2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

talesfromamicroholding said:

 it is on my weekend to-do list as is, reading this thread from the start.

It sounds as though you've have a lot on your plate, @talesfromamicroholding. I hope the thread gives you a good little escape - be sure to have a notebook because there is so much worthwhile information!

I think @PipneyJane did the first thread in 2018 (please someone, let me know if there were any earlier ones), so you won't run out of reading matter for a while.  

You’re right, @Cherryfudge, the first Fashion On The Ration Challenge was in 2018.  We’ve become quite a community since then.  Well done, too, for finding all those coupons kindly donated by @basketcase.  They’re the ones we give to people who’ve been bombed out, since brand-new bedding and towels can be very expensive, coupon-wise.

@talesfromamicroholding, do remember that you purchased your current fleece prior to clothes rationing being introduced, so it didn’t cost any coupons. I’ve met John Arbon on several occasions at yarn shows and I think we can adopt him as a local farmer*, although his mill has expanded since last time I looked.  He’s definitely doing work for the Ministry.  Nobody has commented on my suggestion of 1 coupon per kilo of fleece BUT if you’d rather pay 1 coupon per 100g, that’s fine by me.

Also, thank you for sharing your story.  So sorry to hear about your dad’s stroke and your mum’s impending surgery.  Big hugs to you.

- Pip




* Together with Graeme from Caithness Yarns and Sue at Hawkshaw Sheep, both people I’ve chatted with at shows.

PipneyJane

2Scratters said:

….
I bought sometime ago pre covid a box of men's and ladies handkerchiefs from a car boot. There was over 100 in there. They got sorted and recleaned obviously. I take no shame in it. My grandma use to pick them up off the floor if she found one. That's where that has come from. I use them all. The silk ones I use when going out. I have given them to staff when having got upset (taking 999 calls) and take them outside for their welfare and a chat, they would try to offer a wet hanky back  I would tell them to keep it and use it or wash and return it to me lol. Brilliant back up too, especially for small wounds that could be dressed too. 

….. 

2 Scratters xx

I love this story, @2Scratters .  So kind of you to take care of the 999 staff.  Thank you.  It’s a really hard job and much appreciated by people like me, who’ve been on both ends of those calls (making them and also receiving patients from the ambulance service).

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said: Nobody has commented on my suggestion of 1 coupon per kilo of fleece BUT if you’d rather pay 1 coupon per 100g, that’s fine by me.

I feel singularly ill-equipped to comment but your judgement is usually well informed, @PipneyJane, so I'm happy to go with 1 coupon per kilo apart from the new-fangled terminology - would 1 coupon for 2lbs also work?

Nelliegrace

I don’t think anyone would be after you for ration points for fleece. Shetland wool was not included in the Government Wool order. I remember a 1940s novel where a son stationed in the North for army training bought his mother back a Shetland cardigan and scarf which he was able to buy unrationed. Mum said Welsh mountain sheep wool was not rationed either. 
Fellmongers was an interesting rabbit hole. It is the wool recovered from sheep slaughtered for meat. Whitney blankets were made from Fellmonger wool, I expect other blankets were too. 

http://www.witneyblanketstory.org.uk/wbp.asp?navigationPage=Processes%2018th%20century&file=PROC18C.XML&record=sourcing%201780

Cherryfudge

Nelliegrace said:

Fellmongers was an interesting rabbit hole. It is the wool recovered from sheep slaughtered for meat. Whitney blankets were made from Fellmonger wool, I expect other blankets were too. 

Another thing I never knew. I've just put a Whitney blanket on the bed.

talesfromamicroholding

@PipneyJane - Thank you, alas it's the tails of old parents, been told my mums op is on the 22nd Oct, so will be deciding on what I want to knit during that time, I am much in need of more cardigans, so I might have to have a rummage for yarn for that. I've never meet JA or even the new owners, sadly just way to far away, though I do have quite an addiction to their yarns and they do bring out enough limited fibres to keep me interested, as I love semi solids.

I'll happily pay 1 coupon for 100g or I may up it slightly as I am quite round so a jumper is around 7 skeins. Undecided yet, just need to achievable so I can still get my wardrobe knitted up and realistic enough so I don't spend willy nilly, because boy do I have a stash!

@Nelliegrace - Wow, that's really interesting and I didn't know regarding the Shetland wool. I'm very much a rustic knitter than a merino knitter so could easily add the fibres I get into my rations.

talesfromamicroholding

Finally received my A Stitch In Time, Volume 3 from Susan Crawford (I've had it on pre-order for over 2 years!), I've already made a couple of items but very tempted to make a couple more. Wondered if anyone here had a) got the book or b) knitted anything up from it

Nelliegrace

I have looked at her designs on Revelry, @talesfromamicroholding they look gorgeous.
There are a lot of old knitting patterns on line, but women are so much bigger since the Ministry of Food ensured that babies and children had their essential rations of protein to grow properly. Free school milk and good school dinners made such a difference. Generations of city children were malnourished and had stunted growth, and now UPF is doing the same, many children will not be as tall as their parents.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all,
@PipneyJane I am happy with 1 coupon per kilo for a fleece considering the work that will go into turning it into usable yarn

@Nelliegrace I have got to say I think children in my area are generally not very tall. I am 5'4" and when I started teaching nearly 30 years ago I rarely had a 16 year old in any class that were taller than me, and that still seems to be the case today. I fact it crossed my mind only the other day as I waited at a crossing for some young people to cross how short and thin they looked, they must have been about 17. I think some of this is down to no longer teaching cookery in schools and parents not really knowing how to cook and an over reliance on pre processed food.
Take care everyone

talesfromamicroholding

@Nelliegrace & @Liverpool_Anne it's a sad truth these days and is especially noticeable when wanting to buy old vintage patterns either knitted or sewn at how much smaller everyone was. My parents never really brought me up traditionally as they didn't have the time to, so I was fending for myself. I didn't even know that you could line dry clothing till I was 18! You can imagine how bad my diet was (which I'm trying to fix slowly by learning) I wonder how many more people are brought up this way! I'm 5ft 6 and the tallest in my office my quite a few inches!