2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Nonnadiluca

Gorgeous hat Laura, love the colours.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I was playing yarn chicken with the fingerless gloves and had just got to the point where I was going to have to rip them both back when I found another very small left over bit which will be enough for the 5 rows I have left to do
@Laura_Elsewhere beautiful hat. Can I ask how did you decide how big to knit it as I presume the fulling shrinks it. 
Take care everyone

MrsCatz

@Laura_Elsewhere gorgeous hat.

I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Thanks, everyone! 
@Liverpool_Anne, tbh it's all a bit of guesswork - if you fancy starting then just knit a small piece on larger needles than the yarn calls for and then play with fulling it - it's a surprisingly forgiving technique, so long as you don't overdo it  
I cast on 180 for the edge-border, and then decreased to 168 for the crown, using 3.5mm needles on the 3-ply which would normally be knitted with 2mm or thereabouts, so you can imagine how floppy it was, freshly-knitted  
Once you've made a few things, you start getting a feel for how big to make it. 

CapricornLass

I wish I could knit like, you, Laura.  That hat is lovely.  I hope you enjoy wearing it.

Liverpool_Anne

@Laura_Elsewhere, another thing has just been added to my list of things to try

PipneyJane

Good morning All

@Laura_Elsewhere - that hat is lovely.  How long did it take you to make?  Thank you for explaining the technicalities.   (Also, thanks for the link re Pantone.  Interesting.)

@MrsCatz - thanks for lipstick suggestion, also for your kind words about it suiting me.  I will have a look, next time I’m in Superdrug.  I know I wore a magenta lipstick back in the 1980’s.

I have a funny story to tell you.  My DH is a wear-it-until-it-dies kind of chap.  This weekend, he finally decided to throw out the pair of black leather brogues that he’s been wearing to the office for years.  Handmade, Samuel Windsor leather shoes: leather upper, leather lining, leather soles.  The soles are threatening to wear through. The tongues came off years ago and he’s been tucking them in before doing up the laces.   The leather where the toe cap is stitched to the body finally split, while the stitches went a few months ago.  These shoes have been “going” for months - for his birthday last January, I offered to replace them.

When he bought the brogues, he also bought a pair of plainer black leather shoes, which he wore a few times then put carefully away.  He dug them out last night and also in the box was the invoice.  I asked him to tell me when he bought them, guessing 2015.  He looked hurt; they were purchased in 2009!

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - the hat took about a fortnight to knit. 

Ummm.... why on earth didn't your husband have his handmade leather shoes repaired and re-soled? There are plenty of cobblers around the country who will do mail-order work if you don't have one near you? 

I have men's brogues I wear a lot - a pair of black leather Kensingtons a friend passed on to me as they didn't fit her husband, and a pair of gorgeous chestnut Church's which are older than I am (I'm 54)... they last decades and decades if they're properly made shoes. 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane - the hat took about a fortnight to knit. 

Ummm.... why on earth didn't your husband have his handmade leather shoes repaired and re-soled? There are plenty of cobblers around the country who will do mail-order work if you don't have one near you? 

I have men's brogues I wear a lot - a pair of black leather Kensingtons a friend passed on to me as they didn't fit her husband, and a pair of gorgeous chestnut Church's which are older than I am (I'm 54)... they last decades and decades if they're properly made shoes. 

The soles weren't the issue.  It was because the leather wore through, where the toe cap joins the main part of the shoe, and they'd have needed to sew on a very visible patch. That spot is beyond "threadbare", (if that makes sense).  It does apply to both shoes, so I'll suggest to him that he gets a cobbler's second opinion.  (They aren't in the bin.)

Not bad going, though, for 12 years of wear.  (I'm excluding 2020 from my calculation.)

- Pip

skogar

Laura - lovely hat. The pattern is great. :-)

Pip - don't think I will be getting anything in Viva Magenta this year!!!!!

Twibble-dee - Sounds like you are loving those dresses. I assume you must have sufficient different ones now that your Mum will not be making comments. ;-) What colours do you have now? I'm very much a sleeve girl whereas you clearly prefer sleeveless, sleeveless gives you much more layering options though.