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The Knitters Thread

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  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Seakay wrote: »
    thanks. I shall be doing some more browsing soon. Meanwhile, I have a number of different patterns for knitting poppies, and they come out different sizes. I am putting smaller ones inside bigger ones and I think I'm getting close to a peony for anyone who isn't THAT familiar with them! :rotfl:
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  • mardatha
    mardatha Posts: 15,612 Forumite
    Thanks Sue, it was a fancy slip st pattern with a colour change and the colours didn't work out. Abandoned ship and left it lol. TY x
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Rejoice with me, for a friend has a book of flower knitting patterns and has found me a peony!!! Five petals and some loopy bits in the middle. I think it will be fab.
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  • Glad
    Glad Posts: 18,927 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
    I'm making squares for out local National Trust estate, they'll be sewn into blankets and given away at Christmas, easy to do and using up all my DK scraps :)
    I am a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Wales, Small Biz MoneySaving, In My Home (includes DIY) MoneySaving, and Old style MoneySaving boards. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • I've offered to knit a shawl for a bride.

    Unfortunately, the pattern she has picked is a charted one.

    Any tips for an experienced knitter who has never used a chart???
  • nursemaggie
    nursemaggie Posts: 2,608 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    sorry I can't follow them either.
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I'm not an experienced knitter and I've never used a chart, but I think I'd be looking for a magnetic ruler and metal board, something like this. Other versions are available but as you'll see they seem to be a cross stitch thing!

    If it's a repeating pattern I'd also use two row counters, one to show my total number of rows and one to show my row in this repeat. AND I run a cotton thread throw each row to separate eg every 10 stitches so i keep track of where I am. But I'm a bit of a numpty if I don't concentrate ...
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  • PipneyJane
    PipneyJane Posts: 4,657 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    I've offered to knit a shawl for a bride.

    Unfortunately, the pattern she has picked is a charted one.

    Any tips for an experienced knitter who has never used a chart???

    Yes. I have several. Firstly, don’t be afraid of them - a chart is a visual representation of the knitting pattern. Once you’ve got used to them, you’ll wonder why you ever followed a written pattern for lace or cables. Charts are so much easier because you can see how the lace/cable is meant to look for the rows you’ve already worked and compare your work to it. Seriously, I struggled to knit a black lace jumper in the 1990’s, because the written lace pattern was so hard to follow. The jumper has multiple mistakes in it because I couldn’t visualise how it was meant to look.

    These days, if a chart doesn’t exist for lace or for a cable, I’ll chart it up.

    My tips:-

    1). Take a photocopy of the chart and put it in an A4 plastic pocket. Enlarge the chart up, if necessary. (Some are small.). If there are multiple charts forming one knitted row of the pattern, stick copies of them together in order on a sheet of A4, so that you can follow them in one place and see how your knitting should look. If you need to, stick 2 or 3 copies of a chart down the page, so you can see how a large section will look. Make sure you’ve included a copy of the chart key on your page.

    2). Highlighter tape. This is removable tape to mark the row of chart you’re on and one strip lasts ages. You can buy it on Amazon. It comes in multiple colours, too.

    3). A row counter for shaping. This will help you keep track of increases that may or may not be in your chart. Also, if you don’t need it for increases, I find using one to track the rows of the main pattern chart helps if someone decides that playing with your highlighter tape is funny. (Grrr........)

    HTH

    Pip
    "Be the type of woman that when you get out of bed in the morning, the devil says 'Oh crap. She's up.'

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  • wondercollie
    wondercollie Posts: 1,591 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks for all the tips!

    I'd never heard of highlighter tape until today, and I am stationery store junkie, lol.

    I knew about lifelines and thought I'd use crochet thread.

    She's given me the colour choice, so I'm going shopping with a friend to pick. It's a rectangle stole. The lacework involves thistles. So at first I thought I'd do ice blue/white, but a pal has shown me the groom's kilt and we're thinking about a soft mauve colour now.

    I've got nearly a year to do this!
  • Savvy_Sue
    Savvy_Sue Posts: 47,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    this is a bit of a numpty question but I'm not sure how to word it in a google.

    I'm at the top of the fronts, back and sleeves of a cardigan, ready to start shaping.

    On the fronts, it says I should finish on the right side for one front and on the wrong side for the other. Fair enough, makes sense to me, and I need to get it right because there are pockets in the front.

    However, I cannot quite work out what they mean by finishing on the front or back. I know which is the front: and the front is facing me when I knit odd rows. And I know which is the back: the back is facing me when I knit even rows which have a ribbish pattern to them.

    But do they mean that an odd row finishes on the front? And that I then turn the front away from me to start the shaping? Or t'other way round.

    Confused ...
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