Knit, Crochet and Natter 8: Keep Calm and Carry Yarn!

[crazyjinglist]

A thread for woolly crafters. All welcome, from total beginners to experts!

Previous thread here

@sandwiches77 - Caron Simoly Soft Aran yarn is lovely - really soft to use and to wear, and comes in some gorgeous colours. Stylecraft is good too.

I tend to avoid pure wool, because I find it too itchy to wear, but there are so many not-wool yarns - from pure acrylic to acrylic mixes, to cotton, bamboo, cashmere and silk.

I find that’s it’s difficult to choose suitable yarn particularly when choosing online, I’ve had a few that I’ve ordered where the colour isn’t quite what I expected. I always prefer to feel the yarn first if I can as well. There are no actual wool shops in my town but I did pick a yarn cake in Wilkos yesterday that I’m making a scarf with. It’s just cheap wool but still quite soft and good for practising!

I'm back from the wool shop it is a small independent shop. The assistant advised me to make a face or dish cloth for my first project rather than a scarf. So I have bought one ball of wool and some needles to make that and another chunky ball of wool that is multi coloured for the scarf with different needles. I was expecting to buy really fat chunky needles but she advised against those as knitting uses fine motor skills which apparently used to their full potential if using big needles

Argh. Non crochet related panic.

DS1 is en route with his bf in tow. Be cool. Don't be weird. Be a cool mum. Yikes. My baby isn't old enough for this.

@CrochetBug

Argh. Non crochet related panic.

DS1 is en route with his bf in tow. Be cool. Don't be weird. Be a cool mum. Yikes. My baby isn't old enough for this.

I'm not sure any parent is ready tbh & our children are never 'old enough'

At least his bf can't get pregnant 🤣🤣

How old are they both?

@sandwiches77

I'm back from the wool shop it is a small independent shop. The assistant advised me to make a face or dish cloth for my first project rather than a scarf. So I have bought one ball of wool and some needles to make that and another chunky ball of wool that is multi coloured for the scarf with different needles. I was expecting to buy really fat chunky needles but she advised against those as knitting uses fine motor skills which apparently used to their full potential if using big needles

Well, that a start!!

What size needles did you get?

More about the yarn??

Details, details 🤣🤣

@JugglingJanuary that's what I said when I found out he was gay . I won't repeat the disgusting homophobic comment my brother made (he doesn't know. We were talking hypothetically.)
DS is 17, I think the bf is 16. But he lives in Manchester and we are down in Berkshire so they've only met "irl" a few times. They've gone in and gone upstairs with the ps4 and the spare gaming chair from ds2s bedroom.

It's good that they're comfortable enough to do that @CrochetBug!

@sandwiches77 I agree with @JugglingJanuary we need more details about what you bought!

50g chunky virgin wool and 25g cotton. Needles are 6mm and 4mm

But something (very roughly) along the lines of 'it's yarn - you can always undo what you've done & start again, no one dies!!'

I definitely feel more like that about crochet than knitting - it feels so much easier to undo and correct mistakes. You should hear me when I drop a stitch in knitting There is much swearing and ranting

@CrochetBug. Do you think your brother really meant it? Would be horrible to your DS? People say things, even horrible things, when it doesn't apply to their loved ones& soon change their tune when it impacts them. 🤞🏼If he does you won't forget what he said, but he might somewhat redeem himself!!

17 & 16, don't worry about being 'cool' & not being 'weird'. You're a parent, they're givens!!

Lots of noisy gaming sounds good to me! 🤣🤣

@sandwiches77

50 g chunky virgin I'm a teenager at heart! 🤣

Cotton is nice to use. Look forward to the updates/photos/questions!!

@JugglingJanuary I don't think he actually meant what he said, he'd say it's a joke, but it's a joke that comes from internalised homophobia. DS has said he's not ready to challenge it yet. When I said a while ago that one of the niblings might be gay/have children out of wedlock etc, DB said "no they won't. They'll do things the right way"
And my dad Said at Christmas that all "the gays" should be shot
My family are are bit complicated.

Anyway. I'll stop derailing. I've got a half made blanket that I love the yarn for, but neither want nor need a blanket. So I'm going to frog it and make a backpack instead.

Goodness knows how I'm going to knit with sandwichpup around but I'll give it a go

Good luck with that @sandwiches77

Crochet is a bit hit and miss with my pup. These days she lulls you into a false sense of security, I'll be able to crochet for several days then she'll decide to steal my yarn when I'm not expecting it. She's pretty good at exchanging it back now, but it's often in a bit of a state by then.

@CrochetBug I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when DD starts bringing partners home! Good luck to you and your DS navigating the complications.

@crazyjinglist that is exactly the thing I hate about knitting - when it goes wrong (which it does, frequently) I just can’t fix it. I split stitches and don’t notice, I drop stitches and either can’t pick them up or I pick them up twisted and I can’t take my work back when I spot something wrong. Crochet was a revelation to me when I realised that none of that stuff is an issue!

DB said "no they won't. They'll do things the right way"And my dad Said at Christmas that all "the gays" should be shot.

Eek . Dd is very non-gender-conforming and quite possibly lesbian or bi (she's not big on sharing about these things!). She is very outspoken though, and would absolutely tear into anyone making homophobic comments - I honestly think she'd do it whoever they were! I admire her confidence, but it's going to get her in trouble one day!

Ahem @sandwiches77 you forgot to show us sandwichpup... 🤣 We do enjoy pet pics too!

@crazyjinglist both DS' aren't afraid to tell people their opinions are "wrong" but so far they've only done it in a "that's not really right because xyz" kinda way rather than a "you can't say that because I'm gay" way.
Although when my dad said he'd stopped watching Strictly because there was a same sex couple and "that's just not right" (despite the fact it's incredibly common in the dance world) DS1s comment was "what the fuck is wrong with you Grandad"

I’m straight, but I’m pretty sure me being a lesbian would have been a massive issue for all my grandparents. Big chunks of my Dad’s family would have disowned me if they’d been alive to see me marry a Catholic.

I’m fairly hopeful DD’s sexuality, what ever it turns out to be, won’t be an issue for either my of DH’s parents. Progress across generations can be hard to to see, but I think it is there.

And back to the yarn craft - one side of the cactus done!

Started with the cotton as that is was the lady in the shop said to do but I found the thin wool hard to cast on and got in a tangle switched to the chunky wool and bigger needles and getting on much better. The first few rows were all twisted round, not sure why. Anyway but a whole inch of knitting with a teeny hole.

Pic of sandwichpup as requested

I obviously have years before DD has any kind of interest in anyone, let alone working out her sexuality. She is currently only interested in Paul the Octopus and Paddington Bear for about a minute at a time before getting distracted by the lights. DH’s parents are Catholic though and have made comments about some distant relatives. But I’m always up for an argument and given this particular trait was enhanced when I was pregnant (especially with men), I think DD might also have this trait so I think she’ll be able to hold her own.

quantum cactus is looking good!

sandwiches lovely pup. My not-so-little pup used to steal my wool and take it into his bed as a “treasure”. Now as an adolescent he just likes to scatter it all over the floor, probably as a distraction technique then he can get up to mischief elsewhere. I love cotton because it shows your stitches well and it holds its shape well but I found it hard working with smaller weight yarn to begin with and it was feasier with chunky. I still can’t really work with anything less than double knit and if I do, it takes a long time. I think my fingers are too fat and my patience too thin.

I’m still up to date with DD’s temperature blanket but 11 weeks in and I’ve nearly used one colour, I have 15 colours and each colour band is only 2-3 degrees. I have 18g left and at least 75g of the other colours, including the neighbouring colours. If I’d known it was going to be this heavily dominated by the 7-9 degrees colour I’d have probably done a slightly different colour palette. I have some more wool in this colour but I have it aside for MIL’s blanket so I need to get on with that and then I can stay on top of the temperature blanket. I’m on round 34/108 I’ve no idea why I decided that all my WIPs needed to be blankets and scarves/cowls.

@InTheNightWeWillWish - I cheated and adjusted the way I was calculating temp for my temp blanket. Originally I was just using highest temp and there wasn't nearly enough variation and it irritated me that a day with frost and minus figures overnight ended up the same colour as a dull dreary day where nighttime and daytime temp were virtually the same. I had access to hourly figures so used mean daily temp instead.

InTheNightWeWillWish are chunky and double knit different things? If so what is the difference

@CrochetBug. How's your weekend been so far? Have you seen much of the bf? Any thoughts on him so far?
Families are complicated & how you can live someone despite their views on some things. Hopefully it'll all be fine when DS does decide to tell them xx

From blanket to backpack!

@crazyjinglist. How old is your DD now? I lose track. MN kids seem to go from babies to university before I blink!!

@QuantumWeatherButterfly

Me too re K&C. Crochet is so much easier to frog & pick up again & shove an extra stitch in c2T etc. I love knitting when it's going well. I guess because I learnt when I was a child, there's more muscle memory & I like the rhythm, whereas I don't get that with crochet.

Cactus 🌵 is looking good!!

@sandwiches77

sandwich pup is gorgeous ❤️

Fine yarn is a bit of a challenge & not what I'd recommend for a beginner. I'm glad you're getting on better with the other one. Don't be shy posting pictures!

Enjoy every minute with DD! It might be hard at times, but life's never easier than when you can pick them up & make them happy! (Or restrain them!!)

@sandwiches77

2 strands of DK = Worsted or Aran. 2 strands of Worsted = Chunky. 2 strands of Aran = Chunky to Super Bulky. 2 strands of Chunky = Super bulky to Jumbo

So yeah, chunky is a lot 'thicker'. I'm sure others will be along with a far more technical answer!