2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Katiehound

PollyWollyDoodle said:

 Unfortunately the cardigan that I was hoping to finish looked a bit odd once it was blocked, and I realised that the sleeves are much too short. I’m going to have to redo them which is a bit annoying, but I’m determined to get this done before my friend’s little boy is too big for it. 

I'm wondering if you would be able to unpick the end of the sleeves and add extra ribbing? rather than pulling the whole lot down.
Now I don't know how they did it, but I remember folk reversing sleeve patterns so that they could make the sleeves longer/ shorter as they knitted, and then if outgrown could add extra length (possibly as a stripe) at a later date.
Just a thought
 

Laura_Elsewhere

Katiehound said:

Now I don't know how they did it, but I remember folk reversing sleeve patterns so that they could make the sleeves longer/ shorter as they knitted, and then if outgrown could add extra length (possibly as a stripe) at a later date.
Just a thought
 

That's how jumpers knitted seamlessly in the round, such as traditional ganseys/ guernseys, work - the sleeve is knitted down from shoulder to cuff - useful, as you say, for checking the length when making it, but also useful because when the elbows wear out, you just rip it back to above the elbow and re-knit, much stronger for a working gansey than darning! 

I knit everything in the round, not least because I've got no idea how to sew two bits of knitting together, and my mind boggles as to why anyone would knit a sleeve from the flat end to the shaped end! My mother thinks my way of knitting is bonkers, though, so each to their own  

PipneyJane

Katiehound said:

PollyWollyDoodle said:

 Unfortunately the cardigan that I was hoping to finish looked a bit odd once it was blocked, and I realised that the sleeves are much too short. I’m going to have to redo them which is a bit annoying, but I’m determined to get this done before my friend’s little boy is too big for it. 

I'm wondering if you would be able to unpick the end of the sleeves and add extra ribbing? rather than pulling the whole lot down.
Now I don't know how they did it, but I remember folk reversing sleeve patterns so that they could make the sleeves longer/ shorter as they knitted, and then if outgrown could add extra length (possibly as a stripe) at a later date.
Just a thought
 

Interesting idea, Katiehound.  It is possible to unpick knitting from the bottom, but it is a right faff and involves pulling all the yarn through every single loop.  (4 rounds on a sleeve once took me all afternoon.)  If the sleeve is already sewn into the garment and not easy to unpick from the seam, my suggestion would be to snip it just above the ribbing and carefully unpick that row of stitches, putting them onto a needle as you go, then knitting down and redoing the cuff.  There would be a very slight offset between the stitches knitted upwards and those knitted down, but you'd be able to unravel and reuse the original cuff and it won't take all day to get to that point.

@Laura_Elsewhere is right.  Knitting sleeves from the top down is traditional for certain types of garment, as is knitting-in-the-round.  Personally, I hate seaming so always convert my patterns to in-the-round.  A couple of years ago, I learned how to pick up sleeves at the armhole and knit those down, so do that most of the time, too.  If I can't because of lace/patterning, I'll knit the sleeves in-the-round, two at a time, which means you only have to sew the armholes.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

We mostly go out for our trot in the mornings, partly because if we leave it til lunchtime, then usually my chap has a conference call or some work problem so he hasn't time, and by after work he is knackered and really doesn't want to go (as opposed to jsut doesn't want to go if earlier ) .
I stopped smoking 6 or 7 years back but 26 years of 20+/day had left me fairly unfit. We've been systematically working on this, and for the last couple of weeks I've gone head-down straight up a couple of short uphills on one or other of our walking routes, making a note of how far up I become light-headed and dizzy and my breathing goes shallow (yep, cause and effect!) instead of regular... this morning for the first time I did both the Very Steep one without getting dizzy and keeping the regular breathing all the way up, and on the Bit Steep one I actually kept pace with my chap for the first time ever as well as keeping the breathing steady. Real progress! 
I get days of inertia and days of bustling round... luckily we have home-made ready-meals in the freezer so we still eat well on days I can't be bothered to cook... 

I've been hand-sewing DIY facemasks in order to put together a tutorial for friends who have never sewn... I hate wrestling with all the photos and captions, but at least it will help a few get something together. My own view is that they don't do much, and judging by the people I've seen in supermarkets wearing masks and gloves, the more PPE they wear the less caution they take re handling wallets and phones with gloved hands, handling the mask inside and out when adjusting it and scratching their face with gloved hands, etc... but I think the time is coming when we'll be expected to wear them so I may as well get on and make some... 

You are right, Laura.  DIY facemasks offer minimal protection, for probably only a minute or two.  The moment the surface becomes damp, it is compromised and no longer effective.  When I was a student nurse, there was always a dispenser of paper masks near the sink in the School of Nursing - we stopped using them when we discovered that they last approximately 10 seconds or however long it takes to breathe one breath.  The filter masks you see in episodes of ER last 2-3 hours, and should be changed every time you go to a new patient.   (They are designed to protect the patient from bugs carried your breath, not necessarily the other way around.)  Only the industrial, heavy duty masks last longer and they have to be fitted to your face.

ETA:  well done on the walking!  They estimate that it takes 7 years for undamaged lungs to clear out all the !!!!!! from cigarette smoke.  You can tell yours are getting stronger, each time you charge up hill.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

You are right, Laura.  DIY facemasks offer minimal protection, for probably only a minute or two.  The moment the surface becomes damp, it is compromised and no longer effective.  When I was a student nurse, there was always a dispenser of paper masks near the sink in the School of Nursing - we stopped using them when we discovered that they last approximately 10 seconds or however long it takes to breathe one breath.  The filter masks you see in episodes of ER last 2-3 hours, and should be changed every time you go to a new patient.   (They are designed to protect the patient from bugs carried your breath, not necessarily the other way around.)  Only the industrial, heavy duty masks last longer and they have to be fitted to your face.

- Pip

I know - but don't try telling the earnest masses any of that  

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

You are right, Laura.  DIY facemasks offer minimal protection, for probably only a minute or two.  The moment the surface becomes damp, it is compromised and no longer effective.  When I was a student nurse, there was always a dispenser of paper masks near the sink in the School of Nursing - we stopped using them when we discovered that they last approximately 10 seconds or however long it takes to breathe one breath.  The filter masks you see in episodes of ER last 2-3 hours, and should be changed every time you go to a new patient.   (They are designed to protect the patient from bugs carried your breath, not necessarily the other way around.)  Only the industrial, heavy duty masks last longer and they have to be fitted to your face.

- Pip

I know - but don't try telling the earnest masses any of that  

Agreed.  I think the Mayor of London said it best when he said that the general public wearing masks was to protect other people from you, not you from them, his thinking being that if you sneeze or cough with a mask on, it'll stop the droplets spreading as far as they would do otherwise.  (Incidentally, I am fairly sure that I once gave some poor woman a UTI when I sneezed while changing her catheter.  My technique was good, so that is the only way it could have become contaminated.  I was wearing a mask at the time.)

- Pip (30+ years later and I still feel guilty)

PollyWollyDoodle

Thank you for the suggestions on the knitting. It’s quite a small cardigan and the sleeves are stocking stitch so wouldn’t take too long to do. Part of the problem is that the original pattern is written in Russian 🙄 I have managed a rough translation but I’d have done better to find a bog standard cardigan pattern and just use the pattern charts for the design. If you use Ravelry, it’s a pattern called ‘Whose Tracks’ and I fell in love with it but I think it was a bit ambitious for me. I’ve decided to do the front and neck bands, and then have a think about the sleeves. 

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Thank you for the suggestions on the knitting. It’s quite a small cardigan and the sleeves are stocking stitch so wouldn’t take too long to do. Part of the problem is that the original pattern is written in Russian 🙄 I have managed a rough translation but I’d have done better to find a bog standard cardigan pattern and just use the pattern charts for the design. If you use Ravelry, it’s a pattern called ‘Whose Tracks’ and I fell in love with it but I think it was a bit ambitious for me. I’ve decided to do the front and neck bands, and then have a think about the sleeves. 

That is a very charming pattern!  I can see why you fell for it.

- Pip

dolly84

I feel the same about the face masks, they told us right from the start they were a waste of time.  You see people wearing masks and gloves but they are morbidly obese or smokers or both, why be bothered enough about your health with regard to this virus but not bothered enough the rest of the time, it seems certain types of people feel very cool in a mask and gloves for some reason, I think they have all watched too many sci-fi  films and are now pretending they are living in one.  I've thought so many times recently that people seem to think that wearing gloves is protecting them but they are just transferring germs to their nose/mouth/eyes via gloves rather than hands.

PollyWollyDoodle

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve seen people with a mask but it’s pushed down so they can talk on the phone; the other day I saw a child in Tesco wearing a mask which was very obviously much too big for him, and he kept fiddling with it. That’s got to put you much more at risk surely that if you just didn’t wear one at all? If they say it’s compulsory then so be it, but I will be resisting until then! A friend has just put out an appeal on my choir group for people to make scrubs and scrub bags, I feel a bit guilty because it’s something I could do but I have got so much work on that I just don’t have time. If anyone is interested and has got time to do this, go to www.scrubhub.org.uk and find your local group. I think they are asking for old sheets and duvet covers as well to make bags with.