2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

weenancyinAmerica

I don't know if it will help but I use a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol (white spirits) on it pressed against the ink to remove it. I am terrible about getting ink on everything.

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

TC77 said:

I love a popover/ sleeveless jumper but haven't found ones I like and did think it could be a good route back to knitting (decades since I've knitted) but want to find a good easy pattern). I bought one in a CS but it's slighty too deep a v neck so not right over shirts. 

I found a couple online for free: it's worth looking at yarn-related websites for starters. I would love to knit one from a 1940s pattern but I'd need to lose quite a bit of padding first!

I can thoroughly recommend Susan Crawford’s books/patterns, if you want a re-sized 1940’s pattern @Cherryfudge

Alternatively, most patterns are (relatively) easy to rework/resize.  It’s what our 1940’s predecessors would have done, after all, since very few women were the size given in the pattern.  First thing to do is to knit a tension square or two. Once you get tension, the next thing to consider are the lace/texture/colourwork pattern and its multiples i.e. if the lace pattern is 12 stitches across, all the stitches you add will need to be in multiples of 12.  Then your choice is whether to adjust the neck and/or armholes to accommodate the extra stitches, or to keep them the same as the pattern but to adjust the shoulders as/when you cast off.  

Personally, if the pattern involves lace or cables, I’d get out the graph paper and chart it out.  I find it much easier to visualise and to follow a charted pattern.

- Pip

maryb

I've made my first Vinted purchase!!!  We have a wedding to go to in June and I have some nice duck egg blue silk/linnen blend in stash which will make a nice sleeveless shift.  That style suits me and I have got the pattern down to a very good fit.  But as I will be a 'biblical' age this year sleeveless is not a good look so I usually wear a light cardigan.  I found a Hobbs bolero style knitted cardigan jacket in the right colour on Vinted for £10 so pleased with that!

I had to buy organza to mount the loosely woven linen - is that haberdashery?  I know the lining would count as fabric

Cherryfudge

Thank you for that, @PipneyJane! I had a look and oh! what gorgeous stuff on her website! I've spotted some luscious shawls/wraps that I really don't have space for but would be heirloom pieces...

I think this next project - if I make it, as I really ought to complete a few other things first - is going to be very plain, the sort of thing I can knit without having to stop too often to work things out. Too many things fall foul of me being too tired to be sure of getting it right, then I forget where I'm up to and restarting becomes a massive thing that hangs around for ages. But I do like these pullovers and I think making one would help me get better wear out of my shirts.

The 1940s lure, for me, is those trim waistlines and let's face it, I'm not quite there so I might resort to something less curvy that I can wear while I decrease. (I've made a bit of progress: having a cleaning job means I'm more or less working out 10 hours or more a week and I can feel the difference).

I've been through the patterns I already have and can't see anything line what I have in mind.

Oh, and the socks on Susan's website! Aren't they fab! Knitting socks is still on my bucket list but not at the top.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - I have absolutely no waistline to speak of, but have discovered that knitting a good long 50 rounds of ribbing at the waist does create a little bit of optical illusion- not wasp-waisted but at least less sacklike! 

I have knitted all of mine upwards in the round: cast on and knit upwards; cast off a number for two armholes and cast on a few steek-stitches; keep knitting upwards and cast off for the square front neckline- either cast off for front and back the same, casting on a few steek stitches for each (ooh, reversible, doesn't matter if you splash ketchup!) or cast off for front and knit an inch or two more and cast off the back. Knit the remaining stitches up to shoulder-top height and graft like a sock-toe, or just seam together. Cut steeks for armholes and neck, and pick up all round and knit a few rows of k1p1 rib. Trim cut ends and sew narrow velvet ribbon over the ends because it's pretty  
Then I go to the cast-on and knit the 50 rounds of rib downwards but you can start with it if you prefer. 

If you don't like steeks you can knit it in the round to the bottom of the armpits and then switch to knitting the front flat, and the back flat, separately, and for each when you get to the neckline you carry on knitting each shoulder-strap flat, separately, and then sew the tops of the shoulder-straps together, and pick up and knit the ribbing. 

Or you can knit the whole thing flat and sew it together. 

But basically, it needs next to no pattern. It really is very simple- tons of patterns have shaping but tbh it's not needed for most styles on most people because knitting is stretchy... I just knit all mine straight. I knit a tension piece and wash and dry it, and then measure it for how many stitches/rows to the inch. Then I calculate how many stitches for my bust measurement and round it to a neat number. The square neckline is a HUGE amount easier than either V-neck or round... 

And you can use virtually any yarn and needles... 

Chestnut sparkly used laceweight held double and 3.75mm needles.
Cream and pinks used 4-ply held double, and DK, and 4mm needles. 
Cream and stripes used 4-ply self-striping sock yarn held double and DK cream, and 3.75mm needles.
Autumn stripes used laceweight held single and 4-ply, and 5.5mm needles. 

Cherryfudge

Thanks @Laura_Elsewhere! I've never tried steeking though I think I understand the principle.

Yours are great, and I had in mind to do an extended rib. Knowing what 50 rows looks like is very helpful thanks. It's going to be either straight up and down or lots of rib (think 1940s). I've been spending today doing admin stuff so I've not searched further online for important things like knitting patterns but I can cope with adjusting length, after all a lot of patterns just say 'continue till it reaches the right length' or words to that effect.

I really like that you round the number up to something neat! That gets me out of the dead end of getting it exactly right (after all, shop=bought doesn't work that way, so why should hand knits?)

TC77

Love the popovers/ vests and seems fairly straightforward although not heard of steeking stitch.
Off work today so took things to cs, and bought 2 shirts and a trackkie type top addidas  which I may keep but prob better for a dd.
Realise I'm much more consumerist than I thought as reminded to pick up a st Michael's  rain mac I'd ordered. 
Just seen 14 coupons! It's short but not short enough to be fewer coupons  although I get the 6 back for returned jeans. 

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - the chestnut sparkly one is in rib throughout- knit 4 purl 1 (so a multiple of 5 Keeps it nice and easy and looks particularly lush and opulent and squishy), and then k1p1 for the waist and edgings. The stripes might be something you could think about if you want a little bit of variety without having too complex a pattern- I thought I would add a subtle stripe by adding a strand of coloured mohair or cobweb yarn to the cashmere and so I knitted a test piece trying out the four suitable yarns, a rust, an orange, a red and well why not try the navy blue... to my astonishment they just worked really well, all of them, even the navy blue- who knew you can add navy blue to chestnut?!?! And the stripes iirc were 10 rounds each so it even helped with keeping track of how many rounds I had knitted  

PipneyJane

Those vests look lovely @Laura_Elsewhere.  

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane said:

Those vests look lovely @Laura_Elsewhere.  

- Pip

Thankyou- I'm smiling at 'vests', you Aussie, you! To me, "vests" are underwear or American for a men's button-up waistcoat  
Mind you, these things do have a heck of a lot of names- I call them slipovers, but also tank tops, vests, popovers (to me those are little round Yorkshire puddings eaten hot with Golden syrup for pudding!), or just a sleeveless pullover, sleeveless jumper (and a jumper is a skirt with braces or bib-and-braces in the States iirc), sleeveless sweater, etc., etc., etc...! 

Is it only English or do all languages like having multiple names for one thing?!