2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

TwibbleDee said:

 if I ask my mother, I'll end up with something reminiscent of the blue leopard-print ruffle shirt she for some reason thought I would wear (no offense to anybody who would, but most definitely not my style...especially back when I was in college!).

For some reason this doesn't inspire me to buy a blue leopard-print ruffle shirt!

Enjoy your time away.  

Liverpool_Anne

@PipneyJane, the only reason they can think of is because OH is a driving instructor and so spends the day sitting in one position. It means meds will have to be taken for longer and we have had discussions about going for a short walk between every lesson but we also suspect an underactive thyroid might be playing a part, every member of OHs immediate family has thyroid problems. Hope you have had a lovely long weekend and the weather was kind. It's currentlt lashing down and blowing a hooley here.
Take care everyone

Gem-gem

Three pairs of knickers bought, replacing three that were binned for various reasons (holes, elastic going). Hopefully I won't need to buy any in 2022.

Clothes bought so far this year ...
tops x 4.  (20 tokens)
trousers /jeans x 5 (30 tokens)
knickers x 2 (4 tokens)
boots x 1 (5 tokens)
scarf x 1 (2 tokens)
socks x3 (3 tokens).
knickers x3 (6 tokens)
70 tokens used.
Overspend - 4 tokens

Laura_Elsewhere

@Gem-gem - if you're only 4 coupons over, you're doing better than I did in my first 2 years - I ended up going dozens of coupons over (buying from spivs, obviously, on the black market!)... 

It's a brilliant feeling when you reach December 31st and realise you've managed to stay within your coupon allowance at long last!!

Laura_Elsewhere

prepareathome said:

Agg cannot find the post - but who ever mentioned Soldier of Fortune I just want to say thanks as socks are lovely - bought myself and DH some (already declared the coupons).  They are lovely and soft.  Bough various pairs for me and bough a pair of the 1000-mile socks for each of his and they certainly look as if they would keep your feet both cosy and comfortable on a long march - they are padded on toe, over ankle bones, heel up and over Achilles' tendon and top of foot - with some ribbing there to hold sock in place.  Trying them on the padded areas don't feel any different to rest of sock, so hopefully will feel like that when out walking.  Taken labels off so forget how much of each yarn is in them but mainly Merino wool as are the other socks I bought.  Took two days for order to arrive as these are off the shelf, machine made.   Hopefully will order from Quartermaster Stores this week.  

All this talking of knitting and crochet has me looking so longingly at my needles and hooks - could not make myself give them away when I gave away my yarn - and oh so tempting but I know it will be to painful ( Pippy-Jane no its not arthritis, its MS, its how it first showed itself, pain in my hands when I was 33 yet hands look normal, no arthritis that I know of so far but I know being 65 its likely to appear).  Anyways I have been looking to see if I can find a way that might get me knitting as boards a no go and have found a knitting machine that is round and costs over £100 and that is just for hat sized projects and you need to buy the smaller ones for sock sized things so debating could I manage it, still need hands to turn a handle  and put yarn on and off the machine but might be doable but won't rush as spent a fortune over the years on different knitting boards etc and they are sitting on top of wardrobe and mock me, along with knitting needles.  I have the sewing machines so not as if I cannot make anything but its not the same, knitting and to a lesser extent crochet is in my bones.  

Oh not added back the coupons for hats yet, must do that.  

It was me who mentioned SoF - and I hadn't bought from hem, myself so I am very pleased to have the recommendation and shall buy from them next time My Intended needs thick socks - glad they are good! 

I have to say I would be wary of the knitting machine. A friend has a hand-cranked sock-knitting machine which produces marvellous socks and stockings BUT there's no way it is easier on the joints than knitting or crocheting is... every decrease has to be done by hooking yarn over he ring of little hooks, the heel still has to be put in by hand-knitting afterwards and the toe done by hand, and every single round requires the handle turned. 
Can you find a YouTube video of the specific machine and see how much fiddling repetitive movement is involved? I have asked my friend what she thinks, but I've seen her using it and if anything it's worse than knitting for the movements involved... 
MS is truly horrible. I wish I lived near you so I could come round and try *all* the variations of what I call "anchored knitting" because there are a LOT of different ways and at least if we systematically went through the lot we'd know, iyswim...
My friend has just learnt to knit in the last month, having never touched a knitting needle (I taught her over Zoom!), and now wears cosy ankle-warmers knitted on DPNs in the round, and I kept thinking of you yesterday when we Zoomed - her entire family inc her has been down with Covid (thankfully, vaccinated so no hospitalisations amongst them, but a pretty bad time) - she's bought more Shropshire Ply online (I sent her to Ewe & Ply, obviously!) and is already knitting some ankle-warmers for a friend and saying how soothing it is when she's so weak and recuperating... and I wish so mcuh therewas some way to help you knit again. I hope that isn't horribly tactless, but well, anyway - you know there are people who really do sympathise with what it means to not-knit... 

CAFCGirl

Trip out today.
2 potentials for winter coats, £7 and £8. However deeply put off by the fact that the shop was sweltering! Door closed and door heater on full blast and I could barely stand to be in there.

But nicer time in the treasure trove (I'm sure @Cherryfudge will know where I mean) and a small box of fabric offcuts and I've picked up a nice length of soft corduroy type with a flower/art nouveau type of print. It'll get made into drawstring bags for my business, £2 but second hand so coupon free.

skogar

GemGem - It would be interesting to see the pattern you have in mind for the wrap. I agree with Laura it sounds a very big project to start on  I haven't knitted anything that big. I did buy some wool for a jumper when I started in a fit of enthusiasm - it was a lovely design but very fitted and I subsequently decided it was not an ideal early prooject. I am still thinking about how best to use the wool. It's lovely wool but will certainly be used for a project where the fit is not too critical.

Laura made a good suggestion with the armwarmers - I made a pair of wrist warmers early on that were knitted flat in fairly chunky wool and they were a good beginner project (I wish i had started with something like that as an initial project (it would have been much better than dishcloths in dishcloth cotton!). The wristwarmers were very wearable and actually looked quite nice. I had a look to see if I could find the pattern (it was one on the drops website) but it is no longer there. I'm sure you could find something similar though. You left a gap when you sewed them up to put the thumb through.

The nice thing with doing a few small projects first is that you get to try out different things and then you may have some better ideas of what you want to do for a larger project.

Things that are very simple and might be nice starter projects are

A knitted headband - you can find various ones knitted flat - this one is very simple but with the moss stitch it would give you a bit of texture. It's only alternate knit and pearl stitches. There are plenty of other patterns for similar things. https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=3438&cid=19

A cowl would take less wool than a scarf and be a quicker knit.

Again these sorts of projects are quite nice if you decide you want to play with different stitches. e.g. cables (not tried them yet myself).

If you fancied something a bit different a felted bag might be nice. This bag is done in a pattern but is the sort of thing that I was thinking of. Knitted plain this would be quite simple. Don't worry about the mention of the circular needles. The handles are knitted going forward and backwards so you could follow the pattern on normal needles if you wanted. The 80cm circulars for the body of the bag would be a good introduction to circular knitting and saves you sewing up the side seam (I hate sewing things together) and you don't need to pearl to get stocking stitch! However if you wanted to knit it flat you would be able to knit it in stocking stitch in 1 piece and sew the edge together - I'm sure there are other patterns for similar felted bags knitted flat.

https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=5680&cid=19

Little washcloths - knitted in cheerful colours could look quite nice and you can find a range of different patterns made out of knit and pearl stitches - You could use them to experiment with things - different stitches, colours, stripes.

Hats are good for learning decreasing and are quick to knit. I have a bit of a thing about hats.

You can find some quite nice simple toy patterns that are quite fun to do.

If you know a small person or know any babies it's good because you can practice making small versions of garments. I started with baby hats and mittens (the babies aren't that fussy). Baby mittens don't have thumbs so are easier than larger ones. Also providing you make it larger than they are (allowing for knitting speed) they will grow into it if they are not big enough yet so you don't have to worry about tension too much.

You will see I have used quite a few patterns from the drops site. they have some nice free ones but quite a lot of the arm warmer and hat patterns use double pointed needles which I think are harder than circulars initially. However double pointed needles are not as hard to use as they look (and I know many experienced knitters who produce fabulous things on straight needles) who when they see you knitting on double pointed ones say "I couldn't do something as complicated as that". I just hate sewing things up so any excuse to get out of it!

Have fun looking for those initial projects (ravelry is a great resource). When you have found something you fancy you can always show us and see what we think. To be honest if you want to make it enough most things are possible.

I think you may have asked about whether DB shoes was an abreviation - no - if you put it in a search engine like that you will find it.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, while having a big sort out as the chimney sweep is coming tomorrow I found a massive bag of white chunky acrylic yarn. OH aquired it some where some time ago and just stashed it behind the tv table, comment was "'I thought you could do something with it" , well yes I could if I had known it was there Not sure exactly how much is in the bag, I will check tomorrow after the sweep has been.
Take care everyone

Cherryfudge

A spend to declare: 300g acrylic yarn which I feel guilty about as I don't think it's environmentally friendly but it's for a new baby and I want the parents to have something that can be thrown in the washing machine. I did consider cotton but it often seems to go dingy.

I think that's 3 coupons as 50g (2oz) of wool is one coupon so if it were wool I'd be spending 6 coupons and our assumption is that artificial fibre is half the coupon value of wool.

It took me a while to work that out, think I need my tea.

@CAFCGirl, that was good hunting on your part! You must be their No. 1 customer!

CAFCGirl

Cherryfudge said:

@CAFCGirl, that was good hunting on your part! You must be their No. 1 customer!

I was deeply saddened by the lack of plant pots, think its the first time I've been in and not got one LOL
They did have an AMAZING travel mug in the window in a Haida art style (from the North West Pacific/Canada), and I would have snapped it up but £10 - OH MY!
So I've been in a bit of a sulk about that. 

I shall be digging through my yarn box today and finding the odd balls and oddments to make a long 'Lenny Kravitz' type scarf for my cousin for Christmas. I'm yet to decide on a stitch pattern though that wont be affected with the frequent colour changes. With loom knitting when you purl on a colour change, it creates like a dash line because the new colour goes under the old, so I feel like that limits me a little....
 
First world problems though and I'm sure he wouldnt notice it as being a 'fault' but I will...