It's Crochet, Knit & Natter 10: New Year, New Yarn, New Thread!

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

Time for a new thread for all the lovely yarn crafters!

Old thread here: http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/artsandcrafts/4557189-its-crochet-knit-natter-9-so-many-projects-so-little-time-oh-well-i-almost-made-it-rhymee_

Thanks everyone! Bit of bubbly to celebrate tonight.

Congratulations @Fairislefandango I liked German at school, preferred it to French anyway. Not that I can remember any!

I’ve started my second and third baby blankets for the babies due this summer. I’m not loving the second which is going to be penguin panels. Maybe it’ll look better when the penguin has a face but I’m not feeling it at the minute.

However, the third blanket I am loving. I’m not using the yarn recommended in the pattern but it’s like this yarn was made for the pattern. Don’t you just love it when that happens? I’ve made it to be a decent sized baby blanket so will go round mum’s shoulders if she’s cold feeding in the night but will also work for throwing over a poorly toddler. I’m liking it so much that I’m wishing I’d made it a bit longer then I could keep it for our new house when we hopefully get there, the colours are what I’m wanting decoration wise.

A late congratulations @Fairislefandango and an extra nice pat on the back as it's a newish school.

That looks great @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally .

Thanks again everybody! All my colleagues, especially my lovely department, have been showering me with congratulations - I'm very lucky to work in such a fab school.

That blanket is looking lovely, @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally . I love the colours - right up my street!

It was knitting and crochet club yesterday and normally everyone just brings along their own projects, but I've announced a kind of optional club project - knitted/crocheted flags to make flag bunting for the languages classrooms (my room initially ). So I need to work out some simple patterns!

Congratulations @Fairislefandango! that’s fantastic!

Those are beautiful colours @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally!

I’ve been working on my peerie leaves jumper, it’s quite a fun knit, one row lace pattern then one row plain on the front and the back is always plain.

That's pretty, @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound ! I love the colour.

Oo nice @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound . I love a lace pattern that isn't all lace! I'm going to look up the pattern.

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound That’s lovely. Makes me want to pick up my knitting needles again but I barely cracked knit and purl so don’t need to be trying lace just yet.

The most complicated bit of this lace is knit 3 together and yarn overs @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally it’s definitely a good pattern to start with for lace knitting whenever you’re ready to try it

Here’s a warning for anyone online shopping, I added a new whorl for my wheel to my basket on a website and went though to checkout using Apple Pay to see how much delivery was. Then I tried to hit back to cancel but managed to swipe my fingerprint sensor instead and bought it. Oops. Lucky it wasn’t too dear but I can just imagine me fantasy buying something expensive and then having a heart attack I would have bought it eventually anyway but still!

I went to my first monthly meeting of the local guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers today! It was really nice and friendly!

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound bloody Apple Pay is lethal. I don’t even need to put my shipping details because Apple knows. I should probably be concerned about the level of detail Apple has about me but honestly it’s just so easy. I’ve not got to yarn overs in knitting yet and need to work those out as a crocheter. I just find knitting so slow compared to crochet and I know part of that is learning it but I’m impatient.

I think it is slower @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally, even when you have learnt it. But I suppose it depends what you want it for, the idea of knitting a blanket rather than crocheting one seems daunting to me but I love the range of stitches and patterns in knitting for jumpers.

That is daunting, but on the plus side I imagine if someone was looking at my spending it would be the weirdest list of stuff imaginable I bought fishing swivels to use for tablet weaving the other week.

Oh cool @Fairislefandango! What did you do in the meeting? Next Saturday is my next one for the monthly spin in but DS2 has a birthday party invite so I won’t be to slope off for the whole day as usual…

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound there are certain things that I prefer the look of in knit, so fair isle knit jumper for example. The variety of stitches in crochet though means you can do so much. For baby blankets though I would like to do the smaller holes of knit blankets but they just seem to take so long and blankets take an age anyway.

I was there from 10:30 to 4, @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound . They were very friendly, and keen for me to join. 65 members, but only 30 or so were there yesterday. I did lots of chatting, plied some singles and did a bit of knitting. After lunch there was a speaker - an elderly gent who is an award-winning silversmith and loom maker. He did a slideshow on 'texture, light and form' and how to spot interesting stuff in nature and man-made structures and use them as inspiration for your craft projects. It was kind of interesting, but I was uncharacteristically sleepy after a very busy week and celebrating my promotion on Friday night .

On the subject of knitting vs crochet, I seem to be oddly fixed in my view of which kinds of projects I'd knit and which I'd crochet. I don't know why really! It's completely illogical - on these threads alone I've seen the great variety of things people crochet, but I tend to think of blankets, granny squares and amigurumi as things I'd crochet and almost everything else as things I'd prefer to knit.

I never really care if projects take ages, because I'm so slow that everything takes ages anyway

Oh that sounds really interesting and fun @Fairislefandango! You deserved a celebration tbf

Woo hoo, just won a game of yarn chicken with 20cm to spare

The talk sounds lovely @Fairislefandango
Well done @tizwozliz . What were you making. And how's the pup these days?

Does anyone know of a knitted shawl pattern like this. I want a very simple triangle shawl in eyelet stitch but without the line of eyelets going up the middle that I usually see? I can't think of a way of casting it on that wouldn't go wonky. I know that's why the central 'spine' is there in patterns but I'm wondering if someone has worked out how not to have it .

I'm still on my self imposed no new projects ban so trying to finish a blanket I started who knows when.

'Pup' turned 2 last week. She still sometimes casually strolls out the lounge with a crochet hook but she's pretty good at trading these days. My yarn hasn't had any trips to the garden for over a year I think 😂

Oh that is lovely, @tizwozliz! Both the blanket and the pup.

Posted too soon!

The yoke on the Maria is done, ready to divide for the sleeves. But because I did my own thing on the row joining instructions, I've not ended up in quite the right place for where the chain will go according to the pattern. I reckon I can work it out though, based on the number of chain spaces I have to skip.

Oh, and I'm now technically making the size bigger because my gauge was indeed too small

I really love that blanket @tizwozliz and those colours in your top @LancreWowhawk

I’ve made one@MerylSqueak. On the knit rows, you mk1 at each edge inside a garter stitch edge band and also mk1 each side of the centre stitch. Then purl a row. Continue until you’re nearly out of yarn and then knit all rows to make a garter band to prevent curling.

Thank you, @SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound - I'm really pleased with it. I love the colours so much, I'm desperate for it to fit.

I got the division done last night and I think it looks OK. I'm back with the pattern now - had to fasten off and rejoin to get myself in the right place, as I realised my alternative method had brought me out in the middle of the skipped section.

It's weird though - you know how when you do Granny Squares in one colour, when you chain up to start the next row, your chain is either the first or the last in the cluster, so alternate rows are slightly different? Well, the pattern for the yoke is written like the chain is always the first one. The only way that would work (that I can think of) is to turn every row, but the pattern definitely doesn't say to do that, and when you get down to the body rows the pattern is written with for alternate first and last. I am sure I must be missing something, but I don't suppose it's mattered, I've ended up where I was meant to be eventually! It's just niggled me that I can't work it out.

@tizwozliz I love those colours! Very seasidey.

@QuantumWeatherButterfly some granny square patterns seem to assume you turn on every row and some don't. Either way I've not managed to find a way that actually eliminates an obvious join which really annoys me.

I'm on a permanent self-imposed "no new projects until I finish one" rule. Which of course means I started a Sophie's universe this week. I've done parts 1 and 2 so far.

DS2 has his GCSEs at the moment. He's only spent 2 days in school since September, and was officially signed off sick (EBSA) by the Dr. So him agreeing to sit his maths, English lit and science exams is MASSIVE. He wanted to do English lang as well, but couldn't manage the spoken part so sadly wasn't allowed.
All this means he has to be in school for the exams, he'll only go if I physically take him, which means I'm spending a lot of time in the cafe near his school. Which means a lot of crochet time. Win win!