Knit, Crochet and Natter 5 - the roadmap to MORE YARN!

[lazylinguist]

A thread for knitters, crocheters and yarn crafters of all kinds. Total beginners very much welcome! Previous thread here

Oooh @lucysmam that sounds clever! can you only do like square/rectangular projects or?
Why kind of scarf are you going for?

Ooooops. Accidental yarn purchase! Popped into town to return a pair of trousers and noticed the yarn and crafts shop had a yarn sale on. Rude not to at least go in and browse, right?

I bought 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss Lhasa (50% cashmere 50% yak). It was reduced from £23.95 to £7.50 for a 50g ball . It's so soft I just couldn't resist. But the 3 skeins came to less than the price of the trousers I returned, so obviously it doesn't really count as spending money...

Oops lazy but what a bargain!

I may have been shopping too... I'm going to make this top with it

lazy that money was already spent, so... 🤷‍♀️

Plus you’re helping the economy 😉

I didn’t buy yarn today but I did make DH drive into town so we could buy some cookies from the deli 😳 Our town tries to be really eco friendly and has tried to get rid of plastic. Most shops now use paper bags, which is great until it pisses down! My paper bag with my cookies collapsed as we got out the car. Fortunately they had a separate paper bag so the cookies survived.

Pretty colour, Flavia! Is that a Kate Davies pattern? I like her stuff.

Of course now that I've bought some yarn, I've just spent ages mucking about on Ravelry looking at things I could make with it! If you had 150g/300m of very soft, bulky wool in 3 different colours, what would you make with it? I was wondering about some mittens or wrist warmers. Or a slouchy hat. It needs to be something where I'll appreciate the softness of the yarn!

@sophs29 I'm not sure; I'm just going to try a scarf with some writing for now. If it does have to chart as a square/rectangle though; you could always just use the shape you want iyswim from what it generates, I think, since you control what colour goes where.

lazy & Flavia your yarns are lovely colours. I keep half looking at more but should finish some unstarted projects first 🤔

I prefer wristwarmers to mittens or gloves lazy, I like to still be able to do stuff with my hands & not be taking them off and on.

InTheNight glad your cookies survived, baked goods are my favourite 😋. I treated dd1 to 'secret cake' this week .

Oooh lovely purchases! And brilliant colours!
@lucysmam yes that's true! Never heard of it before!

It is Kate Davies lazy I love her patterns

I’ve made the winter dreamer hat in bulky yarn and I really like it www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/winter-dreamer-hat

I love these wrist warmers www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nejiri-wrist-warmers

I haven't actually made anything of hers yet, Flavia. I hadn't heard of her until I read about her on MN in the context of the knitting 'purity spiral' furore and how people had tried to 'cancel' her for no good reason and that her sales had suffered as a result. I bought one of her books in solidarity but haven't made anything from it yet! Utterly and disturbingly bonkers, that whole affair.

Oh I know. It’s so strange how knitting seems to be so susceptible to these spirals. I watched a podcast the other night from a Irish knitter who was discussing what Hogwarts house she was in and all the while calling jk Rowling ‘problematic’ and ‘the original creator of this world’. Madness. Somehow I doubt any of the women unfortunate enough to be attacked by or incarcerated with Barbie Kardashian in Ireland would think JK Rowling should be cancelled for wrong-think...

And I'm frogging this I think. Purling fair Isle is not fun at all, I couldn't face an entire shawl with it...

Eek - purling Fairisle definitely doesn't sound like fun! I'm progressing a bit faster with my Goldwing. I'm almost at the point in the yoke where the colour dominance swaps and the blue becomes the background colour.

The colours don't look very good in that photo! The green is much greener and less yellowish really, and the blue is a bit darker.

It looks lovely and neat in the stitches!

I swatched for the Kate Davies top and I'm a bit baffled at how many needle sizes I'm having to go down to get gauge. I'm onto 2mm at the moment and it's an incredibly tight fabric and over gague for stitches and way under for rows. I keep double checking but I've definitely read it correctly I think I'm giving up for tonight and will try it on wooden needles instead of metal maybe.

@lazylinguist that is beautiful! I’m far too lazy to do anything like that, it’s rare I can be bothered to do anything other than knit and purl, so I’m always in awe of you lot!

I have used my flutterby huggable to make a cushion. The other side is white but I didn’t photo that because annoyingly there’s like a centimetre of yarn that had some black thread caught up in it (not from me, must have been the manufacturer) and it’s really obvious, so that’ll just have to always be the back rather than me being able to switch between the two like I’d intended. It’s so lovely and squishy and it’s got a really squishy cushion inside too. Just what i needed to cheer me up after being a little down this week.

Some very lovely projects here, I'm still lurking.

Im following a filet crochet pattern, and am down a whole hook size and still don't match the tension. I'm using 2.5 on scheepjes whirl (which is beautiful but basically dental floss) . I can't bring myself to go any lower. I've started this bloody scarf 3 times due to hook size 😭

My mosaic blanket is finished and the border is on hold. Here you go. 230 hours later.

Wow @Myshitisreal that's amazing!!!

shock] That blanket is amazing @Myshitisreal*! How long did it take you?

petridish - that cushion does look beautifully squishy. Sorry you've been a bit down this week. Here's to squishy cushions and some more spring-like weather to cheer people up!

I have one good piece of news though - I have an interview on Friday at the school I applied to! I should get the schedule early this week, so that I can plan my interview lesson(s) . Interview lessons are scary at the best of times, and I'm really not looking forward to doing one in a mask (which is extra unhelpful when teaching in a foreign language!).

I’m loving all the fair isle but could not imagine trying to purl it! Yikes!

Yay for the interview @lazy but that sounds awkward about teaching in a mask... Thankfully that's not something our head has insisted on, as long as we're 2m away from the kids. Means you can't circulate without a mask, but at least you can communicate effectively!

I have finished a knit basket and on to the next one- trying to rationalise and get rid of all my fiddly bits of leftover wool! Quite pleased with it so far! However I WILL finish those jumpers today before I return to the fun stuff 😂🙄

Wow Myshitisreal! That's incredible! 230 hours

That's really lovely petridishmystery, it looks so squashy and comfortable. That's a pity about the black thread, could you weave a couple of other colours in too and call it your artists signature? Sorry to hear you've been down

Brilliant lazy! Best of luck! Great you've been able to go round the school so they know you in advance with the masks then!

Duh- I obviously can't read 230 hours !

Wow myshitisreal that’s incredible. I can’t believe it only took 230 hours!

lazy congratulations and good luck for the interview. The jumper is looking really good.

petridish that cushion looks lovely and squishy.

kate loving the basket.

Everyone is making such lovely and intricate stuff. I’ve started doing my nephews lion blanket but it starts with hood which Is just rows of (uk) dc at the moment. So I feel a bit basic at the moment compared to everyone else

I always have something basic on the go too though, InTheNight - because there are times when I feel like knitting/crocheting but don't have the mental energy to actually concentrate! I'm still ploughing on with my Sockhead Cowl, which is just a knit stitch tube with a chunk if rib at either end. It's not much quicker to do than the jumper though, because it's lots of stitches on small needles!

I just tried swatching again with wooden needles and in meeting gauge with 3mm ones. I've never had such a jump between wooden and metal needles before but at least I can cast on now