2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Wraithlady

Thanks for the research, Cherryfudge - it really is a rabbit hole, isn't it? 

My personal opinion is - make 'yarn' (whether wool, acrylic, bamboo, cat-hair or whatever) the same coupon cost for 50g, which simplifies keeping count (especially if the yarn is of unknown provenance). Then leave it up to people to decide what they want to buy, based on whatever criteria matters to them.

The point of the thread was to make us more aware of what we consume, and to get off the merry-go-round of fast fashion and mindless 'shopping as a hobby' through the medium of using the Ration system from WW2. 

Making the 'coupon count' too complicated as an attempt to 'steer' people to the 'right' eco-attitudes won't necessarily work - yes, it's an important subject and the discussion needs to be had, but I don't want people to feel excluded because they can't afford £12 a skein for 'proper' wool, or it takes A-level Maths to work out the coupon cost.

Because it's voluntary, people have to want to do this - make it too complex, or time-consuming, then the attraction will wane.

(What, this soapbox, officer? Yes, I'll be moving along now  )

Cherryfudge

Laughing at your last comment - it's usually me on the soapbox! But you have a very good point - it will mean different things to different people and too complicated will put some off. And if it's A level Maths, no matter how motivated, I just don't function at that level.

That doesn't stop me wondering why they chose 16% as a cut-off point.  

Mind you, I think we should exempt people knitting with cat hair from any coupon cost - I'd imagine it's terribly hard to handle and keeps coming to bits, though I'm open to correction from any with experience!

PollyWollyDoodle

It's a really interesting discussion, it had me searching for info but it's very difficult to compare wool with bamboo (for example) in terms of environmental issues. 

Apart from the economic cost, I don't tend to buy pure wool.  Firstly, I find it quite itchy to wear.  Even my cashmere jumper I have to wear with a t-shirt underneath, although this also reduces the need to wash it too often. I'm allergic to lanolin, but I'm guessing there's not much of that left by the time wool has been processed, but I don't find it very comfortable. 

The second reason is that if I'm knitting for,  say, my niece's little girl, I know there's no way she will hand wash anything. She works full time and it's probably a struggle to keep up with the everyday laundry, she doesn't want something that needs special care.  So I'll mostly be using acrylic or blends and I think I'm go-to adopt @Wraithlady's approach. 

I wish I could spin cat hair, I pick up enough of the bl@@dy stuff. It's a matter of wonder to me that the cat isn't bald, but she seems able to produce infinite amounts.  

flamingo747

I'm a hopeless knitter, and a not-much-better crocheter, so my opinion isn't worth much. However, I only buy cheap acrylic wool because my lack of skill means I can't afford to waste good wool, much as I care about the environmental 

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

Harking back a bit, we were discussing the relative coupon values of pure wool and artificial fibres and based it on something Pip had seen at (I think) the Imperial War Museum - something along the lines of artificial fibres being half the coupon value of natural fibre.

Now I may be going over known territory here (sorry!) but I was looking at this page on the IWM's site, which was newish to me: I might have seen some of it in a different context but one little bit stood out:

Most wool was rationed but some was available off-ration. To qualify, it had to be made of less than 16 per cent animal hair.

Obviously that was useful in terms of the situation in wartime, but possibly a bit of a contradiction in terms of what we were saying about environmental impact (artificial yarn is worse for the environment as it doesn't degrade as natural fibre does). We have a three-way divide that may will have changed proportionately since wartime: pure wool isn't easy to come by compared to 100% acrylic, and we have bamboo or cotton yarn too. I don't know if they were at all available in the war. Cotton has a down-side because producing it takes a lot of water. Bamboo? I don't know.

Environmentally (and again, I'm not an expert so am open to better information) there's also a cost to wool, both in greenhouse gases and in animal welfare. The latter is being addressed by some farmers, and there are some fields that only sheep or goats can use.

So should our lower coupon cost be applied differently? If it's not a good idea to encourage 'plastic' yarn, I think we discussed it having a higher coupon cost. I think. It might have been last year. Is there a 'perfect solution' in terms of reducing coupon cost so it makes minimal impact in our modern 'war' on environmental damage? What, nowadays, is the equivalent of 'less than 16% of animal hair? It could be yarn that's less than 16% synthetic?

I don't know. What do others think? The rest of the context on the IWM page suggests knitting was encouraged, partly to recycle fibre and ease pressures on coupons, and partly to provide warm clothes for service personnel. How would you design the coupon cost of yarn if you had a free hand to implement it in today's context?

As others have said, everyone's different! But my own personal idea, since you asked specifically, would be that the lowest coupon-cost would be for non-mulesed wool, preferably from small suppliers, ideally locally, and processed by small businesses, again locally. 
A couple of examples might be Ewe&Ply's 'Shropshire Ply' in DK and 4-ply and Aran, which they source themselves and actually go and collect as raw fleeces themselves, and have it cleaned and combed by independent processors, spun by independent spinners, and then they dye it themselves, often using plant-dyes they grow themselves. Another example would be New Lanark (assuming they haven't changed since I last checked it all out some years ago)- using water-power from the river Clyde to process and spin British wool by hydro-electric power. They do some organic wool too, although I'm not sure about their policy on sheep being mulesed. See below for explanation of mulesing.
I would have a higher coupon-cost for wool from sheep that are mulesed. 
I would have a higher coupon-cost for non-wool yarns that require a huge amount of water, pesticides and cause a lot of pollution. 

And I would also ditch the free nylons- throwaway cheap tights are surely something to move away from. If I find someone making wool stockings and buy some, I pay more coupons despite the fact they will last me literally years and years (I have half a dozen pairs, all of which I had had for a while before I moved here nearly ten years ago); but we all get free nylons? It feels a bit counter to the spirit of the challenge to me... BUT we all see the challenge in different ways, don't we? So... 

(Mulesing: I'm a meat-eater, and fairly pragmatic about a lot of things that get many people upset about farming- but this really gets me- this is literally cutting away the skin on the buttocks so the sheep is left with scar tissue which grows no wool and doesn't get 'fly-strike' infestations of maggots in the skin- the only other way to avoid fly-strike is to look after your sheep much more carefully. So either you spend money keeping your sheep healthier (non-mulesing), or you mutilate them... if you do neither then they can end up so infected they die agonisingly... )

But those are only my personal preferences, not seeking to impose them on others! 

boultdj

I know nothing of cat hair knitting, apart from what my late furry owner use to donate on every item I knitted, but as a teenager I knew a man who had a jumper knitted from his dogs fur, it was very silky to touch, they were big furry white and a white and gray dogs.

CapricornLass

Samoyed dog hair can be spun and knitted up.  OH knew a pub landlord who had a couple of them, and was saving up the hair to be spun and knitted into a sweater for himself.  And angora rabbit hair can be spun into a yarn, too  However, I doubt if there were many of them around in WW2!

Teadrinker_4

My first clothing shop of the year. I needed some new trousers for work (I’m a teacher) so whilst I was looking in the sales I also picked a dress up £8 reduced from £27! Only a pound more than the coupon. Therefore a spend of 13 coupons

weenancyinAmerica

When I was working in the local library (many years ago), a lady came in and demonstrated how to knit and crochet with dog and cat fur. She spun it just like you would regular wool. Might be a class for the WI if anyone can find someone who can teach spinning. Or just a demonstration of spinning, so we can make our own yarn from scratch - for the war effort.

PipneyJane

Good morning All

Fascinating discussion.  Thank you, @Cherryfudge for doing the research re the IWM and finding the documentary source of the “non-natural fibres” lower coupon cost. I couldn’t find anything when I tried, but that was years ago.  I even had a conversation on Ravelry with Susan Crawford about it.  

Pity we can’t do a poll, but I think we’re all in agreement to scrap the discount, yes?  I’ll amend the front page.

@weenancyinAmerica I believe there is a bit of a spinning movement in America which concentrates on spinning dog hair.  Cat hair is less common but there is certainly an American knitting podcaster, DrGemma who is collecting and spinning her cat’s hair.  Her podcast is CogKnitive.  I’ve listened to her for years.

@flamingo747 instead of buying acrylic, have a good look around your local charity shops for yarn.  You will be surprised at what you find.  I have a good friend who has “The Gift” when it comes to charity shopping*.  She will find the bag of pure wool, sometimes complete with the pattern, that someone donated having given up on their project.  Often, it’s sitting awkwardly in a white plastic bag at the back of the shelf with other yarn/craft items in front.

@Laura_Elsewhere agree that mulesing should be banned in the UK.  There has to be a better way.

- Pip



* She’s also great on unworn shoes, handbags, clothes and coats, and will generously find them for her friends.