Knit, Crochet and Natter 7: the School of Stitchcraft and Wizardry

[lazylinguist]

A thread for woolly crafters of all kinds, from beginner level to advanced sorcery!

Previous thread here

Oh my goodness - that is beautiful @lucysmam!!!

Wow that's lovely Nice work!

Aw, thank you both. I'm rediculously pleased with it 😊 I'm wondering about standing it on a large silver cake board with some snow stuff (you know the shredded stuff Poundland and Home Bargains sell type stuff) and a couple of battery tea lights maybe 🤔🎄

Ohh it's gorgeous!

Oh it's beautiful @lucysmam so dainty!

I can't wait to see all finished and set up.

I can't stop looking at patterns and then buying wool for the patterns that I don't have the skill or time to make yet.

I've nearly finished another elephant. I've decided to make an octopus as a baby gift next instead of another elephant. I'm desperate to start a pig pattern I've bought. I think it's probably a bit too difficult for me but I want to try anyway so I might start it after the octopus.

That looks wonderful! It would be a lovely effect with the tea lights lucysmam!

I find enthusiasm can carry me in skill levels I don't have yet Oysterbabe, that and YouTube

Sophs we don't have Aldi, drat! I have a list of stuff I get when I do get to shops we don't have here so I'll add that to it

Wow! @lucysmam that looks amazing! It will be so pretty with tea lights.

The sizing isn't quite right, but I think i know what needs changing. So I may have made a half decent glove pattern. The question is can I be bothered to work out different sizes and write it up and release it
And do I make the matching glove exactly the same, errors and all, or make it "better" and have a slightly odd in term of fitting pair?

Wow @CrochetBug that glove is very impressive!! I love the colours you've used too! I've struggled to find decent crochet glove patterns in the past, they're always just mittens, so I would persevere with it because it could be very popular!

Oo well done @CrochetBug. I think that could be popular. It's clean and modern.

I've just bought 20 balls of Drops Andes in light of grey for my Christmas present from DH to make Umaro blanket. I hope I like it when it comes. Has anyone made a double bedspread? I'm worried it's going to be super heavy(and impossible to wash - but then I can't remember having washed my current bedspread )

Wow - they're really good @CrochetBug! I think @sophs29 is right - they'd probably be really popular.

@MerylSqueak - I really like all of the Drops wool I've used, including Andes. I haven't made a full bedspread, but I did make a crochet blanket that goes all the way across the end of a double bed and jamgs down a good way at each side. I haven't washed it yet, but I think it would be doable.

I've finished my second elephant and have made a start on an octopus. I had to learn a couple of new stitches. How did people learn stuff before YouTube?

I wouldn't worry about washing it Meryl, unless something spills on it, I'd just put it outside in a breeze every so often...

Goodness knows Oysterbabe, I'd be lost without it My DM keeps saying how much my DGM would have loved it.

I would CrochetBug, I don't know much about crochet but it sounds like a goer! You could always think of it as creating a yarn slush fund They look great

DS1 has started to read the boy who grew dragons series and I'm thinking of making him a tiny dragon for his stocking. DS2 was nosying at my screen when I was looking at patterns so we'll see how well he can keep a secret

YouTube is indeed invaluable!
I've just been fascinated watching a video on Instagram on an account I follow called knittinglotta. She makes loads and loads of Scandi-style mittens and blankets with stranded colourwork pictures on them, often of celebrities or things from films or tv. They're not all to my taste (not everyone wants to go around with Freddie Mercury on the backs of their hands ) but she's very talented!

Anyway, she's just posted this video tutorial of how to do 'double knitting' - i.e. how to knit a piece with a pattern on it and simultaneously create the reverse coloured pattern on the other side of the fabric, both in stocking stitch, iyswim. Wondering if you've done this before, resident knitting wizard Flavia?

Here's a link to the video. It's part 2, so I presume the previous one showed how to cast on.

Knitting pretender more like Nope, I haven't, I've seen it done and admired it but I haven't seen a pattern I want to make enough to try it yet. That's usually how I end up doing new stuff...

I have some absolutely gorgeous patterns for colourwork mittens and I really do mean to make them, but I've just never got around to any of them. I really love how they look but gloves are so much handier for gripping little fingers!

I just got a notification from the library pop up as I typed that saying the this month's The Knitter magazine was available. I've been a bit underwhelmed the last couple of month but oh my goodness I like this months! I love all of those but especially the green 😍

Ooh I like the p65 pic! I just can't resist Fairisle! I'm looking forward to the Fairisle bit of dh's hat.

Thanks for the glove love . I'm part way through the 2nd one. Then going to work out different sizes. And then see where we end up!

Started a new pattern test for someone else as well, and of course have a billion WIPs on the go. I'll finish one of them this weekend. Honest

I’m drawn to the fairisle pic too while knitting fairisle!

Love the glove too CrochetBug

I've done various projects with stranded colourwork, but I've never actually made anything with a traditional Fairisle pattern. I have a fab book all about the origins and traditions of Fairisle knitting, with really old pictures of women knitting as they moved around between doing other tasks, wearing belts they stuck their needles into when they needed their hands free!

It's got a whole section on how to design your own fairisle motifs and colour schemes based on the traditional 'rules'.

Sounds like a dab book @lazylinguist

I've only done a Little tiny bit if two colour knitting. I'm a bit scared of it but want to try it one day.

YouTube is definitely a boon. Does anyone have favourites? I like VeryPinkKnits. Very good for beginners I think and she's very matter of fact and doesn't waffle on about things I'm not interested in.

Fab. Darn autocorrect.

Oh that sounds interesting lazy what book is it?

I love Fruity Knitting Meryl it's more of a program than tutorials and it's usually packed with info. I like Suzanne Bryan for tutorials, I think her footage is very clear and she explains well.

I work best to deadlines CrochetBug so that's the kind of thing I tell myself too

I may have come round to the green jumper, I had to go out last night in crazy wind and rain and I wore it under my coat because it was still lying around and I was toasty. Practical even if it's not the right size...

It's 'Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting', Flavia. I must read it again actually- I read it very early on in my knitting career, when I was intrigued by Fairisle but hadn't really done any yet. Here's a picture of a Shetland woman knitting while transporting peat . Apparently the girls started knitting age 4 and ended up being able to knit 100 fairisle stitches per minute!