2022 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

CapricornLass

Hi, everyone, just been catching up.  I've been in deepest Northumberland the past 10 days, and the internet connection was two cocoa tins and a length of string.....

Any way, I have several spends to declare.  Firstly, a lovely blue and white striped grandfather shirt in flannel, lovely and warm and a great over tunic, which will be 5 coupons, three pairs of knickers as I can't count and didn't take enough pairs away with me, and a pair of thermal leggings.  A total of 13 points.  

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere sorry to hear about the green cardigan.  Did you wash it in Eucalan  by any chance?  Biggest mistake I ever made was to use that wool wash - everything I have ever washed in it felted and shrank afterwards.  I’ve only used it twice; never again. Seriously, it stripped fibre off the second jumper, so that it looked like it was moulting.

The new one is in beautiful colours and will look lovely.

@CAFCGirl love the sweat-shirt.  What is your “crafting machine”?  Do tell us more.

@Liverpool_Anne  fingers crossed re the yarn.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane, no - after hearing your horror-story I've avoided Eucalan! 

I washed it in cold water with no detergent, same as I had the sample piece. I've found one or two others online who report the same issues - massive ropes of pilling, and drastic shrinking - but everyone else loves it, so I think they must just hjave occasional disastrous batches in some weird way.

But I have a gorgeous squishy parcel from Ewe & Ply to replace it with after I finish my commuting back and forth to Scotland in a couple of months' time. I can come home and just settle down to relax and knit myself a nicer one in reliable, dependable, trustworthy 'Shropshire Ply DK' from people I trust! 

The skirts are both 3/4-done - needlecord prototype is basically wearable but needs a hem, and of course it has no pockets yet; the herringbone tweed is awaiting three hand-made corded buttonholes along the waistband and its three early-20th century military brass buttons corded on, and then the front seam sewn up and poppers added to the top few inches. Then it will only need hem and pockets. I intend to get them both to that stage and take pocket pieces with me and then I can get that done at my parents' place as I am there for 10 days to start with (then it's just Tues-Thurs each week), having intended to spend the ten days tackling some of my belongings still there (helpfully my parents have moved everything round, even opening boxes and mixing their own junk with my things - for example the attachments and plastic jugs from three long-defunct food-processors are now carefully wrapped in some of my sewing fabric... no, I don't know either...) - but this wretched Lyme's Disease has knocked me so much for six that I suspect I shall use the free time instead for long walks to build up stamina and focusing on eating properly and finishing making Xmas presents for them...! 

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I have more yarn from the cs 350g in a green/ dark green/ blue sort of mix but it has over 50% bamboo so feels lovely. I am guessing it is dk as it doesn't say on the label, I will try to look it up. Also about 75g of the same stuff but in a rust/ dark brown/ cream combo, and about 100g of pink that I think is 4 ply but no label so complete guesswork on my part. They also had some white but I have a few part balls of white so I didn't get those. However all the colours I have got do go together quite nicely so I am having a rethink about how I am going to use them

@Laura_Elsewhere, when did you get Lyme's Disease? I have looked back at your posts for the past 3 months and I can't see it mentioned. It may be that I am not seeing all the posts but anyway please take care, as I am sure you know this can be nasty, hugs. While rereading your posts a question arose in my mind about the difference between fruit cheese and jam. According to HFW a fruit cheese is a solid, sliceable preserve but it is still only made from fruit and sugar so why can a set as concrete made jam not be called a fruit cheese? What am I missing here? Is it to do with the origins of the cheese v jam?

Take care everyone

CAFCGirl

PipneyJane said:

@CAFCGirl love the sweat-shirt.  What is your “crafting machine”?  Do tell us more.


- Pip

Thankyou

It's a Cricut machine. I mostly use it for cutting vinyl, making packaging for my business, and paper crafts (Gift tags, cards, bookmarks, shadowboxes) and other random ideas.

Tehnically I have 2 of them - but shhhh dont tell my husband, he hasn't mentioned/noticed there now being two of them in my office yet LOL

Laura_Elsewhere

@Liverpool_Anne, I never saw the tick but spotted the classic bullseye rash on its first day (which can be 3 to 30 days after the bite!), so three weeks of Doxycycline... I had some crippling exhaustion, and a bit of nausea til I learnt just how to take the Doxycycline so it didn't cause problems, but overall I have been very lucky - after a month, the bullseye is fading now, and I am sleeping once again and feeling generally much brighter. 

re the fruit cheese - 'cheese' is the old word for anything that is 'set' in a straight-sided mould, then slid out and wrapped up until it is used. The original fruit cheese is hundreds and hundreds of years old, far older than jam or marmalade - I believe the oldest form had either honey or no added sugar at all but solely the fruit - it's made by simmering the fruit, adding water if needs be, and then pushing the result through a sieve so you have what we would nowadays call a smoothie. Then in mediaeval times they simmered that for hours and hours over a low heat to drive off huge amounts of water - it's basically just one step short of making "fruit leather" - I can readily imagine apple and various strongly-flavoured berries being made into very effective cheeses without adding any sugar.
Sometime in the 19th century, it seems, that ancient method got corrupted a bit, and so nowadays there's not a huge difference between jam and cheese. 
The basic difference is in what you start with when you add sugar - jam is made by simmering whole or big-chunk fruit, so the result is a fairly-runny stuff with lumps in, basically fruit chunks preserved in a gel-syrup. Jelly is made with a completely clear liquid, so the result is a clear, firm-set jelly with no lumps at all in (but a lot of waste). 
And fruit cheese is made with everything except pips and stalks, and is like a thickened jelly, very like a very smooth smoothie with a good firm gel-set texture. 

Does that make sense?

The reason a concrete-set jam isn't a cheese is that it's still fruit-chunks in a gel-syrup and that makes it hard to slice, but also it can affect the preservation. Nowadays most fruit cheeses are made like jams and treated like jams and left in their jamjars but if you wanted to take them our of moulds and wrap them tightly and store in a cool dark place, you could do that with cheese because it's the same all the way through, but with jam, even concrete-set jam, you wouldn't have confidence that the lumps of fruit weren;t managing to go mouldy inside, etc...  

MrsCD

That's very interesting, Laura.
I must have missed you telling us about the Lyme's disease too. I hope you get your energy back quickly and it doesn't drag on too long. Apparently it has been quite common this year. We had items on our local Facebook page giving warnings to dog walkers to examine their pets after each walk.

Liverpool_Anne

@Laura_Elsewhere, yes that makes sense thank you. I suppose originally sugar was not as available as it is now so that method of preservation was not as common and the lack of fridges or ice houses for the general population made for a whole different way of preserving the harvests of fruit to extend their use. I wonder how they make the cheese with fruit in it that is so yummy. I suppose it is well refrigerated here I go down another internet rabbit hole
Take care everyone

Gem-gem

@Laura_Elsewhere, sorry to hear that you are not well. Hope you regain your energy levels and are feeling better soon. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Thankyou all - I think I must have not mentioned the Lyme's before - there was about a week at the start of Sept when I pretty much just slept the whole time, then the following week I was just as tired but had fabulous insomnia (literally a total of 2-3 hours in 4 or 5 bits!), so ended up mildly deranged at all times - I just kept doing my usual daily things and gave up trying to actually feel anything or think anything... then over the last week or so I've slept a bit better and am now definitely starting to feel a bit more normal!

Be wary of those damn ticks and if you find one on you, or spot the classic bullseye skin change then get onto the antibiotics asap - the sooner the better, even by a few hours! 

And put word round any hikers or off-road people you know - I hadn't realised: that bullseye is not a sign of a tick-bite reaction, it is actual Lyme's, it means you ARE infected and need to get onto the antibiotics... Lyme's doesn't only make you very tired, it can go into your spinal fluid and into your brain, so it really is important to get onto the antibiotics as soon as you know you've been bitten...