More knitting chat ...

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, new pictures, photobucket.com/albums/c176/NotQuiteCockney/?sc=6 . I like both new hats, although the photos are rubbish. (Am I not holding the camera still?)

Not sure what to do next, am slightly uninspired. Thinking about tubular knitting? DH has a colleague whose wife is having a baby, so I should do one for them ...

That's not quite right. Link is here .

hello nqc i do love your hats, are they knitted circularly? are they difficult?

have been knitting a little lately, but my tendency to substitute wool and not do tension sq has lead to a jumper baby-sized in length but paractically adult in width and a charming but drafty hat.

They're all circular, the cabling ones are a bit difficult, but most are easy. Those triangle and pleat ones are very easy, and the multicolour one is done without ever using more than one strand of yarn. So not hard, really.

You do have to do tension squares, particularly if you fiddle with things. But you know that.

unravelling the jumper, becoming debbie bliss scarfy hood thing - no idea whether ds will wear it or whether it'll be finished this winter - 1metre+ rib to do i might die of boredom. next is this for sister bday.

where do you get nice hat patterns? i've seen plenty of woolly flower pots or daft bonnets with pompoms.

Um, these hats are all my own design. I think I found some inspiration, initially, from the free patterns on knitting.about.com.

If you're interested in one of mine, I can try to write it up. I should try to write these up, anyway.

The bag looks nice. Is it felted? Are you going to use actual Noro? I've never used it, it looks v pretty.

NQC - How long does it take you to make a hat? I find anything fussy like cabling or rib stitch soooooooooo fidly and time consuming.

Do you sell your hats? I think it would make a nice work from home business

These are really lovely NQC. Very impressed. What are they made of?

busybusybee, it depends. In a fine yarn, it takes me a few days of off and on knitting. In a coarse yarn, I guess a day?

Ribbing is fine, I can do that on auto pilot, cabling is a bit harder, but worth it, for the results.

I don't sell them, they're gifts for people. I don't think the economics works out well for selling them - materials cost anything from 50p (the latest hats, got some Jaeger merino very cheap) to a £6. And time ... well, they'd be very expensive.

And they're made out of anything from bamboo (the pink one) to cashmerino (the purple ones) to plain merino (most of the rest).

I ask NQC because i am inspired by the idea of a craft selling business even if it isnt very profitable.

There is a craft co op near us that sells hats. The lady uses merino wool in fancy colours and knits hats. I think she rears the sheep and dyes the wool herself. They sell for about £18

don't think the bag is felted. i quite fancy a go though so it wouldn't matter either way. yes will use noro, awfully expensive will follow instructions this time

i'd love a pattern for your triangly one it is so lovely, but if you are going to sell any perhaps you should keep it a secret - i saw a few stalls with knitted stuff at spitalfields, but don't know how well they do.

i do like knitting smaller things, there is something very encouraging about instructions saying 6 balls rather than 26.

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Fab new hats, NQC, they are lovely. I know what you mean about cost- I once tried adding up how much it would take to break even on a child's jumper paying myself the minimum wage and I got to well over £100 and stopped calculating

Just got some more Lantern Moon needles from Get Knitted and am in heaven- they are just beautiful objects and wonderful to knit with. I got some ebony and some blondewood.

fishie, that bag does look nice, but I would bet it's felted. It's very easy to do though, I 've made quite a lot of felted Noro bags, they make great presents. I'm sure your sister will love it!

Pruni, it's quite easy to get dpns, most shops should have them in packs of 5 (well, most yarn shops, obviously). You can certainly use bits of thread instead of stitch markers, it's just that if you have lots on the needle, as you can do for lace knitting, it's nice to be able to carry on flying along in a way you can't with bits of wool, really. You can get them on eBay very cheaply, and Curious Yarns sell lovely sets- bit pricey though.

I am still doing the Kaalund lace shawl, which is looking lovely, and a Jaeger aran wool jacket. I got one of these yesterday too, as I'm curious to have a go. I don't want to get into spinning really, just think it would be interesting to try. It looks fearfully complicated though.

fishie, the triangle one is easy-peasy, just knits and perls, and circular knitting. You do have to keep an eye on what's happening, but there are no fancy techniques at all.

I'll try to write it out, probably for DK.

Are Lantern Moon needles only straight ones? I have found myself preferring circular ones, and Madwoman has explained that circular ones are better with German knitting, because of how the weight is distributed.

Lantern Moon needles are straight, but they are apparently starting to make circulars now. Can't for the life of me remember where I read it, but it was somewhere very recently. They are very glide-y and point-y

I forgot before- I have started to upload some pictures of things, here . The photo of the Kaalund doesn't do it justice, and it won't look right until it's been blocked, but it gives some idea.

Hope noone minds me butting in but a few weeks ago I saw a link somewhere on this topic to a freeform knitting site - and I can't find it again. Does anyone know what I mean?

Was it this one Copper? I googled freeform knitting, and that was the only link that I'd obviously clicked on recently!

Oh, and please don't anyone feel they're butting in, the more the merrier (she says, generously, on NQC's thread)

Yes, thats the one! I thought I might try some of this as I have years of odd bits of wool to do something with. Many thanks, tamum

Yes, absolutely, this is a general knitting chat thread, not a "talk about NQC's hats" thread!

I am struggling a bit with needles at the moment ... some of the bamboo DPNS have gone snaggy at the tips. I think I can sand them? Or something?

i bet you can..and oil after if they go dusty. btw i have created my first ever cable(pair of baby cashemerino socks for me) and feeling very proud...

Cables are lovely, and not that hard really, for how lovely they are.

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quite agree, i think they could be lifechanging hope the knitting is keeping you busy after your bad news, x

I'm not actually knitting today, I am between projects. But I think I will make one of those starburst hats? Maybe knitted from the top down, in two colours? (Where the increases are paired to make a star pattern? Does anyone know what I mean?)

I learned to knit from my mom, sorta. She used to be a knitwear designer. So knitting is a bit delicate today, but hey, so is reading, so whatever.