The Knitters Thread

annieb64

Savvy_Sue.Have you seen Marianna's Lasy Daisy's website?Lots of patterns for squares.

cheekyweegit

Savvy_Sue said:

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 ...

Not sure if this will help you, but I've used the animal wash cloth patterns from this site knitted several squares in chunky wool and joined them together for kids blankets and just used 5mm needles.

Great way of using up odd balls of chunky wool as if I remember correctly I got 3 animal squares out of a chunky ball of wool.

Aran also works well with it and if you are feeling confident, you can do it all in one colour but will need to work out a graph for your patterns so you know what you are doing and when.  

I've also knitted some of the animals onto the back of a baby jumper / cardigan.  I just happen to have a pattern the prefect size to knit the pattern into the back of them with a little tweaking now and again depending on the pattern I choses.

The teddy bear one is really cute (the one with the whole teddy and not just the head) when done in a taupe colour and the chicken in lemon / yellow for Easter both make great baby gifts if you don't know the sex of the baby due but still want something knitted ready to hand over, if that makes sense.

Ravelry: Designs by Elaine Fitzpatrick is the person who has loads of fantastic designs for animals / wash cloth patterns I use to knit squares and sew together as blankets.

You could use double knitting which I do for the cardigan / jumpers for babies, but for blankets, I find chunky or Aran much better and the pattern stands out.  Plus you need less squares.  If you wanted you could add to the blanket as the baby gets bigger, say start cot size blanket and add as the little one grows, even add a leaf edge to it to finish it off .

I quite like doing a leaf edge for finishing off the bobble blankets (hopefully you will know what I mean for this)

Savvy_Sue

cheekyweegit said:

Not sure if this will help you, but I've used the animal wash cloth patterns from this site knitted several squares in chunky wool and joined them together for kids blankets and just used 5mm needles.

Great way of using up odd balls of chunky wool as if I remember correctly I got 3 animal squares out of a chunky ball of wool.

Aran also works well with it and if you are feeling confident, you can do it all in one colour but will need to work out a graph for your patterns so you know what you are doing and when.  

I've also knitted some of the animals onto the back of a baby jumper / cardigan.  I just happen to have a pattern the prefect size to knit the pattern into the back of them with a little tweaking now and again depending on the pattern I choses.

The teddy bear one is really cute (the one with the whole teddy and not just the head) when done in a taupe colour and the chicken in lemon / yellow for Easter both make great baby gifts if you don't know the sex of the baby due but still want something knitted ready to hand over, if that makes sense.

Ravelry: Designs by Elaine Fitzpatrick is the person who has loads of fantastic designs for animals / wash cloth patterns I use to knit squares and sew together as blankets.

You could use double knitting which I do for the cardigan / jumpers for babies, but for blankets, I find chunky or Aran much better and the pattern stands out.  Plus you need less squares.  If you wanted you could add to the blanket as the baby gets bigger, say start cot size blanket and add as the little one grows, even add a leaf edge to it to finish it off .

I quite like doing a leaf edge for finishing off the bobble blankets (hopefully you will know what I mean for this)

Oh My Goodness, WHAT a choice from Elaine, I have downloaded several. I may end up designing my own from her charts, or I've got a couple of reversible blankets in a shopping basket somewhere. I now have quite a lot of wool ... 

Savvy_Sue

MrsCD said:

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

Excellent. My sister has it, ready to go. 

Savvy_Sue

annieb64 said:

Savvy_Sue.Have you seen Marianna's Lasy Daisy's website?Lots of patterns for squares.

I have done a few things of hers before and I will go back to explore further. Found different patterns, not so many 'pictures'. 

Savvy_Sue

Thank you all so much. I now have A Lot of Orange wool, but while I was waiting to get to a wool shop I found this: 


Did you ever see anything so cute? Anyway, I have started another oversized tension square to see how tricky those tulips are. Answer: tricky ... and that's just the first row of that section!

The socks can wait ...

Nelliegrace

I think I would crochet the little flowers and sew them on. 

FrugalFalafel

Hi all!
I've seen a few videos recently of people frogging wool items from charity shops to get wool to make new knitted/crocheted items.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Could this be a money saving winner or in practice is it just a lot of faff and not worth it? I would think the fibres would be wavey after being unravelled which would make reworking them harder. And you'd have to not be too picky about the quantity/colour/quality/yarn weights you're looking for etc.
Thanks!
Nicki

PipneyJane

FrugalFalafel said:

Hi all!
I've seen a few videos recently of people frogging wool items from charity shops to get wool to make new knitted/crocheted items.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Could this be a money saving winner or in practice is it just a lot of faff and not worth it? I would think the fibres would be wavey after being unravelled which would make reworking them harder. And you'd have to not be too picky about the quantity/colour/quality/yarn weights you're looking for etc.
Thanks!
Nicki

Hi Nicki @FrugalFalafel

The answer to "is it worth the effort" is "it depends". It depends if something is factory made or handmade, which you can only tell by looking at the seams.  If factory made, the seams will have been cut and sewn up on an overlocker, with the result that when you unravel, you'll have thousands of short lengths of yarn and that's just not worth the effort.

If it's handmade, then yes, you can resurrect the yarn, but it will need to "forget" the stitches it held or it'll knit up unevenly.  (Pure wool definitely has memory.  Other fibres vary.)  Once unravelled, tie it in big hanks and soak for a few minutes in a bucket of water.  Hang up somewhere and let it drip dry, after which it can be balled up to use.

It also depends on what you want to make, the quantity of yarn you've resurrected and the fibre content.  You can get a rough idea of fibre content by doing the "Flame Test".  Take a short piece of the yarn, hold it over the sink and set fire to it.  If it melts, it's acrylic.  If it burns quickly, it's cotton.  If you struggle to set fire to it, then it's wool.

To work out the weight/ply, there are calculators on line which will tell you how many wraps per inch you'll get when a particular weight of yarn is wrapped around a ruler.  Once you know that, and have weighed the yarn you've harvested, you'll be able to workout whether you have enough to make what you want.

Ultimately, only you can answer whether something is worth the effort.

HTH

- Pip