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

@lucysmam. Congratulations!!!

Very old friend in a name change cloak!! Thrilled that you got the job & that they didn't keep you waiting either!! Very very exciting & VERY well deserved!

I can't believe how old the girls are now, but as lovely as always!!

🍾🥂

@sophs29 I should use up some of my stash first though 🤔🤣

@JasmineGarden I'm wondering who you are now! The girls are lovely, most of the time, dd2 has raging hormones atm though & is much more "typical teen" than dd1 has ever been 🤣

Thank you all, I'm still grinning from ear to ear!

@lucysmam shoulda woulda coulda 😉😂

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!
I hope you don't mind me joining in. Have taken up knitting again, used to knit many, many years ago, but not as skilful as you lovely ladies. I am knitting a poncho which I'm quite pleased with as it has cabling on it. I've never tried cabling before and it was easier than I thought it would be.
DD has also been trying to teach me to crochet, but I am struggling with the magic circle thingy. DD has gone back home now, so wondered if anyone could recommend any good YouTube crocheting videos as I'm finding it difficult learning from a book. Tia

Ps Have just ordered one of those neck lights a PP has. Looks like a great idea, DH complains if Iights are too bright when tv is on.

@ChocFreak try Bella Coco on youtube for tutorials. I'm sure that's the one that eventually "clicked" for me trying to master the magic circle - it baffled me for ages!

Congrats @lucysmam

I'm finally making some progress on the dog not stealing my yarn/crochet so cracking on with my attic24 blanket

Hello everyone. Hope it's okay to join you. I was on a previous thread briefly, then decided to take a break from SM for a while. I'm still not on Facebook and Insta but really want somewhere to chat knitting so I'm here!

I've been practicing with lots of baby hats and now knitting a scarf for myself :)

She looks very comfy there @tizwozliz!

@waitingforsun your cables are beautiful, lovely colourway too 🥰

I've not got around to any crochet yet today 🙄 Maybe later on...

Yay - more new faces! Welcome @waitingforsun and @ChocFreak! And @JasmineGarden ...? Or did you just drop in to congratulate @lucysmam ?

I had a bit of a(nother) craft supplies sort-out today. Now I've got my granny's lovely sewing box, which I've filled with all my needles, hooks, yarn bowl and assorted bits and bobs, I actually have space for all my yarn in my yarn storage instead of needing to keep some in the garage .

It also reminded me what a lot of nice yarn I have, so I definitely don't need to be buying any more for a while. I'm thinking I might post some pics of my nicest ones and see what you lot reckon I should make with them...

On other crafty topics... next Saturday is my second spinning course - 3 hrs of one-to-one tuition! I had a read through of the booklet I got from the last course. I feel like I'm going to be back at step 1 again!

Tips please for knitting for an absolute beginner. YouTube? Books? Which ones do you recommend? What wool and needles to use?

@crazyjinglist. I'm err...lurking!! 🤣🤣. I keep joinging each new thread with good intentions...then reading more than doing anything. So I decided this time I'd just lurk until I picked up needles/a hook! But I couldn't not congratulate lucysmam on getting her job! She's a complete star and if anyone deserves a bloody break it's her!!

We've talked on many threads under many names. I had one name for years until an MN data breach and now I name change all the time. I miss the old days.

Loving all the chat & photos!! Totally Bowled over by @Oysterbabe who has taken to
amigurumi like a duck to water!!

Loving your jumpers & hats.

& everyone's projects!!

I'll go back to lurking now, or we'll run out of Internet!

Hi @sandwiches77 ! I'd recommend a book called Knitty Gritty. It's ideal for total beginners, it explains everything from the very basics and has a range of easy beginner's projects.

@JasmineGarden - I feel like I'm doing more reading and posting on the thread than actual knitting too! I did get some of sock 1 of ds' pair done this evening though.

@crazyjinglist. I did 3 rows of a scarf I'm going to frog, just to try out my new neck light. It didn't really help though as the wool wasn't dark & I can (plain) knit without looking really 🤦🏻‍♀️ Must dig out some crochet to try it with and must not watch the Apprentice! (Winds me up)

@sandwiches77 try some simple shapes to start with like scarves and don’t worry when you drop stitches or things go a bit wrong. I learnt through trial and error a bit at the beginning and gradually made less mistakes the more things I knitted.

We always shout at the tv when the Apprentice is on @JugglingJanuary (where do they find these people!)

@crazyjinglist I don’t think I have the time to add spinning to my craft to do list just yet but I get more tempted each time it’s mentioned! We are planning on moving to somewhere a bit more rural this year - maybe I could keep a personal sheep in the garden as a wool source.

Personal sheep I'm not sure I'm that keen on taking the wool right through from the raw fleece myself. It was interesting to learn how to do it on the course, but it's a bit of a faff. I quite liked the carding/combing bit, but not so much the initial skirting and washing of the fleece - dirty, greasy, messy and uses a lot of water!

I thought I would just collect bits of wool snagged on the fence and around the garden and colour them with natural dyes I've made myself - is that not how living in the country works?

Yup. I live fairly rurally and it's definitely like that . I'm not sure I could have a sheep - ddog is a bit scared of them . That's a big plus round here though really - it means we can walk through a field of sheep and he's not remotely interested in going near them! He's supposed to be a hunting breed, but he was even scared of the school rabbits and tortoises when we had them for the holidays . He's a total wuss!

Our house is actually a small holding and a previous owner kept goats. We have a knackered stable in the garden, so I suppose we could fix that and try to keep sheep or alpacas. It feels like a lot effort to go to though, especially when town has the nice wool shop (and the coffee shop just down the road from that so I can buy a cake at the same time)!

Mmmm yarn and cake.

@sandwiches77 I second the Knitty Gritty book, I started off with that, explains things really well. I’d recommend some 4mm needles and cheap yarn to start off with.

I’m very much still learning but I did a couple of the patterns in that book and have moved onto simple patterns online now. It’s very addictive!

Urgh, every bloody time, I leave sewing in a million and one ends...then get fed up of them 🙄🙄 I'm 3/4 of the way through the ends of the foot piece of dd1's socks; I've been doing odd ones on and off all day.

Partly my fault though -it was easier to cut & do each row as fpdc, than carry the yarn all the way over a bpdc row, to bring back on the alternating colour so I have extra ones 🤷‍♀️ I'll finish them off & edge them tomorrow then I can start on the legs.

Cake and yarn are two of my favourite things 😋 In that order!

@lazylinguist your dog sounds funny 🤣