French Knitting - money saving?

Reverbe

I have been at it now for over 4 hours. It is 8pm now and I started trying at about 3.20 or so..I am beginning to think this is impossible. Is my mushroom thingy too small? What am i doing wrong? I cant even get as far as once all the way around.

I saw that video tho I dont have sound. Her thingy is a LOT bigger than mine wider and the nails are more like posts mine are like paperclips.. could that be causing me problems?I see hers is easier to do cos there is a LOT of room between the nails and on mine there is NOT. For the sake of it being only £1.75 rather than the £5 my local wool shop wanted for one it seems i may have bought an unworkable duffer of a dolly?

Swan_2

have you seen the youtube link in post #17? even without sound it's much more straightforward than the others

but maybe take a break first, walk away from it for a bit, have a cup of tea or a glass of wine, then give it another try


EDIT ... cross-posted

can you post the eBay link to the one you've got? maybe if we can have a look at it?

Reverbe

Swan I am using all the things i can find. even the youtube ones posted here..it is driving me to tears

Swan_2

I've seen some on youtube with the bits like paperclips, so that's ok

I used to use an old cotton reel with nails in it, & that was a lot smaller than the ones in the film clips, so the size should be ok


seriously, maybe you need to take a break from it, once frustration sets in, things become more difficult & can seem insurmountable


have you managed to put the first four loops round the pegs/clips?

Reverbe

yes but they come off??? I have no idea why

picklepick

reverbe can you post a link to the one you've bought off ebay so we can see what it looks like. i dont understand how they can come off? are you holding the wool taught so its staying tight?

Rikki

Can you make a slip knot?

Leave a long length through the middle, make a slip knot in the top wool and place it over one of the pins, pull tight, wrap the wool round the back of the next pin, round the front, back round the back, repeat round the next two pins.
lay the thread above the slip knot on the first pin and lift the lower loop over the top of the pin leaving the new loop in place, lay the wool above the next loop, lift the lower loop over the top of the pin leaving the new loop I place.
once you get the first few rounds done it gets easier.

If you think of it as making chain stitches on each pin, one after another.

Swan_2

the woman in the video from post 17 anchors her first loop securely, but it will be tricky to keep the loops on till you get the first few rows done, you need to keep a little downward tension by pulling gently on the tail of yarn that goes through the hole in the middle of the 'bobbin'

not too much though or you won't be able to lift the lower loop over the new bit of yarn you've wound on top of it


EDIT ... sorry, lot of cross-posting, takes me ages to type

seabright

Cheap wool - try putting a "wanted" on freecycle, people often offer left over craft bits on my local one

Uniscots97

When I was little I had a wooden doll that was hollow and it had 4 pins on the top and somehow you wound on the wool and then looped it over and it created a kind of knitted sausage that came out the other end (which could be used to make rugs or blankets when wound up into a shape). I remember seeing in a craft book at the time that you could make this using a large cotton reel and 4 pins. Does anyone remember what this was called? Does anyone know where I could get the instructions on this?