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

Hey everyone, I'm new here. Began knitting (still trying to learn crochet) :) a while back. At the moment I'm making some things for charity, anyone know of any charities in need of stuff I'm always happy to help cos I rarely keep anything I make for myself

Taking a break from my blanket and starting a pterodactyl for a friend's baby.

Need opinions on a second colour for the pterodactyls wings

Pterodactyl is this design and the head and body are in this colour

Welcome @Turkishdelightchocisace I keep everything I make or foist it onto my family!

The pterodactyl is cute @tizwozliz if the head is green then a pale green or yellow would look good for the wings?

tizwozliz I agree that I think the yellow will look nice. I think grey and red would also work but possibly work better for an older child.

turkishdelight I like making blankets so I’ll be seeing which of my friends want a blanket as nobody will be having the heating on but then I’m going to see if the food Bank wants the rest. Some hospitals also accept knitted goods for babies but you have to check what they want (ours won’t take crocheted blankets for babies) and if they’re accepting due to covid. We also volunteered at a care home and I’ve made some things for them such as little Easter toys/basket to fill with eggs for a raffle they were doing, bunny bunting to decorate and some little appliqués for Christmas cards. I’ve also got 3 part made twiddle mitts for them too.

Welcome @Turkishdelightchocisace! I keep what I make or give it to my family. In terms of charity type stuff, I think that hospitals often want little woolly hats for premature babies. Also, there's the Woolly Hugs threads on here, where people contribute knitted squares to make blankets for MNers who have lost a loved one.

OMG - I was invigilating an exam this afternoon and I looked out of the window and saw a sixth former walking past wearing a different coloured version of the Goldwing jumper that I made . I wanted to open the window and shout 'Hey - great jumper!' but that kind if thing is frowned upon when you're invigilating . It turns out she's a keen knitter and a regular customer at Northern Yarn, where I bought the yarn for my jumper.

I'm off to Knit and Natter tonight - looking forward to it!

Knitting twin!

FairIsle I think asking someone about their knitwear is a valid reason to stop an exam how did the knit and natter group go?

Round 54/108. I’m ignoring the fact that the rounds get bigger so I’m not actually halfway 😩 MIL is coming over in two weeks, I don’t think it’s going to be done. However, she doesn’t know how big it’s mean to be…

Knit and Natter was really nice. My friend who is also my adult German student came too, with her friend. It's hard to keep track of your decreases when you're chatting though!

@InTheNightWeWillWish - ues, I shpuld have just opened the window and yelled . Just been doing more invigilation... yaaaawwwwn. Going home via the garden centre to get a present for dh. He's feeling really down about the situation at work , which isn't like him.

@Fairislefandango you definitely should have allowed the DC to cheat while you discussed knitting
I hope your DH gets better news soon. It must be so stressful.

@InTheNightWeWillWish that's beautiful. Lucky MIL.

Mum's found a new local ish (20min drive) yarn shop that stocks stylecraft. So hopefully they'll have the one I want for my Cape so we can actually see the colour "for real" as it were.

I hope your DH feels better about work soon @Fairislefandango

Your blanket is beautiful @InTheNightWeWillWish

We’ve just been to Cornwall for a few days and the seafood restaurant we ate in last night had a crocheted lobster and a very large crocheted octopus as part of the decor

Dh is having a well-deserved (andlong-booked) weekend away with his old uni mates,which should cheer him up a bit!

Ds' socks are going well (I've almost finished the first one) and last night I started in dsis' crochet basket. I'd forgotten how hard it is on the hands (4 strands of dk, 9mm hook and crocheted very tightly to make a firm, solid fabric)!

Wow, that’s beautiful InTheNight!

Welcome Turkishdelightchocisace!

Hope your DH has a nice break FairIsle and gets his head cleared a bit. I saw someone wearing a jumper I’d made once, but we’d used such different yarns you wouldn’t think it was the same jumper unless you knew the pattern! I do love that about knitting.

That sounds brilliant NiceCardigan - both the food and the decoration!

I’d go for green maybe Tiz but I’m not sure…

I’ve done nothing really for ages. Things are a bit fraught with illness in the family and it just seems to be one thing after another. I’m trying to keep my head above water and support everyone and I don’t have much time or brain space for crafting really. I’ve been booked into an online lecture on dyeing fibre for Tuesday night though so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve dyed yarn but I haven’t had as much success with fibre coming out as I’d like.

This popped up in my yarn related Google suggestions, it’s such an interesting read and a lovely story

spinoffmagazine.com/bertas-flax-travels-the-world/

That's lovely, @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound! The flax looks wonderful- it has an amazing natural sheen to it.

I've done the base of dsis' scrap yarn basket. I've added a red strand in for the sides and I'm really liking the effect!

I'm sorry to hear you're having a tough time @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound. It can be exhausting keeping the show on the road.

I enjoyed reading that article. And I joined the FB group just to follow!

The red stripe is great @Fairislefandango.

I'm very frustrated because I ve just soaked my blue scarf to block and now I can't find my blocking pins anywhere. I already had too much to do today and that was supposed to be my nice thing. Grrrr

Hope you found your pins, @MerylSqueak! And thanks everyone for the sympathy re: dh. Still no news about what's going on on that front.

Really enjoying making my dsis' basket. I might make her some little ones to go with it!

I blooming well didn't but couldn't bear not to have the blue scarf finally finished!

That's very stylish!

Lovely scarf!

I’m running a granny square production line I need 6 more I think for my cardigan but I can’t tell till I lay it all out properly.

Love that scarf @MerylSqueak looks a good size!

@Fairislefandango that basket is coming on well too, love the red! Are you sticking to a colour theme or is it a scrappy basket?

@NiceCardigan oooh I'm intrigued to see it when it's finished!

I'm sticking to a colour scheme. I'm using two strands of white, one of grey and one of red. With my previous one, I did 1 strand each of grey, white, green and yellow for the bottom third of the basket, then grey and white, then a band of plain white at the top where the handle holes go. I think I'll do the same grey and white bit, then maybe a solid red or white top bit.

Why didn’t I join my granny squares as I went along. This bit seems to be taking ages!

Yes, very similar to the 'Why didn't I weave in my ends as I went along' lament! I find that a good way of avoiding joining granny squares together is to just make a load of granny squares with no purpose and totally fail to decide what you're going to make them into .

All still uncertain for dh, but at least he's effectively had 2 weeks of unpaid holiday. I've applied for 2 more jobs, dd has a day off school due to partial closure and it's a gorgeous sunny day here, so we're fairly cheerful in the Fandango household really!

Enjoy the sunshine! its lovely here too. I'm just going to do a couple of hours of work and then I've decided its the weekend