|
Oh my God, I'm current on this thread! I read the whole thing! I haven't had a job since last Sept because my husband is a very generous person. So I've been knitting and dyeing yarn instead, and I think I have learned more in the last year than in the previous ~9 years (been knitting since high school and 10 year reunion is this fall) put together. I learned to knit English but have since picked up continental and haven't really looked back.  I'm pretty happy with it so far. I dyed all of the yarn for it and did it in 2 lots to see what would happen. I'm thinking of overdyeing the whole thing maybe a little bit more gray when I'm through knitting it, just to even out the striping. It's hard to tell in the pictures but one of those dye lots turned out quite a bit warmer than the other and that's my only issue with the difference. Thanks to the steeking tutorial one of you posted a few pages back, I got the nerve to say gently caress it regarding the bullshit of working stockinette flat and decided to steek it. I saw some comments about people not recommending this pattern as a first-time cardigan/sweater knit and so far I can't imagine why. It's been dead easy, and while I'm not looking forward to picking up the ribbed border, you pick up 3 sts for every 4 so I can't see what would be hard about it. BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Jun 13, 2016 |
#
¿
Jun 13, 2016 18:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:53 |
|
|
effika posted:I'd been reeeeeallly wanting to see what laceweight turns into when it's done in linen stitch. I love the result, but it took me 5 months to get there! Phew that is pretty and an undertaking. Linen stitch hurts my hands like crazy. Any pointers?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2016 18:41
|
|
|
effika posted:Thank you! Thanks for the tip, I had been trying to destash some of the acrylic garbage and linen stitch was killing me. Even if I knit continental it's too tight. But I switched to wool, and it's much nicer. I might just chuck the plastic stuff into the trash  E: 
BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jul 19, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2016 14:27
|
|
|
left_unattended posted:Really love that colour combo ^. Thanks, I dyed that yarn myself. vvv: I won't chuck it in the trash because I too am a goony hoarder. I'll probably make my mother some potholders out of it. That's all she ever wants me to give her and she inexplicably likes the acrylic ones. No accounting for taste, I suppose. (That's the pot calling the kettle black since I'm the fucker that bought it in the first place.) I have two giant skeins of homespun that are very pretty but were torture to work with before I could work continental, so I'll give it another shot after I finish this thing and/or the sweater I'm knitting for me.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2016 02:43
|
|
|
I'm looking at something to replace Hobby Lobby I Love This Wool for my home dyeing. It dyes easily and has never felted during dyeing, but it's a little scratchy and I can't keep giving Hobby Lobby money. It's cheap af at $5.50 per 116g/4oz so a few bucks more per 50g or so would be fine, but probably not more than $5 per 50g for now. Looking for 100% wool that won't felt if I look at it wrong and is hopefully a little softer than ILTW. I see Knit Picks bare
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2016 18:28
|
|
|
I'm in Omaha NE so not real close to any farms that I know of. I don't spin yet so looking for commercial yarns for now, but I'll have to see if we have anyone around with maybe a handspun that I like. I didn't think of fisherman's yarn, I'll have to give that a shot. I'm using acid dyes for now and I don't think synthetics will hold them, but I'd be willing to try nylon blends for like socks for myself. Anything I make for my husband has to be natural fiber, I won't work with cotton, and my instinct is that silk blends, while probably being very pretty when dyed, will be a little too delicate for him. Does that leave wool only?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 5, 2016 19:22
|
|
|
Ohhhhhhhhh boy that is BULK No, dear, I don't need to go back to school and get a real job, I'm going to dye yarn all day every day and never sell it because they are my precious babies. Thank you guys for the tips, I'm always open for more but this gives me a really good jumping off point.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2016 17:28
|
|
|
Oh yeah, I was trying to crank numbers in my head while doing something else too, thinking "yes that seems economical". I would like to buy a skein of each of a few weights/fibers before dropping $100 on it, I'll have to check those out.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2016 06:08
|
|
|
The color changes look cool the way you did them. If I had seen that pattern without the ones you made, I would have passed over it without a second look once I saw "short row and sew together".
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2016 14:42
|
|
|
I'm that way too. I will increase the quantity and/or complexity of the knitting just to avoid sewing at the end. Where loose ends are unavoidable I'll darn as I go. When I'm done knitting I want to be done. (I'll make an exception for blocking).
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2016 14:57
|
|
|
I was intrigued by Gift of Thistle, but looking closer it's too busy. I don't know if I'm just not crazy about the gradients used, if it's because she did them opposite, or what. That pattern would be a good candidate for having only one yarn as a gradient and the other a solid, I think.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2016 18:27
|
|
|
hatbadger posted:Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but I'd like to learn how to start spinning on a wheel. Can anyone recommend some clear and thorough youtube tutorials? I've had mixed results from random searches and I'm hoping someone is aware of some good ones! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3337961 We have a whole spinning thread, there's user overlap but I'm sure this will help you more.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2016 15:44
|
|
|
I don't think it's awful, just bland.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2016 04:30
|
|
|
You could get it wet again and put it on a smaller pumpkin If your head is the same size as one of those foam mannequin heads you could block it on that.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2016 19:06
|
|
|
Oooh that's cute. I usually don't care for that relief technique (do you know what it's called?), but it works really well on a large blanket the way you've done it. Most people do it on washcloths and things that are just too small, I think. Does anyone look at the Show Me Your Knits group on Ravelry anymore? I make my finished projects visible through there but I don't know if there's any activity.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2016 03:00
|
|
|
Panic! at Nabisco posted:I'm mostly a crochet sort of guy, but I'm learning more and more to knit, and I have a question: how the hell do you get stockinette stitch to stop curling all over the place? Google said to enclose it in a border of some kind, so for this thin scarf I gave it a 3-rows thick border of garter stitch, but it's still curling all over the place and I'm going to have to go through the whole wetting and pressing process. It doesn't help you much for something already knit, but you could also knit scarves as tubes in the round if you really love the look of stockinette and don't want it to just curl in uselessly. It takes longer since you're basically working double, but you get to hide your yarn ends on the inside and there's no ugly side that way too. Most any pattern can be converted to knit in the round instead of flat. You might have to look up how, but if you start with a provisional cast on you can kitchener stitch both ends when you're finished, then you have a sealed tube and don't have to bind off either. I believe double knit stockinette will not curl but I still haven't sat down to do that yet so someone might have to correct me there. The benefit with a double knit is that you can get a reversible fabric quite easily. Downside is that it takes twice as long to knit. I can't come up with a good use for flat stockinette and I figure if you need to practice purling, that's what ribbing is for
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2016 05:28
|
|
|
1x1 rib is probably a million times easier than either option I suggested lol
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2016 23:59
|
|
|
Way to jump in with both feet! Those look nice.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2016 18:23
|
|
|
Citrus Sky posted:In a moment of insanity, on Monday I bought two skeins of Red Heart Unforgettable in a loud variegated color way called, appropriately, Stained Glass. Now that I have it, I wonder what was I thinking??! (I know what I was thinking - I was bored and lonely and it was my birthday and I tried to fill the emptiness with 100% acrylic clown barf.) First of all, happy belated birthday. You have noisy yarn on your hands. Congrats. I don't know how well acrylic roving is going to hold up for anything; I don't know if I would use it for slippers and I probably wouldn't use it for socks. Single ply really isn't good for socks. If you're really married to turning it into something, I'd ply it with a solid light or dark color such as for a scarf or cowl.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2017 03:13
|
|
|
Hello thread! I have finally learned how to double knit and that you can two it two handed, English+Continental Fair Isle style! This is because I refuse to follow instructions and everyone who insists that something must be difficult just hasn't found the easiest way to do it (and because picking up the yarn every stitch makes me want to kill myself). Does anyone else do it this way? For some reason, so far my purl stitch has to be the Continental and my knit stitch has to be English, though. The other way around results in this weird striation present in these first two to three stitches. It's a little hard to see but it's really noticeable if I continue on like that through the whole row. I'm still bringing both yarns to front and back.  One thing I noted about double knitting is that there seems to be a stitch wrapping component similar to linen stitch. I wonder if I'm not properly covering up something with a Continental knit and English purl.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2017 20:37
|
|
|
Croisquessein posted:Ah, my jam. Thanks for trying. That video like all the others was showing English knit and Continental purl, which is working, but I think I've figured it out; I was trapping one of my yarns in front when I did Continental knit and English purl, making my purls look all messed up. I was still moving both yarns to front and back as appropriate, but you have to be careful of how you do that with Continental. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JroP84tUmJA&t=192s shows what I mean about wrapping; it's not an additional step, but moving the yarn from front to back appears to wrap the opposite color purl stitch and hide the color somewhat. I'm not sure what you mean about crossing the yarn. Every tutorial I've read and watched says to twist the yarn together (I assume like in stranded knitting) to keep the fabric married. Anyway, if anyone else is reading, it's possible to double knit two-handed and it doesn't matter which stitch you do Continental or English!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2017 16:49
|
|
|
Lion Brand Wool Ease is a wool-acrylic blend that is soft and machine washable, and not very expensive. You get the wool for warmth and acrylic for easy care. Red Heart Soft comes in huge skeins and holds up pretty well, lots of bold colors in that line, pretty economical as well. Walmart seems to get weird scratchy lots of everything they sell. I buy from Joanne with coupons and usually get at least 15% and often 40% off.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 8, 2017 17:56
|
|
|
Those are nice mittens. I like those mittens. Do those mittens have a pattern? Fake edit: mittens
|
|
#
¿
Feb 13, 2017 18:30
|
|
|
Thanks for the info, I'll probably pick up enough Norwegian and use Google to just get through the pattern when it becomes mitten time again in my neck of the woods. I've done enough mittens that may actually work. I'd love it to have some technique I've never seen before, then I could just learn it in Norwegian but not English. E: Anne Whately I was kind of wondering that, the mitten itself looks pretty standard. Double edit: GeekAlong15: Aperture Science  I made some goofs but I think I'll probably fix them with duplicate stitch afterward. My mom just wants me to make her potholders and towels all the time and I needed an interesting design. Didn't notice the aperture opening goof until a couple rows up and didn't want to go back. I started keeping time reports last year to have hard data to show a friend who insisted I could make money at knitting (you can't) to show her what items would need to be priced to break even, let alone turn a profit. This is 6 hours of work so far. (I also track my yarn expenses. If I weren't so lazy about weighing my yarn before and after every project, I could calculate the price of yarn used per project.) BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Feb 14, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2017 16:26
|
|
|
I finished it, errors and all. It took a long time to learn to read the knitting to notice if I'd lost my way with the chart or I'd forgotten to bring both yarns to front or back. I got the hang of the knit, purl thing really easily, but remembering that when working the "back" side, dark on the chart means to make a light stitch tripped me up several times. Unless someone has some trick other than just remembering it, that one will take practice. I marked out the chart columns in groups of 5 stitches and used stitch markers, but I was using a ruler to keep my place at first. Switching over to a highlighter to mark up the chart was much easier and for whatever time I might have lost writing on the chart, I'm sure I made it up in not squinting at it.   Now that I feel I've got the basic mechanics down, I'll probably look into some of the techniques for making prettier cast on/bind off and neater edges. That "randomly twist everything together" thing is not going to work. If anyone has any of those to share, I'm all ears. It's hard to search for techniques that you don't know the names of.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2017 05:13
|
|
|
a friendly penguin posted:Yay! It looks like a success from here and trying something from pattern alone is always scary at least to me. I want to try this at some point but I don't have any knowledge of the fancy terms though. Hopefully someone else does. Thanks! Having learned the basic technique in a day, I'm going to let you in on a closely held secret: the internet makes it out to be far more complicated than it really is. If you can knit and purl, you can double knit. Plus there's usually Youtube if you can figure out what to search for.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2017 23:02
|
|
|
ElScorcho posted:Looks good! I've been on a double knitting kick lately making a blanket for my son so I can share the videos I used for making a nice cast on and a slip stitch edge Those will be handy, thank you. I ended up stumbling over this single yarn cast on and the method described here to knit the end stitches together, then twist and slip the first stitch knitwise of the new row. That no twist method in the video is intriguing, though.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2017 21:40
|
|
|
That is beautiful, holy cow
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2017 18:40
|
|
|
I like Dingle. I might even like it in those colors. I was going to make a crack about fiber people being color blind and how that clearly includes me and obviously it does, right? Amalgam isn't so bad, just not in those colors, and not as a skirt. It doesn't have an actual USE, and I don't know anyone besides my MIL who actually wears shawls, but it's basically a big goofy cowl. I kind of hate mosaic, I feel like it's cheating. Something like this is a good place for it, though. Blurred Lines is ugly but the 'hey I knit super fast to put my poo poo on TV' thing is sort of neat, hopefully she doesn't make sweatshop money for 'exposure'. Knitty like always is like 'boring, boring, boring, ugly, boring, boring, HELL NO, boring, ugly, WTF, oh, spinning project' I finished my dk Portal square, when I can get out of bed I'll try to get a natural lighting photo. It was like 15 hours of knitting. I tracked it as 16, but my timer was going when I looked up the single yarn cast off. Haven't been able to knit much, it makes the migraines worse.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2017 16:11
|
|
|
Looool well Ravelry tries to do that a bit on their front page but obviously it's not that in depth. Knitty wasn't even good before Ravelry came along, was it?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2017 02:18
|
|
|
keyboard vomit posted:Scarf: That's cool. How long will it be?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2017 20:42
|
|
|
Haha nice, also using the Geek Along motifs?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2017 20:14
|
|
|
Sehkmet posted:I am, yeah. They're well done! They are really well done. I've been using them to make dk hot pads for my mom since it's the only thing she wants me to knit her. I'm on my third, the Half Life lambda. First was the Aperture Science logo, then the Portal square. Samus is a drat fine lady.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2017 05:14
|
|
|
drat, you're prolific. Do you just knit 8 hours a day or what?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2017 17:48
|
|
|
OldNorthBridge posted:I am going through the thread after not checking in on it for awhile. Oh hey, thanks! That's exactly what I make them for, actually. The original design are afghan squares, but gently caress sewing together a ton of knitted pieces. While recovering from hip surgery (and high out of my mind on pain meds), to learn to double knit, I started making them for my mom as potholders and trivets because she always asks me to knit them for her and I can't just knit squares all the time. She has a stack of these suckers. These are all from the GeekAlong project: My mom was a Sonic fiend back in the day, she got a kick out of this one:     This little guy got borked up when I decided to see what happens when you wrap every stitch most of the way through (hint: it fucks up your gauge):    For these I just GISed flower motifs and knit them as DK. I'd love to credit designers but I couldn't find patterns anywhere, just orphaned images.     Yesterday I just finished my third(?) That Nice Stitch for my sister (she chose the yarn):  I'm in love with this: Midnight Sun posted:Made this for my sister. Pattern is Rauma 233-3.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2017 23:18
|
|
|
Anne Whateley posted:Honestly, it doesn't matter if you prewash, use vinegar, use synthrapol, heat, anything. They get those gorgeous colors by using literally more dye than the yarn can absorb, so a lot of their skeins have dye that just won't set regardless. It's such a shame because those colors are gorgeous, but the yarn is functionally unusable. If your needles are porous, it'll dye them too, I hosed up really good needles that way. When you wear it, your bra and your skin will be blue. That's just not ok. I dye some of my own yarn and have never, ever had that result even as a beginner. Why do people keep buying this yarn?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2017 04:05
|
|
|
OldNorthBridge posted:Edit: I figured out the double knit question. I didn't realize that the yarn on the needle stayed in the same pattern and it was causing confusion and delay. Glad you figured it out, DK is kind of hard to explain. For anyone else listening at home, if you're working flat without increases or decreases then you always work (k,p) regardless of your color pattern. The knit side is whichever side you have facing you so the purl side is always the back. Switching colors just means your knit and purl switch colors, but your stitch pattern remains the same. I used a US7 size needle for all of these. Sonic used leftover Deborah Norville Everyday Soft (white) and Red Heart with Love in Peacock (blue). Acrylic is terrible for trivets and potholders but these worked up thick together and my mom insists they work fine; I wouldn't use them. Both the lambda and Charmander were Red Heart Supersaver in Pumpkin and Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Black, again to use leftover acrylic crap. The aperture and portal were Hobby Lobby house brand I Love This Wool which I immersion dyed using Jacquard acid dyes, more leftovers from previous projects. I like that wool for dyeing but I don't shop at Hobby Lobby anymore so I've switched to Fishermen's Wool instead. Portal yarn's original purpose (hat for hubbo):   HungryMedusa posted:Yeah I'm not super happy about this. I'm far enough along that I will keep going and then rinse the poo poo out of it, maybe end up cooking it in some citric acid water with some random fiber to soak some of the excess dye up. I won't buy Tosh again - especially the dark colors. Don't be surprised if you don't get far. Like Anne Whateley said, the way they get those colors and the reason they rub off is because they add more dye than the fiber can actually hold. Like a tablespoon of citric acid to a couple gallons of water and a boil should make it absorb as much as it's going to. Good luck. BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Sep 16, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2017 00:47
|
|
|
OldNorthBridge posted:Hey NancyPants, I don't work in cotton because it's too hard on my hands, but it'll work fine for these as long as the two yarns you use are similar enough in gauge. If you're using it to protect from heat, you generally want DK or worsted/aran. Since it's doubled sport might even be fine, but I wouldn't go thinner than that unless you're making something towel-shaped which can be doubled over. My big rectangular ones were done in wool sock-weight yarns.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2017 02:58
|
|
|
OldNorthBridge posted:I finished my first Geek-A-Long square! Seeing that I'm an old and have vivid memories of playing Oregon Trail in my elementary school library in 1980 (I was in 1st grade) on an Apple II, I went with this: I love this. I might make a "dissin Terry" version.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2017 19:44
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:53 |
|
|
^^^ hrrrrnggh that is beautiful. Is it done stranded or double knit or what?Pennywise the Frown posted:Hello everyone! To give you a starting point and to be more specific than I was in the CC thread, knit and purl are your basic stitches which create every pattern and casting on is probably the trickiest part for a beginner to learn. If you were using your thumb to cast on, you were probably using a long tail cast on, hopefully knowing terminology will make it a bit easier to look for videos. It's not insurmountable, it's just that the cast on and first couple rows are going to be your ugliest and thus the hardest to knit into. Once you get past that, it's much easier. The name of the game is practice practice practice. If you make anything worth keeping on your first several tries, you're some kind of savant. Watch lots of videos, look at written tutorials, and always practice what you see; everyone learns differently so what might be a great tutorial for one person might be terrible for you. It doesn't mean that you're bad at it, it just means that's not a good way for you to learn. Several of the yarn brands actually have good, clear written tutorials and a lot of beginner patterns, so no poo poo check out like lionbrand.com for the basics. You should be able to look at tutorials without registering for pattern access, but it's free and you can use your Ravelry burner email. (If you use Gmail, add +lionbrand or +knitting to your email address when you subscribe like pennywise+knitting@gmail.com so 1. you can set up a filter for emails specifically for that account and 2. if you start getting spam, you know who sold your email address.) That will get you started at the very least on terminology so you know what to look for in videos if you need to see something done another way. When I first started I often had to see something a couple different ways before it clicked. I swear there are almost as many ways to do a particular thing as there are knitters. For example, Magic Hate Ball started on size 10 needles and QuietMisdreavus started on size 7. My first scarf was knit on size 13 at the recommendation of some rando and those were way too big, I was happiest when I discovered double pointed needles and sock yarn. It's all a matter of doing it and screwing it up lots of times. There will be plenty of times you have to rip back your work or just accept an error. BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Oct 22, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2017 19:11
|
|