The Knitters Thread

PipneyJane

gill5blue said:

Hi,
Im interested in knitting a jumper but the reviews are worrying, can anyone recommend a similar jumper please?

@gill5blue what is the pattern name of the above jumper?  Sorry I don’t recognise it from your photo so can’t advise either way.  Also what weight of yarn are you planning to use?

I have encountered saddle shoulders.  Didn’t find them an issue.

- Pip

Savvy_Sue

gill5blue said:

Savvy_Sue said:

gill5blue said:

Hi,
Im interested in knitting a jumper but the reviews are worrying, can anyone recommend a similar jumper please?

What is worrying about the reviews? That the pattern isn't easy to follow, that it doesn't come true to size etc etc etc?

I've just googled 'free knitting pattern for ladies cable jumper' and lots comes up. I am learning to look at patterns more critically these days: I don't wear jumpers anyway, but think I'd find the sleeves on that a bit tight-fitting - which is probably the intention, so just a matter of preference for me! If I look at the pattern for the most recent cardigan I knitted, I can see that it's a very deep V neck, and if I were to knit it again I'd work out how to make the V less deep. I know I'd need more buttons and button-holes, so it would take some brain power. 

hi Savvy Sue,
the comments were people didn't like instructions for saddle shoulders -they said it was too complicated too follow .
gill5blue

Ah yes, I can understand that! I think I encountered saddle shoulders on the mohair cardigan I knitted: I scratched my head and consulted Other Knitters, some of them equally flummoxed. But as one of them said, "it says to do this, and then that, so do that and see what happens." And that worked! 

I think it's a case of just working out what's got to happen. I found this for you: 

https://30daysweater.com/sweater-construction-methods-saddle-shoulder/

And this paragraph is particularly helpful: 

'A saddle shoulder is technically a variation of a raglan sleeve, where the shoulder portion forms a straight band knit in the same piece with the sleeve. This little extension at the top of the shoulder extends to the neckline and lies directly over the top of the shoulder. The garment is constructed so that the “seam” at the shoulder lies parallel to the shoulder at the front and back instead of at an angle as in the raglan style.'

So instead of making a point at the top of your sleeve, you're making a rectangular extension, if that makes sense? 

I should have googled it for myself when I was having problems! 

PipneyJane

@Savvy_Sue that explanation makes sense to me.  I hope it does for @gill5blue.

FWIW, I learned how to make them in a class on knitting ganseys.  I think we knitted a newborn baby-sized sweater.   The thing is to visualise the outcome and then just follow the instructions and see what happens.  A well written pattern will give measurements, row counts and stitch counts, so that you know that if you’ve followed those, and made the correct tension, it’ll all fit together.

- Pip

PipneyJane

Hi All.  Just wondering what everyone is knitting this summer?  Since the start of June, I’ve knitted 5 pairs of socks - currently got an 6th on the go - and two pairs of fingerless mitts.  I’ve also started knitting an Aran sweater.

- Pip

annieb64

Since it turned hot haven't felt like knitting. I have half finished the second sock of a pair for SiL.
Must get back to knitting. We went on a cruise last month and stopped at Lerwick. There are some lovely wool shops there and I got a bit carried away.

Savvy_Sue

annieb64 said:

Since it turned hot haven't felt like knitting. I have half finished the second sock of a pair for SiL.
Must get back to knitting. We went on a cruise last month and stopped at Lerwick. There are some lovely wool shops there and I got a bit carried away.

   I know what you mean about not wanting to knit in the heat ... 

I've just gone a few pages back to find out what I was knitting last time I said: it was The Shawl. I'd say it was 'amost' finished, but of course each row is longer than the previous one because I'm increasing each time. I was all set to give it a final blast, ready for our choir's 'Church Crawl' (we visit several churches, sing in them, and have a pub lunch and tea and cake), but then we were told not to wear our costumes. So it will need another blast in the autumn. 

However, before THAT I need to finish a set of doll's clothes for the local Flower and Craft Show on 7th September. I have never entered before, but realised there aren't many knitting entries - what there are are very high quality, of course, but there's more crochet going on. So I decided I WOULD enter. There are two options for knitters: a set of doll's clothes and knitted vegetables. :rotfl: 

I happen to know who is knitting vegetables, and I wouldn't compete with her, and anyway what would I do with them? So my friend has lent me her almost antique doll and I have knitted beret, cable and double moss stitch jumper, socks and a skirt. But the skirt is too short, so I knitted some shorts to go under it, but it's still not really decent for a dolly of her generation (definitely pre-mini skirts!) so I am now knitting a larger skirt. I could have just kept going with the one I'd done, but I think the larger size will be better - if I find it's not then it's back to the first one and keep going with it. I haven't yet 'hemmed' it - you don't cast off, you put the last row onto a thread and catch each stitch down. 

It's in a tweedy wool and very pretty, but I'm not sure you really appreciate the cable / moss stitch, but hey ho. 

Irritatingly, I know I have a reel of shirring elastic with my stash of sock wool, but I can't find that, so I've had to buy some today. 

Then it will be back to The Shawl. After that I have some chunky wool and a cardigan pattern I should move on to. 

 

Savvy_Sue

Deary me, did I kill this thread off? 

I came looking for you all because I need a bit of help. I am going to be a Grandma, which is hugely exciting and of course necessitates knitting. One friend suggested I should knit the Tree of Life baby blanket - oh my goodness no that's too complicated. Another friend has knitted something which is basically stocking stitch, but divided into square panels with rows and columns of garter stitch. That's all she was doing, but the actual pattern had 'images' in the panels where you knitted the shape in the opposite stitch to give the image. Example below, about which more anon ...

I don't know if she will be able to find me the pattern. However, I have tracked down knitting paper, and there are some images I'd like to include - a windmill, clogs, maybe a tulip or two, a round of cheese ... yes, this baby will be Anglo-Dutch! What I don't know is how you get the image onto the knitting paper - having worked out how many stitches / rows you're using, is it just pot luck to find an image which fits into the size on your knitting paper? And are there good sites on which I might find such images? I did find one which said I'd be able to create shapes, but I downloaded something which my computer didn't like, so I'm now a bit wary ... 

My example above: I found some really thick cotton yarn, and I decided to knit an oversized tension square, partly to check how it was to knit (like really thick cotton, ie hard work) and partly to check it would wash and tumble dry OK. Then I forgot to measure it before washing. And I don't think it's shrunk, but it's come out quite stiff and unforgiving, it's not cuddly at all. So I need to find something else, and I think I have a couple of suitable options. 

Anyway, how are the rest of you getting on? I'd just cast on some socks when I got the news ...

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue said:

annieb64 said:

Since it turned hot haven't felt like knitting. I have half finished the second sock of a pair for SiL.
Must get back to knitting. We went on a cruise last month and stopped at Lerwick. There are some lovely wool shops there and I got a bit carried away.

   I know what you mean about not wanting to knit in the heat ... 

I've just gone a few pages back to find out what I was knitting last time I said: it was The Shawl. I'd say it was 'amost' finished, but of course each row is longer than the previous one because I'm increasing each time. I was all set to give it a final blast, ready for our choir's 'Church Crawl' (we visit several churches, sing in them, and have a pub lunch and tea and cake), but then we were told not to wear our costumes. So it will need another blast in the autumn. 

However, before THAT I need to finish a set of doll's clothes for the local Flower and Craft Show on 7th September. I have never entered before, but realised there aren't many knitting entries - what there are are very high quality, of course, but there's more crochet going on. So I decided I WOULD enter. There are two options for knitters: a set of doll's clothes and knitted vegetables. :rotfl: 

I happen to know who is knitting vegetables, and I wouldn't compete with her, and anyway what would I do with them? So my friend has lent me her almost antique doll and I have knitted beret, cable and double moss stitch jumper, socks and a skirt. But the skirt is too short, so I knitted some shorts to go under it, but it's still not really decent for a dolly of her generation (definitely pre-mini skirts!) so I am now knitting a larger skirt. I could have just kept going with the one I'd done, but I think the larger size will be better - if I find it's not then it's back to the first one and keep going with it. I haven't yet 'hemmed' it - you don't cast off, you put the last row onto a thread and catch each stitch down. 

It's in a tweedy wool and very pretty, but I'm not sure you really appreciate the cable / moss stitch, but hey ho. 

Irritatingly, I know I have a reel of shirring elastic with my stash of sock wool, but I can't find that, so I've had to buy some today. 

Then it will be back to The Shawl. After that I have some chunky wool and a cardigan pattern I should move on to. 

So a quick update: The Shawl never got quite finished, because my sister gave me a much nicer one she didn't want! 

The doll's outfit got 2nd place, out of two. I thought I was going to ace it, until the other outfit turned up unexpectedly. It was slightly traumatising when my friend's beloved doll lost her head a week before the show! Fortunately I remembered there was a local lady who mends dolls, and mercifully she was able to sort her out VERY quickly: expensive but so worthwhile. 

But that was 2024!

In 2025 I got a first, with a knitted tulip brooch! Quite shocked by that, again out of two entries, and the other one was more 'conventional'. Not sure what my options this year will be. 

I never started the chunky cardigan. I spent the rest of 2025 dithering between that and a pair of socks: I had actually bought the wool for both at different times, but didn't NEED either. So I did baby bootees and hats and gloves (for a new Great Nephew and others), flowers, holly leaves, all sorts of little fripperies. Oh, and headbands to keep my ears warm when walking: I now have one in each coat pocket!

Finally just before heading to our Christmas destination, I decided I must choose between the Chunky Cardigan, and the Socks. And the socks won, which is such a good thing, because obviously now I've got to do baby things too, and the socks are growing quite quickly, in between baby experiments. 

Savvy_Sue

By the way, my sister's baby speciality is a baby sleeping bag, and our Great Nephew's mum has suggested that doing a star-shaped one is best because you can then use it in a sling. The only pattern we've found so far is crochet - even one described on Etsy as knitting! - and we're not crochet people. So, does anyone know of a star-shaped baby sleeping bag KNITTING pattern?

MrsCD

Starfish onesie by Wendy Frevert on Ravelry. Free download. I haven't tried it, but there are one or two others there as well.