2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

CraftyLittleLisa

Well I have moved the winter clothes forward and I have realised that I have more winter stuff than summer stuff.  Is that the same for everyone - I guess we don't have many months of warm weather generally.  I think I need to source clothing that covers both winter and summer with a bit of mix, match and layering.  I'm pretty sure I still want it all so no more decluttering to be done.  Also still no more coupons spent.  I did get a pair of sandals repaired.  Other than that, not very exciting.  I hope you are all well and getting ready for the winter to come.

MrsCD

PipneyJane said:

MrsCD said:

I'm going to make the square, but not just yet. 
I'll wait until we get back from a couple of days away before I start the blanket.
I'm knitting toe up socks with Fish Lips Kiss Heels right now,  to see if I could! 😊😉

I’d be interested to hear your opinion of that type of heel, @MrsCD, once you’ve made them.  (How the heel actually works, whether they’re comfortable to wear, that kind of thing.)

- Pip

@PipneyJane, I've made the first one and it fits like a glove. I just have the leg bit to do on the second one, and then Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off to finish.
The pattern only cost me about 75p, and SoxTherapist asks for her pattern not to be shared, so I can only suggest you look on YouTube to see how it works. It's basically a form of short rows, but very easy to understand, with no counting, no picking up stitches, and best of all, no holes! I did make the cardboard pattern of my foot, with the measurements and calculations needed for a good fit.
I'll show you a photo when I'm all done.

skogar

Hello Polly - Thanks for the reply re whether you hd bought anything from community clothing - I will let you know what it is like if I get anything. Holding off at the moment in case I find anything I've forgotten I've got - already found 2 knitted tops I'd forgotten about in a useful black and navy.

Laura - I wondered what your thoughts were on wool socks vs cotton. Obviously wool can be produced more locally than cotton however it is usually mixed with nylon for improved wear. Regarding smilar thicknesses of socks do you think that a wool nylon mix would wear better. I assume you would be able to get more wears out of them between washing. Obviously I should be knitting my own but more practice needed as yet I think. I was looking at the yorkshire sock co which do UK wool spun and knitted in Yorkshire. they do Merino and Alpaca (more expensive but possibly longer lasting?) and the blue ffaced leicester ones done by yorkshire spinners as well. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@skogar, I'm a woollen-socks lass all the way! I hate knitting socks in cotton because it has no 'give' in it so it fights your hands all the way and hen you end up with saggy baggy socks unless you knit them in ribbing all through which I hate doing...!

I have some socks in "sock yarn"ie 75% wool, 25% nylon or variations thereon, and some socks in pure 100% wool, and the latter are definitely better. 
I wear my pure-wool socks 3 or 4 times between washes, partly because your feet sweat far less in pure-wool socks; because pure wool naturally disinfects itself, so to speak, so they don't develop a smell (I also wear leather shoes); also they don't go flat and thin underfoot like sock-wool socks do after one wear - they sort of 'spring back' overnight. 

IME, pure wool socks don't wear out any faster than sock-yarn socks unless you wear loose shoes and there's a lot of movement of your foot as you walk. I knit the heels a bit reinforced o begin with, anyway  

Convenience - I wash them in our washing-machine's "rinse" cycle, which is 19 minutes long and uses only cold water, no detergent and a 1400rpm spin. They come out only just damp and I just drape them in the hot-water-tank cupboard of an evening and they're dry next day. Dead easy. 

That goes for both 4-ply, ie sock-yarn thickness, and also DK. 

I have mentioned Ewe & Ply before now, an excellent wool-shop who do brilliant mail-order from their website, AND they offer a free service, via Zoom or phone or in person if you live nearby, to help you rescue any project that's run into trouble, regardless of whether you bought the materials from them!

Edit to add: re hard-wearing.... I only realised when I started doing historical re-enactment and learnt about 17th century stockings, etc.... modern socks are knitted very loosely and so wear through much faster. Try using pure-wool DK on 3mm needles, or even 2.75mm, and you get a much denser fabric which is far longer-lasting; for 4-ply, try using 2mm or 1.75mm... Or knit them on the recommended size of needle but knit a size larger and then carefully shrink them a little bit down...

MrsCD

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere, I didn't know that about modern socks being knitted looser. I'm still very much a newbie to sock knitting and I'm fascinated with how sock structures work and how different size needles can make a big difference. I'm not brave enough yet to try shrinking them to fit!

Laura_Elsewhere

@MrsCD - a really simple trick you can try is when you knit the heel flap, use two strands, knitted alternately (ie you still only use one strand at a time), which gives you a nice cushioned heel. Alternatively, when the sock is finished, urn it inside-out and use needle and yarn to 'run' the heel, literally just running the yarn up each column of stitches and down he next, so it reinforces it. You can do that on the ball of the foot too - it's like darning before it needs it!  

PipneyJane

@skogar - may I second @Laura_Elsewhere re cotton socks?  I knit socks out of either an alpaca-wool-nylon blend or a wool-nylon blend.  I’ve even made a pair in bison fibre, which are lovely but VERY precious and very expensive.  (Bought direct from the manufacturer at a stall.)

My favourite sources of yarn are all British sourced and spun:  West Yorkshire Spinners, Blacker Yarns, Jamieson & Smith, Laxtons, John Arbon, UK Alpacas, Toft Alpacas.

@MrsCD - I do French heels, for my socks.  When you knit the heel flap, on the knit side, Slip1 K1, repeat to end, ending with a knit stitch.  On the purl side, slip the first stitch and purl to the end.  This adds a layer of thread under the slipped stitch and makes a thicker heel.   In theory, the heel fibres will felt together slightly, forming a hard wearing fabric.  (It doesn’t always happen.).

When a heel wears down, I’ll either knit on a patch - there are directions on my blog - or use duplicate stitch to weave in extra yarn/replace the damaged stitches.  (I have to do that for the bison socks mentioned earlier.  Must get around to it.)

- Pip

skogar

Laura and Pip,

Many thanks for all the woolly sock info - it's absolutely great.

I do wear wool based socks for walking and find them really good (and when doing long distance walks the ability to wear them a few days can be very useful when you have no way of drying you thick woollen socks quickly hence why I wondered whether switching made sense for everyday use. So I will go for wool ones when I buy the next replacements. (Are Laura and Pip undercover agents for the wool marketing board I wonder?)

The tips for how to make thicker cushioned heels on hand knitted socks look very useful - still have my unfinished sock put to one side from when I ditched it to start the Christmas knitting last year. Half way through September already and no Christmas knitting started. Better get those knitting needles picked back up. Need to see if I can finally knit the hat I pulled back 4 times last year as i didn't like the various patterns I tried. I even bought some nice wool for Christmas knitting too. Must dig it out and try and remember what I thought I would make. I do quite well at knitting in the winter but in the summer with the lighter evenings do very little. Winter and Christmas are coming though so I had better crack on. I had all those goood resolutions to start my Christmas knitting in January. tut tut.

maryb

I I bought some sock yarn from YAK in Brighton which has nettle fibre as reinforcement instead of nylon.  Lovely colours but I haven’t yet knitted with it so can’t say how it will handle or wear

Baileys_Babe

maryb said:

I I bought some sock yarn from YAK in Brighton which has nettle fibre as reinforcement instead of nylon.  Lovely colours but I haven’t yet knitted with it so can’t say how it will handle or wear

I for one would be very interested in your findings.