooks.  Do you know if there is a similar type of gauge for crochet hooks?  I have some crochet hooks from L!dl which have their size printed on the plastic handle, and I know it rubs off.  

Thanks.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

On a totally different subject, how do you size crochet hooks?  I know that, for knitting needles, you can buy a gauge that has multiple holes in different sizes and, normally, when you reach the hole where you can’t push your needle through, that’s either the size of your needle or it’s the previous hole into which the needle slide through.  They don’t work for crochet hooks.  Do you know if there is a similar type of gauge for crochet hooks?  I have some crochet hooks from L!dl which have their size printed on the plastic handle, and I know it rubs off.  

The boots sound super. I bought myself some a few months ago which have been worn in town with jeans after being waterproofed, and they were definitely a good investment. Like you, I have wide feet, and can't take pressure over the widest part of the foot so I was delighted to get a good fit.

As to sizing crochet hooks, the ones with plastic handles need to learn from spice jars which until recently had the date in print that came off long before the jar was finished. You'd think they'd learn. I suppose you could scratch the sizing onto the handle? I think there may be a chart somewhere giving equivalents to knitting needle sizes, in which case a knitting needle gauge would do it, but I have the advantage of having joined this amazing thread about living on war time clothing rations, where there are very knowledgeable people who can help with stuff like this. I'm sure they'd help.:)

P.S. I see what you mean... the ones I've found via Google seem to be metric.