Knitting - help and advice super thread!

cmbutterfly45

iguana wrote: »

I finished my first jumper tonight.

this is amazing well done is it hard to knit the picture in im not that advanced yet!!

vitani

iguana wrote: »

I actually Swiss Darned the rocket on. I'm not confident enough yet to try actually knitting the picture in.

Wow - you wouldn't know the difference by looking at it. Is swiss darning complicated? I'm fairly new to cross-stitching - would it be along the same lines?

iguana

The darning is pretty easy. I knit a scarf before I did the jumper and practised on it with the help of a youtube tutorial, so I could get a feel for it. The basic stitch is pretty easy and after that all you have to do is make sure your wools are the same thickness and always do the bottom stitches first as if you try to darn under a stitch you've already darned you'll disrupt it. The one thing I'll change for next time is to plan out my picture better in future, maybe by drawing up a grid first. On the scarf I darned in lettering and it was easy to figure out where each stitch was needed before I started. With the rocket, especially because it's diagonal, I got it wrong a few times and had a bit of trial and error undoing a lot of lines in the process.

I found doing the neck of the jumper to be the hardest part. I hadn't known that the neck is all knit together, I'd assumed it was stitched together like the rest. I was literally sweating while trying to put it together. Especially when I had to create the new stitches at the front. I was so terrified that I'd destroy the whole thing.

x Purple Pawprints x

Has anyone here tried arm knitting?

RiverOfLove

I have a knitting pattern that I would like to try. It requires a stitch holder half way through. I don't have a stitch holder and it will be another week before I get into town to buy one. Is there anything I can use instead of a stitch holder? I have some cable needles. I could they do instead? Is there anything around the home I could use?

x Purple Pawprints x

How many stitches do you have to hold? If it's a small amount a safety pin would do.

wmpdd3

x Purple Pawprints x wrote: »

Has anyone here tried arm knitting?

As in knitting on your arms with a few stand s of thick material, if so yes. Great for scarves or throws.

x Purple Pawprints x

Yes. I'd love to try it.

kandr10

RiverOfLove wrote: »

I have a knitting pattern that I would like to try. It requires a stitch holder half way through. I don't have a stitch holder and it will be another week before I get into town to buy one. Is there anything I can use instead of a stitch holder? I have some cable needles. I could they do instead? Is there anything around the home I could use?

I've often used a cable needle, a double pointed needle with tape on one side to stop them slipping, a pencil, a safety pin etc. prob not advised generally but always worked for me and I've yet to buy holders :-)

ValerieR

RiverOfLove wrote: »

I have a knitting pattern that I would like to try. It requires a stitch holder half way through. I don't have a stitch holder and it will be another week before I get into town to buy one. Is there anything I can use instead of a stitch holder? I have some cable needles. I could they do instead? Is there anything around the home I could use?

A cable needle, a wooden skewer cut to size, with an elastic wound on both sides should do the trick - alternatively, as suggested in a previous post, a safety pin - or you could use a little of bit of wool through these stitches, tie it in a loop and gather up these stitches once you are ready for them.

Best of luck with your project

aknitter

RiverOfLove wrote: »

I have a knitting pattern that I would like to try. It requires a stitch holder half way through. I don't have a stitch holder and it will be another week before I get into town to buy one. Is there anything I can use instead of a stitch holder? I have some cable needles. I could they do instead? Is there anything around the home I could use?

Using a knitters sewing needle (a big one with a blunt point) thread some wool through the stitches and tie off the yarn in a loose circle.you can then reinsert your needle later, its a bit fiddly but will work for larger numbers of stitches

vitani

I got it into my head the other day that I wanted to make my little one a dress and cardigan to wear on Christmas day. I'm leaving it horribly late to start but I think I just about have enough time if I start this evening. Going to go and look at wool and Christmas fabric this lunchtime.

duckling10

janmaree wrote: »

Would any of you be Aran knitters and have you ever worked with the traditional oiled yarn? What I'm thinking is that when we buy coloured Aran wool, the natural lanolin in the original cream yarn has been washed away in the dyeing process. I don't recall ever getting that oily feeling on my fingers and needles when I knit with coloured Aran yarn, only with the original oiled yarn which usually came in hanks that had to be wound into balls first. Anyone remember back that far............or is just me? (I'm very, very old btw. )

I'm trying to locate oiled coloured Aran yarn for a friend but I suspect there's no such thing. Any information would be very helpful, and thanks.

Not to worry, I'm kinda old too...
I don;t remember the oiled Aran, but as I use a spinning wheel, I can look at this question form the point of spinning:
Oiled wool would either be the wool from the sheep which has not been washed so much as to take out all the lanolin (naturallly occuring oil) from it and so oiled wool would I imagine almost always be the natural colour, because in order to dye the wool different colours, it would have to be washed (scoured) very well, as the dye will not take evenly on wool which has its natural lanolin left in.
The second way I would imagine that wool is oily is because wool is sometimes also oiled after washing(scouring) and dyeing, to make it easier to spin, with various types of oil, and so it could be possible to get dyed (coloured) oiled Aranwool.
However, it might be the case that most manufacturers would have washed the yarn/item again after spinning/knitting to get rid of the oil, most wool in shops these days is not oily.
Does that help?

kinkygirl

theLuggage wrote: »

I'm at about the same level I'd say. Started back in Feb and have done two baby cardigans, lol! At this rate I'll be lucky to get my third item done while its still winter - it's going to be a nice shawl/scarf thing, first thing for myself

Sounds like you're doing great, keep going

Thanks for the encouragment. My next project will be a baby cardigan!
I've joined a knitting club..start next week ,and with the help of You Tube am learning lots of new stitches. Wow, I love knitting.

wmpdd3

vitani wrote: »

I got it into my head the other day that I wanted to make my little one a dress and cardigan to wear on Christmas day. I'm leaving it horribly late to start but I think I just about have enough time if I start this evening. Going to go and look at wool and Christmas fabric this lunchtime.

Depends how little she is!

vitani

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Depends how little she is!

She's in age 2 clothes, so thankfully still quite little! The dress is actually coming along quite well - another evening or two and it should be finished and (hopefully) wearable. It's only the second dress I've ever made so I'm really pleased with how it's going. And then I'm going to make a red long-sleeve bolero style cardigan to go with it.

wmpdd3

Sounds great, I love doing dress for them up to about 5, then it just takes too long!

The_Morrigan

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nicowa

Can someone look at the directions to this pattern and tell me what I'm missing?

Pattern:

Cast on 24 sts (or any number of stiches dividable with 4).

Knit 2 rows

Knit pattern row:

K4, (YO, K2tog, K2) repeat between ( ) 5 times.

Repeat the pattern row until your scarf is at desired length.

Knit 1 row.

Cast off loosely.

Finishing:

Weave in ends.

I feel like it would just disappear.

vitani

YO means 'yarn over' or wrapping the yarn around the needle. If it's on a knit row, bring the yarn to the front and wrap it around to the back before knitting your next stitch. It will create the extra stitch that you lose when you knit 2 together.

nicowa

Thanks. I was getting it mixed up with slip stitch over..

iguana

I was looking for a way to keep my floats tidy during colourwork last night and I discovered that there are two types of knitting. So are you an English or a Continental knitter? I'm English but am practising Continental tonight as it seems that once you get the hang of it, it's significantly faster.

j@utis

Continental way is much faster, esp purl stitch. English knitting way looks awkward and way too laborious to me.
p.s. I machine knit most of the time but I can hand knit pretty well to. I just prefer the look of the machine knit over the hand knit.

theLuggage

When starting back to knitting I was told to learn Continental as it was faster but English was just too familiar for me so I stuck to it! When I'm a bit more confident with my knitting I'll probably try to swap over. It definitely seems the way to go. I heard there is less movement in it as well so hands dont get as tired/sore?

j@utis

oh yes, it's way much less movement involved. check youtube videos out, search for continental or european style knitting.

kylith

Please bear with me, I'm a self-taught crocheter venturing into knitting.

I got a ball of wool earlier in Hickeys that I know is sufficient to crochet a scarf, but it has instructions attached to knit a scarf and I want to give it a try. I'm trying to work out the pattern but, not being a knitter, it's kinda gobbledegook to me and I'd like to make sure I have it right.

The instructions are:
Alt K1, P1; work 1 yarn over before each stitch. On all foll rows work sts as they appear and a yarn-over before each stitch. let the yarn overs of previous row slide off the needle.

If I've translated it properly I should: do one knit stitch then one purl stich. Yarn over (I understand how to do this) before each knit stitch. On every return row follow the yo, knit one, purl one pattern, but drop the yo stitches from the previous row.

I know I may have gotten in over my head here, but the beauty of wool is that I can always rip it back and do it again!

Thanks in advance!

ETA: I think I've worked it out.
Cast on
1: *y-o knit 1*, turn
2: *Y-o, purl 1, drop stitch*, turn
3: *Y-o, knit 1, drop stitch*, turn
4: Repeat 1 & 2

looksee

Looks to me as though you should do the yarn-over before every stitch: *yo knit 1, yo p1*, repeat to end. You are then working single rib, but before each stitch drop the previous yo and create another one. You should end up with a widely spaced rib pattern.

kylith

looksee wrote: »

Looks to me as though you should do the yarn-over before every stitch: *yo knit 1, yo p1*, repeat to end. You are then working single rib, but before each stitch drop the previous yo and create another one. You should end up with a widely spaced rib pattern.

It's working out very well with a row of knit (yo before every stitch) then a row of purl (yo before every stitch). I tried alternating knit and purl stitches in the row but wound up with a total mess.

I'm very proud of myself as I'm not much of a knitter, I'm working from what I learned in 1st class! I don't think I'll want to give this scarf again.

aknitter

http://www.allfreeknitting.com/Knit-Hats/go-wild-knitted-animal-hats

9 free knitting patterns!

RiverOfLove

Last time I posted here about 3 weeks back, I asked about stitch holders and what to use instead of them with great intentions of starting a new knitting project the following day. I came down with a cold and didn't knit that day or for a few days. I made it into town the following weekend and picked up some stitch holders. Thanks for all the fantastic recommendations.

I'm looking forward to doing a lot of knitting during the Christmas holidays. Happy Christmas to all here and hope you all have a good one.