2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - I find Sewing Bee difficult to enjoy on many levels, but the biggest problem for me is the frustration. 

They make a big drama out of, eg, people struggling to get a zip sewn in neatly… but they could so easily then have a little pre-recorded segment with Patrick explaining how to sew in a zip, and giving a couple of useful tips… thus keeping the contrived drama they seem to require, ie the contestants struggling to do something, but at the same time helping viewers to find it easier next time… 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane - I find Sewing Bee difficult to enjoy on many levels, but the biggest problem for me is the frustration. 

They make a big drama out of, eg, people struggling to get a zip sewn in neatly… but they could so easily then have a little pre-recorded segment with Patrick explaining how to sew in a zip, and giving a couple of useful tips… thus keeping the contrived drama they seem to require, ie the contestants struggling to do something, but at the same time helping viewers to find it easier next time… 

Agreed, @Laura_Elsewhere.  

Also, on some of the challenges, they don’t seem to award points for competence.  I was very frustrated when, this week, they challenged the competitors to make a different garment out of up to 3 t-shirts.  Someone turned out a beautifully made skirt.  It fitted the brief perfectly, BUT because it wasn’t flashy, it was placed second last!

- Pip

Sarahspangles

I’ve never watched Sewing Bee. I have ‘a thing’ about watching programmes or series that might inspire me to garden, or paint, or craft because I then don’t have time and I end up frustrated! But now I have a bit more time, should I? I can see there are 80 episodes on iPlayer.

In other news, I got one set of dinky wooden DPNs through airport security, coming out. I managed a first swatch on the plane but didn’t get gauge. I stupidly brought some of the yarn out as a skein, got it a bit tangled, and had to improvise a way to untangle and wind it in the hotel - back of chair plus my electric toothbrush handle as nostepinne….

I then stupidly looked at a diagram about long tail cast on, instead of letting muscle memory take over. I expect the guy in the pool bar has me down as ‘foul mouthed knitting woman who drinks Aperol’. I’ll probably frog the first glove when I’ve made the second, as they’re quick once I get going.

I’ve been listening to some knitting podcasts, a little nugget: knitting was popular in England and Germany in WW2 because it was possible to knit in blackout conditions. 

PollyWollyDoodle

I agree about Sewing Bee and I seem to remember when it first started (with May Martin and Patrick) there was more explanation and more emphasis on technique. However, I do still enjoy watching it - it could take over several hours of your life @Sarahspangles!   It might be worth watching the first series, I love the lady who won that and she turned out some immaculate garments.  

Well done on managing to get your knitting sorted out on holiday!  

PipneyJane

Sarahspangles said:

I’ve never watched Sewing Bee. I have ‘a thing’ about watching programmes or series that might inspire me to garden, or paint, or craft because I then don’t have time and I end up frustrated! But now I have a bit more time, should I? I can see there are 80 episodes on iPlayer.

In other news, I got one set of dinky wooden DPNs through airport security, coming out. I managed a first swatch on the plane but didn’t get gauge. I stupidly brought some of the yarn out as a skein, got it a bit tangled, and had to improvise a way to untangle and wind it in the hotel - back of chair plus my electric toothbrush handle as nostepinne….

I then stupidly looked at a diagram about long tail cast on, instead of letting muscle memory take over. I expect the guy in the pool bar has me down as ‘foul mouthed knitting woman who drinks Aperol’. I’ll probably frog the first glove when I’ve made the second, as they’re quick once I get going.

I’ve been listening to some knitting podcasts, a little nugget: knitting was popular in England and Germany in WW2 because it was possible to knit in blackout conditions. 

Ooohhh…. Which knitting podcasts, please @Saraspangles?  I listen to several and am always on the look out for another.  (Cast On, Caithness Craft Collective, The Knitmore Girls, Cogknitive - all the others I used to listen to have gone silent.)

Does anyone know of a frugality podcast that is worth listening to?  

Glad to hear you got to knit on the plane.  You aren’t the first knitter to fall foul of a hank of yarn - I’ve seen photos of passengers using their knees to hold the hank open, while balling it up with their hands.  Thinking of which…. a useful skill to learn is how to wind a centre-pull ball with your hands.  I don’t remember where I saw how to do it but this video seems comprehensive.

Hope you are having a lovely holiday.

Talking of knitting, my current handbag knitting project has bitten me.  I’m knitting afterthought heel socks, with contrasting heels and toes, using the remains of ball of wool from which I have already knitted a pair of socks.  I have 37 grams* of the main colourway which, it turns out, isn’t enough to knit two 60 round legs and 53 round feet. On the second sock, I’ve started the foot after leg round 42, so I’ll have to frog back there and reknit the first sock.  However, to ensure they match exactly, I’ll frog the contrast toe of sock one - thank heavens I didn’t do the heel - and then rip back 18 rounds, ball that up and knit it.  Only when I know on which round of the foot that I run out of the main colourway, will I redo the first sock.  Who knows? I may even get to the point that I’ll have to reknit the current (second) sock, so that I can make the leg longer.

- Pip



* Theoretically, 37g should be enough.  I’ve just weighed a full pair that I knitted in WYS Signature Sock, again with contrasting heels and toes and they weigh 54g.  They were knitted with a 54 round leg.

Cherryfudge

I've finally caught up on Sewing Bee and I enjoyed it, as did DH! My dislike is when presenters' personal preferences are taken into account - so Esme doesn't like brown but does like bows, and people play to this (a bit like adding copious amounts of alcohol to cakes on the Bake-off, because Pru likes it).

Sorry Esme, you may be far above me in your knowledge and experience, but I like brown and I don't like bows.

It can be a bit of an eye-opener too. I feel the makeover is the weakest aspect, because really making over something requires time and trouble, and possibly hand sewing techniques that can't be showcased in a time-limited, tension-centred programme. Patrick has an active interest in sustainable clothing, and I like that he's promoting the ethos, but the sort of makeover challenges they present are wasteful of fabric, and unlikely ever to be worn again... but did you see the no-waste garment made out of a white embroidered tablecloth?! It was just gorgeous, especially as it was made with the time constraints they have. Until I saw that, I had been against the remaking of someone's long hours of embroidery to make a garment that may only be worn for a few hours, but this really showed the potential. I'm still never going to cut up an old tablecloth (unless, just possibly, I come across a damaged one) because I like them just as they are and you can't put that back once it's gone.

If they want to make a realistic contribution to textile waste, why not replace the (parody of) recycling fabrics with a repair challenge?

And while I'm on the soap box, I'm just back from a few days in Rome, where we saw some outstanding art. There was excellent commentary alongside each piece, too, so it got me thinking: apparently way back in the past there wasn't the intellectual division between art and craft that we have nowadays. One of the things that medieval painters did so well was to show off the fabrics of the time, which are generally background to the subject of the painting - yet these fabrics were works of art in themselves. Of course, we have very little of them, because painting, architecture and sculpture last a lot longer than fabrics. There were a couple of pieces in the Vatican Museum though that could possibly have been made 1500 or so years ago. They were basic tunics from a reliquary - so they could have been older than that. One was silk and one was linen - and I happened to be wearing a linen top (cheap, modern ) so I was able to compare the weight of the fabrics. The antique linen was possibly heavier, more densely woven - but the threads were a similar weight to what I was wearing, which has to have been machine made. They had been mended - one of the mends was quite rough - and the silk one looked as though it had once been embroidered. Of all those amazing clothes portrayed in old paintings, not a trace remains, but what must those fabrics have been like, made for the rich people of an era of incredibly high skills?

Sarahspangles

PipneyJane said:

Sarahspangles said:

I’ve been listening to some knitting podcasts, a little nugget: knitting was popular in England and Germany in WW2 because it was possible to knit in blackout conditions. 

Ooohhh…. Which knitting podcasts, please @Saraspangles?  I listen to several and am always on the look out for another.  (Cast On, Caithness Craft Collective, The Knitmore Girls, Cogknitive - all the others I used to listen to have gone silent.) 

Glad to hear you got to knit on the plane.  You aren’t the first knitter to fall foul of a hank of yarn - I’ve seen photos of passengers using their knees to hold the hank open, while balling it up with their hands.  Thinking of which…. a useful skill to learn is how to wind a centre-pull ball with your hands.  I don’t remember where I saw how to do it but this video seems comprehensive.

I think the podcasts will be your ‘gone silent’ ones. I started with an episode of Stuff you Missed in History Class then a few episodes of The Long Thread which is usually about spinning and weaving and now I’m listening to Knitter Views, which stopped when they ran out of people who’d designed for Vogue Knitting at some point.

One of the podcasts is with Cornelia Hamilton who sounds like she wears her skein as a sarong! But she doesn’t knit in public….

PipneyJane

OMG!  I’ve spent some coupons!

While swatching for my next project, an Aran sweater, I started to wonder if I’d have enough yarn for it, Caithness Yarns DK Sedge.   I have 6 skeins, and I’ve always planned to do an Aran jumper with it.  After downloading two versions of the pattern and doing the maths multiple times re the yardage quoted for my size, I bit the bullet and ordered two more skeins from their website.  That’ll give me 8, or 1640m.  If that is too much, I’ll make the matching beret with it.  (Yes, I know the pattern is written for worsted-weight/aran-weight yarn, but the Sedge is very dense and swatched up well.)

ETA that’s 4 coupons spent.

In other news, I get my PICC line out today.  Did I tell you about the results of April’s PET scan?  All tumour gone, with just a couple of non-reactive spots left on my liver, that will have been mopped up by now. I’ve officially finished chemo and am in remission. My first follow-up appointment with the doctors is on 2nd July.  (Don’t break out the HM cowslip wine.  I don’t know yet if I’m allowed to drink!)

- Pip

dND

That's fabulous news Pip, I'm so happy for you. 💕

PollyWollyDoodle

Great news that’s great news Pip - and good to get the PICC line out too. Onward and upward.  I look forward to seeing pictures of your sweater, a wise spend of your coupons.