The Knitters Thread

Savvy_Sue

annieb64 said:

I knit during online church too. Usually I try to do knitting  for charity so I feel less guilty. We've  been watching Mass from a monastery in Ireland as they were  still allowed to sing but we were  a bit late today so watched the Mass from Westminster  Cathedral  and they had a lovely  choir.

Well that's absolutely fine, the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was OK to knit in church. Admittedly that was to help the war effort by knitting socks for the troops, and I can't find the reference any more. And probably worth mentioning that I've been knitting during sermons IRL for several years now: noticed one of my friends doing so and thought "if she can, so can I". Thought I might persuade my mother to do so, she used to knit EVERYWHERE, but she held off ... 

Like you I usually do 'charity' knitting or at least for other people during church, someone in our church works for the Mission to Seafarers so we've had their patterns given out during services. But I was getting desperate to finish this cardigan!

annieb64

You've  reminded me that I have a skein of sock wool that I want to knit up into socks for DH for Christmas.  I want them to be a surprise  so plan to do them while he's  working  upstairs. I can hide them under some other knitting  in my bag. The problem  is that I need to wind the skien into a ball and that's  going to be difficult  to do while he's  in the house. Life was much easier  when he was going into  the office 

Savvy_Sue

annieb64 said:

You've  reminded me that I have a skein of sock wool that I want to knit up into socks for DH for Christmas.  I want them to be a surprise  so plan to do them while he's  working  upstairs. I can hide them under some other knitting  in my bag. The problem  is that I need to wind the skien into a ball and that's  going to be difficult  to do while he's  in the house. Life was much easier  when he was going into  the office 

Does he ever go out for a walk, or can you send him to do the shopping? 

DH always goes for a walk, for about an hour. Sometimes I go with him, but not always. 

OR, my mother's solution: she usually had several projects on the go, so if any of us spotted anything it would be for someone else. 

annieb64

If I go for a walk or run he wants to come with me! Even the other day when  I had knitting  to drop off he decided  to come too . I'm  trying  to persuade  him he needs a haircut  before lockdown so hope he goes to the barbers  in the next 3 days.
Wouldn't  dare trust him to go shopping  , he always  comes back with the wrong  thing even if I give him a detailed  list.

goldfinches

annieb64 said:

If I go for a walk or run he wants to come with me! Even the other day when  I had knitting  to drop off he decided  to come too . I'm  trying  to persuade  him he needs a haircut  before lockdown so hope he goes to the barbers  in the next 3 days.
Wouldn't  dare trust him to go shopping  , he always  comes back with the wrong  thing even if I give him a detailed  list.

Just couldn't resist commenting on this, it did make me laugh.
The pair of you seem to be tailor made for click and collect then, you do the click and send him to do the collect!

baggins11

Beautiful cardigan savvysue!

I wonder if any of you experienced knitters can offer a newbie some advice? I am just learning and have knitted a square successfully in standard stitch. At first I was having problems knitting too tight (this is why I gave up knitting at the age of 10, which is 30 yrs ago!) but I have now got to grips with it and it is starting to feel comfortable.

Now I am trying to purl and I am having the opposite problem of it knitting too loose and I can't seem to control the tension. Is this a common problem and are there any useful tips to try? I am left handed but fairly ambidextrous so knitting in the usual way.

nursemaggie

I really would not know I learned to knit at the age of 4. I can't remember anything about knitting until  made some gloves with DPNS at the age of five. I think you will just have to practice until both knit and pearl are the same tension. It does seem to get looser with age. I have to use needles 2 sizes smaller these days.

Savvy_Sue

I think it is not uncommon. In the absence of someone to watch what you're doing, see if anything useful comes up on Google.

If you have a Local Yarn Shop you can get to before Thursday there may be someone there who can help, or see if there's a local FB group you could join. Ours is brilliant for asking for help.

And a couple of the knitting groups I used to go to now 'meet' online so that's another possibility for getting help.

baggins11

Thank you for those ideas. I can't get to a yarn shop this week as work is very busy. It sounds like it might be a case of just keep practicing. 

I am hoping to join a knitting group when we can meet again but I would feel a bit awkward doing it on zoom (I haven't got used to doing zoom).  

PipneyJane

baggins11 said:

Beautiful cardigan savvysue!

I wonder if any of you experienced knitters can offer a newbie some advice? I am just learning and have knitted a square successfully in standard stitch. At first I was having problems knitting too tight (this is why I gave up knitting at the age of 10, which is 30 yrs ago!) but I have now got to grips with it and it is starting to feel comfortable.

Now I am trying to purl and I am having the opposite problem of it knitting too loose and I can't seem to control the tension. Is this a common problem and are there any useful tips to try? I am left handed but fairly ambidextrous so knitting in the usual way.

Hi @baggins11.  Different tensions for knitting and purling is not uncommon.  My personal suggestion would be to buy a couple of really large balls of wool, cast on 40 sts and just practice knitting and purling in blocks and then in alternate rows (as stocking stitch) until you run out of  yarn.  You aren't making anything, just practising.  It takes a while before your tension settles down.

If you still have a difference, after that, one solution is to use a different sized "working" needle when you purl to when you knit.  In your case, that means that when you are purling, your right hand needle would be smaller than when you are knitting.  (It's not a perfect solution, since it doesn't accomodate ribbing.)  Another would be to try purling from a different style of knitting - you could purl continental style - or to change how you tension your yarn in your hand.  There's a complete glossary of knitting styles here, if you want to learn how others do it.

Finally, I'd suggest Googling how Australians hold their knitting needles/Australian style knitting, since we tuck our thumbs under the working needle while knitting "English style", which makes it faster and more stable to knit, since that needle is always supported.

HTH

- Pip  (ex-pat Aussie)