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 ...

Yes NQC and bundy it is the blue and white denim striped cardy with moss stitch collar and bandings (I think it's Pipsqueaks, either that or Rowan Junior or Babies).
So, how was your train journey? Hope your back-in-action moby was not wafting any worrying aromas round the carriage :)

I have yet to see any cardies named after the Hairy Pea bundle! Maybe stitch'n'bitch could publish a pattern for a becoming moss-stitch straitjacket...:)
I like the Mimi one too. Have you made it? The words four-ply worried me...

I love that cardi! (i did it for a friend yonks ago, but with black/white stripey sleeves and back, and tomatoey red front..with some lovely stripey b/w buttons from johnny lou's - the lovely thing was i got it back once her children had grown out of it for my own )

The train journey was pretty hideous (4 hrs there 3.5 back) but made more bearable by gin n tonic on the way back. met some lovely people there though, and saw two hernia ops! i also managed to do the front of another dolly so time well spent...

i love 4ply at the moment, the dollies are made out of it (using cashmerino as it was the exact colour i wanted) and also did the fluffy rowan scarf in kidsilk haze..i think it's ok if the garment is a manageable size (ie not for an adult..or if it is, it has to have no sleeves)

(haven't made the mimi - yet)

Glad to be of use Marina :) I just wondered whether A Winter's Tale might have something in too, although it's more aran-y as I recall. I think you could adapt the Denim patterns to normal DK cotton quite easily, you'd just have to knit it a third shorter, I guess.

My temptation for you for today is \link{http://knittersreview.com/article_tool.asp?article=/review/product/060309_a.asp\here}, just the thing for train journeys. For some reason the idea of it being the size of a PDA is immensely appealing.... what a price though!

The idea of bamboo adjustable needles sounds really tempting.

Why do all the kits only go down to US size 5, though? What about those of us who don't knit with bits of rope and broomsticks?

I want one of those Denise jobbies- sounds fab.

Actually, I have a problem.

I just knitted a new hat for DD and did it as a double layer fair isle in Rowan wool, but it's come up a bit small. Is there anything I can do? Have heard about 'blocking' but unsure about the exact details.
It took me bloody ages so am a bit loath to abandon as a lost cause...

Oh, and I finally finished that bloody yellow hat.

Now to take pictures of it, probably on DS2.

My next knitting project will be:

• a baby sweater? I need to start making baby cardigans. Seam-free, of course?
• my new weird hat idea. This will be hard work.
• another version of the triangle-and-pleat hat, with an eye to writing up the pattern ... but I can't, as this would drive me insane.
• a cardi for me, made out of that slubby stuff.

Probably a baby sweater ...

Giraffeski, you want to dampen the hat, and stretch it, essentially. For a hat, the normal way to do it is on a bowl of the appropriate size?

I've never actually blocked anything, though, so I'm just preaching from montse.

How did you do the double-layer thing? Double-knitting? Or a sausage hat?

Did it as a sausage thingy. Was quite pleased with it, as it happens, and even managed to carry on my patterns in my increases and decreases.

Am going to try the bowl thing. How long do I need to leave it? Until it's dry?

Would a blown up balloon work, does one think?

A blown-up balloon might, but I'd worry about it deforming a bit.

Yes, I'd leave it until dry. You can just spritz it wet, I think.

I have decided to do \link{http://www.wam.umd.edu/~brwb/GarterSt.html\this} sweater now. I think. It's knit from the bottom-up, so I guess I could do raglan sleeves instead. But somehow, I don't like the look of raglan sleeves at the moment ... are they more comfortable and practical?

I found a few different ways to do seamless, or nearly seamless sweaters, knitting from cuff to cuff, knitting top-down, and knitting bottom up. Oh, and something with a yoke, and short rows. I didn't understand that one. I'll probably try all of them.

One thing I'm having problems finding is the measurements. How big around should a baby sweater be, for a newborn-6 months sort of size. (I know, the body gets lots bigger in that time, I just need ballpark!). How big should the wrists be? The neck? How long is the body? How long are the arms?

I found {http://knitting.about.com/library/blbabycoat.htm\this} pattern, which is theoretically based on EZ's work. But ... I don't really like the look of it. Does other EZ stuff look like this?

Knitty has some really great pages setting out all the different types of sleeves. And the Craft Council of America sets out what the official measurements are for different sizes. Does anyone know of any UK sites with the same information? Normal US childrens' clothing sizes are deeply bizarre.

Erm, greetings oh mysterious knitting people :)

I'm sorry to intrude on your special woolly area, but I have a favour to ask. I run heuristic play classes for babies and am always looking for different natural materials for them to play and explore with. It is quite hard for me to source knitted items that are suitable, but NQC was kind enough to send me some little odds and ends of knitting for the baskets which are absolutely perfect. If anyone else has any little bits they have no use for (for instance your tension squares, or something you may have started and then abandoned) then I could give them a good home. I would happily reimburse you for postage, wool and time.

The pieces would need to be small enough fo a baby to hold in their hands, suitable for chewing (so nothing too hairy that could shed) and preferably made of natural yarn rather than acrylics.

Please let me know if you could help and I will let you have my details.

Oh, whoops, hadn't realised you wanted non-synthetics. Some of the stuff I sent was blends.

Oh, and the green cabled thing is merino and that llama stuff. From Peru?

My brain has apparently died. Back to throwing out toys.

Oh, Franny.

The knitting thread.

Oi! :-P

:o

The stuff you sent was mostly non-synthetics, NQC, I am sure it was. It was lovely, whatever it was.

Greeny, get ye gone back to your sugarcraft thread

None of it is more than 50% synthetic. The pale green yarn (part of the ... er ... most thinglike sort of thing, and all of the triangly thing) is 50% cotton, 50% synthetic. And there's a bit of synthetic in the dark burgundy. The rest is all cotton or linen or wool of whatever sort.

(The most thinglike thing is a bunch of icord bits, I kept starting up new icords by picking up stitches from the last icord, and I joined it all together into a loop using that shoulder cast-off. It was interesting to make.)

FandZ, I'll happily make you some things. My children used to do heuristic play at their nursery, it was great. I'll do some different textures and maybe contrasting colours and so on? Some cotton and some wool. I've never done bobbles before so it would be a good place to try :)

NQC, I was going to suggest the Knitty sleeve pages, but you got there first. They're written by Jenna Wilson, who designed the Rogue pattern I'm always raving about. That baby garment looks instantly recognisable as EZ, I would say, but she's not always quite that (ahem) rustic. Have you looked at \link{http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/\Knitting Pure and Simple} patterns? Quite a few UK stores sell them now, and they are mostly top-down, seam-free(ish). I did one jumper that I really like that has short row shaping to make the sleeves- I don't know if that's the same as the complicated instructions you found. It's \link{http://iwpshopinfo.interweave.com/Knits/2003%20newsletters/Winter2003projects.htm\here}, Dolman Updated. It has seams down the middle, but could easily be adapted, but it is flat knitting not circular. It was quite easy, although I hadn't done short row shaping before. IK does explain things well usually, I find.

Oh, those Knitting Pure and Simple patterns look really nice. I might well get some.

I am ok with short row shaping. I've just started doing short rows, but I like them. \link{http://knitting.about.com/library/blbabyswe2.htm\Here} is the pattern with short-row shaping.

\link{http://knitting.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=www.thinkingknitter.com/BabyPatt.htm\This} is the cuff-to-cuff sweater.

I'll have to try a different style. At least now I have some webpages that will tell me the names of all these different styles. I'm curious to try to make some of the more complicated styles, without seams ... but that's just me being brave, I guess.

I am churning my way through the body of the sweater, though. I will have to figure out how much I need to do, by figuring out how big around the cardi is going to be, and then working how long the body should be, given that. I think I've done 3 or 4 inches so far.

Anything would be wonderful, Tamum. It's ok to have synthetics in there, honest, just a majority of natural materials is better. Textures would be fantastic, and any colours are fine, one of the things about heuristic play as you no doubt know is that the natural colours of a lot of the objects are quite soothing and restful, so don't feel you have to provide a technicolour experience :)

If anyone makes pompoms large enough that a baby couldn't swallow them, I would particularly like some of those.

NQC, the things you sent are so tactile and so nice to fiddle with I keep picking them up myself to have a quick twiddle :)

F&Z - if you let me have your details, I'll see if I can find any old tension squares.