2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

basketcase

Good luck with the mustard jumper, @Cherryfudge

On a slightly related subject, is it possible to pull back commercially knit chunky garments to re-use the yarn?  Or does something in the production make it impossible/too difficult?  I have a couple of things that are now too big, but I do like the yarn.  I like baggy knits, but an option would be nice.

basketcase

Tatting.  I do wish I was as 'crafty' as you, @PipneyJane   Another thing on my bucket list.  But perhaps I'd better tackle crochet first!

PipneyJane

basketcase said:

Good luck with the mustard jumper, @Cherryfudge

On a slightly related subject, is it possible to pull back commercially knit chunky garments to re-use the yarn?  Or does something in the production make it impossible/too difficult?  I have a couple of things that are now too big, but I do like the yarn.  I like baggy knits, but an option would be nice.

The answer is "it depends".  How are the seams finished?  A lot of the cheaper brands of knitted garments are made like regular sewn garments, i.e. an overlocker is used to cut them out of sheets of knitted fabric and stitch up the seams.

Ironically, the older the garment, the less likely this is to happen.  Older and more expensive garments are knitted on mechanical frames and stitched on specialist machines.  The only bit that is overlocked routinely is the shoulder seam.  (I have a friend who designed machine knitted garments in the 1980's.  She is the source of my knowledge about this.)

basketcase said:

Tatting.  I do wish I was as 'crafty' as you, @PipneyJane   Another thing on my bucket list.  But perhaps I'd better tackle crochet first!

If we ever get out of Lockdown, I'd be happy to teach you to crochet.  I've been crocheting for as long as I can remember - it was my mum's craft of choice.  Here's the big secret:  keep a good list of the abbreviations with you at all times.  I don't remember how many loops are made in a "double crochet" stitch - and that term means different things in American and English crochet - but I can always check.    Oh and the only difference between "left handed crochet" and "right handed crochet" is that if you are right handed you move the hook around the yarn; if you are left handed like me, you move the yarn around the hook.   Same hold; same tensioning; same posture.

- Pip (I would seriously need to revise tatting before I attempt to teach anyone.)

basketcase

PipneyJane said:

basketcase said:

Good luck with the mustard jumper, @Cherryfudge

On a slightly related subject, is it possible to pull back commercially knit chunky garments to re-use the yarn?  Or does something in the production make it impossible/too difficult?  I have a couple of things that are now too big, but I do like the yarn.  I like baggy knits, but an option would be nice.

The answer is "it depends".  How are the seams finished?  A lot of the cheaper brands of knitted garments are made like regular sewn garments, i.e. an overlocker is used to cut them out of sheets of knitted fabric and stitch up the seams.

Ironically, the older the garment, the less likely this is to happen.  Older and more expensive garments are knitted on mechanical frames and stitched on specialist machines.  The only bit that is overlocked routinely is the shoulder seam.  (I have a friend who designed machine knitted garments in the 1980's.  She is the source of my knowledge about this.)

basketcase said:

Tatting.  I do wish I was as 'crafty' as you, @PipneyJane   Another thing on my bucket list.  But perhaps I'd better tackle crochet first!

If we ever get out of Lockdown, I'd be happy to teach you to crochet.  I've been crocheting for as long as I can remember - it was my mum's craft of choice.  Here's the big secret:  keep a good list of the abbreviations with you at all times.  I don't remember how many loops are made in a "double crochet" stitch - and that term means different things in American and English crochet - but I can always check.    Oh and the only difference between "left handed crochet" and "right handed crochet" is that if you are right handed you move the hook around the yarn; if you are left handed like me, you move the yarn around the hook.   Same hold; same tensioning; same posture.

- Pip (I would seriously need to revise tatting before I attempt to teach anyone.)

Thanks for the information and the offer, Pip.  I'll have to check the seams to make sure.

I've got a teach yourself crochet book that has instructions with photographs for left and right handers.  My mother tried to teach me when I was young but she had the same problem as when she tried to teach me to knit - she was right-handed and I'm not. When I started to teach myself years ago, I realised that there's a different of putting the yarn round the hook.  I'm hoping that the book will be the same as when I taught myself to knit - I'll just have pictures and make my own way there! .  If not, be careful what you offer - I might take you up on it!

Laura_Elsewhere

@basketcase - or do what I did four years ago when I learnt to crochet, and learn the international symbols instead of the complicated names...! 
With written patterns you need to know whether the pattern is using US or UK terms because both use the names "double crochet" and "triple crochet" but for different stitches...!  

So I just learnt the symbols used all over the world outside the US and UK, and so I cheerfully use patterns which are "charts" from China, Japan, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Norway...!  

Mostly I make lace shawls and stupidly-fine lace made using sewing-thread or very fine vintage crochet-thread that's only a little thicker...  I made my first of these shawls less than a year after first laying hands on a crochet hook; this one was about 18 months after I first made a crochet stitch. 



And this was last year, so 3 years into crocheting

PollyWollyDoodle

Wow Laura, you really are a talented stitcher - I’m already in awe of your sewing skills, I had no idea you could crochet with something as fine as sewing thread. I think I’d find that a bit hard on the eyes, although I have used crochet thread.  I love seeing your projects, you are a real inspiration.  Is that the sort of edging you use on the shorts that you make?

Laura_Elsewhere

Thankyou

tbh, though, I think I'm just lucky - you know you get people who are naturally quick at picking up languages, or playing a new musical instrument, or a new sport? Like that but with needlework! My eyes are steadily deteriorating - I'd been short-sighted since age 9, but then two years back out of the blue I suddenly developed cataracts and astigmatism in both eyes at age 49; last year I developed a second, different, sort of cataract in both eyes and the first lot had progressed... eventually I'll have surgery and will then have fixed-distance vision so bizarrely will need to wear specs for sewing I expect! But in the meantime I've stopped driving altogether, have very peculiar and pretty views of lights, so Xmas is very pretty, and although I've lost most blues and all purples now into a sort of dull uninteresting blur, I have extra zing and pow in the red-orange-rust-chestnut autumn-leaf end of things, and greens all look like they are stained glass with sun pouring through from behind, so autumn was amazing! I hope I get a second go round of autumn colours and Xmas lights, but no real idea of how it's going... I think that's partly why I started doing stupidly-fine work! 

These are the shorts - I used much thicker crochet cotton on those - what they call "size 10" or sometimes "Tkt. 10" - it was Coats Eldorado, bought from Hobbycraft and I used a 2mm hook. I threaded some stretch-velvet ribbon through he bit furthest from the edge, which looks really pretty - it was called "dusty purple" but it's more like a very nice proper old-rose. 

keepcalmandcraft

Wow Laura, I love your shawl and lace. 

I just learnt to crochet a few months ago and have made 3 dishcloths!  It’s a good way to practice stitches and doesn’t matter if it goes wrong. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@keepcalmandcraft - tbh there are loads of mistakes in that black shawl - I just kept bodging to correct to the right patterning whenever I noticed it It's a free pattern on Ravelry, a written version apparently, but I use the charts, called 'Edlothia' and I've done about 6 now - it's so forgiving of mistakes, I love it! And seriously, nothing complicated, no stitches you wouldn't do in a fancy dishcloth...  

Cherryfudge

I have washed and looked through the various blouses found at Mum's house and really am never likely to wear them so they can go to someone who will.
The mustard-coloured jumper washed beautifully and even got rid of some of the cat hair, but although I've had some fun playing with it, I can't repair it unless I somehow stumble across matching yarn. I don't even know what the yarn is! It's very soft and could be artificial for all I know, and might date to the late 1950s. I'm playing at being 'Repair Shop' but I think they'd ditch me after one episode as all I've achieved is to fix some runs that had extended down the sleeves. Higher than that, I think I see the origin of the trouble. Some of the yarn has thinned and pulled apart under the sleeves, probably where it got rubbed and would need a transplant to replace it. It's not the sort of place where I could attempt a Swiss darn in a contrasting colour!
I also found that I'm not the first to attempt a repair: seams have been mended in cotton thread in one place, and a slightly lighter yellow wool in others! That lead to further speculation as I had assumed Mum made the jumper but the seams aren't her style. There is some quite fancy stitching in the front and back but the seams are relatively clumsy. Of course I'll never know but I like to try to work it out.
There are also only 4 of 12 buttons left!
If I really was on coupons I'd be taking it apart and making something else and I might try that yet.