2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

basketcase said:

PipneyJane said:

I am well over my coupon count.  (I was already overspent by 7 coupons and have added another 29.5 coupons-worth, I think.  11 for the jacket, 12 for the yarn and 6.5 for the knickers.)

- Pip

 Hi Pip!

We can't have you going down the black market route.

Have some of my coupons.  I've oodles of them and won't be using any before the end of the year.

That’s very sweet of you @basketcase.  So kind.  I really appreciate it.

Is everyone warm and safe this snowy afternoon?  It didn’t settle where I live - was more like sleet than snow - but DH reported a “proper snow storm” at his office, 30-ish miles west of here.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@alicef those socks look really good and not at all like a first attempt! And you're allowed to say Christmas Those of us who make presents need to start a long time before December!

@PipneyJane, if all you've done is buy a new jacket and some sock-wool, that's pretty restrained, given everything you've been through this year! If this group is about anything, it's about understanding how we buy and what we buy and when we buy, so chalk this up to being a learning experience, don't beat yourself up or try to wriggle around 'excuses' because you don't need to excuse yourself xx

We had a startling four inches (measured in several places!) of snow this morning, but sadly it fell onto a load of slush, so now as it freezes overnight it's going to turn really nasty... we went out and brushed the car clear because we've had previous experience of trying to get a car clear of snow frozen onto it. I swept and salted our block's steps, front and back, and also did the steps of a very kindly neighbour who lets me use her hosepipe all year which is how my little garden is viable. I use dishwasher-salt-granules (must be the granules, not the free-flowing salt!)- it works out cheaper per kilo than rock-salt or salt or grit, and it works instantly as grit underfoot, and then as salt as it dissolves, so it's really effective. We keep some in the car and some in the flat. 

Mr E in action with the broom! 

maryb

coupon spend to report.  A pack of two white school shirts from John Lewis.  They are in organic cotton in a slightly fitted style.  Age 16 fits me perfectly and they were £19 for the two!  The collar interfacing is a bit stiff, which you get with school shirts but since I tend to tuck blouse collars inside a crew neck jumper it doesn’t really show

oh and while I’m in confession mode - I have some Harris tweed in stash in what I thought was a pale blue with dark blue and pink lines forming a large check.  But when I tried to colour match it to a pale blue jumper I realised it’s more of a blue grey with an oatmeal fleck.  Impossible to colour match with any ready to wear jumper.  I just happened to be looking at the Rowan Felted Tweed range in John Lewis the day I bought those shirts, which is a thing that might happen to anyone.  The Alabaster shade is a perfect match as it has blueish flecks in it.

And an online order for 9 balls may have gone in later that evening to a supplier that sold it for 7.95 a ball instead of John Lewis’s £10.50.

I’ll update coupon count when I get the chance to check totals.  I’m way over for the calendar year but I decided to reset back in the summer and if you count from beginning of July I think I’m within budget

Sarahspangles

We were right in the middle of the weather warning map, but the snow behaved nicely. It stopped before rush hour, didn’t freeze on tarmac paths and roads, but has left a neat, clean white layer on all lawns and hedges. It’s forecast to freeze tonight. Yesterday wasn’t the best time to decide to wash all the woolly jumpers, but I have my ‘jumper board’ now to dry them on.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Sarahspangles - a jumper board is terribly useful if you knit much- I acquired a "Shetland Woollie Horse" from the 1920s or 30s because it was in our house when we moved in, in the '70s... I use it for many of my jumpers, cardigans and slipovers. 

At the big re-enactment markets I bought 2.5m of glorious wool-silk material... it's light enough to be fluttery in a skirt, but will be incredibly warm- it's a fawn-cream plaid with caramel stripes both ways, and then narrow stripes of pale pink and pale blue- trust me, it works... and some sage-green speckled bits too... so it will go with lots of spring cardigans, and I plan to make at least one spring frock from it. It's 60" wide so possibly, if I'm very lucky, I can get a frock plus something else... 

Sarahspangles

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@Sarahspangles - a jumper board is terribly useful if you knit much- I acquired a "Shetland Woollie Horse" from the 1920s or 30s because it was in our house when we moved in, in the '70s... I use it for many of my jumpers, cardigans and slipovers. 

It’s currently modelling sweater no 5. Not my own work but hopefully I’ll finish one soon. I can see it will be useful for scarves and small blankets too. I just need to find somewhere to store it inbetween.

CapricornLass

A spend of 5 coupons, on a dressy cream jumper to wear to Christmas events.  I'm fed up of what I have, and I have the coupons, so I thought why not?  Total spend for year = 39 coupons.

Nelliegrace

I braved the snow to go to the County W.I. meeting with about 300 other seniors.
We had a talk on sausage making courses and similar courses, a lovely demonstration of making wreaths and flower arranging using British-grown flowers, evergreen foliage, some berries, and willow, which were picked yesterday, just missing the snow, and in the afternoon we listened to Will Kirk being interviewed about his career in woodwork restoration. There were displays of artificial flowers, Christmas decorations and cards made with scraps of felt and fabric, and some wool fibres used to make felt. A good Make Do and Mend themed day.

We took our sandwiches and I took my flask of tea and a well wrapped mug.
I heard that some places had run short of crockery and today paper cups were being used, when we are all asked to save paper for salvage. 

The Staffordshire WI, “Country Markets,” is closing after about 100 years. It was a place where members could sell surplus fruit and vegetables, and homemade cakes, pies and preserves would earn some useful income. 


I bought a small Christmas cake, and some beautiful homemade soaps, nettle and rosemary, and honey and orange, sold in aid of the Cat’s Protection League. Such a useful thing to find now soap is being rationed. There were some stalls selling clothes, but a lot had synthetic fabric. I chose to save my clothes coupons for clothes which will last. 

I thought I had saved this cutting from The Times, now just two small, folded sheets, eight sides, to save paper.
Perhaps the WI should do classes on using a drop spindle to make scraps of fleece into knitting wool?

thriftwizard

Good haul, @Nelliegrace! And that's a classic cutting, too.

I remember talking to an old boy from Wool, near Wareham, who told me that he & his siblings used to gather wool from fences & bushes for his grandmother, who would spin it up raw & knit it into seaboot stockings, which were in high demand from the local fisherfolk. That was her living; they didn't come cheap but they were reputed to be the very best, better than anything you could buy from a shop. While she was spinning & knitting, the grandkids would sit on the beaten-earth floor in her cottage & she'd tell them their family history, traditional Dorset tales & fairy stories. No tv, no computers, and they were never bored or cross for one second. "Not like my own grandkids, always whining, always wanting..." he said sadly. 

Sarahspangles

I wonder what the dandelion roots, autumn crocus, acorns, beech mast and horse chestnut were for? The second of those is a source of colchicine -maybe wartime pigs had gout?