2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

Thankyou all... {{{hugs}}}

On a lighter note, this interview with Susan Crawford about her Excelana wool yarn has some interesting details about vintage yarns http://wovember.com/2011/11/20/excelana-from-sheep-to-skein/

Liverpool_Anne

That's a very interesting article Laura, the more I read about wool the more I realise how little I know

PipneyJane

@Cherryfudge - what happened with the jumpers you ordered?  Were they any good?

@Laura_Elsewhere - great article.  Thank you for finding it.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

A really interesting article, @Laura_Elsewhere - though the special wool for swimming costumes...!  

@PipneyJane, the jumpers were a mini saga as the courier mis-delivered them but the neighbour of whose doorstep they landed brought them round and the courier has sent me an apologetic note so it all came to nothing.

Two of them are lovely, one, I'm not so sure of. For the last few days I've been promising myself to try them on in daylight... day off tomorrow so perhaps I will organise myself.

PollyWollyDoodle

That’s a great article, and now I want to buy one of those pattern books although I am wincing at the price.  My mum had a knitted swimsuit in the 1920s, it was all that was available. She said it was fine when you got into the water, but when you got out it had usually stretched quite a lot, with unflattering and sometimes revealing consequences! 

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

That’s a great article, and now I want to buy one of those pattern books although I am wincing at the price.  My mum had a knitted swimsuit in the 1920s, it was all that was available. She said it was fine when you got into the water, but when you got out it had usually stretched quite a lot, with unflattering and sometimes revealing consequences! 

I have all the Stitch In Time books, @PollyWollyDoodle.  I've knitted several items and have more in my queue.  I'd suggest having a good browse of the pattern pages on Ravelry.  That may help you decide if the purchase is worth it.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

I've decided to keep all three tops (the green one is never teal, as described but it's a nice colour and I love the style) so I've been doing some coupon counting.
I bought two x 100g balls of cotton yarn earlier in the year for which I seem to have accounted.
A second sports bra that I meant to send back but never got round to it - do I detect a theme here? - 1.5 coupons.
Three tops/jumpers at 5 coupons each = 15
I've also just ordered a bum bag for work, my old one having broken beyond mending the other day. I tried to find coupons value but in 1942 they didn't have anything so indelicate as a bum bag, and Pip's list mentions purses and wallets but assumes handbags weren't made during the war. Purses are 2 coupons and the bum bag is a bit bigger so would three coupons be fair?

So 1.5+15+3 = 19.5.
Plus existing total of 12 coupons used = 31.5 used which is a bit much when it's only March, Mrs F.

I think I added a couple of coupons to my signature the other day so I'll look back and adjust if necessary.

(ETA - I'd recorded the cotton yarn so I've removed it from the scribble above and recalibrated the total).

PipneyJane

Don’t beat yourself up, @Cherryfudge.  You had almost half a year’s coupons saved from last year, so you are still miles ahead of the crowd.  (I’ve only got 47 coupons left.). If you can afford the items and they are exactly what you want/need, then you’re doing well.

It’s payday today so I have been reviewing my budget.  With the exception of a pair of trainers, I think I won’t be spending any coupons until the autumn,  After a year in Lockdown, there is virtually that I want or need.  (I have two suits that have barely been worn.)   There’s a shop I know in Lincoln, that I’m hoping has survived, which sells classically tailored women’s clothing, stuff that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Father Brown.  If they don’t have it in stock, they have a tailor who will make to measure.  If I can make it through to September without shopping, I’ll have enough money in my clothing account to buy one of their suits.   

Mind you, if I can lose another inch off my middle, I’ll be able to comfortably fit into several items that are currently gathering dust in the wardrobe.  That might even be easier than trying to find something I like in the shops when they reopen.  My taste and fashion seldom coincide.

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

Thanks for the suggestion about Ravelry, Pip - I love the look of some of those patterns, just my sort of thing.

I have bought nothing except running gear this year. I don’t feel I need much at the moment. 

PipneyJane

Good evening All.

I am at a creative cross-roads at the moment.  Knitting-wise,  I’ve finished the majority of the knitting for my “when you are off duty” sweater - just need to set in the sleeves and figure out how to knit the collar - and have finally started knitting another pair of socks (the Copper Beach Socks from issue 78 of The Knitter). 

My dilemma is what to do for my next jumper.  I know that I will be using the Navy blue worsted weight yarn that I purchased earlier this year.  I originally thought of making a Cobblestone Sweater.  I liked the textured yoke and the (mainly) plain body, although I was going to substitute ribbing for the garter-stitch welts.  But the thing that is putting me off is the tension.   Ravelry quotes 18 stitches to 4 inches on 5mm needles.   The pattern as originally printed in Interweave Knits Fall 2007* gives that stitch count using 4.5mm needles, so that was the needle size I used when knitting my swatch.  I got 21 stitches to 4 inches in the round, 22st when knitting flat.  To get a stitch count of 18 stitches over 4 inches, I reckon I may have to go up to 5.5mm needles and that doing so will make the fabric too loose.  I’ve been procrastinating about it all week, instead of knitting more swatches.  (Probably why I finally started on another pair if socks...)   Yes, I could re-calculate the pattern to fit my gauge, but I really wanted to do something mindless....  Humph!  

The answer, of course, is to knit a swatch on 5mm and another on 5.5mm and see how they come out.  Something for later in the weekend, when I’ve got some brain power back.

- Pip


* I subscribed to Interweave for several years until I got fed up paying more in postage than I did for the paper magazine.