The Knitters Thread

basketcase

plumduff55 said:

ITCHY WOOL

Hi,  just delurking to tell you what I do to make itchy wool a lot better.

 I've just finished an Aran hat for grandson in 75% acrylic 25% wool and it was quite prickly.
I soaked it in cold water with 3 tablespoon of white vinegar for 20 minutes. I then rinsed it well in cold water, rolled in a towel to absorb the water then left it to dry flat. The prickliness has now gone. 

If you Google " make wool less itchy" you will find lots of variations of this method. Most say to then rinse in hair conditioner but I've never done this but still the prickliness has gone and it's a lot softer.

Hope this helps although maybe best to try on a tension square first to check it doesn't shrink etc.

Hi @plumduff55

Thanks for the tip.  I'll try this on any itchy stuff I have.  To avoid completely, I think I'll go with "don't knit with itchy wool in the first place".  But it sounds great for anything I've already got and not donated for the less-sensitive skinned.

One thing.  Do you have to do this every time, or just once?

plumduff55

Hi basketcase, you just need to do it once. It makes an amazing difference

basketcase

@plumduff55

Thanks for getting back.  I'll also pass the tip on to my DD.  Though both of us have tended to avoid buying the things in the first place and donated any 'mistakes' to a CS.

PipneyJane

< Bounce >

This thread has been so quiet for so long, that I thought I’d give it a nudge.  What is everyone working on?  

I’m just finishing the collar of Simple But So Attractive from Susan Crawford’s A Stitch In Time Volume 2.  It was originally published in by the Women’s Weekly in October 1936.  On the frugality front, total cost is about £24.  It’s taken 3 full 100g balls of sock yarn plus about 25g of a fourth, which was from a different dye lot and purchased as an “emergency ball” a year or after the originals.  I even frogged my swatch and knitted that into the collar, to avoid using the “emergency ball”.  Fortunately, I can’t see any difference in the colour when I compare one neck edge to the other, and there’s no colour jag when I changed balls because I alternated rows.

Also on my needles are a pair of fingerless mitts, which I’m making from 40g of left over sock yarn.  This is my handbag knitting.

- Pip

alicef

Thank you @PipneyJane Hopefully this thread will keep me motivated, as my aim, for 2024, is to reduce my wool stash by 50%, (eek!). 

A WIP for me:  Rowan Fyne vest pattern; I'm using up odds and ends Drops DK from stash.

PipneyJane

alicef said:

Thank you @PipneyJane Hopefully this thread will keep me motivated, as my aim, for 2024, is to reduce my wool stash by 50%, (eek!). 

A WIP for me:  Rowan Fyne vest pattern; I'm using up odds and ends Drops DK from stash.

That is beautiful, @alicef.  I’ll look forward to seeing the finished garment.

Good luck with your goal to reduce your stash.  Since my stash is huge, my goal is to get through 2024 without purchasing any more yarn and, hopefully, to use up 3 or 4 sweaters’ worth.  Zero purchases so far.  

I’m waiting for bright sunlight, so that I can photograph the collar of my sweater, which I finished yesterday, in order to document that there was no visible colour change between the two batches of yarn.  (If I don’t, I’ll regret it later.  It’s just the way my mind works.). Once that’s done, I’ll add it to my “Sewing things up/finishing things off marathon”.  It’s a huge weakness of mine that, if I don’t immediately do the finishing once a garment is knitted, it won’t get done.  Friday, I finished of a cardigan that had been sitting there since May 2019, waiting for buttons; yesterday, I wove in the ends on a short-sleeved jumper that I finished in January 2015.  Today’s project is to sew in the ends and sew up the hem on a jumper that I finished in September last year.  After that, there are two more sweaters in the queue and then I can swatch for my next project.

I promise to share photos and links to the Ravelry pages, once everything is washed and blocked.

- Pip

YorksLass

@PipneyJane - That sounds just like me, I have several items that need finishing off too! 

Currently on my needles is a 4-ply cotton sweater with a cable panel up each sleeve and two down the front in a lovely sunshine yellow.  I use a simple stocking stitch pattern that I know will fit me and vary it with different stitch panel inserts on the sleeves and or down the front.  I've also started to use knitting-in elastic for the rib to prevent stretching on cotton knits.

Over the last two years I've reduced my yarn stash by about 2/3rds - some I've used and some that I knew I wouldn't use has found its way to the CS.  And I'm getting better at resisting temptation to buy more, especially when yarn is in the sales.  

Savvy_Sue

Now I knew there was somewhere else I should ask ... tried a local FB knitting group but didn't get the answer I wanted ... 

Doing cables for the first time and, inevitably, I've done one the wrong way. I'm knitting front and back of a pullover at the same time, but not in the round. It's only 4 rows down, so WWYD?

1. Leave it and make that bit the back, it will add to its charm ... And hope I don't make any more mistakes ...

2. Run those 4 stitches back down and Google how to pick them up 'right'? I'm sure I've seen something about how to do it.

3. Unpick 4 rows.

I carried on with the other half, and of course did then make the same mistake, but realised sooner AND I'd done the cabling a couple of rows too soon, so that was an easy row and a half to undo, and it looks fine. 

It is for a cricket pullover for my Great Nephew: I've done him bootees and mittens and a non-cabled pullover, but when his Dad said that would be perfect for the cricket this summer I thought I should do The Real Thing. 

Savvy_Sue

One other 'first' I've done, is two colour knitting. An Octopus hat. It's for a former colleague's baby. Rather large, as I misunderstood the pattern, which is American, and thought I needed to use Chunky wool when DK would have been fine. Also it should have a pompom on top, BUT one of my other achievements has been knitting lots and lots of octopodes, so this has an actual octopus head on top. 

Savvy_Sue

So, this thread went quiet for so long that 'life' overtook me. I had been intending to retire last summer, but then it all went a bit peculiar, and I was offered redundancy slightly earlier instead. 

Our team had claimed an association with the Octopus - like us, they are fearsomely intelligent, and capable of multi-tasking. One colleague left, but not before crocheting us each an octopus - just our team. I developed a knitting pattern (based on an Easter chick) and ended up knitting one for EVERYONE, each stuffed with a hollow chocolate egg. I didn't finish them all before I left, so a few social visits were required. 



That's a few examples of the later ones: here's some earlier versions.



All very random, using up small amounts of mohair wool, and sometimes running out!