The Knitters Thread

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

Def agre ree Woolovers pilling - am sick of them. I do like their cotton though.

Drat, they are no longer selling just the pure (thicker) cotton. I wish I had bought more years ago. The ones on sale now all have something added and look very thin. I bought similar once and couldn`t wear it, it showed every bone and bump and was very thin, a waste of money.

plumduff55

Hi everyone, I had a brilliant day at the SECC and am now sitting absolutely shattered.

I was quite good and only bought one pack of wool to knit a chunky gilet with a moss stitch collar and bands. It was £16 for the pack including pattern and one large button. This was from the Wool Shop Leeds. I also bought 3 Sirdar sublime pattern books for £1 each. Lovely patterns but the writing is really small. Oh and just remembered I bought double knitting wool to knit dgd a hat and scarf from one of the sublime books.

I also bought recycled cotton polyester wadding for quilting. Never heard of this before but as it was only £8 a metre for 96" wide I thought I'd give it a try. This was from a trader who has a shop in Inverness. Great day :j

Kittie, can I ask - what is a hitchhiker? Never heard of this xx

srn

Love this thread. I have recently returned to knitting and am finding it so helpful with all of the suggestions of the different yarns. I have just started a hitchhiker scarf and treated myself to some Karbonz knitting needles-lovely, thanks Kittie. I think I'll gradually replace all of my needles with them as I need different sizes. I have also made myself a roll up knitting needle holder today, worked out really well and am quite proud of myself. I have lightly quilted it to protect the points and have sorted out all of my needles so just have one good pair of each size (shortly to be replaced by Karbonz needles) and various crochet hooks and cable needles. I just need to work out how to stop my puppy running off with the wool now!

[Deleted User]

srn wrote: »

. I think I'll gradually replace all of my needles with them as I need different sizes. I have also made myself a roll up knitting needle holder today, worked out really well and am quite proud of myself. I have lightly quilted it to protect the points and have sorted out all of my needles so just have one good pair of each size (shortly to be replaced by Karbonz needles) and various crochet hooks and cable needles.!

That is exactly what I did. I love my needle holders and have a few, some for dpns and small bags for stitch holders etc. I bought cheap cream cotton drawstring bags and put my loose circular needles in them, writing the size and lengths on the bags. I do have knit pro nova circular btw and they are good, metal tips not wood. They work out much more expensive as you need all sorts of lengths at times, the interchangeable ones are better value overall.

I have chiaogoo twist with both lengths of tips in one case, I did add to it over time and I undid some seaming so I could fit more things in, like extra cables. The cables join together in endless combinations and there are also cable ends which stop knitting sliding off if using two needles separately. Looking at my twist kit now I have 13 longer tips in sizes from 2.75 to 10mm and I added 8 pairs of short pins, bought on their own. I must have bought the complete set to begin with, If I could only have one set of needles, which would upset me, then I would choose this tidy lovely setup, which takes up only a tiny space 20 x 16 cm. It is such a lovely kit, ideal as a present but expensive compared to buying one pair of needles

Getting rid of any of my needles now would upset me a lot. They are the sort of needles that I can stroke and lovingly placed in gorgeous needle holders. I bought some holders from america as they were so lovely and beautifully made, I even have a lightly padded patterned purple silk one. Every needle is in a holder of some sort, even the bamboo ones but they are in cheaper cotton holders, sorted nevertheless. I have some twisty springy plastic loops that hold some needles together in pairs.

Thats it, I am going to re-sort my knitting boxes this morning

mardatha

Plumduff a Hitchhiker is a pattern - it's on Ravelry and you can download it for a couple of £. It's a brilliant easy scarf/shawl/neck thing and very versatile. I was knitting Samadhi, by the same designer, before I found Hitchhiker. Got 3 of them in the drawer lol and now I need to do meself an HH because I like it better.

[Deleted User]

Blocking makes a heck of a difference to a finished garment. In the old days, when every yarn was wool, I just used to wash, roll in a towel and pat down. It has become an art form on ravelty. Today I finished my urban poncho, it is completely finished and just cooling and resting. I spun the yarn without much care as I wanted a rougher looking yarn that didn`t take me too long to prepare, ok I needed to stash bust

I used my steam iron and lots of hot steam, very close to the garment and I used the iron in a bouncing motion on the wool, as well as patting with my hand. It has made one heck of a difference and inproved the look 100%. I was thinking while doing this, to remind people that this does not work with any synthetic yarm, it will take all the body out. With a synthetic I would very lightly steam from on high or better to pin out and spray lightly with water. If I am doing this then I use big white jigsaw pieces, like playroom flooring. Special blocking pins and then I also weave flexible wire along the edges if a shawl

If I make socks as presents then I soak the made socks roll in a towel and put them on a sock former, I have them in different sizes, had them for years.

All my stuff is now tidy and I found 2 sets of short tips that have been mis-placed for a long time. wrt bamboo dpns, they are fab and identical to the few pairs of more expensive brittany pins. I have 2 different lengths and some are as thin as toothpicks

spirit

Thanks for telling us Kittie how you do your blocking. I had thought of asking on here how people do it!

I am currently blocking the latest baby crossover cardi - again from Debbie Bliss. I have it on a damp teatowel on a tray. I suppose I could use a wooden pastry board that I no longer use.

I agree though that blocking work makes a world of difference.

hiddenshadow

Interesting needle discussion, I'll have to try out bamboo DPNs. I got some unknown metal DPNs off ebay from a charity but they're too long to really work, and a bit too slippery. I've generally been a magic loop person but I'd like to try socks on DPNs, and I've got a blanket pattern (Vivid) that calls for DPNs (tried it with magic loop and my squares were very wonky ). Would also like to see what the wood is like, my interchangeable circulars are HiyaHiya metal but sometimes my hands hurt with them, so wood might be easier.

maryb

Whoop, whoop. Uniqlo sale, cashmere jumper reduced from £80 to £50. I do need at least one "smart" jumper and it takes the pressure off to finish a jumper just to have something to wear. But the quality isn't as good as previous years. Annoying

ac085

I was wondering if anyone here can help.

I am looking to knit a baby/premie cardigan. I don't mind the size as I will probably donate/gift it.
I have been knitting few years and can inc, dec, slip stitch, kfb etc.
I have used mattress stitch for seaming so have a little experience in seaming.

I don't know how to use dpn's and don't have a circular needle small enough for a baby.

Do you know any good (free) patterns that I can use for a simple baby cardi?
I want it to be simple as I will knitting to relax/while watching tv
I am likely to be using DK or Aran weight.

Thanks in advance