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 ...

You beat me to it bundy. MP did indeed have a felting fiasco recently tiktok and her account put me right off :(

It was the right sort of Noro, was it? (Sorry if I'm being patronising). It needs to be some like Kureyon that's completely wool to felt properly. I've done several bags in that and have had no problem at all with felting, but we've got a Dyson machine, so maybe that helps with the felting process because it's so vigorous?

I did put it in with other stuff - jeans, and other heavy stuff like towels. It may not have been Kureyon, and maybe it wasn't 100 per cent wool......of course I no longer have the band. Maybe that's where I have gone wrong :(

Thanks, though :)

Maybe if you've got some other 100% wool you could just do a quick tension square and see if that felts, to give you a bit of confidence before you risk buying more Noro. Certainly the boiling bit sounds as though it may not have been all wool- I know lots of Noro yarns have silk in them, and I guess that would be the kiss of death for felting. What a pain :(

tiktok

i did have a felting nightmare a while back - put me right off my stride too

I tried everything (apart from boiling on the hob, oh dear I feel a boiling episode coming on as my one last try), shoes and jeans in the machine, different temps, many repeated cycles etc. We have a miele front loader. I think a lot of the patterns recommend top loaders...

I was just trying to felt swatches, which was frustrating enough. They were definitely 100% wool too. I really feel for you trying to do a finished project...

good luck, let us know if you have success

tamum - I bet you're right. I have just checked the different Noro yarns and I think this was Iro - and there are lots of teeny little threads hanging out of the resultant pink and grey porridge non-bag which are probably silk. Iro is 25 per cent silk, according to that site.

Doh.

Thanks, MP. This was no big deal - not like spilling chocolate sauce down a cream sweater the first time on, or anything!!

It took me an hour or so to knit it, that's all.

And I have learnt something important from it!

I pulled out almost an entire sock the other night because I saw I had totally messed the gusset bit and the needles were too big for the yarn (new to socks, I am) and I didn't mind a bit, 'cos it helps you learn the construction of it. I have almost finished its much better replacement.

Aha :) I like the serene and philosophical outlook too- I have frogged lots of things recently because they just don't look the way I expected them to, but as long as I enjoyed knitting them, or learnt something from the pattern, I just don't mind any more. Conversely I have a Helen's lace shawl which I hated knitting because it was a) bloody boring and b) never-ending, but I wear it all the time as a scarf.

thanks littlefish , marina and tamum for your comments . I'll aim to find the Pipsqueaks book . had a quick look on amazon and it was £30+ for a used copy! will let you know how I get on. xxx

pipsqueak, CAT me, might be able to help with the odd pattern (within copyright law of course ) at £30 on Amazon! Have you tried abebooks instead?

Tsk, and you a librarian too :o

Under EU copyright law I can supply her gratis with one pattern from Pipsqueaks as it is out of print. Get back in the lab, lady, and leave photocopying to the professional

marina

thanks so much for the kind offer . I have ordered it now on a website i found called up country or something like that . it was much less on there. getting very excited now about my new project..yonks since i did any knitting. ive just got to remember to finish it before dd2 grows out of it unlike my last effort!

That's good pipsqueak. I was sure I'd seen it around for less than £30! Happy knitting, it's a lovely book.

Following on from my last post,I have now got the Pipsqueaks book which is great and am doing the "Sport" pattern cardi. My problem is that I have never done buttonholes before and am finding them a little (ie a lot!) difficult. The pattern has a button band in moss stitch of 5 stitches (P1 K1) twice P1. The instructions for the buttonhole are moss st 2, yrn, patt 2 tog, . Sounds simple but my efforts so far just look like i have dropped a stitch or something weird! I may be doing the yrn bit wrong. any tips or shall i just sew on some poppers? Really pleased with it apart from the flipping buttonholes though! any help gratefully received xx

It's gone a bit quiet on here...
Vital Texere Yarns Catalogue update for anyone interested...Christine says it still isn't back from the printers.
I think bundy mentioned on another thread somewhere that Tadpoles and Tiddlers, plus the Big Rowan Book of Patterns (or some such title) were on offer on the Rowan website. Well, I succumbed and can highly recommend both books. The Big Book especially is brilliant value and full of really nice items that come from long o/p smaller pattern books.

Some good offers on that site, Marina, thanks.

I've ordered some back issues of the Rowan magazine plus a half-price copy of the Ultimate Book of Knits.

I have had some lovely merino wool tops from texture yarns

I thought of you because they do loads of stuff for loom-botherers and cyberknitters

I am struggling to finish my first sweater for a member of the family (second sweater ever). It's coming out ok, I'm on the collar now. I am debating undoing it from the bottom up and working on the bottom edge again, though, as it didn't quite come out right. Will have to look into how to do that.

But first, I have to make an elephant tail today. What does an elephant tail look like? Is there a bit of hair on the end?

Hmmmm. Quite a lot of hair \link{http://www.wildlife-pictures-online.com/elephant-tail_kgr-0466.html\apparently}

Good luck with that :)

Hmm, I think I will have the hair come out the end, rather than the two sides?

It should be fine, I'm using my 4-ply, but with two strands held together. At least in theory. Probably should get started on that, eh ...

Tail made. Nothing like knitting with two strands on 5mm needles to make it go fast.