The Knitters Thread

baggins11

Thanks Pip that is fantastic advice. I have just had a little go at Australian style and I think that might work for me. I haven't tried purl that way yet but the knitting seems more efficient for me. 

I have a few big cheap balls of wool so I will spend a few hours and see how I get on with that method.

Savvy_Sue

The other thing I wondered from that suggestion was to try some rib and see if that became more consistent?

Savvy_Sue

I think I knit Australian style, as did my mother!

baggins11

Well after several hours I think I am getting there. Australian style is definitely helping and purl does still feel really awkward but not quite so loose doing it that way.  I did 1 row knit, 1 row purl and it looks really neat and consistent so I feel like I am improving. I will try some rib next. My aim is to make a simple beanie before Xmas. I just need to find a straightforward pattern now.

PipneyJane

baggins11 said:

Well after several hours I think I am getting there. Australian style is definitely helping and purl does still feel really awkward but not quite so loose doing it that way.  I did 1 row knit, 1 row purl and it looks really neat and consistent so I feel like I am improving. I will try some rib next. My aim is to make a simple beanie before Xmas. I just need to find a straightforward pattern now.

Hi @baggins11.  Have you had a look at Ravelry?  It's a free site for yarniacs.  There's about 16,000 free beanie patterns available through there plus another 15k that are categorised as "toque" (the Canadian word for beanie).  Both hyperlinks will take you to the searches I did but you can filter down further, by weight of yarn, etc.

HTH

- Pip

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Hi baggins11, 
Snap, I am about to start knitting a beanie & found this which appealed.

all free knitting.com has a very simple beanie using 2 colours of wool called a Comfy Cozy Hat.

Hth

MrsSD

MrsCD

Not knitting related, but still 'crafty'. Changed my back door picture today. I'm not an expert artist at all  but I've enjoyed doing a different theme each month.

baggins11

That looks a really good hat mrs_salad_dodger, I might try that one also.  I need to do some more general practice first though.  I did some rib practice earlier and I had to think hard not to get mixed up!  

I have heard of Ravelry PipneyJane but not spent much time looking at it.  It sounds like it will be a great resource.

Lovely door art MrsCD, December will be a nice one to plan.

wondercollie

Canadian piping in, nothing wrong with a good toque, eh?

We love watching confused Americans when we tell them we don't have "beanies" and point them to a pile toques.  We'll even call them watch caps

PipneyJane

@MrsCD, that door is lovely.  I wish I could do something so beautiful.  (Can't draw for peanuts.)

In knitting news, I'm 3 rounds away from finishing my Trott jumper.  Hopefully I can can get it done without having to break open a fresh ball of yarn, but it'll be close.  I don't want to cannibalise my swatch, because it's also the swatch for another jumper in this yarn (in a different colour). 

I'm undecided whether to crack on with the second jumper, because I'm not a huge fan of the yarn but it'd be nice to use it all up and get rid.  Whatever I knit next won't involve having to look at every third stitch, in every round.

- Pip