The Knitters Thread

Patricia01

Get them online - you'll have to wait for them to arrive, but I got 3 bunches of circular needles for about £5 on ebay, and they're great for taking your current project out and shoving it into your bag half-way through a row!

[Deleted User]

I have been doing a re-think of how I knit, not the method but the sizing and patterns. I recently gave away five bulky hm pure wool items, also home spun, all good but made me look like a very warm whale. Too shapeless and quite honestly too big. It was that old thing of me remaining stuck in my old size, in my head. In actual fact I have lost over 8kg and that is only the start

I have to finish my last afterlight drapey top, in red, this is waist shaped with 2/3 length sleeves. I wish I had made them a size smaller as they hang lower on the shoulders, look nice but not bare for winter, not for me. I want them as layering tops for winter so have bought a couple of black silk ss t shirts to go underneath and that works

So from now on I will be making smaller sized knitwear, smaller than I think I need. I already use a size smaller needle to get tension. I won`t generally be making jumpers but I will be making some cardigans as my aim now is to wear layers, which fits in with all the KM clearing that I have done. I will continue to make ss summer wear as I can use very luxury fibre eg silk/cashmere blends and get pleasure also from spinning them. At the moment, I have grey falkland wool on my wheel and am steadily spinning that up as a 3 ply, destined to be a very useful cardigan, one day

[Deleted User]

omg, I have just been rooting for my next top, I am not ready yet but am doing a rav browse. The whole of the underneath of my tall bed is full of stash boxes and sealed poly bags of stash, yarn and fibre. The stash I was looking for is not there but was in one of 4 boxes in my craft room. enough stash for my lifetime. I have donated what I don`t want to keep but all of this stash is nice, quality stuff

Next stash use will be noro hanabatake, bought it in an online sale over a year ago. It is random dyed and so I am looking for a sideways knit top with a bit of style. recommended tension is 16-18 rows and 22-24 stitches

This one comes close enough to tension, I am never an accurate tension anyway and there is adaptability in the style

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/al-fresco-3

In the meantime I continue with afterlight, trying to make sense of my scribblings, I shortened the length (shaped) and raised the V. I am about half way and it will take all the christmas holidays. I will set to and work out noro tension, ready to start. Its a nice yarn wool/silk/mohair and will make a special overtop

Glad

I've just started knitting again after my daughter asked me to teach her last year
last week my son's girlfriend asked me to teach her too, which is fun because she takes it home with her then visits twice a week for me to sort it out I bought her some lovely ombre wool from B&M to knit a scarf and also bought a ball in blue and turqoise as they are my daughter's favourite colours, she's living abroad now but I sent her a pic of the wool and said I'd knit her something with it, maybe a hat, she said 'oh that's lovely can you knit me some fingerless gloves', that will be a first for me but I've found a free pattern that states I can knit a pair in 2 hours! I'll start tomorrow

[Deleted User]

I am wearing a hm home spun top today, its very easy to wear and very useful as an overtop, for latering. I made mine in a merino/silk blend, approximately equal to an aran wool but I can see me making this over and over in fine yarns. It drapes nicely and is a very simple knit, all stocking and garter. It looks expensive and in the hm yarn is rustic
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/urban-poncho-pullover
I may well make the same in the grey falkland 3 ply that I am spinning, it is a slow spin ie thin singles and three plied together to make a yarn that is rounded, probably more useful to me than a cardigan

Glad

well the pattern I was following for the fingerless gloves was full of mistakes! however I've managed to adapt it and one is finished

[Deleted User]

thank goodness for winter I usually manage to get a couple of garments made and have just finished my third and last afterlight. Red one this time and I know why I made them, they are cool and good for layering or wearing on their own in spring. I made the sleeves elbow length so they are not hot tops

My next project is a small one and I already had the yarns in, shetland wool, 5 colours and called a schwook hat
https://www.hazeltindall.com/shwook-hat#.Wk8uVTenw2w

I had half an hour with nothing to do, a month ago and did the swatch and also the first couple of rows on dpns.

I`ll be ready for my next big make in a week or so and this time will be stash busting a whole box of noro. I first have to do the very dull swatches.

oh yes, I have leftovers in the afterlight yarn, including one whole skein, so will be dividing up today and getting two identical halves of each quantity, to make a pair of socks and any leftovers after that will be made into small hanging bags, I keep them near my spinning wheels for bits and bobs. The sock pattern will be the free one that I had with the gorgeous opal sock yarn

hiddenshadow

Ooh, that hat pattern is lovely.

I'm currently working on a pair of lacy socks which are pretty, but tricky to fit my feet as I knit loosely. Using a lovely yarn from an indie dyer from....Devon, I think? Dorset? somewhere like that.

I'm also trying to spin more (as in, I've spun twice in January and not at all in December, lol). I bought quite a bit of fibre in the year-end sales, and got gifted a braid over Christmas, so I'm looking forward to working with that.

[Deleted User]

I have almost finished the hat, could not put it down and went to bed late but slept like a log. I just have some more reducing rows for the crown and will have to go back to dpns as the row is starting to stretch out on the circular needle. Its very lovely to make and next time I order the shetland wool, I will order a couple of extra colours because it does not use very much of three colours and I can then get two hats out of + two extra balls. I have dozens of ends to weave in but the hat is so warm, I am going to do the wash and block on a bowl and will be very glad to have this warm cosy hat, which will bloom when washed and there will be no air spaces left

[Deleted User]

Hat is finished and is drying on an upside down mixing bowl. Took me one and 2/3 of a day and I had to turn the radio off because I needed to concentrate. I love shetland wool, its warmth, the bloom and the way that loose ends don`t unravel when woven in. I have achy fingers and thumb now so need to have a knitting break for a couple of days

I think I will give family adults a choice for next christmas, one of these hats or a pair of hm socks, the choice is in case they would not wear a hat. Now I am going to weigh the remains and work out how many g I used of each colour. It might be that I can make another hat from the same wools but in reversed colours

I am also eyeing up the afterlife yarn remains and the one spare hank will make a pair of socks, might even get 2 pairs from all the remnants. I am thinking that maybe I will try sock circulars, I have some the right length ie 9" but that is a fiddling length to work with, maybe I am missing something, youtube will show me