Knit, Crochet and Natter Thread

[lazylinguist]

I was hoping to join a local rl knit&natter group, and then lockdown happened. But knitting and crochet are keeping me cheerful during lockdown and as the nights are drawing in!

There seem to be quite a few ongoing chat threads on other MN boards, so I wondered if there might be any interest in a rolling knitting and crochet thread, for anyone who fancies chatting about knitting, crochet and life in general of course! Total beginners and scarily experienced needle-wizards and everyone in between, all welcome.

Share your projects, yarn stash confessions, pattern niggles or newbie questions. Not sure if it will fizzle out after a few posts, but hey ho, worth a try!

I'm always astonished at how expensive knitting kits are, when there are so many patterns available for free. Definitely better to buy separately and DIY.

I think it's better to make up a kit yourself if you know what you're doing. That way you get exactly the right pattern, yarn and colour.

I am erring towards putting something together myself as it just seems ridiculously expensive for a pattern, a ball of wool and a pom pom!

I agree! kits are so expensive! maybe a nice knitting book with a few nice projects in and then a few balls of wool and Pom poms, that way if she really enjoys it there's other projects she could try!

I think the Toft ones seem expensive at first, but the pom poms in the kit are £10 to buy individually, the wool is actual wool spun in the UK and the patterns are fashionable and written for beginners. Plus since they're written for the wool in the kit it makes it easier to get gauge and a hat that fits.

I wouldn't buy one for me because I'd want to pick pattern and yarn myself but for a young beginner knitter who wants a simple and achievable project, I think they're pretty good.

With a pom-poms, I sew a button on the bottom of the Pom Pom and then attach it through the hat by leaving an appropriately sized hole in the top of the hat (easy with crochet - I don't know how a knitted hat is constructed!). This mean's the furry pom-poms can be removed for washing.

That's a very clever idea, SoupDragon! I must admit, it has never occurred to me to wonder how I am going to wash my lovely fur pompom hat...

I sewed a popper onto my pom pom but it involved a thimble and much muttering to get the needle though the leather. Now it's done it's great but a button would be much easier!

I bought pom-poms that had a little loop on them for making a key ring/bag charm. In fact the early ones were pom-pom key rings from Primark!

I sewed my first on onto the hat and then the hat got muddy I think. I cut the Pom Pom off anyway and then thought of the button trick. It helps that I have the world's biggest collection of buttons 😂😂

I sewed a popper onto my pom pom but it involved a thimble and much muttering to get the needle though the leather.

Muttering features a lot in my knitting and crocheting endeavours.

There's low-level, fairly calm muttering and there's agitated, stressed-out muttering, which sometimes involves expletives.

There's also the counting louder and louder with each number because someone is trying to talk to you even though they can see you are concentrating on crochet.

Yes, that too. You can buy knitting bags that say "Shut up, I'm counting!"

DS’s teacher mentioned how good he was at counting in twos, I said ooh, right, good, while I mentally reviewed all my muttered two four six... fifty eight... drat, lost count , start again

So glad the swearing was internal

@FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack

I sewed a popper onto my pom pom but it involved a thimble and much muttering to get the needle though the leather. Now it's done it's great but a button would be much easier!

You can get pompoms from amazon that come with poppers already sewn on. I ended up with the elastic loop ones

My partner will sit in silence gawping at the tv all night until I start counting my stitches and then he wants to talk about anything and everything

We're about to watch a carol service on live stream. I was hoping to knit at the same time, but my husband has turned the lights off and put the fire on and some candles, which is actually really nice, so I'll save the knitting for later. Just got back from a 10 mile snowy mountain walk, so I'm pretty tired and a bit achy!

I'm just back from a sea swim, linguist so I'll join you in a warming fire 🔥 I'll knit later when my fingers have thawed! (Any excuse, I'm so bored of this scarf I'm making as a Christmas present)

We have just had a turning on of the lights and Father Christmas in out little street. It was really sweet

That sounds lovely, bruffin!

Glad to have found this thread.

Just cast on a pair of socks for my daughter who works outside and did not realise that wool is warmer than acrylic. I have clearly failed as a mother...

I made her a beanie with leftover sock wool and she now "gets" it. So, the leftover leftover sock wool is being made into a mismatched pair of socks.

There is a lot of leftover sock wool...

Well if the DC declaring that Mary looked derpy wasn't un... whatsit enough, they declared that the baby Jesus looks like a toe!!! To be fair he does. I haven't embroidered his face yet (I think the eyes i have might be too big so was going to do French knots). And he will be wrapped in a mini blanket and laid in a manger.

Joyzzz - what a lovely thing to do for those babies! I'm not sure I have any wool that fits that description, but I'll have a look.

vivarium - it's socks where I particularly notice the extra warmth in proper wool!

CrochetBug - awww, little toe Jesus. He won't look like a toe once you're done!