2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

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.  

I have a feeling they've updated the page because I'm sure I've read it before and not found that information. I wonder what else they have hidden away that we don't get to see!

I'm happy to go along with whatever coupon count you think.

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

I have a feeling they've updated the page because I'm sure I've read it before and not found that information. I wonder what else they have hidden away that we don't get to see!

I'm out of date nowadays but when I did a cours ein Museum Studies in the 1990s, we were told that most museums only have about 2-5% of their physical items on display- I would guess that the ones with really good websites may have up to about 15% of their physical items online, but it varies hugely. Many of the big museums don't have even 50% of their collections catalogued, so they may well not know what they have. A few really work at it (IWM and V&A, to name two excellent ones, and the NMS too).
(It won't be improving any time soon, as funding has been cut by huge amounts and in the case of one council their Arts budget has simply been stopped completely, 100% reduction....)

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

 most museums only have about 2-5% of their physical items on display- I would guess that the ones with really good websites may have up to about 15% of their physical items online, but it varies hugely. Many of the big museums don't have even 50% of their collections catalogued, 

That's quite mind-boggling! I suppose there must be a certain amount of duplication, but even so... shall we offer to go and sort through anything to do with textile rationing and produce a new page for the website?

I notice that a lot is aimed at school children, which is great, but it's hard to go deeper. I very briefly used a museum library as a student (the Museum of Mankind, which I don't think is even there any more as such but is part of the British Museum) because there was a book that wasn't available locally to me, and I can well believe there's so much around that the public doesn't see, simply because it would be overwhelming. 

weenancyinAmerica

Has anyone else used the library in the Imperial War Museum? Or the one at Eden Camp? Way back I was able to use both. 

flamingo747

I'll keep an eye out Pip

Cherryfudge

weenancyinAmerica said:

Has anyone else used the library in the Imperial War Museum? Or the one at Eden Camp? Way back I was able to use both. 

I haven't - but I'm not so far from Eden Camp. My strongest memory of it was helping a lot of nine year old girls brave the U boat room (which was grim). They were so pleased with themselves, they went back and did it again. That must have been over 20 years ago (eek) so I expect a lot has changed.

thriftwizard

I'll be happy to teach you all to spin, ladies! With wheel or spindle - wheels are faster but don't necessarily produce a better yarn, and you can't (usually) take them to the pub - you can take a spindle anywhere. But there's plenty of room here in the village hall if you can get hold of your gran's wheel... there's plenty of fleece out there, quite often for free.

Also horrified by the (totally unnecessary) practice of mulesing; luckily I usually get my fleeces from friends with small "pet" flocks of unusual breeds, like Portlands (pearly white) Hebrideans (black) & Gotlands (steely grey). And there are plenty of lovely little Shetland sheep around here, mostly in petting zoos, in a vast array of gorgeous colours. Not always sheep, either, I'm quite happy to spin alpaca too, though it's quite different. And even cat... I have produced a small skein of cat, from one of our long-hairs, who used to love to sit on my lap whilst I was spinning. Every now & then she'd get her whiskers caught in the thread & there'd be a gentle "thunk" as her head hit the orifice - but she never seemed to mind! Long-haired cat fur felts beautifully too; see any of our blankets...

Cherryfudge

It's a good job I don't know where you live, @thriftwizard, or I'd be camping on your doorstep! Mind you, I don't have access to a wheel, a spindle or fleece. I'd imagine it's relaxing once you get going, once you know what you're doing.

diminua

weenancyinAmerica said:

Has anyone else used the library in the Imperial War Museum? Or the one at Eden Camp? Way back I was able to use both. 

I haven't used the library at the IWM but could easily book and go in if you wanted something specific. It's on the northern line so I go through the area regularly. 

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, my understanding is that mulesing is banned in the UK but is practiced in Australia and was practiced in New Zealand but has recently been banned there so if you are buying wool from UK sheep it is from mulesing free sheep. I think we need to be careful with imported wool that is used in fabric manufacturing although I understand some retailers are now refusing to use wool fabrics produced using wool from mulesing sheep, should that be mulesinged sheep?. I am totally against this practice as even though I am not a meat eater my main concern is that animals should be treated humanly whether they are pets or for food production. People make their own choices about what they eat and that is fine by me. I am sure there are environmental issues around veg production that some people struggle with, water usage, food miles, genetic modification etc. Honestly I think it is very hard in today's world to keep up with everything so it is good to be made aware of these things. 
Take care everyone