2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

thriftmonster

I just hope the jobs stay in Keighley instead of moving elsewhere. But yes, great news

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82148703#Comment_82148703

Fingers crossed @thriftmonster .

I have a spend to declare. You know how I like handbags that convert into backpacks? Well, one of the friends we were on holiday with had a red leather, convertible bag which she’d purchased from a British site Pia Jewelry. I had a good look at hers and decided to buy a black one for myself. (What is really funny is that she hadn’t realised that it converted to a backpack.).

5 coupons spent, bringing my total to 92.5 coupons.

Seriously, excluding yarn I’ve only spent 35 coupons.

• Pip

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

Anyone for an cuppa? I’ll make a fresh pot. According to a post I’ve just seen on FB, today is the day that tea rationing ended in 1952! (3rd October 1952, to be precise.).

Time to celebrate with tea and cake.

• Pip

Baileys_Babe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82157532#Comment_82157532

I'll join you Pip, I've made a batch of scones to celebrate the end of tea rationing 🫖

MrsCD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82157532#Comment_82157532

Ooh, yes please, Pip! Could just do with a nice cuppa! I'm looking for a suitable pattern for a baby blanket with a difference… due in March, so plenty of time. (Famous last words)

Laura_Elsewhere

@MrsCD - you could just do stripes and Old Shale lace, which is about as simple as lace gets… I made this one for the last family-baby a few years ago.

Simple, cheerful, machine-washable…

I used acrylic for this, but would probably use superwash wool nowadays. I mean, that still has chemical treatments but much as I'd love to welcome a little one in with all-natural, organic, etc., etc., meanwhile back in the real world the new mum needs to be able to bung it in the wash! :) No simple solution…

Also, knitted in DK on 5mm needles, it works up quickly… :D

Laura_Elsewhere

No tea for me, thanks- I don't drink it so I'd have been popular in wartime with all my tea-addict friends! :)

But if anyone wants some of this spiced-apple cake I made on Thursday…?

I'm busy just now knitting my Dad (now into his late 80s) another pair of legwarmers- it's the leg section of his mum's pattern for his schooldays socks, which makes me very pleased… I just leave off the foot and the turnover, and he gets a pair of shaped k5p1 legwarmers, which he adores! He experimented very seriously with the last pair, whether they were best worn inside his trousers (as he loathes attention, I assumed he would wear them discreetly undercover) or outside, and decided outside was best. He tells everyone proudly that his daughter knitted them, and gets lots of praising comments, which he always passes on to me!
Anyway, he asked this time for stripes, but not the wide regular sort on football socks; irregular and narrower… so I'm knitting a secret message to him in Morse Code stripes, 1 round for a dot, 3 rounds for a dash, and 2 rounds between, and then three rounds between letters, and he can figure out the word-gaps himself, if any!
I hope to get them done this month, as we're up for the start of November and that would be ideal. He wanted sturdier ones (last lot in Opel sockyarn) so these are in Frangipani Gansey 5-ply for the main colour, with a sock-yarn for the Morse…

I have bought myself a new swimsuit in royal blue- it's a Land's End "tugless" swimsuit, heavily reduced in price- I was rather startled when I first put it on as the leg-openings felt stranglingly tight, but in fact once on, it's really comfortable, and it does indeed stay in place!

As the weather has cooled a little, I have woken up much more- I do swear I get reverse SAD- and I am actually getting things done, hurrah- like starting Dad's legwarmers for which I bought the yarn in early summer… and I made a couple of jars of crab-apple jelly this morning, and have simmered up the pulp with more water and oddments from last year's frozen fruit, just odd handfuls of sloes and damsons and haws, and now that's dripping over the bath to be boiled up tomorrow morning and then when it's cooled a little, immediately before pouring it into the pans, I shall add tons and tons of chopped fresh minth leaves and stems, really pack it full. I absolutely love this, and use it as jam with a refreshing mint-leaf after-taste.
I still have elderberry syrup to make a vat of, but not this weekend. And I have more crab-apples to pick, and I want to do some rosehip jelly for having on toast too…
I've finally got admin done that's been outstanding for weeks, and the laundry-box is empty at last, and only the smallest of ironing piles awaiting me :)
Once I have finished Dad's legwarmers, I have a Hood-Scarf With Pockets to knit for a niece in Canada, but then I want to start my Fair Isle Slipover, which I bought last year as a kit, updated 1940s pattern and wool, from Ewe & Ply, as a midwinter treat for me! I did knit myself fingerless gloves as a "wearable test piece" and those are still going strong, but I never have got on to starting the slipover itself…

I know many people dread the cooler darker months, but I dread the heat, and am at my best in the lovely cosy dark, cold, months… :)

Here are my "wearable test piece" fingerless mitts :)

MrsCD

Wow, Laura, where to start! Firstly, thanks for the blanket suggestion. I wondered about a crochet, zig zag, multicoloured one, maybe...

Your dad's legwarmers sound amazing. No wonder he's so proud of his daughter! I wonder what the Morse code will say…

The gloves are soooo pretty 😍

You've been very busy, you put me to shame, but well done on all your hard work.

weenancyinAmerica

Having Morse Code in the socks reminded me of the letters my uncle sent home to his mother during the war. The first letter of each line told his mother where he was. The censors never caught on.

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere you must have Viking heritage. They achieved so much in the cold…

Love the idea of the morse code leg warmers. Can’t wait to see them when they’re finished. Please tell us once your dad cracks the code.

ETA: Those gloves are beautiful.

@weenancyinAmerica I am gobsmacked that the censors didn’t realise that there was a pattern to the lines in your uncle’s letters.

I’ve been thinking a lot about socks lately. We’re flying to Oz in a couple of weeks and will be away a month, so I’m trying to figure out what to take to knit. On the one hand, I can make presents of the socks I knit while away; on the other, I know that I will be going to the Bendigo Woollen Mill with a friend, so will be tempted to buy more yarn…

While I can console myself that it is stuff I can’t get here, I need to be careful because my stash is huge. I think I will only buy IF I can envision making a garment.

Also, to be honest, I always planned to do some careful clothes shopping while I am away, mainly for classic summer clothes, (since the range is usually much better over there), and a pair of hard wearing moleskin trousers. I promise to only buy things that I will wear multiple times…

• Pip

ETA: One of the reasons I’ve been thinking a lot about socks is that, inevitably, I have a lot of odds and ends of sock yarn left over from previous knits and, pre-WYS episode, resolved to try and use them up. Most weight 35-40g, which will make a pair of afterthought-heel socks with contrasting heels and toes, or a pair of fingerless mitts. It’s actually one of the reasons that I buy 2 x 100g skeins of any sock yarn that I purchase, because that makes at least 3 full pairs: one for me, one for DH and one to give away. However, even then, there will still be some yarn leftover, possibly to be used for patches when DH wears through the sole. (The balls of his feet are really tough, with sharp edges.)