2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Sarahspangles

Serious inroads into my coupons…..Jacket or short coat: 11, leaving a balance of 23.

It’s a denim jacket, but green rather than indigo. I checked the length nape to hem, and it’s only 1” from being a long coat (because I’m tall). The weather will no doubt now improve.

It gets worse! I’ve been resting up with Covid and have somehow bought quite a lot of yarn. But I’m not going to count it until I use it. In my defence, I have next to no stash because I donated most of it in the pandemic.

I wonder how much time women really had for making and mending during the war? 

Laura_Elsewhere

Sarahspangles said:

I wonder how much time women really had for making and mending during the war? 

A good question... I know one of the things remarked upon by people in journals, diaries and magazine articles is that women suddenly were knitting everywhere- shop-girls knitted at the till between customers, workers knitted on the bus or tram to or from work, people knitted as they stood at the bus-stop, switch-girls knitted as they put through phonecalls... 
So that's one way women found more time. 

How much more time? I once tried a policy of knitting for just 2-3 minutes between other tasks all through the day, and managed about half an ankle-sock in one day, without any sense of having "spent time" on knitting!

PipneyJane

Sarahspangles said:

Serious inroads into my coupons…..Jacket or short coat: 11, leaving a balance of 23.

It’s a denim jacket, but green rather than indigo. I checked the length nape to hem, and it’s only 1” from being a long coat (because I’m tall). The weather will no doubt now improve.

It gets worse! I’ve been resting up with Covid and have somehow bought quite a lot of yarn. But I’m not going to count it until I use it. In my defence, I have next to no stash because I donated most of it in the pandemic.

I wonder how much time women really had for making and mending during the war? 

Good question, @Sarahspangles .  As @Laura_Elsewhere said, women were suddenly seen knitting everywhere.  With the fuel shortages and rationing, warm clothing was a necessity.  It was also something to calm the nerves, if one was anxiously waiting for the next air raid siren to sound.  Of course, it was also something to do, if stuck in an air raid shelter for hours.

If you don’t need to look at your hands while knitting, it is very easy to sneak in a few more rows.  I’ve knitted on tram stops, in stations while waiting for my train, at football and rugby matches, at Prom concerts (we sit in the gods, where the performers can’t see me), as a passenger on planes/trains/trams and in automobiles, as well as while sitting on the couch at home.  The trick is to always have something with you that you can work on.

- Pip

ETA:  hands up, who knitted between lectures.  < raises hand >

Nelliegrace

Knitting in shopping queues? It took a long time for the grocers to cut out all of the little coupons.
In one of the Anna Buchan books, (pseudonym O Douglas,) The House that is Our Home, 1940, one elderly lady is knitting three 2ply wool vests to fill her endless hours in the lounge of the hotel, without her large house to run. I love the little details from the period. 
D.E.Stephenson’s Mrs Tim books have her organising the knitted comforts for the Regiment, sending a parcel of gloves and mittens by special request. 
I have taken my knitting to WI. 

Cherryfudge

Thank you for those, @weenancyinAmerica, I haven't read any of them so I looked them up and they are cheap on Kindle!

Does anyone else look through old photos in case there's a relative there?  

I've taken crochet to a work training day, and my friend took her knitting. She was famous for all the little craft items she made to raise funds for charity, and I have a couple of beautiful sunflowers from her as a fund raiser for Ukraine.

Sarahspangles

iNelliegrace said:

Knitting in shopping queues? It took a long time for the grocers to cut out all of the little coupons.
In one of the Anna Buchan books, (pseudonym O Douglas,) The House that is Our Home, 1940, one elderly lady is knitting three 2ply wool vests to fill her endless hours in the lounge of the hotel, without her large house to run. I love the little details from the period. 

2-ply wool vests must have been tedious to knit! Though lace would be nice to work, subject to the knitting spot being well lit.

I looked at my little stash at the weekend, and the finest yarn is some Black Jacob. I’d need to wrap it to check if it’s a lace weight. And then decide what would be nice to make with 100g of a very, very dark brown yarn!

Almost everything else is DK or Aran weight, mostly blue-faced Leicester in a natural colour. It is/was items like hats, cowls and leg warmers which were nice, but mostly too warm so the children didn’t get much wear from them. I think converting the yarn to 4 ply would be a relaxing project some time

I’ve always driven a car or keyboard at work, so knitting has been at home. But I don’t see why I couldn’t be knitting in social settings - all those times people are on their phones.

Sarahspangles

I thought you might like this, it’s from Mary Thomas’ Knitting Book, 1938. 

maryb

Presumably the 2 ply wool was knitted on quite big needles so it would trap lots of air but would knit up quickly?  

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

Thank you for those, @weenancyinAmerica, I haven't read any of them so I looked them up and they are cheap on Kindle!

Does anyone else look through old photos in case there's a relative there?  

I've taken crochet to a work training day, and my friend took her knitting. She was famous for all the little craft items she made to raise funds for charity, and I have a couple of beautiful sunflowers from her as a fund raiser for Ukraine.

Yes, I do.  Or rather, I look for someone who looked like my mother, since she had two female cousins in Britain during the war.  (Ironically, they weren’t related - one on each side of the family.)

It’s very sweet of your friend to knit for charity.

Sarahspangles said:

iNelliegrace said:

Knitting in shopping queues? It took a long time for the grocers to cut out all of the little coupons.
In one of the Anna Buchan books, (pseudonym O Douglas,) The House that is Our Home, 1940, one elderly lady is knitting three 2ply wool vests to fill her endless hours in the lounge of the hotel, without her large house to run. I love the little details from the period. 

2-ply wool vests must have been tedious to knit! Though lace would be nice to work, subject to the knitting spot being well lit.

I looked at my little stash at the weekend, and the finest yarn is some Black Jacob. I’d need to wrap it to check if it’s a lace weight. And then decide what would be nice to make with 100g of a very, very dark brown yarn!

Almost everything else is DK or Aran weight, mostly blue-faced Leicester in a natural colour. It is/was items like hats, cowls and leg warmers which were nice, but mostly too warm so the children didn’t get much wear from them. I think converting the yarn to 4 ply would be a relaxing project some time

I’ve always driven a car or keyboard at work, so knitting has been at home. But I don’t see why I couldn’t be knitting in social settings - all those times people are on their phones.

Re the Jacob, it’s the yardage that’s important when choosing what to knit.  How many metres do you have?  I have had the Hanna-T in my queue for a long time, to use up some laceweight.  It requires less than 1,000m of laceweight. 

- Pip

Sarahspangles

PipneyJane said:

Sarahspangles said:

I looked at my little stash at the weekend, and the finest yarn is some Black Jacob. I’d need to wrap it to check if it’s a lace weight. And then decide what would be nice to make with 100g of a very, very dark brown yarn!

Almost everything else is DK or Aran weight, mostly blue-faced Leicester in a natural colour. It is/was items like hats, cowls and leg warmers which were nice, but mostly too warm so the children didn’t get much wear from them. I think converting the yarn to 4 ply would be a relaxing project some time

I’ve always driven a car or keyboard at work, so knitting has been at home. But I don’t see why I couldn’t be knitting in social settings - all those times people are on their phones.

Re the Jacob, it’s the yardage that’s important when choosing what to knit.  How many metres do you have?  I have had the Hanna-T in my queue for a long time, to use up some laceweight.  It requires less than 1,000m of laceweight. 

- Pip

There’s no information on the ball band, just ‘Black Jacob’. It came from Wingham Woolworks who sold yarn as a sort of byproduct, their main business was fleece and wool for spinners and weavers. They also sold the wheels and looms, and ran training courses - still do actually, but they’ve moved from a collection of barns in Yorkshire to one in Gloucestershire.

That pattern is pretty! I keep looking at shawls, but I don’t wear them! I can always knit a swatch of a known length….