2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

MrsCD

There are dpn holders that you can make from scrap fabric...
http://thenomeknitter.blogspot.com/2015/05/tutorial-double-pointed-needle-keeper.html?m=1
You could stiffen it with card or plastic to protect the needles.

Cherryfudge

MrsCD said:

There are dpn holders that you can make from scrap fabric...
http://thenomeknitter.blogspot.com/2015/05/tutorial-double-pointed-needle-keeper.html?m=1
You could stiffen it with card or plastic to protect the needles.

That's a nifty little project, and nice way to use up scrap fabric.  

Sarahspangles

Sarahspangles said:

I've had a good sort out now, and find there's space for everything in my wardrobe and chest of drawers.

Coupons to date this year:
Sports shoes, January sale: 5 
Swimsuit: 3
Balance: 58

To keep the universe in balance I've unravelled and washed nearly 200g of lovely 2ply Leicester yarn to rework into accessories before Winter.

Can I get a ruling on swimwear?! I’ve now also bought a tankini and bikini bottoms, is that two items?

PollyWollyDoodle

I’d count that as one swimsuit personally, although when I bought tankini tops on their own I counted them individually.  That reminds me, I’ve just bought a new pair of swim shorts to go with said tops, that’s  the first new thing I’ve bought this year.  

PipneyJane

Sarahspangles said:

Sarahspangles said:

I've had a good sort out now, and find there's space for everything in my wardrobe and chest of drawers.

Coupons to date this year:
Sports shoes, January sale: 5 
Swimsuit: 3
Balance: 58

To keep the universe in balance I've unravelled and washed nearly 200g of lovely 2ply Leicester yarn to rework into accessories before Winter.

Can I get a ruling on swimwear?! I’ve now also bought a tankini and bikini bottoms, is that two items?

@Sarahspangles, they’ll count as one item, so 3 coupons for the set.

MrsCD said:

There are dpn holders that you can make from scrap fabric...
http://thenomeknitter.blogspot.com/2015/05/tutorial-double-pointed-needle-keeper.html?m=1
You could stiffen it with card or plastic to protect the needles.

Interesting idea @MrsCD.  I’d still be worried about snapping a wooden DPN, though.  (I had this happen to me, when I packed my partially knitted sock into my suitcase.  It was on 8 inch, bamboo Addi DPN’s, with the tips held together by cute, teddy bear shaped protectors.  One of the needles broke in transit.  After that, I swapped to the cardboard DPN tubes.)

alicef said:

Looking very fine @PipneyJane! 

In spite of my start of year good intentions I have bought yarn - 15 coupons to declare.

Thanks @alicef.  Despite the after effects of this week’s chemo, I’m feeling really healthy.  

Please don’t leave us in suspense: what yarn did you buy and what is it for?

One of the lessons I’ve learned over the past few weeks is that it can be really therapeutic to go through the stash occasionally, to really see what’s there and figure out what I’m going to do with it.  Seriously, I’m at SABLE.  When I worked down the street from John Lewis, I used to be an only-buying-for-the-next-project knitter but that all changed after I discovered knitting shows.  Then it became a trend of must-buy-what-I-like-from-small-producers-because-I-may-never-see-it-again, so I started buying a guesstimated jumper’s worth of whatever took my fancy.  Throw in a touch of that’s-the-good-stuff-at-a-bargain-price and you can see why I’ve got more than I can knit with in the foreseeable future.

The stash-toss was the direct result of DH requesting that I knit a baby sweater for an ex-colleague’s baby and me struggling to remember where I’d put the suitable yarn.  (Picture to follow when I’ve sewn on the buttons.).  As I side result, I finally found the remains of a skein of pink 4-ply, which I’d been looking for since February, when one of my best friends shamelessly requested a pair of fingerless mitts.  (Somehow, there was an entire box I’d forgotten about.). In the meantime, I’d knitted a pair in some grey self-striping sock yarn but they just didn’t look right for her - she wears a lot of pink accessories.  Having found the pink, I knitted her a pair in that during our trip to Scotland:

    

(No idea why my hands appear so blue.)

The pink ones have white tops because I ran out of yarn on round 65 of the second one and had to cannibalise a few rows from the other one.  Also, as DH pointed out, it makes it easier to put them on the right way up first-time, since the area above the thumb hole is shorter than the wrist.

ETA:  I’ll keep the grey ones for myself.

- Pip

Cherryfudge

I like the white edges, but the colour is definitely off on my computer - it looks as though you have brown hands in purple gloves! I like the style though - the ribbing probably keeps them fitting well, doesn't it?

At one point I did a spreadsheet for my yarns (not a total success as I forgot to add new things) - would something like that help for yours, especially if you added a column for where each is stored?

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

I like the white edges, but the colour is definitely off on my computer - it looks as though you have brown hands in purple gloves! I like the style though - the ribbing probably keeps them fitting well, doesn't it?

Yes, it does, @Cherryfudge.  Also, it’s very forgiving if the recipient’s hands are larger than my own (and I know my friend’s are).  Additionally, when I first devised this pattern years ago, I reckoned it would keep my hands warmer because of the air trapped in the texture.  

With the exception of the cuffs and the edge by the fingers, the pattern is “broken garter stitch rib”, i.e. knit one round then K2 P2 on the second.  It’s quicker than doing the whole thing in rib and, I believe, it uses slightly less yarn.  (That belief is probably erroneous, but I’m sure I’ve heard somewhere that changing between a knit stitch and a purl uses slightly more yarn than knitting or purling two stitches.  Probably an old wife’s tale.)  

Cherryfudge said:

At one point I did a spreadsheet for my yarns (not a total success as I forgot to add new things) - would something like that help for yours, especially if you added a column for where each is stored?

Most of my stash is logged in Ravelry.  You can download a spreadsheet from there, which includes storage location and price paid.  (Or did, last time I did this.). However, it doesn’t help when you have something you logged as “downstairs stash” in 2009 and it’s been moved since. 

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - you're right about the extra yarn in changing stitch. 

I made very similar hand-warmers for my swimming companions last year, in stripes- a different colour for each person, all with a plain mid-grey background. Each time I changed colour, I knitted the first round of the new colour, which avoids those bumps of contrast on the purl columns. I slipped the first stitch on the second round and that avoids the jog. 

Very 'handy' One size really does fit quite a range of hands  

Laura_Elsewhere

We haven't had anything in the tin for a while, but I've just baked these high-fibre, lower-salt digestive biscuits, so I'll put a few in the tin for anyone who wants them...  

I ran out of spelt, so used wholemeal bread flour; I just whizzed the porridge oats in the little mixer for a few minutes. Very quick and easy to make. I melted some plain and milk chocolate in the microwave and dipped the tops, so it counts in my mind as "a choccie biccie" but with much less chocolate than many And only 50g sugar (I used Demerare) and 1tsp salt for a whole batch of about thirty biscuits, 2½" across, plus about 50g chocolate for the lot.

https://lemongrovecakediaries.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/the-river-cottage-spelt-digestives/

Cherryfudge

Thanks Laura, I won't say no. They won't last long...