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 ...

Any opinions?

I think the loose cast off would roll up- that's quite a nice look I think, but maybe not very practical, and it would depend on what the back looks like. I would probably do what you suggest, a short rib but in a single colour. Boy, you're going to be using that yarn for the next 20 years

That makes sense. I don't think a roll brim would look that good.

It's a pity there isn't a way to let the natural wavyness of the pattern show in the brim. Those triangle and pleat hats manage it, but then, they don't roll up, as they're half knits and half purls.

I do like roll brims, but not with funny colour effects on the other side.

I think I will have a go at a sweater for DS2, while we are on holiday. I think I will start with a Debbie Bliss pattern, for a boat necked sort of jumper, but obviously with different stitches/inch and yarn.

But what I really want to change about the pattern, is to do it seamless. Probably from the bottom up. So I take a few stitches off for the (missing) selvedge, but do my increases and decreases where I like on the body. Then pick up stitches from the armholes to knit the arms (again missing out selvedge). How do I do shoulders? Given I will have something that is a tube, then two flat bits, then a tube again?

Crumbs, I don't know about shoulders. All the seamless jumpers I've made have changed to flat knitting from the armholes up. The only ones that have been seamless all through have been top down (Knitting Pure and Simple do a lot of patterns like this). I can have a look in the seamfree workshop book later

Maybe I should look at topdown patterns. I just want to make a simple jumper.

Does this look ok? It's based on EZ stuff.

And what is Woolease?

And what is a yoked sweater? If I'm knitting for the boys, I need a big neckhole, as they both have freaky big heads.

FioFio, is the extra stitch in moss or ribbing? You shold be able to find it by looking back, but it's tricky seeing things, sometimes.

It does look fine, but a yoked sweater would normally be kind of like those Scandinavian style jumpers (like this , so I'm not sure how wide you could make it. At least you'd know straight away with top down though...Wool Ease is a Lion Brand yarn I think, certainly one of the US cheaper brands, my guess is quite synthetic.

Fio, what a pain. It sounds nice though- is it for you?

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It was for NQC You're right, steeking is possible (if scary ), but if you knit from the top you don't even have to do that, you just leave the sleeve bits on a holder and come back to them. It's the sloping for the shoulders that's puzzling us, but it must be possible I guess!

Fio, that's such a shame

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I haven't got it (shocker) but it looks good, doesn't it? The shop we've been discussing in Edinburgh has a really good selection of books, I forgot to mention.

That does look good.

I've found a pattern for a raglan sweater from the top-down. I'll look at both patterns, see how they work, and decide what to do.

I'm also visiting a Borders today, and will check out their crafting section. If they've got anything tempting, will grab it.

It's frustrating to be going offline, so I need to sort out knitting stuff this week, to do me for 10 days. I figure a sweater in my albatross of yarn for DS2 will keep me busy for a few days, and if I keep the instructions, I guess I could make one for DS1 too.

Am I being overly optimistic in hoping to find some alpaca while I'm away? Probably.

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Oh yes, never fear.

I think I may be growing out of hats, actually. Well, I'll keep making baby hats, but I think making something else is a good plan.

Lol at the albatross of yarn

There is a company called Manos del Uruguay that do fabulous yarns but apart from that vague connection to South America I don't know. You'd think alpaca would be really easy to come by there, wouldn't you?

Well, alpaca is mostly from Peru, not Mexico.

My chevronny hat is really really wrong. It fits like a yarmulke, on me. So I think I will back up, then decrease a lot, and make it a tam-o-shanter/beret, with a ribbed edge.

Oh, and the giant Borders had lots of knitting books, in great chaos, but nothing actually useful. That knitting encylopedia looked good, but not as good as Montse. I did buy this , because it looked cute.

There were books about knitting and spirituality, several of them. Very odd.

Oh, there is a knitting "district" in the nearby city, so I might hit that. Also, there's a knitters group in the town I'm going to (!!). Very odd.

But I do not need any more yarn! Really.

This afternoon, I went to Foyle's, and got this and this .

The first one looks like stuff I could work out on my own, but still, looks interesting. The second one is a bit wanky, but informative, too.

I had a good look at that encyclopedia of knitting, and it looks ok, but not as authoritative as Montse.

Oh, I also picked up two knitting mags, haven't really looked at them yet. I'm busy unknitting the rib on the strange hat, and thinking about how to shrink it. If it's being a tam or beret, it needs to be longer than a normal hat, so I might do a few more rows of normal, then decrease as fast as possible, effectively. (Well, within the chevronny thing, obviously.)