2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Doggylady said:

Long time lurker here but this is my first post. I’ve been reading all the lovely wedding dress stories.   I hired my wedding dress. I was able to have an expensive dress at a fraction of the cost and it wasn’t left collecting dust afterwards with me wishing I could still fit into it.  I bought the veil and headdress, which I still have but the dress was returned a few days later.  This was in 1982 when meringues were the in thing ( a year after Lady Di got married) 🙂

Welcome @Doggylady.  Do come in and take a seat.  Cup of tea?  Piece of flapjack?  (Hopefully my DH hasn’t nipped in and eaten it all.). Please tell us all about yourself.  Do you craft?  What is the name of your lovely dog?

Hiring your dress was a good idea, cost wise.  I bet you looked beautiful in it. Did you feel sad handing it back?  The construction that went into the meringue-dresses had to be seen to be believed, which is one reason they were so expensive.  (In the late 1980’s, I shared a house with a girl who made one for a college project.  Her degree was in applied art.)

MrsCD said:

Congratulations @thriftwizard! I just found out a few minutes ago that my cousin is going to be a grandad in the summer too. Must be something in the water around here!

Oohhhh another baby!  Are you going to make something for it, @MrsCD?  

- Pip

Doggylady

Thank you @PipneyJane. Tea and flapjack sounds good!  I have 2 lovely labradors - Poppy the yellow lab is in love with everybody, and Barney the black lab is a very handsome chap and is very much “under the thumb”. Poppy’s the boss😀. I am a knitter and a seamstress. I love a charity shop bargain and am known to buy a quality item from a cs  and alter it or adapt it to fit.  I didn’t feel sad handing back my hired wedding dress.  Not only would I never wear it again (I’ve always been a jeans and T-shirt girl), but someone else would get use of it.  Even then I was against the idea of what’s now called fast fashion. Most of my clothes are from charity shops apart from shoes, socks and underwear. My mission this year is to learn to turn a heel so I can make my own socks. I’ve tried ( and failed) many times but I hope to master it this year!

maryb

Doggylady have a look at Winwick Mum’s blog, she has a very good tutorial on turning a heel

Liverpool_Anne

Talking of wedding dresses again, my niece got her first wedding dress, she has been married twice, from a cs. It was beautiful, just below the knee and covered in tiny white pearls, almost 1920s flapper style, so much work and she looked stunning, mind you she would look stunning in a potato sack lol.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Doggylady, welcome and hurrah for sock-knitting

Does it help to think of turning the heel as basically bending he tube of knitting? You knit the heel-flap as a flat piece, slipping the first stitch on every row whether knit or purl, and then you knit along to just past halfway, and you k2tog, knit one stitch more to steady it, turn and purl along to a similar point, just the other side of halfway, and p2tog, purl one stitch more to stabilise, turn again... you end up with a visible gap where you turned, and that's useful to identify. 

Each time you work along til you have only one stitch before the gap, and then work together the stitches either side, work one more to steady it and turn. 

For reasons I don't understand lots of patterns do all kinds of weird ways, so this pattern isn't clear - but if you think of it as just working til you have one stitch before your previous turning-point, and then just sort of "bite together" that stitch and the one on the far side as a work-two-together, work one stitch more to steady it and turn... 
Then picking up is easy because you slipped the first stitches, so you just pick up the slipped stitches and one more for luck (I pick that on up away from the sole, ie at the far end of the first needle and near end of the third needle, nearest the held-aside-for-over-the-foot stitches you're about to bring back into use. 

So for a thick sock, say 56 stitches, you'll typically work the heel-flap on half those, 38. Work 38 rows of the 38 stitches, and slip the first stitch each time. Then to turn, halfway would be 17 either side, so knit 20 so you're a bit past halfway, ie 18 left, then k2tog, k1 and turn... purl til you have 18 left and p2tog p1 and turn... knit til you have only one stitch before the previous turning point and knit it with the stitch on the far side of the turning-point... do you get the idea? 
Then when you get to going back into the round, you would pick up 17 slipped stitches up each side, and an extra stitch to make 18. 

Lots of other bits that make a better sock, but in terms of the mechanics, all you need to do is get the hang of bending the knitting by repeatedly biting together the stitches either side of where you turned last time and then working one stitch more before turning... 

dolly84

TwibbleDee - that cloak sounds fabulous, I would use that as a throw on the sofa.  My dad bought my mum some wool fabric in the 1960's which she never used and gave to me, it is a bottle green colour with black and yellow sort of checks with the checks made up of lots of lines, I made it into a double sided throw with another piece of wool in dark bottle green and added a bottle green fringe, it moves around the house as a blanket/throw and I love it except when I have to come out from underneath it I feel freezing.

Congratulations to those expecting babies into the family.

Doggylady - I am a Lab owner too, our first was a yellow lab, a very interesting character he was, when he was 6 we got a chocolate with a very fine pedigree, very sweet and loyal dog but not much going on brains wise and naturally very prone to weight problems.  We now have a black lab, he came from a well known working dog breeder in the North of England, they have bred the barking out of them (how on earth) and he has only barked 4 times in his life.  Whilst I love my dog it has taken me a very long time to realise I am not a dog person so he will be the last.  I see you knit, I reckon I could knit a new dog everyday with all the hair labs leave everywhere, it is quite incredible they are not bald.

Wraithlady

dolly84 said:

I reckon I could knit a new dog everyday with all the hair labs leave everywhere, it is quite incredible they are not bald.

Hence the phrase 'shedding like a labrador'

Doggylady

Thank you @Laura_Elsewhere and @maryb for the tips on heel turning. I will let you know how I get on. I’m half way through a tunic length roll neck jumper which is in all my favourite autumnal colours but the sock challenge will be next.  Yes Labs shed for England!  Especially yellow ones.  Before we got Poppy we had 3 black lab boys so my slate grey kitchen floor didn’t show up the drifts of hair so much.  Now Poppy is here, I have to sweep every day.  Barney is our barker- a furry door bell which is handy if I’m out in the garden.

PipneyJane

Wraithlady said:

dolly84 said:

I reckon I could knit a new dog everyday with all the hair labs leave everywhere, it is quite incredible they are not bald.

Hence the phrase 'shedding like a labrador'

I have a 40-year-old jumper upstairs that still contains the hair from our black labrador cross, in the back waistband.  He was leaning on me as I cast on and, every now and again, I'd pat him.  It was only afterwards while I was knitting the yoke, that I realised the first few rows were a lot darker than the rest of the cream jumper.  By that point, I wasn't going to rip it out and reknit it.

I'm not complaining.  I reckon he raised me well to be a good human...

- Pip

Liverpool_Anne

This MSE forum thing is amazing. OH has been sorting out old jeans to get rid of and I looked at all the good fabric thinking there must be something I can do with them. Quick Google and up pops MSE  page on what to make with old jeans lol. One of the links led to slippers, look quite easy, but they are house slippers and I tend to wear them everywhere, tripping out to the bin and the washing line so I need to find something to make the sole that is waterproof and has a bit of grip. I was thinking of rubber car mat. OH, when allowed, is a driving instructor and has loads lurking around slightly worn. What do you all think? Could this work? 
Medical thing done and I was told to eat normally but have extra fruit and veg rofl. I am a very happy bunny today