2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

Happy Easter everyone! Hot cross buns in the tin there, and I managed to get an extra bit of butter to go on them (don't ask... oh goodness, no, not *that* way! I did a lot of sock-darning for the Air Force base, that's all. Honestly, tchah, your minds! Go and wash them out with carbolic soap!)

In keeping with its being 1942 in Much Mending on the Borrow, we have only one small Easter egg each here (and some other chocolate, admittedly, but definitely scaled down to a more sensible level than some years when we had multiple huge boxes of eggs...). I managed to get a small roasting joint of Welsh hill lamb, so we'll have that later on with roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy and fresh mint sauce and damson jelly... 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane, you're having an absent-minded moment! @zoeblowe joined us in January! She's just not as noisy as me  

You are right, of course.  After the last month at work, I have the memory - and attention span - of a goldfish.  I had forgotten @zoeblowe joined the challenge in January.  

Thank you @Laura_Elsewhere for the Hot Cross Buns and the butter.  We know you worked really hard at the American airbase, so that they’d give you access to their commissary, in order to obtain butter.  Any luck with the silk stockings?  

DH and I are at his best mate’s today - aka his “brother from another mother” or “BFAM.”.  (It was BFAM’s 92-year-old mother that we visited in Dunfermine in 2019 when you were in Edinburgh).  Dinner is a leg of < cough > New Zealand lamb < cough > that BFAM obtained from a New Zealand flyer he’d met while travelling before the war...  It flew in last week with a plane load of soldiers.

To the Knitters/Crocheters in the group, Deramores have an offer on today: 1000 derapoints and free postage for all orders placed today.  No, I did not buy yarn.  Sadly, they are out of stock on a lot of items that I need/would actually use, but after 15 minutes of fruitlessly looking at accessories and needles, I bought a set of 2.5mm Karbonze DPNs. These were the only 2.5mm needles they had in stock!  I wanted wooden/bamboo needles, preferably a set of 2.5mm circ’s in case I break the ones I’m using for my toe up socks, but they had none in stock.  They also didn’t have any row counters.  (I’ve lost one so am looking out for a replacement.  Nobody has them.)

Happy “chocolate festival” everyone.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

  They also didn’t have any row counters.  (I’ve lost one so am looking out for a replacement.  Nobody has them.)

- Pip

Ewe & Ply do... three kinds   https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/row-counter

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

  They also didn’t have any row counters.  (I’ve lost one so am looking out for a replacement.  Nobody has them.)

- Pip

Ewe & Ply do... three kinds   https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/row-counter

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere.  Ordered.

Cheers

Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

  They also didn’t have any row counters.  (I’ve lost one so am looking out for a replacement.  Nobody has them.)

- Pip

Ewe & Ply do... three kinds   https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/row-counter

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere.  Ordered.

Cheers

Pip

Did you see they also do wooden 2.5mm circs?:) I wonder if I can get commission if I keep doing this...?  

https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/circular-knitting-needles

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

  They also didn’t have any row counters.  (I’ve lost one so am looking out for a replacement.  Nobody has them.)

- Pip

Ewe & Ply do... three kinds   https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/row-counter

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere.  Ordered.

Cheers

Pip

Did you see they also do wooden 2.5mm circs?:) I wonder if I can get commission if I keep doing this...?  

https://eweandply.co.uk/collections/notions-and-sundry-items/circular-knitting-needles

Yes, you should.

To be honest, I probably don’t really need any more needles, but I was desperately trying to figure out a way to buy something-that-wasn’t-yarn so that I’d get their promotional £10 worth of points to spend later.  The practical side of me insisted that it had to be something I’d use.   I’ve never used carbon-fibre needles, so the ones I bought can be a “taste test”.

- Pip

maryb

I've just ordered a load of things from M&S because I had a 20% off Sparks offer but I'm not updating my coupon spend yet because I suspect I will be sending most of them back if past experience is anything to go by.  Sizing is so inconsistent, it's pure luck if anything fits and if it does, the fabric will probably be shiny polyester.  

But there are a few gaps in the wardrobe I need to fill.  I did a list of events I need outfits for and I realised that something like the 333 challenge isn't actually too much of a challenge for me - I love the simplicity of having a 'uniform' for day to day wear with a few outfits for the odd occasion when I need something a bit smarter.

The key, I find, is sticking to one colour as a basic neutral.  The problem is, navy suits me much better than black but it's hard to find things to buy if you stick to navy - black is so much more easily available.  However, it is easier in summer and it gives me a few months to fill in the gaps before next autumn such as tackling making a winter coat.  I've got some lovely midnight blue cashmere and wool coating  which has been reproaching me for far too long

Nonnadiluca

Is anyone else as ridiculously excited as I am that the Sewing Bee is back next week?

Nonnadiluca

Just made a fabulous huge cushion from a pad collected free from Olio, and gorgeous old Laura Ashley fabric, the bottom of a pair of DD's curtains that had been in her old house and I cut down to fit a window in her current house - it's only been languishing in my 'that will come in useful one day" stash for ten years!!!. The cushion is now reunited with the curtains and I have a happy DD.

PipneyJane

@maryb - what's the "333 Challenge"? 

Also, I feel your pain re navy.  I've been looking for a woollen navy suit for several years:  (preferably double-breasted) jacket, skirt and trousers.  The best I've managed in recent years is a single-breasted jacket and trousers.     Back in the 1990's, I bought a navy suit from Next and literally wore it to death.  The double-breasted jacket smartened up chinos/jeans for casual wear; the skirts - it had two - were always smart and the trousers fit beautifully.  The only item in the set that I didn't buy was the dress, because they didn't have one in my size.  I would really like to replicate that purchase.

@Nonnadiluca.  That cushion sounds like a lovely gift.

While I rarely watch Sewing Bee, I am pleased it's back.  Hopefully, now that DH has a regular on-line game with his mates, I'll get to watch it uninterrupted.


- Pip



PS:  You know my jumper dilemma?  Well on 5.5mm needles, the swatch looks great and I get the correct tension.  Guess what I'll be casting on tonight?