2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

TC77

Impressive knitting kit!
Checked and my purchases were in Jan so will tot up although jumper may go back as worn twice and going bobbley! Any advice on what fabric wear best. I like wool but rare or v expensive in shops now. 100% acrylic I found bad so avoid but this one is very mixed fabric. Thanks 
I'm assuming if I return I get my coupons back? 

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, finished my blanket I will post a picture when I have taken it , and have done a test knit for the scarf. I cast on 30 stitches and knit 15 rows. The 30 stitches measured 6 inches so my calculation is I will need to cast on 360 stitches to get a 6 foot scarf. I think with the fringes that will be long enough. So I hope to start that tomorrow. I have 100 cm circulars and am hoping they will be long enough, if not I will have to find some longer ones. Thank goodness they are coupon free

@Laura_Elsewhere how exciting, new furniture . Maybe in all the unpacking you will find some treasure . I know it will be hard work but it will be worth it to get more space, hugs

@PipneyJane great to see you back in the village hall and able to knit again. Take care of yourself, lots of hugs

Take care everyone

PipneyJane

TC77 said:

Impressive knitting kit!
Checked and my purchases were in Jan so will tot up although jumper may go back as worn twice and going bobbley! Any advice on what fabric wear best. I like wool but rare or v expensive in shops now. 100% acrylic I found bad so avoid but this one is very mixed fabric. Thanks 
I'm assuming if I return I get my coupons back? 

Yes, you will @TC77.

Personally, I prefer all natural fibres*, although I do regularly use a 75% wool 25% polyamide/nylon sock wool for lighter, thinner jumpers (West Yorkshire Spinners by preference).  The latter is theoretically superwash BUT I always put a colour catcher in the wool cycle of the washing machine, because at least one skein bled profusely.  Also, I wash on cold, using W8rose’s own-brand wool wash.  Non-superwash handknits get the half-speed spin, too, and then dried flat.

How well something wears depends, frequently, on how the fibre is spun.  Traditionally, there were two different spins:  Woollen Spun, which is looser and designed to trap air within the fibres;  and Worsted Spun, where the fibre is combed first to be all the same length, spun into a thin strand and then those strands are plied together to form a thicker yarn.  That’s all I know, because I am not a spinner.

Something else to be aware of is that some of the cheaper fibre mills process wool like they’d process cotton, chopping it up into tiny bits.  When manufactured into clothing this fabric will definitely pill, form holes in places of wear (e.g. armpits) and, generally, not last long.  Beware of the cheap woollen jumpers in Primani.

@Laura_Elsewhere knows far more about fibre, etc, than I do, but I understand she’s busy moving furniture today.  (Hope it’s going well, Laura.)

- Pip



* You must also remember there’s a huge environmental cost to using non-natural fibres.  Even the best polyesters shed micro-fibres which contaminate the waterways and the sea and get ingested by shellfish and fish   (Polyester is a fancy name for acrylic which is a fancy name for plastic fibre.). The less each of us adds, the better.

CapricornLass

Wraithlady said:

CapricornLass said:

well, I've taken the plunge, and bought myself a brand new sewing machine, a Brother A60. The other two, which I inherited, will go to the tip.  Just got to learn to use it properly now....

I take it the inherited ones don't work?

No, they are tip-bound!  And I wanted one that would do a one step buttonhole.  I can't do them otherwise.  I don't care how easy other people say it is, I can't do it!

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

TC77 said:

Impressive knitting kit!
Checked and my purchases were in Jan so will tot up although jumper may go back as worn twice and going bobbley! Any advice on what fabric wear best. I like wool but rare or v expensive in shops now. 100% acrylic I found bad so avoid but this one is very mixed fabric. Thanks 
I'm assuming if I return I get my coupons back? 

Yes, you will @TC77.

Personally, I prefer all natural fibres*, although I do regularly use a 75% wool 25% polyamide/nylon sock wool for lighter, thinner jumpers (West Yorkshire Spinners by preference).  The latter is theoretically superwash BUT I always put a colour catcher in the wool cycle of the washing machine, because at least one skein bled profusely.  Also, I wash on cold, using W8rose’s own-brand wool wash.  Non-superwash handknits get the half-speed spin, too, and then dried flat.

How well something wears depends, frequently, on how the fibre is spun.  Traditionally, there were two different spins:  Woollen Spun, which is looser and designed to trap air within the fibres;  and Worsted Spun, where the fibre is combed first to be all the same length, spun into a thin strand and then those strands are plied together to form a thicker yarn.  That’s all I know, because I am not a spinner.

Something else to be aware of is that some of the cheaper fibre mills process wool like they’d process cotton, chopping it up into tiny bits.  When manufactured into clothing this fabric will definitely pill, form holes in places of wear (e.g. armpits) and, generally, not last long.  Beware of the cheap woollen jumpers in Primani.

@Laura_Elsewhere knows far more about fibre, etc, than I do, but I understand she’s busy moving furniture today.  (Hope it’s going well, Laura.)

- Pip



* You must also remember there’s a huge environmental cost to using non-natural fibres.  Even the best polyesters shed micro-fibres which contaminate the waterways and the sea and get ingested by shellfish and fish   (Polyester is a fancy name for acrylic which is a fancy name for plastic fibre.). The less each of us adds, the better.

Excellent advice, Pip! And very glad to see you here and sounding so well on it thus far... 

This is the best short article I know on the difference between woollen-spun and worsted-spun wool yarns- and the reasons for using each of them! 
https://jamiesonandsmith.wordpress.com/2016/07/22/woollen-and-worsted/

The furniture moving has kind of taken on a life of its own and is slightly scaring me. I've been trying to persuade Mr E to consider changing the layout of the sitting-room for eight years or so... I mean, the only part of the north-facing room that gets any sunlight at all is where he has his desk which can't have sunlight obscuring the screen and so for half the year he has half the window covered by a curtain.... ummm....  
Anyway, a week ago, I was still just making vague hopeful suggestions as I had been for so long, and now we are arranging for ALL OUR FURNITURE to be collected on Thursday, we have already assembled and installed a wall of Ikea Kallax and have negotiated to acquire Mr E's son's old bedroom furniture now he no longer lives there, so a wall of Ikea Besta with lovely dark-red shiny drawer-fronts and cupboard-doors will be arriving after Thursday and assembled as fast as we can manage... we shall have a nightmare period in which we have no furniture in the sitting-room but VAST amounts of stuff because we have not decluttered first... I feel very overwhelmed but the end result will be amazing... and we should finally at last be able to find things... 

Cherryfudge

@Laura_Elsewhere, and breathe! It sounds very much an immersive experience. If we don't hear from you regularly, shall we send envoys with tea and biscuits?

@CapricornLass, this may not be relevant to you, but there may be others reading this with an un-useable sewing machine. There are charities that take sewing machines to donate to enable people in other countries to start small businesses. It may be worth checking whether these will take what you have for spares and repairs, or may have staff who can repair donated machines that aren't too far gone. It's kind of nice that what's essentially a leisure accessory for most of us could give someone a livelihood and a future. That said, one I used to own went to the tip after something heavy fell on it...

Cherryfudge

Here's my make do and mend for today, using embroidery thread (single strand used double) to effect a repair on some trainers I bought in September but where the fabric trim was wearing out prematurely.

It's not perfect but I don't expect anyone will be looking at my shoes all that closely (erm, apart from however many people read this thread).

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fKKLOUNOHU

It's so much easier than darning after the place has worn thin- but you're right, it's not really remembered nowadays. 
I'm always one for the lazy route- prevention is less effort than cure!  

Thank you for posting this, @Laura_Elsewhere. I used the idea to run threads through inside the heel of the above trainers. It turned into a sort of hybrid darn/run but mine always go through there so I'm hoping it will extend their use-ability.

It was really tricky to work inside the back curve of the heel, so the results aren't smooth. If anyone has good ideas. tricks or tips for repairing inside a rubbed-through heel, please let me know. I've used self-adhesive fabric wound dressing before which does work but is very visible if I kick my shoes off!

Kim_13

Found my way here having been curious as to what the coupons mentioned in a signature were. Bought rather too many clothes in January (recently discovered Shein..) so had a count up and came to 93 - oops! That included counting a mix and match nightwear deal as pyjamas despite being a vest and a pair of cropped bottoms.

Would be interesting to know what the coupon requirements would be nowadays had COVID got that far with all the panic buyers - clothes don’t seem to be made to last in the way that they used to be, and handbags are more likely to be made out of something other than leather. 

Not planning on buying anything further and will try to keep to 66 coupons in ‘25.

TC77

@PipneyJane and @Laura_Elsewhere thank you for explaining about the different type of spinning and wool. I much prefer natural fibres, although not so much cotton jumpers, but now very hard to find jumpers with more than say a little wool. Expect if of primani but St Michael and J Lewis are the same. I can knit but haven' for ages but feel when I find time I will go back to it. Unfortunately they don't tell you much about the wool but maybe I will try and find out, and maybe it's less likely with some types such as merino wool?

The trainer repair looks good to me.