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

I fell off the thread, probably appropriate as I haven't crocheted in forever.

Congrats @InTheNightWeWillWish on the new arrival

Ah, sorry your Mum's visit wasn't possible InTheNight, hopefully she'll be able to make it in a couple of weeks though & have lots of snuggles!

Have fun showing her off tomorrow! I remember, when dd2 was tiny (she was almost 5 weeks early, so very small), standing at the bus stop with both girls & a pair of older ladies cooing over "the shiny new one" for ages while we waited . It's a lovely feeling.

I think I have figured out up to round 5...but I am also thinking that the ridge created by the fpdc stitches might not be the most comfortable to wear 🤔 We'll see I suppose!

I’m definitely at the point of being in awe of making something so tiny whilst still going about my life.

I still look at my (definitely not tiny) teens and wonder how tf I made something so flipping perfect!

Awh, sorry your mum didn't get to visit InTheNight but enjoy showing her off today! Yeah, I totally get that feeling, you did all your day to day stuff and created an amazing new human too

Google popped up an article on Irish knitwear designers this morning and I was expecting Carol Feller ect, but no, look at these. €185 for knitted gym knickers 😂 Just the thing for a walk on the beach while hypothermia slowly kicks in.

The loom experiment unravelled, literally, as DH walked in to the room. It was a very dramatic effect so at least I had an audience to appreciate it. I did learn a lot though, I might try a different way.

@FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack They're the stuff of childhood anecdote from the 50s. 'look at what my mum made me wear!'

I'm sorry your mum didn't get to visit @InTheNightWeWillWish. Enjoy showing off your shiny new baby today!

Ooh those knickers!

I'm back home from my parents' after an alarmingly snowy long drive. But guess what I came home with... my granny's sewing box, which my grandad made . It was full of mostly sewing bits and bobs, but also some very old-fashioned knitting and crochet patterns with hilariously ghastly pictures!

My mum is quite worried and upset about downsizing, and distressed about the idea of getting rid of things, especially anything she inherited from her parents and remembers from her childhood, so she was delighted that I was keen to take and the sewing box and put it to good use.

I had to wear non knitted versions in the 90's Meryl, the horror still lingers 😱

Oh wow lazy that is beautiful! We need pics of the patterns, I love old pattern pictures

Remember the green jumper I was test knitting but hated the final result? My DB tried it and the width was fine but it was too short and my DM doesn't suit the green so I took it back and have been glaring at it intermittently. Then I started playing around with it last night and it looks pretty good half a foot shorter over a shirt so... snip snip ✂️

The idea of snipping knitting makes me feel a bit faint

I'm afraid I didn't take any photos of the old patterns- we emptied the box of most of its contents and I suspect my mum will get rid of the patterns if she hasn't already. I should have thought of putting a couple of pics on here! It was mostly self-important-looking young fogey men in tank tops smoking pipes, unusually ugly babies in pastel cardigans and silly bonnets, improbably smiley, rosy dimple-faced children in hideous ponchos and women with tiny waists and pointy busts in lacy cardigans who looked like they were about to go and fetch their husbands' pipe and slippers. They looked kind of 1950s-ish, but my granny definitely knitted much more up-to-date stuff than that when I was a child.

Believe it or not, I had a nightmare last night that I'd tried to fix a knitting mistake with a pair of scissors!

Lovely box @lazylinguist. I have a smaller portable one with a similar construction that belonged to my grandmother. I love it but it would be great if it was that big.

I spent yesterday knitting chunky red Christmas jumpers for my children's stuffed toys I should be glad they still care as they're both in secondary. Cuties.

Urgh. I've got a sore throat and a cough and am braving the ice and snow to go and get a pcr test. I've taken several lateral flows, all negative, so hopefully nothing worrying!

Ah no, fingers crossed it's nothing more than a cold lazy!

My dad has a similar sewing box, that was my Mum's (at least, I think he still has it!) and the owner of the dress shop where I used to work has one. I think I could do with one!

I was just pinning the mansion roof to block & noticed it was going a bit yellow...I'd only forgotten to flip my template over & the ink was running into it 😱😱. Thankfully it was on the wrong side & looks to have rinsed out ok!

It's pinned, along with the bandstand roof. If I'd been a bit more creative with my templates, I think I could have made the base of the bandstand fit too & then put both together tomorrow. Never mind 🤷‍♀️

Sorry that your mum didn’t get to you InTheNightWeWillWish I hope you enjoyed showing off your little one.

The Christmas village is progressing well @lucysmam!

Hope you feel better soon @lazylinguist and that it's just a cold.
My mum has a similar sewing box, although hers doesn't have legs.

My Grandad dug an old blanket out of goodness knows where to have on his bed. My Great Great Grandma made it (going down the female line) but we don't know when. If it was for her "bottom drawer" it would have been late 1880s. But could equally have been as recent as 1930s. Its full of tiny holes so mum and I are attempting to fix them. It's really fine yarn, probably 4-ply and so matted in places. And we have no hope of matching colours so we've decided to make the fixes obvious. Here's a before and after of one of them.

@lazylinguist my mum gave me her sewing box, very similar to yours, just before she died earlier this year. My father gave it to her for her 21st birthday, long before they were married, so that will be 74 years ago on December 1st. She used it right up to a few years ago.

Thanks everyone! Don't feel too sorry for me I actually don't feel that bad, and I'm kind of looking forward to having an excuse to not go anywhere for at least another day (until I get the test result).

I doubt it's Covid tbh - I've now done 3 negative lfts and I already feel a bit better than yesterday. I really hope it isn't Covid, as I could have given it to my parents, who are in their late 70s and mid-house-move (and my mum already has health problems)!

Wow - great great grandma - that's going back a bit @CrochetBug!

@lucysmam I can't wait to see the whole thing finished and assembled- what a brilliant project!

I'm a numpty...the bandstand lid needed to be shaped & I've only just thought about it and checked the pattern . I could have done all three pieces after all 🙄

Hope you feel better soon lazy and enjoy a crafting holiday until you’ve got the all clear!

They’re lovely lucysmam, very intrigued to see them all together!

That’s lovely to have CrochetBug

I’m so chuffed with my jumper now. It just looks so much better on, I’ve finished the body and chopped the sleeves and once I get the ribbing re knit on them then I can actually wear it outside instead of using it as a giant mutant dressing gown inside… Hope you have a nightmare free night Meryl now my jumper has had a happy ending 😉

Good news on your jumper Flavia!
Also good news here - the test results came back really quickly and I don't have Covid! Still got a sore throat but otherwise not too bad.

Glad you now have a jumper you're happy with Flavia!

And that you don't have Covid lazy!

I've re-starched the bandstand roof today and pinned the base. The mansion is assembled too.

I forgot I'd taken a screenshot of this too...I thought it'd be funny for dd1 but the pattern's £6 ish for several of them & I don't think I'd ever use it again 🤔 I wondered about using the ghost pattern for the shape, adding balls...and then somehow the top-stitching. But I'm not sure how I'd achieve that! & I think I still have the pattern for the reindeer baubles that I made last year, that I could use for antlers.

Can't post pics from two locations at once for some reason 🙄🤷‍♀️

@lucysmam I reckon that "reindeer" would be easy to recreate. The top stitching looks like surface crochet to me, which I've never done but it looks easy.

Your little houses look so cute!

I'm bringing Legwarmers back. Although I might need some tighter jeans to wear them over. Also please take a moment to appreciate my beautiful DMs which I've only had for about 8 years and still in the box

Might help if I attach the photo

Me too @CrochetBug! I'll youtube surface crochet, thank you, I didn't know what it was called!

The bandstand's ready to assemble; I just haven't got round to it yet. I'll probably do it in the morning along with a million other things.

I've been busy finalising risk assessments & emergency contacts for Saturday's trip to the Christmas market. We're all dead excited but I think it'll be the only day out we'll have in a while & I was wondering whether I ought to cancel earlier but everyone's happy to go ahead at the moment.

How's everyone's Christmas organising going? I ordered laptops the other day & have all the girls' stocking fillers ready to wrap. I'm having a small flap that that's all they'll have but trying to remind myself that a laptop is a HUGE present & definitely enough! I need to think about nanna, grandad and my dad at some point too but have zero inspiration for any of them 🤦‍♀️

Ooh, your photo appeared! That's a pretty colour. Do they make a difference to how warm your legs are? I've seen boot cuffs too, which might be better under the long boots I usually wear (which are in dire need of a repair, but will have to wait now because I'm a div and have lost my other boots that are work suitable so would end up with pumps on, on the school yard 🤔🤣)