2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

OMG!  How did I get to be a week behind on posts???

@alicef and @thriftmonster add me to the queue for a Susan Crawford knitting retreat.  I just can't justify the time and cost at the moment.  (I need to save at least 3 week's leave to go to Australia next year for my BIL's 75th birthday.)

@MrsCD thanks for the link, re steeking.  I haven't done it BUT I did attend an Alice Starmore class years ago, where she showed a) how it's traditionally done on Shetland and b) how she finishes her garments.  Felting would help but the big thing has to be the choice of yarn. It has to be sticky. Having knitted my first garment using Shetland wool, I can see why it works with steeks - on the odd occasion that I dropped a stitch, it didn't automatically run.  (Jumper still not sewn up.  Next on my to do list.)

aethelflaed said:

Hi - just found this board. Is it too late to join for this year?

Welcome @aethelflaed.  Of course it's not too late to join.  Since we're 2/3 of the way through the year, you'll have 22 coupons to spend between August and 31st December, not the full 66.  Please pull up a chair to the table of our (virtual) village hall and join in the chat while I make you a cuppa.  Do you craft?

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

I cut up my knitting all the time because I don't really know how to knit flat or sew knitting together- far easier just to knit in the round and cut it  

BUT... all of you who are terrified... why don't you just knit a tiny test-piece of simple colourwork in the 'hairy' wool recommended for steeking, ie not superwash which is plastic-coated, and then just cut it up for experimental purposes?

I was about to throw out an old phone-case I'd knitted for the much smaller Nokia I had for years, and suddenly thought to take it on holiday where I forced my terrified friend to cut it up, poor soul! I kept telling her it was being thrown out, literally going in the textile-recycling bin, but she still couldn't until I chopped a big hole in it to get her started  

It made her realise that it isn't the terrifying thing it feels like before you do it (and yes, I remember how scared I was)- but why on earth leave it til you have a major project? Just knit a little piece and give it one or two handwashes, and then just take the scissors to it  
Sometimes I don't do anything to secure the ends, sometimes I use cobweb-1ply wool to crochet up each side of the cut, you could needlefelt or machine/.hand-sew, but really... just experiment! Have a go at it on a little thing that doesn't matter! 

Knit a tube in the round and you could flatten it out, once cut, and make a coaster... or you can chop it all up and stick it in the compost  

But just try cutting a small thing... it takes away the fear beautifully  

And by the way, you don't need to knit with yarn in each hand to get colourwork to be beautiful inside- I drop my yarn, but so long as I keep one colour always on my left and one always on my right, they sort themselves out and can be very lovely. 
This hat is probably my favourite! Here are the outside and inside. 

maryb

Beautiful!

alicef

ahhh @Laura_Elsewhere - that hat is gorgeous! 

Thank you @MrsCD for the link, I do love a knitting blog.   @thriftwizard I have now booked onto a couple of sessions at my local yarn shop to console myself. 

By the by is anyone signed up for the Arne & Carlos Rowan Blanket KAL?  If it follows the same format as the Martin Storey one then it should be free and one doesn't have to use Rowan yarn, (unless you want to post pictures on the Facebook page).

Laura_Elsewhere

I’ll just put these chocolate caramel shortcake pieces in the tin for anyone who wants them- I’ve blown the sugar ration on celebrating! My lovely little Fond Mama is in her mid-80s, and she fell last week walking back from the bus-stop and broke her elbow- they put a cast on but then decided to go for elective surgery to plate and pin the bone so she didn’t have the problem of six weeks immobile elbow joint meaning dreadful stiffness and muscle loss- very good thinking but nerve-wracking for me, hundreds of miles away and she’s never had any hospital treatment since her late thirties which is half a century!! So I’m not used to it…

anyway, she’s out of theatre and back on the ward and responding to nurses, and Younger Niece who is splendid is taking my dad in shortly and they hope to help her dress and bring her home  

so celebratory baking!  

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I’ll just put these chocolate caramel shortcake pieces in the tin for anyone who wants them- I’ve blown the sugar ration on celebrating! My lovely little Fond Mama is in her mid-80s, and she fell last week walking back from the bus-stop and broke her elbow- they put a cast on but then decided to go for elective surgery to plate and pin the bone so she didn’t have the problem of six weeks immobile elbow joint meaning dreadful stiffness and muscle loss- very good thinking but nerve-wracking for me, hundreds of miles away and she’s never had any hospital treatment since her late thirties which is half a century!! So I’m not used to it…

anyway, she’s out of theatre and back on the ward and responding to nurses, and Younger Niece who is splendid is taking my dad in shortly and they hope to help her dress and bring her home  

so celebratory baking!  

That is very good news about your mum @Laura_Elsewhere.  You must have been worried sick.  

Thank you for the shortcake. (Yum!). Here, have some of my sugar stash, so that you don’t go short this week.

- Pip



ETA:  I didn’t comment on your gorgeous hat.  The inside is as beautiful as the outside and deserves to be shown off.  It is so even.

FWIW, when I first did colourwork, I tensioned one colour over the index finger on my right hand - like I would normally hold yarn when knitting - and the second colour over the next finger along, changing which one formed the stitch depending on the colour required.

CapricornLass

Sorry to hear about your Mama, Laura.  It must have been a tremendous shock to her.

I hope also that someone thinks to run a Dexa scan on her

thriftwizard

Oh goodness, @Laura_Elsewhere, so glad your Mum's ok & being well looked after!

How are there 110 posts for me to catch up on, this time? We have had a complete internet & home phone "outage" right over the long weekend, and I've been silly-busy with the war work for the few weeks before that, plus acquiring a new grand-daughter last Thursday, but I seem to have fallen right out of the loop again! I did make a little butterfly quilt for the baby, knowing that they were putting butterfly stickers around her room (which is silvery grey with purple accents) but haven't bought anything bar one metre of cotton to get the right colour for the background. So 2 coupons to add?



ETA: there WILL be coupons spent - DD1 & her fiancé have announced their intention of getting married next Spring! So I have to play Mother-of-the Bride, i.e. buy a dress, and there will be acres of bunting & other decorations to be made, to decorate the rural barn where the celebrations are (probably) taking place, but as a true "vintage" daughter it doesn't all have to be new stuff... wish me luck!

Cherryfudge

@Laura_Elsewhere, thank you for the baking - feels just like pre-war! I'm so pleased all went well with the op and hopefully she can sleep in her own bed tonight.

That hat of yours is amazing, as is @thriftwizard's beautiful quilt. And thriftwizard, we will all be on the lookout for parachute silk for the Mother of the Bride!

MrsCD

@Laura_Elsewhere, I'm pleased your mum is out of hospital and I hope she recovers well. It's a scary time when parents are poorly. 
Your hat is just absolutely beautiful!
Thanks for the munchies. 😄
Oooh, @thriftwizard, you've got a busy time ahead! Congratulations to the happy couple. 😊 Your quilt is gorgeous,  by the way.
The steeking link is from an American site, but they have loads of really good articles each week.