2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Hi everyone

Greetings from Miami, were it is expected to be over 40C today!  I didn’t knit on the plane.  Spent my time reading “These Wonderful Rumours”, the war diary of May Smith, who was a young school teacher in Derbyshire during the war.  Read it from cover to cover.  May would fit right in here.  Prior to rationing, she had a tendency to blow her entire month’s salary on cosmetics or on clothes/on the fabric to make them (since most of her clothes were made by a lady in the village who earned pin money by dressmaking).   I have to share her entry from the day clothes rationing was announced:

Sunday, June 1st, Whit Sunday:  Shattering news.  Clothes to be rationed from now onwards.  All to have 66 coupons only, and a coat alone takes 14 of these, a frock 11 (if woollen) or 8 (otherwise), stockings 2, a blazer 11, blouse 5, pyjamas 8, nightdress 6 petticoat 4, tennis socks 1, shoes 5, and so on.  Oh dear!  Why have I put off for so long buying essentials? 

Biggest disasters were dropping bottles of ink at work and getting splashed all over her stockings and skirt, thus ruining them! 

  

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Of course i immediately had to Google those 😄 here’s a link if anyone else is likely to do the same!  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sanquhar-gloves-  wow!  Have you made them, Laura?

I think the problem for me would be that they need so much concentration, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the holiday! 

Perhaps there’s a middle ground. There’s a fabulous pattern on Ravelry for fingerless gloves with bass and treble clef on the back of each hand. My sister made me a pair, and then I made them for a choir friend. They’re a great Christmas gift for anyone musical.

Link, please, @PollyWollyDoodle to the musical mits.  Since I sing in a choir, I have a few friends who might be potential recipients.  Many thanks.

In the end, I packed one skein of a grey sock yarn, which needs winding, and another of WYS Signature Sock in a self-patterning colourway that was released for Christmas sometime prior to the Pandemic.   I may make our host a pair of socks with the grey - I’ve made them for him a few Christmases ago, so have his details saved in my Ravelry.

- Pam

PollyWollyDoodle

With pleasure, Pip - these are the ones I have made (and had made for me) https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fingerless-gloves-musica

In searching for this, I discovered several other patterns incorporating musical notes. As you say, great for choir members. I find them really useful when we're rehearsing in draughty churches as you can turn the pages easily. 

MrsCD

Enjoy your holiday, Pip. 40 is a bit too much for me though. I'd have melted to a puddle by now!
1st twiddle muff finished...tadah...

diminua

Just popping in to say my 'forces' stockings have been purchased for this year - or rather a 5 pack of pop socks rather than a four pack of stockings.  Hope that's ok. I only wear them the 3 days a week I'm in the office so hopefully I can stretch them through the summer until I'm back in winter boots again. 
I also want to get a broderie anglaise style top in white (realistically) or blue or pale yellow (should such a thing exist) to go with my black broderie anglaise skirt that I originally bought for a funeral, but which I like and am keeping. There are actually lots of white ones in the shops but I need sleeves - short sleeves are fine - and not too many frills and fuss, and I haven't seen anything quite right yet. 

KajiKita

Good morning all 😊

Excuse me just wandering in but I was recommended to come here for advice by someone on the craft stash busting thread ….

I would appreciate some help / guidance on hand-washing of a 100% wool, hand knit project. I have made a lap blanket for my dad which is quite geometric in texture (just through simple purl / knit but quite effective) and I am worried that when I wash it, it will loose its ‘crispness’ as I have had happen on other projects. Does anyone have any advice on how to avoid this? Also, what do you use to wash wool? I used to use Dr3ft but haven’t seen it for years now … 🤔

Any ideas would be much appreciated 😊

KK

Cherryfudge

@KajiKita , welcome. Pull up a chair, have a biscuit while the kettle boils. Tell us about yourself, oh sorry, I'll let you finish your biscuit first.
@Laura_Elsewhere, I think you are probably best placed to answer the above? 

PipneyJane

@MrsCD that muff looks lovely.

Welcome @KajiKita would you like another cuppa?  What else have you made?  We’re a chatty bunch.  Please stay as long as you like, even if you don’t want to do the Challenge.

We spent yesterday wandering around Dolphin Mall in Miami.  It’s an outlet centre.  DH spent a large portion of his coupons on 4 pairs of cargo shorts - to replace the ones he purchased last time we were here (2014) and has worn to death - and two pairs of deck shoes.   I have a spend to declare:  a pastel pink short sleeve knitted jumper from Tommy Hilfiger, which will be perfect to wear under my suit jacket in winter.  It’s pure cotton and decorated with cables.  5 coupons spent, which takes my total to 51 and leaves me with 15 for the remainder of the year.

Is anyone else receiving email notifications, now that the “village hall” has been redecorated?  I haven’t received one since Tuesday.  (I only receive them for this thread, since I created it.). When I update my signature, in a moment, I’ll check to see if the options have changed.  Wouldn’t it be lovely to go back to receiving daily digests?

We’re off shortly to start our road trip.  < whisper > I can trust you all, so take a look at the map, please, before I roll it up and hide it.  Wouldn’t want the Nazis to see it.  Ssshhhhh!! < / whisper >


   
- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

KajiKita said:

Good morning all 😊

Excuse me just wandering in but I was recommended to come here for advice by someone on the craft stash busting thread ….

I would appreciate some help / guidance on hand-washing of a 100% wool, hand knit project. I have made a lap blanket for my dad which is quite geometric in texture (just through simple purl / knit but quite effective) and I am worried that when I wash it, it will loose its ‘crispness’ as I have had happen on other projects. Does anyone have any advice on how to avoid this? Also, what do you use to wash wool? I used to use Dr3ft but haven’t seen it for years now … 🤔

Any ideas would be much appreciated 😊

KK

Hi KajiKita  

My main reaction is not to worry too much, as most wool yarns are pretty forgiving... having said that, if you knit at a looser tension then the stitch definition can be less clear. It's not much use to say it's useful to knit a tension square and wash and block it before You start,. is it?  

Pure wool doesn't need any detergent at all - in fact you could simply not wash it at all - if you have a spare bed, then you can cover that with towels or old sheets (in case the wool's dye runs) and pin the blanket out so the edges are straight and the right angles are right and so on, and then mist it lightly with water from a plant-mister and leave it for a couple of days to dry. You could also pin it out straight and then use a steam iron *not* touching the wool to steam it. 
If you do wash it, use cold water and no detergent - I have a very useful cycle on my washing-machine that is 'rinse', which is sikply cold water and a 1400rpm spin, which I use for all my woollens - I wouldn't use the 'wool' cycle as ime that's far too much for handknitted woollens... if you wash it by hand, just let it soak for ten minutes in cold tapwater, and then gently move it about, push it down, turn it over if you like, but try not to swirl it about too much. Let it sit another ten minutes and take the plug out and leave it another ten minutes, occasionally coming back to press it down a bit. Then give it a good squishing all over to press out water, and lift it out without wringing it, and lay it out on a big dry towel on the floor. Roll up the towel and as you do that it will absorb a lot of water; you can stand on the rolled-sausage to press even more water out, and if you have more towels you can repeat with a dry towel once or twice. 
Then pin the damp towel out on a covered spare bed, or on a towel-covered carpet where you won't be walking, and get it all how you want it, and then just leave it til it's dry. The wool has a 'fibre memory' and will want to revert to the shape you wet-block it to, for quite some time. You may find you never need to wash it again, just being able to steam-block it or spray-block it in the future. I have a colourful cardigan for which I dyed the wools and I'd hate the colours to fade so after washing it once on completion I shall never wash it again, and it's staying very nice indeed. 

Does that help? It isn't the only way, it's just how I would do it   

Do we get to see a photo of it? It sounds lovely! I made lap-blankets for my octogenarian parents a few years ago and they love their 'warmers' as they call them, as they sit on the sofa of an evening - Dad's is crocheted and Mum's is quilted, so I'd be interested to see your knitted one!

MrsCD

Thank you, Pip. My crochet cardi is on hold while I make these for my friend's daughter who is a nurse at a local hospital. The ladies at our coffee morning have really got behind the war effort as you would expect!

Your trip looks amazing. I'm looking forward to your reports, particularly from Gatlinburg. Don't worry, we've all signed the official secrets act, so your map is safe.

PipneyJane

PipneyJane said:

We spent yesterday wandering around Dolphin Mall in Miami.  It’s an outlet centre.  DH spent a large portion of his coupons on 4 pairs of cargo shorts - to replace the ones he purchased last time we were here (2014) and has worn to death - and two pairs of deck shoes.   I have a spend to declare:  a pastel pink short sleeve knitted jumper from Tommy Hilfiger, which will be perfect to wear under my suit jacket in winter.  It’s pure cotton and decorated with cables.  5 coupons spent, which takes my total to 51 and leaves me with 15 for the remainder of the year.




- Pip

Anyone else notice the discrepancy above?  So much for relying on my memory - I thought I had 20 coupons left.  NO.  I had 26.  I’d only spent 40 coupons, (now 45 spent).

21 coupons left! I feel rich.

- Pip