The Knitters Thread

2childmum2

I have finished the first sleeve of my yellow jumper!!!! I unpicked so many rows I reckon I must have knitted it twice. I'm taking a break, to hit a nice straight forward hat, and then I will battle through the second sleeve, before I forget how to do it.

It had better fit me after all this!

PipneyJane

2childmum2 wrote: »

I have finished the first sleeve of my yellow jumper!!!! I unpicked so many rows I reckon I must have knitted it twice. I'm taking a break, to hit a nice straight forward hat, and then I will battle through the second sleeve, before I forget how to do it.

It had better fit me after all this!

Yay, you! Don't leave it too long to start the second sleeve - you may forget the things you did to make the first one work.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Just a suggestion, but if you can find the other end of that ball of yarn, you could start knitting the second sock before you finish the toe of that one, then if you run out you can do both toes in a different wool.

Or just do what my Mum did: I have one pair of socks where she'd obviously run out of wool on the second toe and finished in a different colour. :rotfl:

And finally, on the subject of knitting pairs of things, I sometimes weigh my yarn before starting, and then note what's left on the ball at various stages to gauge how far it's going!

I did weigh both the first pair of socks (74g) and the remaining yarn (also 74g, but had the ball band on it). To ensure I don't run out of yarn, I've shortened the legs by 8 rows, which'll cover anything weird (like joins in the middle, etc).

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

and what I'm knitting: I have finally finished the back, fronts and both sides of my mohair cardigan. 'Just' the bands and the pocket tops to do.

and I am a bit stumped. There's no diagram on the pattern of how it all fits together. I'm supposed to sew the side and sleeve seams, and then pick up stitches along the right front, right sleeve, back, left sleeve and left front. So far, so easy. But I can't work out how the sleeves fit: they are raglan, except there's a narrow strip at the top of each one which I think is meant to go along the back at the top. It may not help that I didn't actually cast off at the top of anything - obviously I can do that now, but I've got these sleeves with a wide rectangle at the top, with a narrow rectangle beyond that at one side. Hard to describe and I'm no use with pictures ...

Well, I've got a craft group on Monday, I shall take all the bits to that and consult one of my Expert Friends!

It sounds like your sweater has a "strap" on both shoulders, which runs up to the neckline, with the shoulders of the front and back joining onto that instead of onto each other. Does that make sense?

Shoulder straps are quite straightforward, once you've got your head around them. They're very common in Aran knits, where they'll be decorated by a cabled pattern.

HTH

- Pip

Savvy_Sue

Yes, I think that's it. I need to spread them out and take a good look, which is going to happen tonight.

I've started experimenting with the front bands. The pattern says to cast off two stitches for the buttonholes, but that only leaves a very small hole. I've tried with 3 and 4, and I've also tried a straight knit instead of the rib it tells you to do. I prefer the rib.

BUT the book I bought on finishing techniques explains how to knit it onto the front, which I think is what I will do. Saves all that pesky sewing up ...

The first cardigan I did, you picked up stitches along the front and knitted your rib onto that. But unsure how many stitches I'd have to pick up in order to do that, so I'll go with the new technique of knitting the ends of the front rows into the front bands.

Seakay

Hi 2childmum2 - sorry to hear you have been feeling so poorly. Were the Innocent hats which were giving you problems from the Innocent site? I use the beginner patterns from there. http://www.thebigknit.co.uk/knitting-patterns

Savvy_Sue

PipneyJane wrote: »

It sounds like your sweater has a "strap" on both shoulders, which runs up to the neckline, with the shoulders of the front and back joining onto that instead of onto each other. Does that make sense?

Shoulder straps are quite straightforward, once you've got your head around them. They're very common in Aran knits, where they'll be decorated by a cabled pattern.

And at least now I have something to search for, to make a bit more sense of it. Which it did, having spread it all out in front of us, but no-one had ever seen anything quite like it.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I've started experimenting with the front bands. The pattern says to cast off two stitches for the buttonholes, but that only leaves a very small hole. I've tried with 3 and 4, and I've also tried a straight knit instead of the rib it tells you to do. I prefer the rib.

BUT the book I bought on finishing techniques explains how to knit it onto the front, which I think is what I will do. Saves all that pesky sewing up ...

Anyway, I have decided to knit the front bands before I join the rest of it up, and so far it's going OK. The band is knitted on a smaller needle than the main sweater, so I'm hoping it won't pucker up. I'm doing the button band first as I think it will have to have more rows than the buttonhole side suggests. I'm marking every 10 rows so I can work out how many buttonholes I actually NEED and where to put them. If if followed the pattern rigidly I'm sure I'd end up with them uneven at top or bottom. :rotfl:

CAFCGirl

Hello All,

I was gifted a lovely new loom set for my birthday. It's in separate pieces so I can create various sizes with it, for single or double knitting, in the flat or round.
I've put it together with an oval and am starting on a spring shrug. Annoyingly though, it's started to curl so I need to see if I can fix that. The yarn was a splurge but is a lovely spring hombre cake affair and it feels nice and soft to the touch so fingers crossed

lynseydee

Has anyone ever used yarn from Iceland. I have a chance of obtaining some but have never used it so not sure what it's like.

PipneyJane

lynseydee wrote: »

Has anyone ever used yarn from Iceland. I have a chance of obtaining some but have never used it so not sure what it's like.

Lopi? Go for it! I had the pleasure of doing an Icelandic knitting class several years ago, knitting with Lopi. I would definitely use it again and would knit a traditional Icelandic sweater out of it. It's very warm.

It's usually presented as a single-ply and will tolerate being knitted up as a substitute for DK, Aran and Chunky. In the hand, it reminded me of knitting with Alpaca; it's a slightly silky to the touch, long staple wool without a huge amount of crimp (if I recall correctly). Soft, too. The stuff I used was not prickly.

HTH

- Pip

lynseydee

PipneyJane wrote: »

Lopi? Go for it! I had the pleasure of doing an Icelandic knitting class several years ago, knitting with Lopi. I would definitely use it again and would knit a traditional Icelandic sweater out of it. It's very warm.

It's usually presented as a single-ply and will tolerate being knitted up as a substitute for DK, Aran and Chunky. In the hand, it reminded me of knitting with Alpaca; it's a slightly silky to the touch, long staple wool without a huge amount of crimp (if I recall correctly). Soft, too. The stuff I used was not prickly.

HTH

- Pip

I'm not sure. It's somebody that gets shipments of discontinued yarn from Iceland so can't say what exactly is in there. He is offering 100 balls for £53 including postage but not sure if I should go for it.

Seakay

lynseydee - I've knitted with the a couple of weights of Lopi wool and really loved using them I've never used the single ply laceweight, but Aran and I think chunky (it was a while ago!) or maybe chunky and superchunky. They came in great colours and were smooth to knit with. The garments weren't scratchy to wear.