Knitting chat

[tamum]

Just thought I would start a thread that can be resurrected when any of us have bits and pieces to share.

NQC, there is a tie pattern in the latest issue of Interweave Knits

For hand-dyed yarn fans, I recently ordered some silk from Curious Yarns that was gorgeous. Highly recommended!

Oh, yes, anyone know any good shops in Reading? I'm there next week ...

I used to buy my yarn in Heelas (JL) there when I was a student, but my knowledge is very, very out of date

I think it might be time to visit the American side of the family very soon actually...

tamum, will be moving your way next year so we must meet up (I'm sure dh will be working in same building as you or at least nearby).
Am currently in Oxon and all likely shops closing.
Till then!

(That looks like a threat, doesn't it? Not meant to be!!)

Oh fab, we can have our own little MN-knitting group

Where is your dh going to be based, or don't you want to say? I am at the Western (tamum casts all remaining shreds of anonymity to the winds...)

Pruni, I think there's still a yarn store in Bicester. Dunno which end of Oxon you're in, though. I'd expect there'd be something in Oxford itself ...

A-ha! No, not hospital based...KB. But anyway it doesn't matter, we can still get out knitting group together. Prob we shouldn't carry on the location/subject chat - though I am dying to know what you work on exactly.
Think I will be the junior member of any group...questions like How do you erm increase a stitch...?

Oxford is shit for everything NQC except posing in subfusc

Aha, my dh is at KB. Have CATd you

Pruni, the first SnB book is good for that kind of thing.

There are a bunch of ways to increase a stitch - you can knit into the front and back of a stitch. You can knit + perl into the same leg of a stitch. You can pick up, and knit, the bit of yarn that runs between the current stitch and the next one. You can knit a stitch from the row below (I've never got that one working, though). One of these makes a "bump", but I don't remember which one. (I know my decreases better than my increases, what with all the hats ...)

Oh, and what's a subfusc? (And while I'm asking, what's infra dig?)

I'd have thoght knitting and purling into the same leg would make a bump, and also knitting a stitch below.
I don't like the picking up of the yarn between the needles, i always seem to end up with a hole.
My favourite is knitting into the front and back of a stitch i think.
Oh, iirc there is another one too, yarn round needle, (as if you were doing knit 1 purl 1 rib) but then carry on as usual.

Subfusc is the name for the gloomy looking black gowns that are worn in Oxford during term-time

Giraffe, I agree about increasing, I like knitting and purling into the same stitch best. If I pick up a strand though I knit into the back of it- that seems to avoid holes.

YO (where you just wrap the yarn around the needle) always makes a hole. But that's useful sometimes.

I'm not good with increases. I keep trying fancy textures that involve lots of reducing + increasing, but they just annoy me. (The last one involved knitting two stitches together, but making 5 stitches from it, by knitting into the front/back/front/back/front of the two stitches. Not fun.)

I have just been contemplating a pattern with bobbles for my dd and that seems similar.

Oh, gah, bobbles.

I will have to do a hat covered in bobbles to get over my bobble-phobia. I made a couple of things with bobbles in, for the MN blanket, and they looked like pimples, not bobbles!

tamum have finally got your CAT and will reply soon.

I have been using the YO method and am not happy with the holes. Thought it was just my bad technique... I am off to get a s'n'b book a.s.a.p.

Pruni, you want Stitch'n'Bitch, rather than Stitch'n'Bitch Nation. FYI. Good diagrams, nice and clear. If you want to do "continental" knitting, rather than English, there are instructions for that, too.

The woman in my local three-balls-of-wool shop told me conspiratorially about 'continental knitting'. She made it sound vaguely dirty...

Consequently I am keen to try it. Thanks!

Just got it and replied

YO is used in lace knitting, so I can imagine it might be non-ideal in other contexts. I agree about SnB, it's good. Debbie Bliss's How to Knit is also pretty good, but I find I learned so much from my granny as a child I don't really have any experience of learning from books, so I may be way off-beam!

I like learning things from books. Although I did find having a friend actually show me "continental" knitting helped with that bit.

Ok, quick knitting help needed! I have decided to make a tie for FIL, for Monday. I am thinking about using two wool blends. The yarns aren't the same weight, but that's ok, isn't it? Given that a tie won't exactly be machine washed regularly?

I'm thinking about doing something simple and stripey, maybe with a bit of texture. Knit it in the round and press it flat, I guess.

The two yarns are the same sort of thing, though. But big blocks of horizontal colours, different textures (maybe seed for one, ribbed for the other?)?

Hmm- it might go in and out a bit but I guess you mean they would knit to the same tension, do you? But different washing properties? That would be fine I'd have thought.

I was planning to use the same needles for both, but you're right, I should change needles.

I think that would be safer, it would look a bit odd if the width varied a lot I guess. We should put pics up somewhere, shouldn't we?

What is "continental kitting"? Sounds like something you'd see on Eurotrash.