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I just joined the Ravelry group (I'm freyathegrey on there). I don't have much for pictures of my objects yet, including older stuff. I'm pretty bad about taking pictures of anything I finish. Right now I'm working on a dress for my baby, and that should be done soon. It's from a vintage knitting pattern. However, if you can get your hands on a copy of Son of Stitch 'n Bitch, the Deady Bear is mine. The Deady Bear featured in the book is the same one I made. I started knitting unsuccessfully in 2004, and I didn't really get on it till 2005. I've actually only made one scarf, and a few hats here and there, and from there I've made lots of things, but haven't yet moved onto socks.
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Jan 8, 2008 03:04
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I did scrounge up a few images that I suppose I should put on Ravelry, too. This is a hedgehog made from the Huggable Hedgehogs pattern a couple of years ago for a friend's baby.  I made the pumpkin from Knitty, but I made a much better looking one afterwards.  This rabbit was inspired by the Patrica Waller crocheted art pieces, which are far larger than stuffed toy size. A friend of a friend really wanted one, and I whipped this up...  ..which in turn inspired Deady Bear, which was exclusively made for Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. I couldn't use the bunny because that was already too close to a previous piece, so Deady Bear was created. This is my personal photo; the professional ones look much better, of course.  I do make other things than toys, honestly!
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Jan 8, 2008 15:15
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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. Well, I'm not a pro by any means, but what I suggest is to try something new with each project. I've never actually done a washcloth, and I've only done one scarf (which was the first project I started, but probably the third or fourth I completed), but they would be a good way to practice stitch patterns. I just kind of dove right into making things without thinking, "is this beyond my skill level?" Trying new things each project can be a great way to get the techniques down. Stick with garter stitch for the first project, then try purling the next. Then you've got down both major stitches. Pay attention to how your stitches look; make sure they aren't being twisted. If there are problems like dropped stitches, use the early projects as a learning opportunity for fixing them (I'd recommend staying away from the fun fur for that reason--you can't see a thing with it, and even if you can and you have a dropped stitch, it'll probably become so knotted trying to get the stitch it isn't worth it). From there you can move onto decreases and increases or knitting in the round. Try something on circular needles or DPNs (which are absolutely nothing to be frightened of). If you just want to practice for a while on washcloths and scarves that's fine too. I should probably do more of that myself  . Knitting Help is probably my favorite online resource for finding out how to make certain stitches. It tells you how to do things whether you're an English or continental knitter, and I think they might teach some stuff in combination style, too.
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Jan 9, 2008 01:37
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Also, if you did real left-handed knitting (working left to right)the problem would be that patterns aren't written like that. They are always worked right to left. There is a way to knit left to right--I'm doing that right now for a hat that I'm working on, actually, since it involves a logo in the middle of a black hat--but it just really wouldn't work well with how patterns are written. You would have to reverse everything, and it would just be a pain in the butt. I knit continentally. It's the way I taught myself how to knit, and I feel way more comfortable doing that than English style. It seems to go a lot faster. However, when knitting backwards, I have to use an adapted English style.
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Jan 9, 2008 03:54
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Windy posted:How hard is it to make a stuffed toy with knitting, and would it be more durable than one made by crocheting? I am a quick learner, but honestly, how advanced is a project like that going to be for someone with no experience? It depends on the stuffed toy. For example, this toy, the Knitty Kitty is extremely simple with only a little bit of increasing/decreasing However, the hedgehog I posted isn't one I would tackle as a beginner knitter. Regarding which is more durable--with crochet, you almost always have a denser piece, and it seems to have more physical strength--you can have toys that have legs and they will be able to stand without any trouble. If a knit toy is felted, such as the hedgehog, it is very durable. I would think that a knit toy would be more likely to snag than a crochet one, at least, given the fact that the mermaid my grandmother made me lasted 20 years now almost with no stitch abuse, and the knit bear I made snagged right before I had to ship it off (I did fix it, of course). I should say, though, that a knit piece can be knit more dense by using a smaller gauge, making it less likely to snag. But if you wanted to do something like a standing giraffe, crochet would be the way to go. I would think a bear to snuggle with could be fine either way. boobookitty fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Jan 9, 2008 |
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Jan 9, 2008 06:51
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I ordered the rest of the Harmony Options needles to flesh out my own set on 12/29, and they just shipped yesterday (01/08), although they said on the site that they would start shipping orders again on 1/02, I think. Regardless, it took them well over a week to even ship the order, which is a first for me. Almost every time I'd get an email within the day saying they would ship. So I think they were just filling on a first come, first serve basis versus the needles being backordered, but they didn't say anything about the status of the order beyond the fact that it was pending until I got the shipping email. I decided to put in an order before their shipment rates increased, and then I spent way over that limit anyway. I guess lots of other people had the same idea and/or were spending up their Christmas money. I really do love their Options line. I hate aluminum needles, but the nickel-plated Options are so nice--at least when a cat doesn't treat them like a chew toy. My size 5 tips were victims of that recently. The Harmony Wood ones I'm trying to get more used to, because the coating, while smooth, kinda feels sticky to me too. Their wood DPNs have been perfect for the picot edging I need, which has to be worked on size 2 needles. The nickel ones were a little too slippery, but the wood ones did the trick. There's this one stitch--s1 k2 pass stitches 2 and 3 over slipped stitch--that was just too hard to do with those slippery nickel ones.
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Jan 9, 2008 21:40
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The Ginger Ninja posted:That hedgehog kills me. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen on these forums. Well done.  root a toot posted:You can also use your feet Or a kitchen chair. A good wooden (or in our case, metal) chair works pretty well for that. I wrap it around the back of the chair since it's got two posts on the top that work well, but I guess you could flip it over and use the legs, too. Or some people use two chairs, and yet others use part of the chair and one hand. Whatever works. I got my daughter's lace dress done finally, save for the ribbon needed for the dress, booties, and bonnet. It's blocking on my bed right now. I'm so happy to get that done--I've been working on and off since March of last year. I'll be posting pictures when it's all complete, and probably after I get her 1-year photo shoot done with it on.
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Jan 13, 2008 05:18
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Well, I know that the Stitch 'n Bitch books Happy Hooker and Son of Stitch 'n Bitch books feature projects with synthetics for sure. As far as my project goes, I was begging to use some other material than acrylic for the project I had in SoSNB. I had knit up four of those dead rabbits in acrylic, and there was no way that I was going to use more for that bear. Granted, I used Red Heart for almost every aspect of those rabbits except for a little bit of Caron Simply Soft, which I wish I had used first. However, today I picked up some Lion Brand Microspun for a toy I'm making for my husband's best friend. I'll post that when I'm done, but right now I'm in the planning stages. I don't want to give away what it is yet, since I'd like to keep it a secret from him. Also, pictures of my daughter's dress are coming shortly. I've got the right size ribbon this time. The pattern, which is a vintage one, didn't give any idea as to what size ribbon to use. I forgot that there were some holes in the sleeves for ribbons, so my 3/4" ribbon was far too large. I ended up picking up some 1/4" today, and I'll insert that later tonight.
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Jan 22, 2008 03:22
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Ozma posted:I haven't checked out either. Ah, see, all of the yarn shops around here don't carry Lion Brand at all. You have to go to the big box stores around here to get it. So, when I want some fancy yarn, I go to the yarn shops (although I tend to shop KnitPicks first for a lot of stuff). But if I'm just looking for some cheap yarn to get the job done, I go to Wal-Mart, Michael's, or Jo-Ann Fabrics. I guess I get a little turned off by acrylic because people who know I'm into the fiber arts tend to give me just whatever acrylic they have lying around or get at a garage sale or whatever. The ones who do crochet or knit know better, but my mom got me a huge stash of acrylic in all different bright rainbow colors, very obviously Red Heart or a close relative, that I have no clue what to do with. I'm considering knitting up a bunch of baby hats for a local hospital sometime, but I'd have to finish up all of these other projects first . I usually only buy yarn with a project in mind, so this stuff just takes up room.
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Jan 22, 2008 04:52
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My daughter's dress is complete for the most part--I have to replace the ribbon on the bonnet, as it's not placed exactly where it should be. It's too far back, when it should be on the bottom scallop on each side. All I have to say is finally! I've been working on this on and off since last March.  She wouldn't sit still, so I couldn't get everything in the picture. This was made for her first birthday, which was actually Christmas Day. I knew I wouldn't be getting professional photos done for a while after, though, so I took my time with it. More details are at my Ravelry page (freyathegrey). I can tell you that I got the pattern from http://www.vintage-knitting-patterns.com and that it was the dress from the Dress, Bonnet, and Bootees pattern from Paton's Babies in Limelight (it's in one of their Knit Baby collections, I think the second?) Sometimes vintage patterns are a pain in the butt to work from. The yarn was a gift from some coworkers. It's Dale of Norway Baby Ull. I don't like it much--it seems to split pretty easily. But it was a gift, it was my first try at making anything in lace, and also a first with making a full outfit, and so I can't complain much.
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Jan 24, 2008 02:25
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hamburgerbreakfast posted:I'm tucanchild, the group mod on ravelry. That dress is beautiful (and your daughter is adorable)! I'm going to try to knit it for my friend's alien baby. What size is it in the picture? It's for a size 18-19" chest. Yet again why vintage patterns are a pain. That works out to a 12-18 month old child or so to my best estimation, although in one of the vintage books I looked at, they had that size listed for a 6-month-old. My kid isn't small; she's in the 50-75% percentile for weight and height, so she's smack dab in the middle. I'd say an average-sized 12-month-old should fit fine in it if you use a similar yarn and needle combination (I used size 5, 3, and 2 needles). The collection is indeed Knit Baby Vol. 2. I forgot I had the CD in my drive, as I had to reknit the picot edging for the neck a little bit ago and had to reference the pattern. There are 10 books in the collection for $35. It seems kind of expensive, but then you see how many patterns it features, and it's not bad at all. The people who offer that on CD have a contest every month for their newsletter. If your item (knit from one of their pattern collections) is chosen as the featured item of the month, you get $100. I'm totally going to submit this outfit when I get a better picture .edit--I just looked at the website to make sure the price is right, and it is. However, I see 8 books on there, and I have 10 on my CD here. Hmmm.. boobookitty fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 24, 2008 |
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Jan 24, 2008 03:49
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Hobo Camp posted:What is the best way to learn how to knit? Well that depends on how you learn. Some people really need to be shown in person how to do it. Other people can read a book and pick up on it. And yet others do well with a video. Think about how you best learn in general--do you learn stuff easier by hearing it? Seeing a demonstration? Reading about it? Does having someone hover over you when you are trying to do something freak you out? We can only say what works the best for us. I personally learned from the first Stitch 'n Bitch book, and that was after trying to learn unsuccessfully from a couple of sources before (one of those learn to knit kits and Knitting for Dummies). As mentioned before in this thread, http://www.knittinghelp.com is an invaluable resource, especially since it shows you how to do stitches in both the continental and English styles. Sometimes books can have confusing diagrams, and that's where the videos can come in handy. But I know people who absolutely feel that they need to be taught in person, too. It all depends on what you think works best for you.
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Feb 10, 2008 08:38
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elbow posted:
I've heard some people have had problems understanding the way to do a yarnover from the way it's shown in Stitch 'n Bitch. I never had any problem with it, but apparently it's a well-known problem. I guess it can come across like you are supposed to knit that yarn over immediately after forming it? I'm not sure. I do know on the knitting LiveJournal group if someone is having a problem with a yarnover, they ask, "Were you learning from Stitch 'n Bitch?" Anyway, I knit continentally, and Stitch 'n Bitch was the first resource that I found that really showed me how to do it right. I was actually knitting fine, but the purling I wasn't understanding up until then. This was before knittinghelp or YouTube were around, so there wasn't much for videos online at that point. And I really don't find TV shows like Knitty Gritty that useful, personally. I was one of those knitters who started off using by using fun fur, too  . Probably the absolute worst kind of yarn I can think of to begin knitting with.
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Feb 10, 2008 17:20
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root a toot posted:Ha! This was me, a week ago. I was kind of dumbfounded at the difference between the book and knittinghelp. Oh, it's been way more than you . It comes up a lot, actually. I've been on the knitting group since 2005, I think, and it's come up multiple times since I joined. I honestly haven't looked at the yarnover diagram in Stitch 'n Bitch in a long time, so I have no clue how poorly it comes across. Ozma posted:It's a pain to knit with but when used sparingly or used for really specific projects I think it looks cute. I don't deny that it can be useful--I still will use it for toys like the hedgehog I showed in this thread, and I also made a squirrel with it, too. But fun fur is the type of stuff that can drive new knitters away with how difficult it is to see what you are doing. I made a sweater for my toddler out of the stuff a few years ago, and I had no clue where I dropped stitches at all with it. And if you try to frog any rows, you're likely to make a knotted mess. I also twisted my stitches when purling at first, and you can't really see that well with fun fur, either. I still have my first fun fur knitted...thing...around the house, because my babies seem to love the texture. guaranteed posted:I think the difficulty was what she was referring to. Yup . If I taught a knitting class, I would not teach with that stuff.
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Feb 11, 2008 04:11
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Actually, regarding intarsia in the round, this is the resource I've been using to learn how to do it: http://explaiknit.typepad.com/let_me_explaiknit/2006/08/rock_around_the.html. I'm using the method where you close the gap in short rows. It's very time consuming to knit backwards, though, and I in fact got a bit frustrated with it, so the hat I was working on has been put off to the side.
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Feb 26, 2008 20:59
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That Flatman scarf just gave me the idea to do a Plastic Man one. I don't think I know anyone who would wear it, though  .
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Apr 20, 2008 23:09
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philkop posted:I like Ugh, yes, fuzzy yarn is far harder (as long as you are referring to stuff like Fun Fur and not mohair). I have a difficult time counting rows with it, and if you make a mistake forget about ripping back because you'll likely end up with a knotted mess. On the other hand, if you do drop a stitch, it's likely that the stitch won't really go anywhere . The only time I use novelty yarn like that is for stuffed animals where that kind of yarn makes sense, like a squirrel or hedgehog. However, if you combine the yarn with a standard worsted weight or something similar it won't be such a pain--you just won't get quite the same effect.It's kind of funny because it seems to me that Fun Fur and its ilk are kind of marketed to beginners, as I've seen projects with it for the knitting classes at Michaels, yet I would never, ever recommend beginners work with it.
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Nov 15, 2008 19:47
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. I'm still relatively new to knitting (about 2 months self taught.) Going to invest in some more yarn pretty soon, do you find the fuzzy or textured yarn is any harder to deal with? I'll get some to try it out, just seems like all those little fibers would get in a tangled mess, then again, I guess sometimes that's the point:P And yeah I've used some "Variegated" yarn before, with less appealing results. I guess they have a particular gauge in mind to set up a consistent pattern.
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Caron's One Pound is acrylic, so therefore not superwash. It is, however, machine washable, as are most acrylics. You should only come across the term superwash when it is a fiber that normally could felt in the wash, like a wool, but it is treated in such a way that the fiber can be machine washable. I just bought a bunch of superwash yarn from Knit Picks, their Swish Worsted. I'm making sweaters for my two daughters for Christmas, and since they are young, I'm not going to bother with something that has to be hand washed.
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Nov 20, 2008 02:28
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Lackadaisical posted:Any recommendations on how to knit a flower? Or any recommendations on how to learn to crochet? I bought the Happy Hooker book but it's not helping me learn. At all. You know, I didn't really have luck with learning how to crochet from Happy Hooker, either. I learned to knit really well from Stitch 'n Bitch (it was the first thing I looked at that the directions for continental actually sunk in), but crochet just wasn't clicking. It doesn't help I know I skipped some text--I think I kept on missing the part where it said to chain 1 at the end of the row when crocheting flat. My recommendation for learning how to crochet? Watch YouTube videos. I had the best luck with them.
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Nov 28, 2008 17:30
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Spanish Inquisition posted:http://hearthwench.tripod.com/kwillie.html Actually, a GIS leads to a picture from the same site as your final link here: http://hearthwench.tripod.com/warmers.html, and a GIS shows lots of other pictures from other sites, too. I've never made one of them, though. I'm not sure what you are asking otherwise--are you confused about some of the terminology, as you haven't worked from a pattern before? http://www.knittinghelp.com is an invaluable resource for showing you how to do certain stitches, but that last pattern you linked looks pretty straightforward. The only thing I see that may be different for you is that it involves some crochet. edit: Actually, that queerjoe site you linked also has a picture linked on the very bottom of the page, too. boobookitty fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jan 12, 2009 |
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Jan 12, 2009 17:10
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