2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Wraithlady

Cherryfudge said:

PipneyJane said:

@Cherryfudge, where/what is Eden Camp?  I’ve never heard about it.

It's a former POW camp in North Yorkshire, @PipneyJane. It was converted into a museum of the war, particularly military aspects. A very good day out when I went with a class from DD's school years ago, and it's probably come on since then.

It's near Malton, and really is an amazing place. Definitely a full day out, and very moving.

https://www.edencamp.co.uk/

Wraithlady

@Liverpool_Anne - thanks for sharing that. 

The father of a  friend of mine was a POW in Italy - he arrived home 4 stone lighter than he left, in her mum's words 'just skin and bone'. He didn't talk about his experiences in much detail either.

Liverpool_Anne

I think it was probably very common for that to happen before we understood things like PTSD and I am sure many people, both men serving in the armed forces and people living with being bombed etc to suffer but just had to get on with it. Some of the stories from the trenches in WW1 are heart breaking, men who today would be diagnosed with mental health problems being shot for cowardice etc.  I also had an uncle who was a prisoner of war, he escaped from one in Italy was recaptured and sent to a camp in Germany. The camp was liberated by the Russians and he was nearly shot as he was very blonde, they thought he was German, but was saved because he had a union jack tatoo. He finished the war fighting with the Russians and only arrived home 2 years after the end of the war. The family had been told he was a pow presumed dead. He had a life long love of anything Russian and visited a few times to see his friends. My Dad did say the family had a great party when he got home. Another pow uncle was in Burma and also arrived home skin and bones, my Dad had a large family, 11 brothers and 1 sister as well as another 6 siblings who didn't survive to adulthood. His mother must have been a wonder woman but I never knew her unfortunately.

Liverpool_Anne

@PipneyJane, those socks are lovely and when I have cleared a space in my sock draw I will definitely have a go at knitting some. 
On the moth front I have discovered the little blighters have been at a scrap crotchet blanket at the bottom of the wardrobe, more washing done and the spray has arrived so I am now in the process of cleaning out the wardrobe and my whole bedroom and I will spray the empty wardrobe tomorrow morning before I go to work, bit concerned it will set my asthma off if I do it tonight, and tomorrow I will start spraying and ironing to put things away. I also have to check my persian wool and silk rug also in the bottom of the wardrobe, sharp intake of breath

Liverpool_Anne

Just here to report the rug has been inspected, some very small damage near the edge which you would not see except if you looked very carefully, and it is now over the banister having been sprayed on the back and with the landing window open. I am counting this as a win considering the damage to other things.

MrsCD

Oooohh, you have been very fortunate there, @Liverpool-Anne!

PipneyJane

Wraithlady said:

Cherryfudge said:

PipneyJane said:

@Cherryfudge, where/what is Eden Camp?  I’ve never heard about it.

It's a former POW camp in North Yorkshire, @PipneyJane. It was converted into a museum of the war, particularly military aspects. A very good day out when I went with a class from DD's school years ago, and it's probably come on since then.

It's near Malton, and really is an amazing place. Definitely a full day out, and very moving.

https://www.edencamp.co.uk/

Thanks @Wraithlady and @Cherryfudge.  Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to visit, next time I’m in God’s Own County.

Liverpool_Anne said:

Just here to report the rug has been inspected, some very small damage near the edge which you would not see except if you looked very carefully, and it is now over the banister having been sprayed on the back and with the landing window open. I am counting this as a win considering the damage to other things.

Phew!  You must feel so relieved, @Liverpool_Anne.  It could have been so much worse.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Phew, what a lot to catch upon!  

Colonial or not, we are all commoners unless we are either bishops or hold a peerage  

What extraordinary courage and fortitude our families had, to get through he war. I've been re-reading some wartime diaries and Mass Obs. books, and as always they astonish me with the way people kept going. 

Re moths: I've tried pretty well every method over the decades - for the small intermittent presence we have in the flat, it's sufficient to spray with transfluthrin (we use Rentokil 'Insectrol') every 3-4 months: put your bag, jacket, etc., by the front door ready, then close all windows, open all cupboards, room-doors and drawers, spray into the air for 15-20 seconds per room, backing your way out of he house and trying not to breathe it in, then grab your stuff and dodge out the door, closing and locking it. Don't go back in for at least 20 minutes, preferably an hour, and when you do, open all windows immediately for at least ten minutes. 
This is a "space spraying" which is a light form of fumigation, meaning the transfluthrin gets into corners and crevices because the air is saturated with it. It is better than spraying anything directly onto textiles as many moth-killing chemicals are also textile-killing... 
Also, the Insectrol wrks as a contact-insecticide, so can be sprayed onto hard surfaces and left to dry and for a couple of months any insect landing/ walking on that surface will die, so I spray it round the edges of the cupboard I keep my yarn in, and on the edges of drawers, etc. 

The nice natural traditional things like cedarwood or lavender probably work when you have far fewer textiles and you do a proper full spring- and autumn-cleaning like people used to do, lifting carpets and taking them outside for sunlight and beating, washing down walls and paintwork, etc., etc...  if you don't do that and you have he kind of over-load of textiles that most people nowadays do, then the old-fashioned stuff won't work... 

If you get moths established in the structural spaces of your home, under the floorboards, in the walls, then you really need to pay professionals to come in and fumigate the premises, each room individually, which costs tens of thousands for a large house. 
Visiting my parents, I once took my coat off on arrival and hung it up in the hall - before I'd brought my hand back down from hanging it up, a moth had settled on my coat... 

I hate moths. 

Nonnadiluca

Another coupon spend to report, 11 coupons for a waterproof jacket. I really need one for daily dog walks and my old one is no longer waterproof. 
I bought a Seasalt tin cloth waterproof coat 6 years ago and for the first five years it did its job very well. It started to let rain through a little so I asked in the local Seasalt shop for advice and was sold Nicwax, one to clean and one to re-proof. I followed the instructions to the letter, wore the coat out in the rain, and I'd just as well have been wearing a paper coat, I was absolutely soaked to the skin! I phoned Nicwax customer service who said that I'd been sold the wrong proofing, it should have been the one for cotton. They very kindly sent me a free sachet of both the cleaning and re-proofing stuff. Again I followed the instructions, wore the coat out in a downpour. When I got home even my bra was soaked!!! Very disappointed as I loved that coat. A new waterproof was definitely needed for this lovely (NOT) midsummer weather.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Nonnadiluca - a bit late, as you've already bought your new raincoat, but for future reference...  I've known a few people have similar problems with the stuff sold for rainproofing jackets... 

What I always did was to use Fabsil, which is for re-proofing tent flysheets. You buy a concentrate and dilute it and then spray it on and let it dry outside - I used it for years and years and years on my very ancient "waxed jacket" which was over 35 years old when I got it and had no trace of any wax left on it (and in places not much jacket!), but each summer I draped it over an old chair in the garden and soaked it with Fabsil, and it kept me bone-dry working with gamekeepers all winter up on the tops of hills in southern Scotland, and you can imagine the weather Oct-February! 

It's possible, because it's meant for tents, that it might darken a pale jacket or make a pattern less visible, etc., but if anyone has a beloved jacket they want to keep wearing, then I totally recommend it. I got the tip from others, and have passed it on to lots, and don't know anyone who's had any problem... 

How incredibly frustrating for you though!