General Chat

Isn't it a shame that knitting etc isn't something young people do now, they are too busy on phones and games consoles etc

Lizx

Knitting is not a cheap sport any more. You can buy a wardrobe for the cost of knitting your own jumper.

Liz ............


knitting is much more common here among younger women in the 20s to 40s now than among the 40s to 60s group!

It started with the "back to basics" ideas of about 20 years ago, then it became known that young "starlets" were knitting while waiting to do scenes when making films, and young fans copied them.

Wool shops are springing up again, although mail order is also common.

My daughter, OH's 2 nieces, and many of their friends have all been knitting since they were in their teens ......... they are now in their late 30s to mid-forties.

In my younger and thinner days I found it easier to make or alter my own clothes as the top of me was one size and the bottom of me was a size bigger so I could take the top of a trouser suit and make it smaller, don’t need to now cos the top of me has caught up with the bottom. :-D :-D

In 1957 we were getting married and I wanted some new dresses
I could never buy ones that fitted length wise they were always too short and only just skimmed my knees as I was 5,9'

I went to evening school to brush up on the needlework I had done at school and made six dresses that I kept unworn to take away on out honeymoon in the August

When I had our daughter 13 months later she had knitted coat and bonnet sets And each summer home made dresses
I would buy material remnants and make her a dress for about two shillings . i.e. Tenpence in today's cost
But those was the late 50s and 60s

I also made a padded duvet type cover for her pram with a matching pillow using a floral sheet for the material,.it was definitely a one off and looked lovely in the pram

There was often like that comments where did you buy it !! I made it was the proud reply

A few years ago I would have to shorten trousers because at 5” 3’ some would be to long now however it is fashionable to wear them just above the ankle which is perfect length for me below the ankle as I’m 5’ 1”

My Mum did sides to middle on her sheets. I have done in the past, but am currently using up cotton sheets from Mum and MIL. I stitch a pleat on each corner to make the flat sheet 'fitted'. Sheets that are thin in the middle have pillowcase sized pieces cut off the edges, ready to be stitched up as required. I've made everything over the years, we had little spare money when the children were born. Now I sew to recycle, everything is reused.

There are lots of young people doing stitching, I see them at the stitching shows, but I doubt they do it for thrift.

I know yarn is more expensive now although sometimes places like Lidl and Aldi have offers on yarn.

I have been known to unravel a garment and re-use the yarn, sometimes from my own creations and occasionally from jumble sale buys (in the days before chatity shops)

Lizx

I loved to knit and made all my childrens clothes when they were small also a whole lot of dolls clothes for the. As they grew up they too knitted a lot but none of my four grand daughters can knit

I also darned socks many years ago

oh yes!!

darning socks!!!


I darned socks for a number of years after we married!

I used to darn socks but no need to these days, I do however have a darning mushroom inherited from my lovely Mother in Law.

My mother taught me to hold my left hand so that it formed the "mushroom" for darning.


I think I darned my last pair of socks for OH back in the late 1980s, he tried to do it for himself for a couple of years (having been taught by his mother) ........... but we then decided it wasn't worth it!

Thought I had the darning mushroom from Mum's but then I couldn't find it so maybe it went to my brother's in the drawer of the treadle they 'stole' for their hallway. I must ask my brother.

I do sometimes darn o.h.'s socks, if they are his more expensive foot support ones. He has one toe on his right foot that tips up a bit and always wears a hole.

Lizxx

I've never darned socks!
Mind you, I remember the long white socks my mum knitted me and my sister. they were held up with elastic garters - and were discomfort personified!

I knitted and sewed toys for my children.
They both had a 'Raggedy Andy' - though eldest managed to throw hers out of the pushchair and lose it :-(
I also knitted a golly - just because I could - and teddy bears,
The funniest thing I knitted was a dressed doll, out of spare Shetland wool.
When I washed her - she grew :-0
Every time I washed her after that - she grew some more!
I also made a fur fabric octopus (because octopi are so cuddly), and knitted a Humpty Dumpty.
I still have younger daughter's Raggedy Andy, and the elongated doll (both minus a foot - but the doll's now about 3ft tall), and the golly.

I also made many of my maternity clothes.
Maternity dresses tended to be 'Empire Line and a bit 'twee' when I was pregnant, so I made front-opening pin-tucked numbers - so I could carry on wearing them afterwards, until I lost weight - which, amazingly, I did within 2 weeks of giving birth! :-D (so didn't need maternity clothes after all)

I think I'm now suffering from knitting and sewing burn-out!!

I remember elastic garters too, horrible things.

I made some stuffed toy cats out of left-over fabrics. I also knitted jumpers for my son with PostmanPat on, and one with a goalpost on the front and attached finger puppet players. All are still around somewhere.

Lizx