2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

florianatwobob

@Cherryfudge thank you for your kind words. 😊I do love a gargoyle too.  ❤️I’ve got some of the yarn left over from making him. I need to see how much is left so I can put it to good use!  

Good idea about the photo of the joining stitches. Next time I fish out the stash I’ll take a picture. 

CAFCGirl

Baileys_Babe said:

CAFCGirl said:

Baileys_Babe said:

@CAFCGirl do you have any loom knitting videos you can recommend so I can improve,  my current efforts are very basic

Probably my absolute favourite is Tuteate - their videos are completely non verbal which I actually love.

Loomahat is good too - I can tolerate her accent, although sometimes she repeats to the point of actual confusion. 
Probably the best thing for my loom knitting (and I'm presuming you mean handheld looms and not a weaving loom), was getting smaller gauge looms from KB - Knitting Board I think is the company. They're in Bezo's Emporium   
The large ones are nice but everything always felt very 'holey' even using chunky or super chunky yarn.

Thank you @CAFCGirl I will check those videos out, hopefully, I too can tolerate the accent, sometimes they can distract to the point I can no longer watch the videos.

Yes i am talking about hand held looms, I have a set of knifty knitters style looms and I also have a KB sock loom, which I confess I have never had the confidence to use.

Honestly, get a 3/8 gauge round set from KB. I think they were £25ish (Its a white, purple and orange), I hate looming on the chunky ones now LOL I've never attempted a sock loom so youre a step ahead of me there.

I think with Loomahat, she has a softer American drawl, some of them are horrendously screechy sounding.
If theres a project or stitch you want to learn specifically, let me know and I'll hunt out some for you.
Tuteate also has an app - which I love so no stupid Youtube ads to contend with, and you can skip to specific sections of a project easily.

CAFCGirl

Cherryfudge said:

I have a couple of spends but no coupons to declare: a long sleeved tee shirt and a checked shirt from charity shops yesterday, I'm very pleased with them.

Sorry @CAFCGirl, I got there first! 

I thought you were going to announce a trove of houseplant pots and I was all about ready for a full on sulk HAHAHA

I'll let you win this time 

florianatwobob

Quick question….would the purchase of elastic be a coupon spend? 

Nonnadiluca

@Laura_Elsewhere, that shawl is beautiful, the colours you use are always gorgeous and rich. Unfortunately I have no colour sense whatsoever, almost every item of clothing that I own is navy or grey! I'm attracted to some colours but lack the confidence to wear them. ( I was brought up to believe that the two worst things in the world were that people would look at you, or talk about you, so have always tried to be as invisible as possible). I recently saw a lovely bright mustard yellow jumper on the Rapanui website but my daughter said, "Mum, you'd look awful in that colour!".
Many years ago, when my son was at art college, we went to the end of year exhibition and OH asked if I noticed anything about his work that was different to all the rest. Apart from the fact that it was obviously much better than the others, I hadn't noticed anything. OH pointed out that he used virtually no colour: everything was monochrome, natural wood etc, so perhaps it runs in the family!

Gem-gem

Wow, there are such talented people on this thread. I am in such awe of you all. @Laura_Elsewhere, that shawl is amazing. 

@Cherryfudge, that gargoyle is superb. For Christmas last year my friend crocheted me a small giraffe. I love him. (I have called it Gerald).

You have all inspired me. I have just spent a couple of days with my Mum. She has once again taught me to knit. I learnt to cast on, Mum always used to start it off for me. Mum has given me two old balls of wool to make some squares with, so that I can practice casting on, knitting, counting and then casting off. Need to get the technique right. 

I popped into JL to pick up something and went and looked at the wool / what was available. Spoke to Mum, said that I would like to make a long wrap to start with, which will be one step up from a scarf. Then....who knows? 

Visited the secondhand shop - bought a cardigan. Took in two jumpers, two skirts and a belt. Fingers crossed that they will sell. 

Finally, just want to say thank you all for welcoming me onto this thread and for your top tips on how to make my jeans last longer. (The jeans do have elastic /stretch in them). 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Nonnadiluca, the funny thing is that those colours were thrust upon me - it's only one yarn, a colour-changing one by Drops, and someone was emptying heir cupboards and gave me a load of it - I can't stand turquoise-aqua-purple so it sat for aeons but then a friend had los of surgery and I realised it was very much *her* colours so I made the shawl. 
I bet you have colours that really would suit you, though... strong mustard-yellow is pretty trying for most people, it has to be said, ditto violent purples and harsh royal blues... but all you need to do is interrupt the 'join' where your skin meets the jumper - so you could wear your mustard jumper, and add a charcoal chiffon or silk scarf t the neck, and it would look gorgeous, I bet... 
Go on - get your jumper! You deserve some lovely rich colour in your life - go on  

But it really is not highly skilled- if you can crochet a granny-square, you can crochet a lace shawl! 

@Gem-gem, great news that you and your mum have got you up and knitting! Hurrah! When you move on to making something, though, a couple of suggestions - for one thing, a long wrap will be something that takes a very long time... might it be an idea to think of something that would be quicker, so you can have the sense of achievement to encourage you? Secondly, please don't buy cheap nasty yarn - a lot of beginners do, and I've even shoved my oar in once or twice in a yarn shop when the shopkeeper has been saying, "oh don't waste good yarn on your first project" - no, no, no - DO use good yarn early on! 
For one thing, if you use good yarn, it can actually help hide any little mistakes you may make but also, even if you make something perfectly with not a single error, it could look awful if you use cheap yarn that hangs droopily and sags... 

I would say beginning, that's just when it's best to use really lovely yarn! 

Welcome... 

Gem-gem

thriftwizard said:

I upcycle jeans, as long as they're not stretch denim, which is pretty hopeless to work with. Favourite things to make are aprons, hanging "pockets" to store bits in, and a variety of bags; I've tried doing a little quilt recently, too, but that really didn't work well as there were definitely some bits of stretch denim in my "supplies" which made it skew badly. Previously I have made "raggy" quilts, from jeans and cotton plaid shirts, which did work well, but I'd struggle to find that much non-stretch denim now. I cut old family jeans into strips to weave with, or use in the garden as a gentle way to train or restrain exuberant climbers. Most of my twined-weave rag rugs have a couple of lines of denim at either end, as it's tough & can take the extra battering that the edge gets. Off to see if I have any convenient photos of anything...

Wow @thriftwizard these look great. That is a shame that stretch jeans are not as good. If I get any that are not stretch, I'll let you know.

My Dad's wife says that she is planning on up-cycling a jacket into a bag. 

Gem-gem

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@Nonnadiluca, the funny thing is that those colours were thrust upon me - it's only one yarn, a colour-changing one by Drops, and someone was emptying heir cupboards and gave me a load of it - I can't stand turquoise-aqua-purple so it sat for aeons but then a friend had los of surgery and I realised it was very much *her* colours so I made the shawl. 
I bet you have colours that really would suit you, though... strong mustard-yellow is pretty trying for most people, it has to be said, ditto violent purples and harsh royal blues... but all you need to do is interrupt the 'join' where your skin meets the jumper - so you could wear your mustard jumper, and add a charcoal chiffon or silk scarf t the neck, and it would look gorgeous, I bet... 
Go on - get your jumper! You deserve some lovely rich colour in your life - go on  

But it really is not highly skilled- if you can crochet a granny-square, you can crochet a lace shawl! 

@Gem-gem, great news that you and your mum have got you up and knitting! Hurrah! When you move on to making something, though, a couple of suggestions - for one thing, a long wrap will be something that takes a very long time... might it be an idea to think of something that would be quicker, so you can have the sense of achievement to encourage you? Secondly, please don't buy cheap nasty yarn - a lot of beginners do, and I've even shoved my oar in once or twice in a yarn shop when the shopkeeper has been saying, "oh don't waste good yarn on your first project" - no, no, no - DO use good yarn early on! 
For one thing, if you use good yarn, it can actually help hide any little mistakes you may make but also, even if you make something perfectly with not a single error, it could look awful if you use cheap yarn that hangs droopily and sags... 

I would say beginning, that's just when it's best to use really lovely yarn! 

Welcome... 

Thank you for your words of wisdom. I am open to all advice. 

The wool that I was looking at was a high % of Merino wool, it was around £6.70 for a 50g ball. ( I like Merino wool jumpers and socks). The wrap would need 16 balls. Yes, just over £100, but worth it, if it looks good. Mum suggested showing me a different stitch so the stitch is bigger - so wouldn't take as long. Next time she comes to visit we will visit JL and picked everything up. 

Laura_elsewhere, can you suggest a project to start with? 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Gem-gem, well I usually suggest arm-warmers or ankle-warmers/legwarmers, but that's because I knit everything "in the round" (ie I use 4 or 5 knitting needles and produce a tube, rather than "knitting flat" which uses two knitting needles and produces flat things you then have to sew together) - but I think you can get patterns or instructions for making cosy arm-warmers knitted flat.

In fact if you're knitting squares, you're already most of the way to making arm-warmers - if you ask your mum, she can show you how to do a knit-then-purl-then-knit ribbing, and then if you make a square of ribbing, and sew two long edges together, leaving a hole for your thumb, you've done it! 

So you could use one ball of the really lovely yarn, knit yourself arm-warmers, and have lovely cosy wrists and hands, and enjoy the bit when someone stops you in a shop or bus and asks where you got those lovely arm-warmers and you say, "I made them! "  

I think it's just really great when you're beginning, if you get to enjoy the fruits of your labours this side of next year!   You may be much better than I am at Deferred Gratification