|
Starshaped: Noro yarns get so much softer after washing. Don't give up on them yet! Anybody on Ravelry yet? We could start up a group. And here are a few knits, many more on Ravelry: Calorimetry headband, from Knitty. I used Classic Elite Beatrice, and it has become my new favorite yarn. Buttery soft merino, and it's nice and tight spun so it hasn't pilled yet.  Also I do love the Garterlac dishcloth pattern: 
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2008 02:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:29 |
|
|
Cathis posted:My god, all I have is 1/8 of a lumpy scarf The only scarf I have ever completed was on huge needles with nothing to do for 3 days. Try something smaller if you like-- you don't have to complete that scarf if you find something fun you like! I still have to look at my needles unless it's stockinette stitch in the round. effika fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jan 8, 2008 |
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2008 02:34
|
|
|
Ozma posted:That's great! Calorimetry bugged me because it was a really really easy pattern but there were some errors in it in my opinion- if you knit it as written it's a HUGE son of a gun. Thank you! I had to look at Calorimetry more of as a formula than a pattern. It's one of those projects that requires the dreaded swatch. And Aery those purses are gorgeous! I need to knit a new one and might have to do that entrelac one.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2008 03:25
|
|
|
DaisyDanger posted:I just started knitting, and I guess right now I'm just making a 15 stitch strip, like a scarf! What else would any of you suggest making just to learn and practice? Do you have any general tips for me? I looked around on a lot of the links that have been posted, but it'd still be nice to get some input from you pro knitters. Look for washcloth patterns. They range from super easy knit & purl patterns all the way up to lace. I like them because they're pretty quick to knit and the cotton yarn is like a dollar a Wal-Mart and comes in pretty colors. Definitely a good way to try a new technique the first time without a lot of commitment.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2008 00:21
|
|
|
Reformed Tomboy posted:Are any of you knitters left handed? I've tried a few times to pick up knitting, but everytime I try, I have a hard time because the yarn comes from the right, and needs to be manipulated with the right hand. Is there such a thing as left handed knitting, or backwards knitting or something? It sounds like you've learned to knit English style. Give continental (German) a try. The yarn comes from the left and is manipulated with the left. There are some great videos on Knitting Help!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2008 03:27
|
|
|
starshaped posted:
Please tell me you (and your friend?) have an etsy shop, or are thinking about one soon.  This is gorgeous.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2008 03:57
|
|
|
fap posted:And my first handspun, which I don't really like too much, but hey it was my first time! But the colors are so pretty! I think pretty colors are one of the reasons I got into knitting. And you could always make scribble lace without having to change needle sizes. Spinners with cats, what do you do? I can hardly knit without being "protected" from the yarn monster.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2008 01:14
|
|
|
elbow posted:How do I knit from this? As in, how do I pull the yarn? If you do not have a yarn swift or a patient friend as Midnight Sun does, you can also use one of those spinny lampshades (sometimes you have to loosen the nut on the top). If you want to wind a center pull skein, it's dead simple. It's best explained in pictures, so I'll point you here.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2008 16:46
|
|
|
justasmile posted:I just finished a shyguy scarf for my best friend. If I ever get around to taking a picture of him wearing it I'll post it here. Have you seen the KnittingHelp.com video? (Scroll 3/4th's down the page for it.) It did the trick for me.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2008 04:05
|
|
|
 Argosy, in handpainted sportweight 50/50 merino/silk (bought at StashUpYarns). It's soft, toasty, and a little shiny. I really need to get a better picture of it-- if you're on Ravelry I have a few pictures that might show it off better (posted it to Show Me Your Knits! there). Blocking it was interesting-- it was the first time I'd tried blocking wires. I didn't want to buy $30 worth of "special blocking wire" so I went out to the hardware store and bought some 19 gauge stainless steel wire and some of those flags you see marking utility lines in construction areas (Ace had everything I needed, Home Depot was less than helpful). Normally I pin things out to my corkboard/bulletin board, but this was a scarf and I didn't want to do a section of it a day. I discovered that the spare bed I was going to be blocking the scarf on totally didn't hold pins well, so it was back to the corkboard. Instead of letting it dry overnight I came at it with a hair dryer to speed drying time. I'd always heard that silk likes a little heat when blocking, and I must say it came out pretty well. (Speed blocking!) The wires made sure all my points were even, despite the fact that I had to block it in 1ft sections.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2008 05:50
|
|
|
Midnight Sun posted:No, I thought I could use cold water, or is that just stupid? As long as you avoid rubbing it together a lot you should be fine. As my father discovered one day, even cold water will felt wool if it gets enough agitation.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2008 19:02
|
|
|
My go-to yarn for any project (unless it requires felting) is Caron Simply Soft. Oftentimes I'll have more expensive stuff in my stash, but it'll be the wrong color or the wrong gauge. Acrylics have come such an incredibly long way that there's no reason to feel bad about using them (especially when they're $2.30 at Wal-Mart for a couple hundred yards). Simply Soft will permanently block with some water and an iron, getting shiny and drape-y like Rayon. I hate blocking out lace, and at least with Simply Soft I know I only have to get it right once. I do love wool yarn, too. Every yarn has its place!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2008 04:53
|
|
|
jomiel posted:^^ that looks great! My mom has the DP set. She really enjoys them, although every now and then has to take a nail file/buffer block to the tips. Circular needles are all I buy anymore. I have a lot of random straights from when I was starting out, but when I need an extra set of needles I just pick up circulars instead.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2008 20:00
|
|
|
jomiel posted:...the feeling of wool is really strong. This is why I love Malabrigo. I could be knitting a giant stockinette square and not care because I love the wool-feel.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2008 04:23
|
|
|
machinegirl posted:My socks are a thing a beauty and wonder. Finished them Sunday. Why did I not start knitting sock earlier?? I want to wear handknit socks 24/7! Oooh, pretty. Sweet clear shoes, too. (I looked on Ravelry for other pictures too!)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2008 03:55
|
|
|
MarsDragon posted:
I love the color! Here are the socks I finished blocking today. I started them in, um, September.  Colinette Jitterbug, in Jay.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2013 23:37
|
|
|
I like Lorna's Laces. Really, anything that's got some nylon to it should hold up pretty well as socks.
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2013 23:48
|
|
|
OxnardMontalvo posted:Thanks! I made a crochet blank with a big N-size hook, and then mixed up a bunch of jars of Koolaid and food-coloring dye, poured it over the yarn in a baking dish, then zapped it in the microwave. It was messier than dyeing on the stove, but the colors mixed together a lot more, which makes the color shifts less abrupt. Oh, I like that hank! It looks spectacular knitted up, too. Spent all weekend looking for reasonably-priced semi-solid/shaded fingering weight yarn in a color I liked, and a cardigan pattern to go with it. In the end I asked the local yarn shop to get me 8 skeins of this bright sky blue Shibui yarn (it's much more intense in person). I was hoping for something in the wine/deep fuschia range (Mulberry was perfect), but this color was 3 bucks cheaper a skein! Still not set on a cardigan. I'll probably just modify the Farmer's Market cardigan for fingering weight, but I'm open to suggestions. (Especially since I can't find my issue of Interweave Knits and just have some really poor photos of the pattern I saved to my computer as a back-up ages ago.)
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2013 02:12
|
|
|
Fionnoula posted:County Fair's been judged! My Faberge got an Honorable Mention ribbon. Aaaaaah why would they do that? I can see inside-out, maybe, but not even symmetrically? Looks stunning, though!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2013 02:55
|
|
|
Double-post, but with content! This scarf hould've been finished in May, but I took my time with it. It's the Pearl-Barred Scallop Scarf by Cheri Borden, sans bars.  pearl-scarf-1 by effika, on Flickr Here is my cat, a VERY MAJESTIC CREATURE. She likes the scarf, too.  pearl-scarf-3-kaylee by effika, on Flickr More scarf (and cat) photos in the Flickr stream, and on my Ravelry project page.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2013 18:50
|
|
|
Genpei Turtle posted:Does anyone have a preferred method for knitting short rows? I'm in the middle of a free-form project that uses them and my last one did too, but left a bunch of unsightly holes and weird unevenness. Wondering if there's a better method out there I can try this time. Shadow Wraps! Also if your gauge is too loose/too tight for the yarn it can cause short row bumps and holes to be very, very, prominent.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2013 17:30
|
|
|
Genpei Turtle posted:Oh, I like the look of this, thanks! Definitely going to try it. Question though, since it's not entirely clear from the article--when it comes time to deal with the "shadowed" stitches, you just knit them like a standard k2g, right? It seems like it would add unnecessary stitches to the row otherwise. That's exactly it.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
rear end Crackers! posted:I recently threw a malabrigo superwash wool sweater into the dryer without thinking and it shrank to about 3/4 the size it should be My dad once felted a wool sweater on accident. It made a good thick jacket for a friend's toddler, at least.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2013 23:59
|
|
I still haven't gotten up the courage to see if blocking/stretching can save it. I'm never making another sweater EVER AGAIN.
|
KObot posted:I have lots of half finished projects laying around. I usually scrap them before I finish though. I've been working for a good four days on a shawl that is about 3/4 s of the way done, so I'm excited to finish and block it because its looking excellent so far. Ravelry is really good for this-- you can see the start and end dates on project pages. My project completion times are all over the place-- right now I have maybe 3 hours a week to knit, which aren't always used for knitting, and I'm a slow knitter to boot. A pair of magic-looped fingering weight socks should take me about a month, but I usually get bored after I turn the heel and I won't come back to them for months at a time. A medium-length scarf might take me a month; a hat with light patterning might take me two weeks. I had a lace scarf that took me over a year, though if pressed I can finish a sweater in 30 days.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 2, 2013 18:28
|
|
|
I have a set of Denises from back in the dark ages, when it was either that or the terrible, inflexible, interchangeable Boyes (which I had a few of, too). All this talk of flexible cables and smooth joins has me wanting to abuse my poor Denises so I have an excuse to pick up something better... I like my Denises well enough, but magic looping is pretty annoying. I've had to fix the join on a couple of cables over the years, so maybe next time one fails I'll try other systems. My corrosive sweat ate away the coating and some of the metal on my Addi turbos, so I could certainly do with replacing a few of those, too.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2014 18:11
|
|
|
Fish Biscuit posted:I hope this isn't too much of a newbie question. I want to make Celestarium, But I don't want to make a shawl I want a big squishy throw. If I substitute the 1200 yards fingering weight for worsted how much yarn will I need to buy? Do a swatch (preferably in pattern, though that looks like stockinette-- easy!) and see what gauge you get. Compare it to the pattern's suggested gauge, and if you can find any finished measurements use those too. You'll come up with some ratios on the stitches per inch that you can use to figure out how much more yarn you'll need and how much bigger the throw will end up.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2014 19:04
|
|
|
Safari Disco Lion posted:They're interesting. Strange but interesting. The way I hold my needles makes me feel like I'm gonna break them because my hand rests so hard against the join, but some people love them. I personally don't like them, but wish I did. They are just sized wrong for my hands. I finished a some stuff on my winter time off. 2 hats! I sent this one to forums user Keyga as a Nail Polish thread secret santa thanks:  Slouchy Hat for a Stranger on the Internet by effika, on Flickr (Public Ravelry project link for pattern/yarn info) And this one is for me-- Butterfly Hat (public Ravelry project link for pattern/yarn info)  2-Layer Butterfly Hat by effika, on Flickr  2-Layer Butterfly Hat by effika, on Flickr As you can see, I did some modifications. I left the ribbing off, did a provisional cast-on, then knit the hat again, basically. It's toasty and doesn't push my glasses into my face, which the ribbing on my other hats tends to do. Also Malabrigo Rio is extremely soft, well-behaved to knit with, and left no excess dye in the wash. I may be spending some of my tax return on enough of it to make a jacket. Sooo nice, and superwash, too. jota23 posted:
I love your yarn choices! What's the blue?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2014 02:38
|
|
|
left_unattended posted:I love the look of the butterfly stitch, but what's it like to knit? It looks kinda complex. Very simple- you slip some stiches with the yarn in front every other row, then catch all the floats later on one stich (the floats are never knitted, just suck behind a such). The floats are also very forgiving, tension-wise, but err on the side of slackness. The first group was a bit fiddly but by the end I was doing it all-including catching the floats- in a darkened room without paying much attention as we caught up on TV.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2014 18:07
|
|
|
Nibblet posted:So I finished knitting a hat and it's too big. 80/20 merino/nylon makes me think this is sock yarn, yes? Is it superwash? Superwash almost invariably grows for me. The shrinking action is going to be due to slightly felting the hat. You may or may not want that. The dryer may help some, too, but you'd have to be careful. Have you considered lining the hat, or running some elastic thread through the band? Those are less dire options.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2014 00:40
|
|
Which drives me crazy because normally I knit really tight and knowing this, I went up a needle size and now this. Do you think if I washed it in hot water, it might shrink? It's 80% merino wool and 20% nylon.
|
Onionetta posted:Just finished the multnomah shawl from ravelry They expand to a reasonable size for me? Anyway, that looks like some of the moths we have around here! Very pretty. That's beautiful!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2014 17:43
|
|
|
Pucklynn posted:
Oh, I love mitered squares! (And so does your cat.) Should be pretty easy to replicate, based on that photo, even if KnitPicks has pulled the actual pattern.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2014 04:22
|
|
|
FelicityGS posted:I have done this before and decided to pick the average of all three. I am not as smart a knitter as you when sick. I've even said to myself, "Eh, I'll know in the last few repeats whether I've got the correct stitch count or not," and then inc/dec'd as necessary. I get so lazy when it comes to casting on!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2014 15:41
|
|
|
I got a swift from The Oregon Woodworker because it looked hard to break, and if it did had parts I could easily repair/replace myself. It's not quite as adjustable as an umbrella swift, but I haven't found anything it can't handle yet. I got the Mama Bear version, their cheapest, for $55. (I realize I could probably have made a version of this myself for much cheaper, but I don't have any woodworking tools so am willing to pay somebody else to do it for me.) They also sell Royal winders for $42. Those are probably more than you are looking to spend, though. A winder makes so much difference-- get the one you can afford sooner rather than later!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2014 15:35
|
|
|
Wish I knew about them a few years ago! That's definitely a good price for a swift.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2014 02:14
|
|
|
laertes22 posted:Just wanted to give a shout out to the goon that hipped me to Oregon Woodworker/yarnswifts.com Glad I could help! I've been very happy with both my swift & Royal winder.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2014 19:28
|
|
|
jomiel posted:Forgot to take a blocked photo of this beret before I sent it off to my aunt Yarn please 
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2014 02:08
|
|
|
evelynevvie posted:Hi knitters! I've been teaching myself to knit for a few months. I am a babby and dont know anything about yarn and I need a little bit of help. I recently chose some Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It's mostly acrylic but its very soft and i fell in love with the color (mixed berry). I'm not sure if I got a bad skein, or if this yarn is just awful. The thickness keeps changing from bulky to super skinny to super super puffy. It is kind of fuzzy which is fine, but the huge texture changes are making me nuts. Is this normal? I have several big name craft stores nearby but no LYS's. I made a headband out of Homespun waaaay back when I first started knitting. I still use it to this day-- it's held up pretty well and is SOFT. (There are also a number of mistakes but they're hidden in the yarn's texture.) Advice: Don't even try doing anything other than garter stitch. Knit loosely, but only just enough to make sure you're keeping the strands from bunching up. I think for my headband I went down a needle size from the recommendation on the skein but knit much looser to make up for the thick/thin parts. Amykinz posted:I bought a skein of really nice yarn from a yarn store closing down, and now I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Everything is either not using enough of the skein or will use the whole thing but won't be cool enough (by my standards) Multiple smaller things, like fingerless mitts?
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2014 04:12
|
|
|
To help with wrinkles/uneven stitches, soaking the acrylic for a while then laying it out to dry should help. And the finished object looks great!
|
|
#
¿
May 26, 2014 06:37
|
|
|
Amykinz posted:I'm kinda pissed they're calling it "first fall" and it's loving JUNE. Summer hasn't technically even started yet. It's going to be 90 degrees until October and they're giving me cowls and mittens and poo poo. Some places haven't even really warmed up for summer yet. I kinda miss when they had "summer knits". I think their idea was that you'd have these knits done in time for the named season... But I think their winter issues don't work like that. I definitely am not looking to knit anything big, thick, and woolly right now. I'm about 75% through a pair of socks, so I'll probably just start some more.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 22:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:29 |
|
|
Wandering Knitter posted:And Anne Whateley, maybe you could help me out over PM. I've been meaning to knit myself fingerless gloves forever, but I got the weirdest shaped hands in the world. I have yet to find any that fit me even after careful measurement. I don't have PM, and I'm not Anne Whateley, but may I offer some advice? Find a pattern you like and try them on as you go. Don't be afraid to alter stitch/row counts-- I have a tiny wrists, medium-sized hands, and LARGE This does become a little tricky if you're working something like lace or some neat stichwork-- just keep track of that separate from the structure of the glove. Like Anne Whateley says, ribbing is your friend! Choose something with an equal number of stitches in the purl sections as in the knit sections, and you'll have a very stretchy glove. Hmm, maybe I'll make some mittens instead of another pair of socks this summer. Handschuh (hand-shoe) is German for mitten, so it should fit, thematically.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2014 02:39
|
|
