2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

alicef

Thank you so very much @Laura_Elsewhere - first mince pie of 2024!  

Yes, the company offers a heel repair alongside full resoling, restitching etc and also provides a link to the master shoe repairers.  I do admit that this was a present to myself; I have tried and tried to locate my favourite boots from the original makers via secondhand channels but to no avail.

I think I won't know whether I have enough yarn for the OH socks til close to the end - I think there is a phrase our fellow US knitters use  'yarn chicken', (or something along those lines?)

If I run out I have some leftover from Holly Berry!

PipneyJane

@alicef - May I suggest that you take a look at the sock knitting pattern referenced in the first post?  It’s contains stitch and row counts for both a woman’s sock and a man’s.  It’s my pattern.  

My DH wears size 11 shoes. When I knit him socks, they usually take about 75g of yarn.

HTH.  

- Pip 


ETA:  Lovely mince pies @Laura_Elsewhere.  May I beg your pastry recipe from you?  I have a jar of Mr Lidler’s mince meat to try but am not sure what to do re making sweet pastry.

alicef

@PipneyJane - oh drat drat - I missed the helpful intro info links on socks.  I blame this on 'coming lately to sock knitting'.  

Given the 75g  for the pair in your pattern, applying to my current yarn expenditure, my OH will be able to hitch the first sock I've knitted well over his lower leg.  He does, however, think the colourway is very appealing. 

Cherryfudge

Coupons to declare: slippers for me (5) and two pairs of socks for DD (2). I also bought 2 pairs of socks for DH but seeing as men's socks are 3 coupons per pair and he has oodles of coupons, I hope I can sneak some of his coupons for those.

Off to amend my signature but quite happy with my spend so far this year: not much new stuff, and much less second hand than usual, so the wardrobe hasn't expanded as fast as in 2023. Reverse couponing hasn't got far: I don't know how much yarn I used on the toy rabbit but he wasn't big, and he was for an under-four year old so I wouldn't have been spending coupons if it were clothing. I'm pleased with the mending side of things though: having assembled four assorted containers of stray gloves, hats and scarves, we have half a dozen useable pairs each and 14 odd gloves! Three pairs of gloves are back in circulation after being mended, and a few strays are now in pairs. I've also applied bicarb to dampened gardening gloves so, while they will never be clean, they aren't as dirty as they were. One leather pair has been saddle-soaped which is great as they are now useably supple, and the other is to follow suit when I have time.

thriftwizard

Oh dear, my wardrobe has suddenly expanded massively, but at least it's in a coupon-free way! Down at the recycling warehouse last week, we.hit upon a seam of pure gold; clearly a charity or emporium had emptied out its "vintage" stocks. So DD2 & I loaded up! I have acquired 3 new skirts; a Brora summer one in red - out of season, but who can resist a pretty skirt that fits and would originally have cost about £200, for 50p? - a nice practical M&S tweedy winter skirt & a Principles one, equally tweedy. On cold trading days, as I'm beside a north-facing door (on the top of Gold Hill) that needs to stay open, I'll be wearing one or other of those with tights, leggings and sheepskin-lined boots! There were also some fabulous, practical vintage goodies like a long Aquascutum pleated plaid pure wool skirt, which I acquired on Tuesday & sold on Saturday - the good stuff rarely hangs around for long! There's a very warm, soft hand-knitted Ecuadorean cardi for me to wear too. All in all, a great "hit" & DD2 is now considering running her own stall, too, but now I have to find more space...

Cherryfudge

That was an amazing set of finds, @thriftwizard! It's probably as well I have no where like that near me as I'd bring so much home, but how very satisfying to he rescued / rehomed so much quality stuff.

Laura_Elsewhere

Wow, @thriftwizard - that's a glorious collection! You will be warm AND look utterly fabulous with it!

I have started re-making a skirt that stalled in 2022, from the vintage Laura Ashley needlecord you sold me I hope to be wearing it sooon...

@Cherryfudge, I hadn't counted mending; a major re-making, yes, because that is effectively re-making the thing so it's a new garment, but ordinary mending isn't a new garment iyswim. If I paid for a new garment in coupons last year, I don't think I can count it in reverse-couponing if I mend it this year   (I would like to think it wouldn't need mending so quickly...!)
for anyone confused- the reverse-copuponing is only my own record of what I make myself, no need to worry about your own! 

@PipneyJane - I don't use sweet pastry- ever
I use simple shortcrust pastry: by weight, one of fats to two of flour- and I use half lard and half butter (the lard has a very interesting crystalline structure that means your pastry will be lighter and better, so long as you are okay eating lard, of course). Rub the fats into the flour, or use a pastry cutter, and then put the bowl into the fridge overnight if you can. Next day, add just enough tapwater to make pastry, knead very briefly, just three or four turns in your hand to bring it all together, and roll it out. The old tradition is not to roll back anmd forth but only to roll away from you, turning the pastry ninety degrees frequently. 
You want to work it as little as possible to keep it light and 'short'.  I usually try to get as many circles as I can initially, and then knead it briefly again to re-roll and cut the rest of what I need. 
I brush with milk for sealing the lids on, and then brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. 

It's the same pastry I use for jam tarts, pies, mince pies, etc.  

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, just popping in to say hello. I have no spends as I think I have sorted all the Christmas presents but no clothing this year. Normally I have used a few coupons for gifts but not this year.....so far I am working on the baby blanket to try to get it finished by Sunday when we are going to see the parents to be . The expected arrival date has moved to 20th but apparently might move again as they say the baby is now too big. Mum to be seems to be having scans and measurements taken almost daily

@thriftwizard what an amazing haul . Next time I am down in Dorset visiting my sister I want to have a look at that place . Not that I need any clothes yet and being of a larger size I wouldn't expect to find anything to fit me but I would like to see it

@Laura_Elsewhere my Mum was a pastry queen and she used half lard half butter and her pastry melted in the mouth . Being veggie now I don't use lard and my pastry is nowhere near as nice

Take care everyone

Nelliegrace

I have bought warm socks for SIL, (6 points,) DD another 2, and the boys, 6 points, an oodie, warm dressing gown? 8 coupons, for SIL, and some colourful, knitted Christmas hats, all half price from Mountain Warehouse. Such extravagant pompoms on the hats! I remember striped, knitted stocking hats with a tassel, from when I was little, mine was pale blue and white.



DH and I have pooled our remaining clothing points, so the boys have warm pyjamas, 6 coupons each. DD is getting their slippers for us, another 2 points each. Why are girls slippers an extra point?
That is another 40 coupons gone, and not much to show for it!

It was a successful shopping trip, the discount French crockery shop had mugs to replace recent breakages. I chose a cheerful red and a yellow one and instead of unpacking them I have put them away for Christmas. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Nelliegrace - I think the difference in children's (and adults') slippers between boys and girls is that boys' slippers in the 1930s were often a slip-on flat-soled mule type, with no back to them, iyswim - a flat piece with a curved piece and that's about it, made of sheepskin or wool cloth. Girls' would be more like shoes and more decorated, often in dress fabrics like velvet as well as in wool fabric.
I know when I first thought, I pictured the kind of tartan-wool slippers I remember as being old-fashioned in the 1970s for boys, and those definitely have backs to them, but I think they may have come in post-war. 

It's all complicated by the fact that 'slipper' was the term for any shoe that didn't have much in the way of fastening, for adult men and women as well- men's evening shoes in Victorian adverts are termed 'slippers' much of the time, and some light sandal-type day-shoes for women are called 'slippers' in fashion magazines...!