Knitting chat

[wannabesybil]

Is this a good place to have a place for just chat, perhaps tangentially touching on knitting or any craft.

I am always chopping and changing my projects and have lost count of unfinished ones. I enjoy the chat around the stuff.

Today I am feeling so flattened I am almost certainly about to start a new project. I always get cheered up by a new project and depressed when I finish anything. Currently the most outrageous project outstanding is a sweater that actually took about three weeks to knit, not going much, and has been waiting for the final three seams to be stitched for over two years now. Anyone else feel the same?

Knitters! I need some very basic knitting help! I can cast on and purl but can't conquer knit stitch :(
If purl is: in, over, through, off.
What is knit?
Does that even make any sense?

It is how you put the needle in the stitch that makes the difference

For purl, the needle goes in the front of the stitch from right to left

For knit, the needle goes from left to right sort of going up, and the needles will cross over. Does that help?

Hiya, can I join in. I am about 3 inches from the end of my last cardigan sleeve and studiously avoiding it - what is wrong with me!

PWB (great name btw) I found knitting help.com an amazing resource when I was learning (and even now). Remember as well that changing from knit to purl means you have to hold the yarn on a different side (held at the back for knit, front for purl).

Oh yes, forgot about the wool being at the right side!

Hello. This thread is a bit scary, I'm a very new knitter so I only have one pathetic unfinished project on the go - a jacket for my nephew. I have done all the seams and everything. All I have left to do is sew in the zip and finish off the loose ends. Maybe he will get it for Christmas. But I can see that I'm destined to have a whole cupboard full of bits of various sweaters in a couple of years.

Now I'm knitting an illusion scarf for ds. I thought it would be really fun to do but it isn't really, I am finding it very irritating changing colour every two rows. But ds is right there asking me when I'm going to work on his scarf, so perhaps it won't take me too long.

Also dd has started learning to knit (in fact that's why I learned) and already has a few projects that will never be finished. I'd love suggestions for something she can do that she would find interesting yet achievable. She has done a couple of simple toys and a scarf so far. She would really like to try a sweater for herself but it would need to be easy and quick. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks all, I'm sadly even more confused :(
Why can't I do this? I need to find someone to show me I think. I'm a visual learner.
Will definitely check out knitting help though. Thank you :)

Have you tried youtube? I learn new techniques on there a lot

I will give YouTube a go that's a good idea :)

OK Ladies, my Christmas gift tutorial is for a really simple but effective reversible cable scarf. Let me know what you think?

OK, so you have x stitches on your left hand needle and an empty pin in your right hand.
You now stick your right hand needle into the front of the first stitch on your left hand needle, so you go into the stitch from front to back,left to right. The thread is at the back of the work. You loop it over the point of the right hand needle and bring it to the back again. Then you make the stitch by bringing the point of the right hand needle under the stitch and let it slip off.

If you need someone to show you, join Ravelry (Ravelry.com) and look for a group in your area.. Local yarn stores are also good for showing you.

prolific - there are good ones on youtube, but this is the one I found really useful. She uses huge needles and really thick yarn, so you can see really clearly what she's doing. Her chunky scarf (same website) was my first ever knitting project, and was super fast to knit. Good luck!

I've just been experimenting with trying a fair isle pattern - just a sample square. I'd always assumed it would be absurdly difficult, so was quite excited to find that I could actually do it. Only trouble is, I'm veeeery slow at it - anyone know how to hold the 2 different yarns in a way that makes it quicker to swap between them?

Oooh I've never done fair isle - nothing has caught my eye pattern wise yet. I would suspect though that it's one of those things that the more you do the better you get at it (probably does not help at all).

I finally finished my first proper cardigan for myself 2 days ago - well chuffed! Only problem is it's a chunky knit in Aran and it's now roasting!

Prolific - did you get any further forward in figuring knit stitch out?

another knitter and crocheter here...

Goldberry you can learn to knit with one strand in each hand (if you can;t already). there was a video linked to on ravelry demonstrating this... hang on...

here we go

Thanks - that's brilliant! Doesnt even look that tricky .

Goldberry - Fairisle scares me - I use enough bad language with stripes.

Lattelady - I have bookmarked that link and will definitely start that (no promises about anything being finished, you notice - I've just started another sweater at random, but I have been under stress).

I finally couldn't avoid the local Knit and Knatter any longer. I have to knit premie mittens next time I go (thinking of being bolshie and working on a blanket).

However I have a weakness for gossip, and they know some seriously good slander of the, 'I knew his father as well, just as bad, but then he did get in with wotshername that ran the old fish n chip shop...' 'And then I said, well, it's obvious why, but some folks can't be told and I said that I would never have thought it.' Lots of elderly Yorkshire women with an encyclopedic knowledge of the local ins and outs. I was able to contribute drug dealing neighbours, so I was accepted.

They are also all black belt knitters, and one did a really beautiful Christening shawl, she was showing it off ready for the Christmas stall and she said it was only 100g, and it looked so delicate. More like a Christening dress, with a little hood and a huge skirt. It was sort of fluffy and downy rather than lacy, it's hard to describe, but it was truly beautiful.

Also, they are knitting for charity in a big way, so I am looking forward to that. And someone there can crochet. I am odd in my learning skills. I am not too bad at learning from the written word, but only okayish if someone is helping me. However I have really got stuck learning crochet, so having someone to help is great.

at blackbelt knitters! Mind you, I guess one could do some serious damage with a pair of knitting needles...

Goldberry - it is a church based group, but I think the vicar, who is a lady, a knitter and completely lovely, is a bit nervous about going there.

Next time I go I will be introducing the idea of a circular needle and showing it off. It has a strong flavour of Open All Hours or Last of the Summer Wine - very Yorkshire (I'm not a native) and very traditional. I don't like calling it old fashioned, but they do their knitting the way they learned it and most of it was learned around sixty years ago. And some of it is absolutely beautiful, really lovely. And they are not averse to new ideas, but as they don't seem to do much internet, nor do they do much in the way of magazine buying (my guilty pleasure), they haven't really been exposed to the circular needle/eyelash yarn/ravelry stuff. They are still superb knitters, however, and I am a bit in awe. And they are also really nice ladies (even though I am grumping a bit) and very kind and patient with those who are trying to learn.

I think that we are living in a wonderful time for knitting! My grandmother, who lived to knit, wouldn't recognise half the stuff out there. All the fancy blends and the luxury stuff! She was lucky to have wool instead of acrylic (and does anyone else remember the acrylic of the sixties and seventies?). And the choice of needles we have - she wouldn't believe her luck. She would be ordering from Deramores daily!