2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

@CraftyLittleLisa - I know exactly how you feel re computers.  My March has been the same - far too much screen time and not enough breaks.  Hope things get better for you soon.

Whoever said that they stop doing their craft because they don’t want to finish what they are making - yes, I feel the same.  I haven’t the brainpower to start something new and I don’t want to not have any knitting to do.

- Pip

maryb

Cherryfudge that’s so clever.

I don’t know about others, but I find that after a successful mend I get more fond of the item concerned.  In a way that I don’t necessarily feel about the items I make from scratch even when they turn out well.

Mending is better than ending!  There’s an article in the Guardian this week on the right to mend.  I think it’s in the environment section

Laura_Elsewhere

I have just put the very last stitch into the crocheted lace Wedlothia...!

Less than 200g of pure silk, one in muted autumnal colours and one in bright autumnal shades....

Still to do: soaking and blocking, to make it larger but crucially to open up the patterns of the lace. And then I start sewing on hundreds, maybe even thousands, of absolutely tiny glass beads in a dozen or more autumnal colours from gleaming gold to bright scarlet, glowing crimson, and a whole range of colours in between...

But the shawl itself is...well....it's done.

Ten months, and nearly two kilometres of silk thread.  Which all fits into my little Russian lacquerwork bowl because it's silk  

Nonnadiluca

Beautiful Laura!!!

PollyWollyDoodle

Wow!  That’s beautiful and what a lovely way to prepare for your wedding. 

Edited to add: PS I love your nails!

Cherryfudge

Thank you everyone for the kind comments. In answer to your question, @MrsCD it was wearing thin but hadn't yet gone through, so the back is lined with a scrap of cotton from when I used to cannibalise DS1's school trousers for knee reinforcements for other pairs! If you look closely you can see how experimental I was being: there's a join line between two darned sections and the poor rabbit has one eye accidentally bigger than the other! But that's part of the fun of doodling.
@maryb, I understand the mending and getting more fond of things: if it's worth mending I guess the handling of it and the thought that goes into the repair will reinforce initial attachment. I have also found that describing something can have the same effect. I once talked myself out of selling a skirt I never wore (and still haven't worn) because I was so persuasive with my description!  
I'm going to see if I can find the article you mention.
@Laura_Elsewhere, that is a wonderful piece of work, a real heirloom. I'm really looking forward to seeing the beads in place.
And welcome back to those who've been away for a bit. I'll put the kettle on and find the biscuit tin.

PipneyJane

Thanks for putting the kettle on, @Cherryfudge.  Hopefully my DH hasn’t eaten all the biscuits.

@Laura_Elsewhere, your shawl is a thing of love and beauty.  Good luck blocking it.

It’s virtually a year since we went into Lockdown.  I remember that last weekend, going to the Farm Shop and chatting with farmer about how worried he was about his parents catching the virus - during the week, it was his parents who ran the stall - and also about how they’d been swamped with panic buyers.  (We’d been regulars for 19 years at that point.  They’ve been closed ever since.)

Anyway, the reason I wanted to post RIGHT NOW was triggered by an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, about people learning Welsh.  They interviewed Jen Bailey, an Australian orchestral conductor living in the Netherlands, who described her online Welsh conversation classes as “finding a tribe”.  That’s what you all are to me and I wanted to say  “Thank You”.  Thank you for your kindnesses and your friendship.  Thank you for looking out for each other.  Thank you for playing along with the mad idea that this thread is really the gateway to a village hall, in 1942.

- Pip (Now, excuse me while I clean out the wood fire stove.  That’s not a tear in my eye, it’s just a smut got in while I was sweeping out the ash...)

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane -here, old thing. Found some pre-war handkerchieves in the back of a cupboard. Want one? Chin up. 

Now - @Cherryfudge has boiled the kettle but we can't find that biscuit tin. I suppose whoever was filling it has taken it home and not brought it back in full yet... 

PollyWollyDoodle

Sorry. I was just making some Melting Moments to pop in the tin - a bit tricky what with no butter, but I’ve been saving my sugar ration so they should taste ok. 

The support of the Much Mending Ladies Circle (should that be Ladies’ Circle?) has indeed been invaluable throughout the last year. Thank you all. Now, let me give you a hand with that ash can, Pip. 

Laura_Elsewhere

I've been working on the map of the Much Mending on the Borrow area - I discovered the maps of Barsetshire inside my old Angela Thirkell novels seem to include the area - a bit south and west of Winter Overcote, along from Witner Underclose, but east of Barchester. 
I must draw it up neatly and post it for you...