2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

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!

PollyWollyDoodle

I’ve just got back from The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.  What a feast for the eyes (and torture for the feet, had to stand on the very slow bus journey back to Wood Green).  I was very restrained- 5 coupons on 250g of Debbie Bliss Rialto, to make a scarf.  

Interesting about sizes. My mum - born 1916 so a young woman during the war- was tall (5’8) and probably similar build to me.(Not skinny).  She had a rural childhood and although her parents were not wealthy there was always plenty of food, much of it home grown. 

Sarahspangles

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I’ve just got back from The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.  What a feast for the eyes (and torture for the feet, had to stand on the very slow bus journey back to Wood Green).  I was very restrained- 5 coupons on 250g of Debbie Bliss Rialto, to make a scarf.  

Interesting about sizes. My mum - born 1916 so a young woman during the war- was tall (5’8) and probably similar build to me.(Not skinny).  She had a rural childhood and although her parents were not wealthy there was always plenty of food, much of it home grown. 

I’m 5’10” and you couldn’t call me willowy. I suspect home grown food was a factor, that or spending my childhood up to my knees in muck on my granddad’s allotments

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

As Nelliegrace posted, the Government bought the entire wool clips of Australia, New Zealand and Britain for the duration of the War.  I’m not certain how the arrangements worked in reality, because I know that wool was sold for domestic purchase during the war - as both yarn and cloth - in all three countries.  (Yarn was rationed in both Australia and New Zealand, as were clothes, but i know for certain that wool blankets were not.  When my mum was posted to Melbourne in the WAAAF, it was quite a cold winter.  She made herself a woollen dressing gown from blankets.)

Congrats on going back to work, Pip, but do go easy on yourself...

Wool might have been technically sold for domestic purchase during the war in Britain but everything I've been told and read says that it was very very difficult to get hold of... and wool blankets in Britain certainly were not easily available!!

PipneyJane

talesfromamicroholding said:

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

Yes, me! @talesfromamicroholding.  My copy arrived on Wednesday.  I’ve been a fan/supporter of Susan for years and have all the Stitch In Time books, plus The Vintage Shetland Project.  I haven’t knitted anything - yet - from Volume 3, although my head has been turned by the Majestic sweater.  (Yes, I’m stalking the kit, but I won’t buy anything until next year.)

I have knitted other patterns edited/re-worked by Susan.  They’ve turned out beautifully.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Liverpool_Anne said:

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

Thanks for confirming @Liverpool_Anne.   What do others think?

Nelliegrace said:

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.

Ooohhhh…. Don’t get me started @Nellliegrace.  

< climbs soapbox >

While in some areas people are shorter because of genetics - not everyone is programmed to be 6ft-plus tall - protein and diet makes a huge difference to the size of people. 

Liverpool_Anne said:

. @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.

I totally agreed.

The other factor is exercise.  We are far more sedentary than previous generations.  What has changed?  

With the exception of the computer, the microwave and the electric clothes dryer, some variation of everything in our homes was available to our mothers/grandmothers in the 1950’s.  The big differences are that we’ll drive to the local shops instead of walking the 10 minutes down the road or cycling there and lugging our shopping home (both aerobic exercise and muscle building); we buy and eat preprepared food/ready meals instead of spending the 15 minutes standing in the kitchen prepping a meal and cooking from scratch (yes, standing builds and maintains muscle); the percentage of people who grow their own veg has declined considerably, as has the number of people who garden.  (Just think of all the resistance exercise you get digging in the garden.)

My bet is that nobody talked about “middle age spread” in the 1950s.  

< gets off soapbox >

- Pip 

Cherryfudge

A complicating factor is food deserts, it's far too hard for many people to get good quality food right here in the UK, and for the people who have least, it's also having access to suitable means to cook.