Knitting

Katiehound

JackieO wrote: »

I have unpicked and rewashed and dried and re-knitted umpteen things over the years

This strikes a chord with me. The very first large item I knitted at 12 or 13 was a jumper in a pale oatmeal shade. I can remember it as a smooth jumper and then a zigzag rib jumper (K3P3, next row k1p1rib.) It got used again and again & finally was the basis for a lovely stripey crotchet blanket which I still have! I think that was Bellman's wool (or Paton's)

JackieO - loved your post, yes I remember the wool in hanks- what a pain. Yes, everything was unpicked and reused.
Only very recently have unpicked a knitted scarf- it was made with 3 strands of hairy yarn- a bit of a nightmare- but will be reincarnated as woolly hats to go in my Christmas shoeboxes. My friend and I struggled to rewind the 3 strands down to one- wool all over the kitchen floor as it jumped out of the bag
I don't knit so much now, but I do crotchet- only one stitch to drop!!
I do far more sewing these days- raising money for charity.......(and recycling , of course)

janb5

JackieO wrote: »

Hi I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't knit I have been clicking away for the best part of 70 plus years My late Mum taught both myself and my two brothers to knit almost as soon as we were old enough to hold needles

Growing up during and after WW2, everyone knitted ,I think it took her mind of the problems of the times .

Back then often things were unpicked (usually Saturday morning jumble sales were where you did your best to snaffle a jumper for a shilling (5p) if it was a decent size .Irrespective of colour, as wool was hard to get hold of back then.
It came in 'Hanks' not balls, so usually the youngest ('me') my two brothers could pull a great vanishing act when Mum needed wool winding . My very young arms would ache holding this hank up so Mum could wind into balls .
I have unpicked and rewashed and dried and re-knitted umpteen things over the years

Grey wool was highly sort after in jumble sales as you could make sock.A job I wasn't keen on, as grey is such a depressing colour and they were made and often remade as the boys grew out of them or the holes in the heels got unrepairable.My late Mum taught me how to 'turn' the heel

My Mum once got hold of some bright yellow wool, but not enough to make me a jumper so she striped it with brown and for ages I had to wear this awful yellow and brown striped jumper ,looking like a very cross little wasp.I loathed this jumper and dreamed of the day it would be too small for me :)

I have two daughters and two of my grandchildren are girls and not one of them either knits or sews.My eldest DD will do a cross stitch at times but she too is left handed, and never ever learned to knit My youngest DD although she has had five children can't sew a button on, and I have been designated knitter and button sewer for years

I love knitting and I cannot just sit and watch TV unless I have my knitting on the go I knit for two separate charities, and also make poppies for the British Legion in October .

I like to listen to the wireless or an audio book while I am knitting as well I am at the moment making a 3D effect blanket for my grandsons wife Hayley who lives in New York. It will go out there in February when my DD goes over for a visit

I have knitted for all of the family and all my grandsons have had 'blankeys' in their favourite football teams colours The worse was my eldest DGS Danny who is a West Ham fan and he took his blankey when he moved to the USA two years ago.

My advice would be find your local library, there is a good chance there will be a knit and natter group and if you want to learn there will be lots of folk there to help .Or ask in a local old folks home or pensioners church or council run pop-in parlour Lots of ladies of a certain ...age like myself will be only too willing to give you a hand and you will make lots of friends as well. Being an old duck myself passing on skills that we learnt many years ago makes us feel useful and needed.

Although I have lost count of the hundreds of things I have knitted over the years as yet I STILL cannot get the hang of crocheting My oldest friend has tried umpteen times but I just can't get it at all, but knitting is basically just two stitches Knit or Purl and the fancy stuff comes with practice I must say though beware of US patterns as the use slightly different terms than we do and their abbreviations are different as well.

I often get lots of oddments of wool in charity shops or even in the summer at bootsales (very useful for plain white double knit) which I use to edge my baby blankets. usually lots of first size baby cardigans can be bought for 10-20p at a boot sale taken home ,unpicked washed dried and rewound into balls a new ball of wool can cost p to £1.50-95 whereas two outgrown baby cardies can cost me 40p for the same amount of wool. As I use a lot of wool for the charity blankets that go to The Linus Trust ,every blanket goes to all four corners of the world where there is a child in need of heat and comfort I have seven warm well-fed grandchildren, and if my hobby has kept a child, living on a dump somewhere in the world warm tonight I am more than happy to help. The blankets only go to children in need and when the last big Tsunami happened a few years ago they sent 68 tonnes of handmade blankets to children who only had the clothes they stood up in.

its a hobby that costs me very little but give me so much satisfaction.

So anyone who is interested go find a ball and a couple of needles and start to practice,all you need is a comfortable chair, a cup of tea, and a lot of patience but it is so worth while

Jackie next time we meet- I would love to show you how to crochet. My challenge for 2019! You could make me a cuppa as I`m having my knee surgery next week?

DigForVictory

I'm very sorry for your loss & delighted you are turning to knitting for comfort. May it bring you many decades of satisfaction, new friends and an ongoing sense of comfortable connection.

Most charity shops have knitting needles - but you may have to ask since many have been told not to leave pointy metal things where they might land in "innocent hands".

Frankly, I'd be starting with needles about as thick as my little finger if at all possible, and a suitably hefty wool to work with. I love super chunky yarns - you gets results in minutes! As this may not be possible, pick out the thickest yarn you like the feel & colour of, and take advice on the needle size, then hit the charity shops for needles.

My son managed to turn a simple scarf into a fan shaped creation, because he didn't stop & ask for advice. If it's beginning to look a bit odd, pause (or redefine the project!) and ask someone.

There is a term called "frogging" (think what knit might sound like reversed tink-tink & someone thought that sounded like a frog, hence frogging, I believe) which is a recognised knitting practice of undoing all your careful work, rewinding the wool back into a ball & starting over, or on a new project. The honest knitters say "Oh I started X but it wouldn't work so I frogged it..." Do not be afraid.

As for being left handed, you are in excellent company & it does the teacher no harm to stop & have to think How Would I?

Wishing you long hours of happy knitting.

monnagran

I, like JackieO, have been knitting for over 70 years. I was started off with dishcloths, knitted with some stringy stuff. I was very proud to see my dishcloths being used for washing up or cleaning things.

I am a great advocate for knitting squares, they give you a feeling of satisfaction when you finish one, very important when you are starting out. They can be sewn together to make blankets, shawls, bags, cushion covers....endless possibilities. Also, when you get better and don't have to concentrate so hard it gives your hands something productive to do when reading, listening or watching TV.

The first blankets I got involved in were knitted in 1956 for refugees from the Hungarian Revolution. I was in the sixth form at school and we got the whole school knitting squares which we then had to sew together and edge. I can't remember how many blankets we produced but it was a lot. Couldn't have done much for our A level studies but as a humanitarian gesture it was priceless.
The nearest I ever got to that sort of thing again was when teaching in a very posh private school, lots of titled parents, money no object. We needed costumes for opposing armies for the school play. Chain mail was requested. We sourced great reels of stringy, cottony stuff in grey and brown and I got the whole school knitting. Children, teachers, cooks,and parents. It was dead easy, just garter stitch squares that I sewed up and very effective it looked.
Well, you've never seen such peculiar squares in your life. The mothers were very anxious to help but they had never led the sort of lives that included knitting. One titled lady laboured long and hard and gave me glowing accounts of what she was doing. After about a month of this she finally produced ...something...about 3 inches of misshapen, holey, grubby, stringy mess. I thanked her sweetly and bore it straight into the dustbin. I couldn't even unpick it. Some of the others weren't much better, but they were all proud of their offerings.

Enough of the stories. One day I will tell you about the teddies I knitted for the school Christmas fair.

Jackie, I was interested in the 3D effect blanket. I know youve mentioned this before but I've never seen it done. Did you have a pattern, or was it something you worked out for yourself? I'm with you on the crochet, never managed to crack that one.

stitching_witch

DigForVictory wrote: »

There is a term called "frogging" (think what knit might sound like reversed tink-tink & someone thought that sounded like a frog, hence frogging, I believe) which is a recognised knitting practice of undoing all your careful work, rewinding the wool back into a ball & starting over, or on a new project. The honest knitters say "Oh I started X but it wouldn't work so I frogged it..." Do not be afraid.

The term “frogging” comes from the fact that you are ‘ripping’ the knitting back.
Rip-it, rip-it, ribbit, ribbit..

DigForVictory

Where there are people who knit, there is a community! I learn, & bless you!

daisy_1571

Another vote for checking out charity shops for needles - I find modern needles are far too short and flap about. I tuck my right hand one under my arm (like my mum did) so need an old fashioned long one. I know other knitters cant be doing it that way and have both needles loose like a chicken but I guess it's just how you're originally taught.

Dont give up on crochet chaps, I love it too and can easily crochet away while watching TV as you dont need go look at what you're doing. Ive just finished a beautiful knee blanket (3 treble, 3 chain and repeat. On the next line put the 3 treble into the hole left by the 3 chain and on you go till you have a big enough item for what you want, easy peasy) out of 1 ball of variegated so the colours fade in and out and it's the perfect size. At a tenner the ball was rather expensive but I fell for the lovely colours.

Good luck and I hope you find a wonderful new hobby that helps you through this difficult time.

Daisy xx

[Deleted User]

monnagran I too remember knitting blankets for the refugees from the Hungarian Uprising in the mid 1950s in fact I believe every London child irrespective of their gender were expected to be able to knit and my middle brother learned to knit at school which he hated as he thought knitting was for Mums and sisters and not for manly spotty 'erberts like himself .:):):) I found it a hoot as I could easily outpace him and used to have to help him when he dropped stitches (which was often )

All the girls in my class were industriously clicking away in the playground when we should have been revising our exams :) I often wonder how many of my contemporaries remember being chain ganged into doing it I didn't mind as I had always done it but I'm sure being impelled at school may have put many people off

madlyn

WOW!!! Thanks for all the advise, I'm going to start by knitting squares which I'm hoping can be sewn together and made into a blanket.