2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

I vaguely think I have mentioned this group to Ewe & Ply ages and ages ago (*waves happily to Teri or Becca if they're reading this*)... 

Well... we haven't set a date yet, My Intended and me, but we are provisionally thinking of October. Various legal things to get settled first (made as lengthy as poss by the First Mrs Rochester), but we hope it will be M.I. and me, a Registrar, M.I.'s son as Best Man, and my friend (who's recovering wonderfully well from the surgery) as my Best Woman, and her lovely mother being stand-in for all three of our parents... Just the five of us and a Registrar, and a lot of smiling... 

So I shall be planning nice autumnal clothes and the Wedlothia will really come into its own - I think that shawl would look nice at any season, but it will really glow in autumn... 

This will take care of all my coupons! I am looking forward very much to the fabric shops and wool shops being open once more... 

joedenise

Another looking forward to the Sewing Bee although I'll probably have to miss the first one as will be away in our motorhome, although if we can get any TV reception I will try and watch!

I bought the book from the original series and have found it very useful for instructions on lots of dressmaking ideas, even though I've been making my own clothes for probably about 50 years on and off!  I just wish I could get my mojo back - it seems to have gone missing over the last year or so in lockdown!

Cherryfudge

@PipneyJane, this is my transcription of the pattern (given me as a photo over the Internet from a pattern that looks pre-war). I copied it out as it wouldn't enlarge enough to be useful, but I can't promise every word is right!

Knitted bag

1 pr no 12 needles

 

Cast on 50 st.

Knit 2 rows garter st.

(K1, M1, putting thread round needle twice, k2 tog. (rpt. to end of row).

Next row: K (knit only one loop of made sts.)

K 2 rows of garter st.

 

Next row: K, but wind thread 4x round needle before bringing through st.

 

Next row: K first loop of each st. dropping the other loops off needle.

 

Rpt. these 2 rows 44x.

Work first 5 rows once. Cast off.

Sew up sides.

Make a chain of 120. Work 1 DC in each chain. Fasten off. Work another chain the same.

Thread through slots at top of bag as draw strings.

When I repeated the first five rows at the end as instructed (and I think that should read 6 rows), the top of the bag on one side was far too narrow, which is why I changed the row after the last lot of K1, M1, K2tog so that I was knitting into the front and back of every third stitch.

So as you can see I think there were a couple of errors in the original but I'm not experienced enough to be sure it's not my reading of it. Any opinions or feedback would be gratefully received please!

Laura_Elsewhere

joedenise said:

Another looking forward to the Sewing Bee although I'll probably have to miss the first one as will be away in our motorhome, although if we can get any TV reception I will try and watch!

I bought the book from the original series and have found it very useful for instructions on lots of dressmaking ideas, even though I've been making my own clothes for probably about 50 years on and off!  I just wish I could get my mojo back - it seems to have gone missing over the last year or so in lockdown!

i was thinking about "mojo" the other night when I was awake for a bit... apparently it'sC20th and probably of African origin, but when I was lying awake thinking I decided it could also be a cross between 'motivation' and 'joy'.... so maybe the way to get your mojo back is to find a project you really are motivated to make which will bring you joy! 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge, I think the pattern is using language confusing to modern readers... as @PipneyJane suggested, if you do yarn-overs instead of knitting into the front and back, then your stitch count remains the same. 

You have 3 stitches. You knit one, do a yarnover, then knit the second and third together. 
Next round you knit the first one, knit the yarnover and knit the single stitch resulting from the k2tog which equals 3 stitches. 

It would make a row of small lacy holes.

I think that is what the instructions mean: 
"(K1, M1, putting thread round needle twice, k2 tog. (rpt. to end of row).
Next row: K (knit only one loop of made sts.)"

I have to say though - I have never seen a yarnover described as "m1"- I would be very confused by that too (I was!)

Cherryfudge

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere and @PipneyJane, I need to try that! I suspect it makes better lacey holes than I'm getting at present, though they are just discernible if I count stitches when threading the draw string.

Who needs Sewing Bee when there is a wealth of knowledge right here in the Mendings!

PipneyJane

I agree with @Laura_Elsewhere, @Cherryfudge.  Those "M1"s are most certainly yarn overs.  In the case of this pattern, they're telling you to wrap the yarn twice round the needle for each yarn over, thus making a bigger hole.

I think using "M1" as a notation for yarn over was around during the war.  The only other time I've seen it is in the pattern for my When You Are Off Duty sweater, which is a freebee from the V&A.  (The V&A link gives multiple wartime knitting patterns not just the one I've made.)   You have to pay attention to the abbreviations in older patterns -  there was no standardisation so each pattern house may use an abbreviation in a totally different way to the publisher down the road.

Talking about my When You Are Off Duty sweater, I need some advice, please, about what to do for the collar.  



It's been a week or so since I last tried to figure out the knitting instructions for the collar - and I didn't have much brain power back then so don't remember much.  All I can remember is that I was meant to knit the back collar after knitting the shoulders and before casting off.  I didn't because I wasn't sure how much yarn I had, so left the stitches on a holder until later.  

I don't remember the instructions for the rest of the collar at all but, as you can see, it looks squared off.  Anyway, what I was wondering is the best way to knit a squared off corner in k1p1 rib.  Any recommendations/suggestions?

- Pip

Cherryfudge

Thank you @PipneyJane, that makes perfect sense and should come up with 'proper holes'. It's also a very useful bit of knowledge for someone like me who likes to try older things and knit 'as my ancestors did' - I wonder how many of them came to grief over the M1? Probably not many as they could ask their neighbours while they scrubbed their doorsteps...

I don't think I dare take back the completed bags - after all they are fit for purpose - but I'm about a third of the way through the current one so I will enjoy making the final few rows and seeing the holes emerge.

Incidentally, am I right about the number of rows I should be knitting at the end, i.e. 6 not 5?

Re: the collar, which is outside my experience (sorry), I think I can visualise how it should look but the photo seems to indicate little tabs over the corners so perhaps the corners are more functional than 'right'? However I can see it would be much more satisfying to have a beautiful finish even under the tabs. Hopefully there's someone who can advise (I think I saw @Laura_Elsewhere with her hair under a scarf earlier and her doorstep is already pristine but you might be able to catch her later).

Oh, and I'm being targeted by the stash-busting gremlin again: Hobbii have just emailed about their 'Ms Olsen's Spring Clean' and there are some tempting cotton yarns there...

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane, I can't see the photo clearly at all, but from he pattern instructions the back it sounds like you simply end the back with some rows of fine rib, and end the front with some rows of fine rib, and then sew them together at he end of the shoulder-seam. Nowhere do I see anything instructing you to do any square-shaping, ie mitring. I can only assume the shape of the jumper-front results in the squaring- which, if the decreases are in the right places it could well do. I made my Norigan top-down in the round but because I did simple increases in the same places I ended up with beautiful square lines in the stripes which were a complete surprise to me as I had never done that before and assumed I'd have kind of vaguely-roundish stripes... now I do it deliberately  

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - ahahahaaaa! You have no idea how far from pristine my doorstep is! Maybe i should try wearing a headscarf of a morning to do my housework; perhaps that's he secret to getting it done!