2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - I'm keeping my reverse-coupons entirely and totally separate from the normal clothing-coupons! Otherwise it's far too complex and not fair on other people

So I shall keep my usual coupons-tally in my signature, and if I buy a pair of knickers I'll take off the coupons... but if I make the knickers from stash-fabric then I add the coupons to my reverse-coupons tally, and keep on making things to use up what i have trying to reach 66!

If I buy new fabric, then the reverse-coupons don't change; that would be the normal clothing-coupons because I've bought new.

So it's a completely-separate tally, just using the same handy amounts for each item of clothing. 

diminua

I don't really have any New Years resolutions. I will set my food and soap coupons back to zero and keep 'mapping' but that's just to keep me conscious of what I'm doing (and consuming) rather than being too strict with myself. It has made me eat more vegetables though (because veg are not rationed) and less processed food (too hard to work out how to record the different bits of!). I also switched back to full fat milk instead of getting through six or seven pints of semi skimmed a week. I might be eating less cheese too, but I'm not sure. Definitely eating fewer sweets - although still far more than the ration - and I have lots of sugar, egg, meat and cooking fat coupons left but have gone well over in margarine and tinned goods (mostly fish and tomatoes). 

I should report that there's been no noticeable change to my waistline, weight, blood pressure or energy levels - they've been much less up and down in fact so if anything it's had a stabilising effect on me. 

Laura_Elsewhere

I'm using up a bit of my existing stocks of wool - 5mm needles and some 'bulky' weight wool I've had kicked about for a decade, to make a quick cardigan... 

I realised this morning as I put on my trusty autumn needlecord skirt (thanks again, @thriftwizard!) and a green-checked shirt bought barely-worn on eBay, my chestnut-sparkly slipover knitted last year from someone else's unwanted cashmere that I have no cardigan to go with my autumnal colours (of which I have many). I'm fine in mild Septembers, and in cold Octobers, but when we get a mild December I don't want to wear my heavy long grey wool winer skirt but my autumn layers are not quite warm enough... 

A crimson-russet cardigan has been vaguely on the cards for a year or two but never been needed enough, but I like having a project to knit myself at this time of year, so have cast on... 

No coupons as I already have the wool!

(ignore the yellow bits - stitch-markers to pull out at the end)

BabyStepper

I'm trying to get ready for this new challenge by taking stock of what I have. Times are going to be hard, but I have some skills and with your help, I'm determined to manage.

The first obvious gaps in my wardrobe are for blouses for work and warm cardigans. I bought 2 blouses second hand on eBay for less than £10 (MSE score). One is chiffon and from Mango (!), the other is cotton and from M&S. Both are short sleeved as I hate dipping my cuffs in the kitchen sink. Since they'll be arriving in the New Year, I thought I should start the challenge now. I'm still waiting to hear about a third, white linen, and am hopeful my £2 bid will win. I have also raided my yarn stash and have started work on 2 cardigans, one black (DK cotton blend), and one raspberry/burgundy (aran wool blend).   

@Laura_Elsewhere - your yarn is gorgeous. 

I have some old cotton blouses that I can repurpose as cloths, I'm not sure what to do with 2 old cardigans, store bought and machine knitted, and big. I'll keep hold of them until I think of something. 

So on 1st January I have 66 coupons. Not sure what reverse coupons are so I'll keep it simple. 

PipneyJane

Good morning Everyone

@Laura_Elsewhere - beautiful colour.  It will look lovely on you.

@BabyStepper this challenge is really about stopping to think:  if I buy this, is it worth the coupons?  Will it get used? How will it enhance my wardrobe?  Very often we get caught up in the lust-of-the-moment without stopping to think of the bigger impact, particularly if shopping with friends or if we use shopping as a reward/comfort.  It's trying to break the mindset of "it'll do, even if it isn't the perfect dress/skirt/trousers/top that I want", because those things perpetually disappoint and never get worn.  Does that make sense?

What patterns have you chosen for your new cardigans? 

Re the old ones, what is the real problem with them?  Are they worn thin?  Do they no longer suit your look?  Or are they now too big?

- Pip

PipneyJane

< cough > Ahem < / cough >

The new thread is up.  2022 Fashion On the Ration.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

< cough > Ahem < / cough >

The new thread is up.  2022 Fashion On the Ration.

- Pip

Yay! Thanks! I will go and say hello in a minute but firstly… (drum roll please)… I have itemised my yarn stash!
I can’t promise I’ve found every last item but there were 98 on the spreadsheet. 😬🤣🤣🤣
The largest is 1Kg of pink/beige to make myself a cardi or light jumper (and unknown other items) it there are also quite a few tiny remnants under 19g for dolls’ clothes, friendship bracelets and the like.
Here’s the pic:

Cherryfudge

Having posted the above, I am fairly sure there must be more somewhere but I wanted to tell you about the oddest thing that happened. One of the 'missing' items is a ball of a luscious dark red which I'd set aside a few years ago to make myself a snood. However, I think I might have found it: after I'd itemised the remaining yarn from The Grey Jumper (the intarsia one that took ages), the largest remainder was a couple of balls of dark red which I'd bought in after trawling through the Net to find anything compatible with the greys. In a completely separate box I found another ball - from the label I see it came from the same place as the original grey but I'd bought it in the sale and it's identical to the ones I bought this year from the big river place. When I looked at batch numbers, they are identical. How strange is that?!

I also have some partly-knitted garments found in my Mum's things, some of which I might one day make into something else. I've not counted these: they come closer to the category of wanna-be resurrected garments, of which I have a few, needing alteration or too worn to wear but would be great if I could work out how to copy them. One from Mum's is a knitted skirt in a thick and ugly yarn - no wonder I have no memories of her wearing it! I think the wool has some potential as the sort of really chunky jumper I'd wear with jeans for hiking on a gorgeous autumn day.

PipneyJane

Well done @Cherryfudge! Finding what you have is half the problem solved.

It isn’t so strange discovering that the balls of yarn were from the same batch. I have had that happen, too.   In my case, a friend visiting London  from Pennsylvania, on her way to her family in Portugal. She gave me 10 balls of Sublime Organic Merino DK in mauve.  Not a colour I can wear so I knitted it into a jumper for my MIL.  I was one ball short and ended up  ordering a ball from MCAdirect in Edinburgh.  Same dye lot, sold in shops 5000 miles apart.

- Pip 

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

  Same dye lot, sold in shops 5000 miles apart.

- Pip 

That's amazing! Especially when you consider how hard it can be to match batch numbers on the same shelf.