2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Nonnadiluca

I too used to put off using the sewing machine as I had to carry it into the kitchen to use the only table, so decided to make a dedicated space. We only have two bedrooms; we sleep in the slightly smaller one at the back of the house and the front bedroom has a double bed for visitors, bedside tables, a chest of drawers and my very large,old pine wardrobe. I moved things around to free up a wall, bought a small, narrow old pine table from gumtree where the sewing machine now lives, snaffled an old stool from DD's garage and covered it with a bit of spare fabric and now have a sewing room! When guests come to stay, the sewing machine goes under the table so it can be used to put their stuff on. I definitely sew much more often now. I also got a second hand small armchair with low arms and sit there doing cross stitch or knitting whilst listening to an audiobook or podcast so I can call it my craft room! Last year my cousin came over and was very jealous and wished she could have somewhere to do her sewing - she lives in a four bedroom house with a separate dining room, just her and her DH!!!!

PipneyJane

Nonnadiluca said:

I too used to put off using the sewing machine as I had to carry it into the kitchen to use the only table, so decided to make a dedicated space. We only have two bedrooms; we sleep in the slightly smaller one at the back of the house and the front bedroom has a double bed for visitors, bedside tables, a chest of drawers and my very large,old pine wardrobe. I moved things around to free up a wall, bought a small, narrow old pine table from gumtree where the sewing machine now lives, snaffled an old stool from DD's garage and covered it with a bit of spare fabric and now have a sewing room! When guests come to stay, the sewing machine goes under the table so it can be used to put their stuff on. I definitely sew much more often now. I also got a second hand small armchair with low arms and sit there doing cross stitch or knitting whilst listening to an audiobook or podcast so I can call it my craft room! Last year my cousin came over and was very jealous and wished she could have somewhere to do her sewing - she lives in a four bedroom house with a separate dining room, just her and her DH!!!!

Sounds wonderful, @Nonnadiluca.  I can see why your cousin is jealous.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane, his really jumpedat me:

"My sister sent me my great-aunt’s dining room table in 2019.  It was our dining table when I was growing up and I cut loads of garments out on that table when I was growing up. I could do that again.  It’s been my desk since Christmas.  I could set my sewing machine up on it, too."

Dunno if you've ever read much insomnia advice but one of the things they really recommend is to avoid doing anything in bed apart from sleeping and a bit of he other, so to speak...  so you train your mind NOT to associate bed with discussing financial problems or working on next week's presentation, or watching films, playing solitaire on your phone,etc., etc. 

I wonder if you've kind of *diluted* your sewing space? You only acquired the table in 2019 and it arrived covered in sewing memories. Since then, with the world turned inside-out, you've done very little or no sewing, and you've used he table for other non-sewing stuff, stuff you must do, are made to do, not stuff you choose to do. 

What about getting a tablecloth, curtain, duvet-cover, length of fabric and covering the table with that during working hours.... and have a box or trolley so at the end of your working day you spend a few minutes putting all your work stuff away OFF the table, and take off the covering-cloth. It'll take a lot less time than commuting used to take. Probably less time than getting your coat and gloves and scarf and everything on and then off... 
Then you have your table back. It isn't just A Table, but it's Your Table. 

And maybe if you stop diluting it, you'll start to feel more like sewing?

Possibly.  You’ve given me something to think about. Thanks Laura.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Well, after knitting about 3/4 of this stocking-cap over three days, using wool I already have (used last week to knit Spring Cake Cuffs, also in the pic) I have concluded I don't actually like it very much.
TheCuffs are at the front, and those broad bands of cream, so fresh and clean and light and airy, with just touches of colour in narrow stripes, are what I love about those. The hat has too many stripes, too close together... 

So I shall take it off the needles but not unravel it just yet, and meanwhile cast-on again, and see if I can come up with a version that has more cream in it.

I realised that what I like a lot about the cuffs is the broad stripes of cream between the intermittent stripes of colour - the narrower, constant stripes of the hat are not as pleasing to my eyes, so... 

Ah well  Cast on 180.... again....!

(Added Comedy note: initially I thought of the colours as spring flowers, the pink of Lenten Rose hellebores, the green lines of snowdrops, the dark blue of grape hyacinths because I didn't have any hyacinth or bluebell wool.... but I now realise that the green and pink are the colours of 1930s bathroom suites...! )

diminua

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Well, after knitting about 3/4 of this stocking-cap over three days, using wool I already have (used last week to knit Spring Cake Cuffs, also in the pic) I have concluded I don't actually like it very much.
TheCuffs are at the front, and those broad bands of cream, so fresh and clean and light and airy, with just touches of colour in narrow stripes, are what I love about those. The hat has too many stripes, too close together... 

So I shall take it off the needles but not unravel it just yet, and meanwhile cast-on again, and see if I can come up with a version that has more cream in it.

I realised that what I like a lot about the cuffs is the broad stripes of cream between the intermittent stripes of colour - the narrower, constant stripes of the hat are not as pleasing to my eyes, so... 

Ah well  Cast on 180.... again....!

(Added Comedy note: initially I thought of the colours as spring flowers, the pink of Lenten Rose hellebores, the green lines of snowdrops, the dark blue of grape hyacinths because I didn't have any hyacinth or bluebell wool.... but I now realise that the green and pink are the colours of 1930s bathroom suites...! )

Hmm. Not sure I agree about the 1930s bathroom suites - I feel the green would be more of a turquoise. But - at the risk of creating more work for you, I agree the bigger stripes of cream between the colours are more 'pleasing to the eye', and the nice thick stripes in the cuff are more attractive than the thinner ones in the hat. I don't knit but I do paint and I think maybe double amounts of cream to the other colours, and maybe two stripes not three and a stich thicker? Ignore me if that's a lot of work and impractical. 

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Well, we finally watched that Channel-5 Home Front programs mentioned earlier.  We found it quite bitty and light; a bit disappointing, really.   Unlike similar series made by the BBC, you never got the feeling that the family were living in the house or really experiencing life from that era.  The “experts” were the most interesting part.  I actually have “The Wartime House” book written by two of them (Carol Harris and Mike Brown).

@Laura_Elsewhere, I feel your pain.  The cuffs are crisp and clean to the eye, the hat looks too busy.  Perhaps you could knit a cream hat and sample a colour stripe from this yarn every 10-12 rounds?  By my hat-making calculations, you’d get 6 or 7 stripes of colour on your hat.   There should then be enough of the original yarn left to knit a pair of socks to match.

Talking of hats...  Below is the hat that I finished this week for my Big Sis, who is undergoing chemo for breast cancer. It’ll be posted today.  I have only known for a week, see below.  It’s knitted in Hermit Shetland Style Double Knit. (Does anyone remember Hermit Wools?). Incredibly soft and the closest to purple - Big Sis’ colour choice - that I had in my stash.  The yarn was a gift from a knitter friend, who has a knack for finding good quality stuff in charity shops.  Some of it had been manually balled up, so I used that for the hat.  Last night, after I blocked it, there was a moment when in the LED kitchen lights I could clearly see that the crown was a different dye lot to the rest of the hat.  Can’t see it in daylight and couldn’t see it under compact fluorescents while I was knitting it up.  (Believe me, I’d checked and double checked.). 



 Eldest Sis didn’t know, either, until last Wednesday and then phoned me to break the news.  They both live in Melbourne, which has been in almost constant Lockdown with travel restrictions for months and, as Big Sis said “I didn’t want to phone you to say “Happy Christmas!  And, by the way, I have breast cancer”...”. So, she didn’t.  Once I knew, I was on the phone almost immediately.   Her prognosis is excellent. Lump is out.  Clean margins. No secondaries or spread.

- Pip

ETA: the link to the hat on Ravelry.  The pattern is my own.  If you want to copy it, you can find the details there.

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane, shocking to hear your Big Sis has breast cancer but great to hear it's such a good prognosis. My friend still awaiting surgery but prognosis generally pretty good too, although sadly her husband has deteriorated and still in hospice despite original plan for only a short visit to sort out pain meds... 

I have 50g of 4-ply pure-silk in lavender-purple if it would be of use for your Big Sis, if she finds even soft wool is too harsh for a sensitive scalp. 

I've now knitted a folded picot hem, 9 rounds high, for the second iteration of the hat, and yes, I'll be pretty well copying the cuffs - I had no particular ideas when I started knitting the first hat, which is a fault I'm rather prone to! I'll be dismantling the first hat to re-use the yarns. The blue in particular I'm down to only 9g of, and since I bought it some twenty-plus years ago I'm not really sure what it is, other than Shetland (I've identified the pink as a Jamieson's Spindrift 1234, but the blue could be several yarns, hard to tell on a screen). 

@diminua, you're right about a turquoise but I'd been thinking of that as the blue of the 1930s bathroom range - this is the green bathroom I'm thinking of! And the pink below for those who don't remember them...  

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane, shocking to hear your Big Sis has breast cancer but great to hear it's such a good prognosis. My friend still awaiting surgery but prognosis generally pretty good too, although sadly her husband has deteriorated and still in hospice despite original plan for only a short visit to sort out pain meds... 

I have 50g of 4-ply pure-silk in lavender-purple if it would be of use for your Big Sis, if she finds even soft wool is too harsh for a sensitive scalp. 

Thanks for the offer, @Laura_Elsewhere.  I won’t know for a couple of weeks.

Also, thanks for the update on your friends.  I was wondering how they are getting on.  Has her surgery been scheduled or is she still waiting for a date?  Is she allowed to visit him in the hospice?  I hope so.  Her heart will be aching with grief for him for what he is going through and pain with missing him.

- Pip 

PS:  I managed to snap a photo of the hat under the kitchen lights.  You can see the colour change on the crown.  Can’t see it in daylight, though.

PollyWollyDoodle

The hat is beautiful Pip, what a lovely thing to do for your sister. Sorry to hear her news but glad that it sounds like a good prognosis.

I agree with what everyone else has said about the hat, Laura - wider stripes. 
I once rented a flat which had a pink bathroom and black tiles. 😱 They were a nightmare to clean. 

Laura_Elsewhere

This is MUCH better! 
Sometimes I just don't think enough before I start making something! 

The texture by the way changes totally on handwashing - that loose uneven gappy texture changes to a lovely smooth soft texture with a lovely Shetland 'halo' of fuzz...