2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

I think, as this is what people would experience after the first month, it would be a good standard to set. Also, if people started off on the original ration system which we have been using, the sudden hike in coupon costs would have messed with their calculations, so we might be closer to their experience. But it's all right for me to say as I still have a cushion of coupons!

Baileys_Babe

If we are going to change the system, I think it would be less confusing to change from 1st January 2026. Ultimately I am happy to go with the majority.

CapricornLass

I'm happy with either option., though I appreciate Baileys_Babe's comment about starting any changes at the beginning of 2026.  It might be very confusing to anyone new joining part way through the year, especially if they had read page 1 first, and then got told that we were actually adhering to a different list.

alicef

8 coupons for a jumper! Hopefully the coupon requirement for 1oz wool remains the same?

Whilst I do like the authenticity of introducing the new coupon requirement imminently I think, for me, the reality of introducing the new list for 2026 would be more straightforward.

Anyhow, I have cast on for my Victory Jumper!

First foray into lace.   The pattern knits up quite quickly, even though I'm knitting with 4 ply.  I think the pattern construct, to minimise yarn wastage is very clever - for example the repeat is on a even row and yarn colours are carried up rather than breaking.  I have found that, even though it is a simple lace pattern, if one makes an error, (and I have),  and need to rip back, it isn't so easy to pick up stitches.  If I were to attempt a more complex lace pattern I would definitely use stitch markers and maybe safety line.  

CapricornLass

CherryFudge, foxes aren't classed as vermin, but they are classified as pests.  The main difference seems to be that you can kill vermin with gay abandon, whereas for pests, they should be controlled in other ways and killing should be the last resort.

Cherryfudge

CapricornLass said:

CherryFudge, foxes aren't classed as vermin, but they are classified as pests.  The main difference seems to be that you can kill vermin with gay abandon, whereas for pests, they should be controlled in other ways and killing should be the last resort.

I hadn't appreciated the difference. I still don't understand why they are mentioned separately from other furs. Perhaps they were mainly sourced from the UK?

florianatwobob

I’m inclined to keep to the original coupon table for the rest of this year and then swap to the revised table from 2026. 

Whilst the immediate swap would be more realistic of people’s experiences in WWII it is going to create headaches. 

I feel the important thing is that we’re doing our bit to be in the spirit of couponing. 

kiwisavings

Apologies for setting the cat among the pigeons with the updated July coupon value list 

I'm happy with either keeping the original list or starting next year with the updated list.

It looks like the July list was used for rest of the clothes rationing with only a few changes:

August 1941
 - cardigans & jumpers that were short sleeved and less than 10 ounces in weight became 5 coupons
- baby clothes included in rationing scheme (expectant mothers received extra coupons)

October 1942
- towels included in rationing scheme

August 1943
- boots and shoes increased coupon value (men's to 9, women's to 7)

March 1947
- sheets included in rationing scheme

1948- 1949
- many items decreased in value or were coupon free

PS
Lovely knitting @alicef, and yes, knitting wool remained the same coupon value throughout rationing (1 coupon for 2 ounces)  

Laura_Elsewhere

Cherryfudge said:

CapricornLass said:

CherryFudge, foxes aren't classed as vermin, but they are classified as pests.  The main difference seems to be that you can kill vermin with gay abandon, whereas for pests, they should be controlled in other ways and killing should be the last resort.

I hadn't appreciated the difference. I still don't understand why they are mentioned separately from other furs. Perhaps they were mainly sourced from the UK?

I wonder whether, during the war, farmers were more freely permitted to shoot foxes, because of their depredations of fowls and laying birds?

What I do know is that, in the mid-20th century, fox-furs from Britain were regarded as the best fox-furs you could get, because the foxes were not, by law, permitted to be poisoned or trapped, but had to be preserved for fox-hunting, and so they were unusually large, healthy, densely-furred and sleek, compared to the Continental foxes which lived much as urban foxes do now, and so were correspondingly meagre in their fur. 
(Avoiding politics (!), my old home had several urban foxes over the decades which I grew to know: for twenty years the area supported a series of just one vixen at a time, each of them beautiful large healthy creatures who often brought her half-grown cubs along the high wall opposite my parents' house to sit and gaze into our sitting-room window when the curtains were open, as if we were a tv programme Once the Council stopped culling the urban foxes, mostly due to public outcry, we never saw our solo vixens again, and the number of foxes grew to six at one point. I could tell they were six different foxes because I recognised the damage and illnesses in the scrawny, visibly-thin, mangy things, the bitten ear, the limping back leg, the missing tail-tip, the bare patches from mange... I am still quite angry about how public misunderstanding led to very poor conditions, and miserable early deaths, for far too many foxes for the urban, wheelie-bin area to support). 

But yes, fox-fur was almost entirely sourced form the UK because other countries' foxes had inferior fur to that of British, preserved, foxes. 

Laura_Elsewhere

I agree that Jan 1st 2026 is the most sensible time to bring in the new coupon list, and also that yes, we should bring it in! 

I would love to bring it in today, with no notice, as being very very typical of what happened in the war- there's you'd be, carefully budgeting for that winter coat and boots, and suddenly in the middle of summer, your coupons won't go as far! 
But I absolutely agree that it would cause minor chaos in this group because we aren't actually living in the war with govt-imposed rationing that everyone is informed about! (What?! We aren't?!?!?! )

I must sort out my coupons-list...