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_

Could you call it a wall hanging? 😁

I decided to use the chunky for my temperature blanket. Maybe I’ll regret but who cares lol.

so this is my first hexagon. Innner circle is the low and the outer in the high and the neutral colour. First two are the same then it change after that.

it’s a touch messy but it was was my first ever circle to hexagon. I’ve only ever done granny squares and rows before.

I think that will look lovely, @fidgetcube

May I share a thing that you really don't want to do? If you're short of yarn for your project and trying really hard to make it last to the end, you really don't want to accidentally do 3 rounds of one of the sleeves in a hook size one bigger than you're meant to. Sigh. Oh well, at least you can't tell my looking at it.

In other news, I'm off to John Lewis at lunchtime to squeeze some yarn and (hopefully) pick one for the 50 stitches blanket. Which I will later buy cheaper from Wool Warehouse🙂

@QuantumWeatherButterfly i went to John Lewis this morning and was very disappointed to find that they didn’t have any Aran at all. I’ve got plenty of DK at home so will be trying out the 50 stitches blanket in that.

@Skiphopbump They had a bit more at my local one, but nothing that really grabbed me - except Sirdar Jewelspun, which is both more expensive than I wanted, and would mean not using contrast colours. So I think I'll leave the Jewelspun for a garment later in the year.

Has anyone used either Sheepjes Truly Scrumptious or Sheepjes Chunky Monkey and could share their thoughts on it?

I don't want to use Paintbox because I've seen a lot of people having issues with colour availability, and I didn't really like Stylecraft Special Aran to work with, it felt very plastic-y after a while.

@QuantumWeatherButterfly I decided to go for Aran after all - I ordered some Drops Paris which is cotton, I’ve never used cotton before so interested to see how it differs to using acrylic.

@Skiphopbump I think I'm going to go for Sheepjes Truly Scrumptious. I'm going to wait and see what yarn I get for my birthday, and then work out how long I have to leave it before I order so that DH doesn't go bananas about how much yarn I have😂

I’m making DH a jumper. It was progressing really well actually until I got to the part near his shoulders blade (working bottom up). The pattern says to do a crab stitch and then the next row is back loop only. The yarn DH picked is paintbox dk cotton in navy so I can’t see the stitches and with it being a crab stitch, the stitches are sitting in a different place so I can’t even go by where they should be. I’m going to swap in a lighter colour so I can at least see the stitches (I have the boob light but I’ve practised with some scrap yellow and I’m struggling with that so I don’t think the boob light is going to help). I think a mustard would look really nice but DH doesn’t think he’s “a mustard person” and his brother wears mustard! So that’s out! I think a bottle green would also look good but probably not any easier to see. So I’m left with a light grey, a taupe, a fudge-tan colour, a mossy green or a light blue. I wish this was a case of buying from the local yarn shop then I could just pop into town with his jumper so far and see what looks good next to it but as it’s paintbox I’m going to have just pick one and hope it works out.

I'm sure someone on here has used chunky monkey. Perhaps @CrochetBug ?

I'm sulking as I have just completed the first repeat on my massive blanket since I put it down for all the Christmas knitting and I realise I did three stitches wrongly at the beginning of the repeat. It's really obvious because it's on the border but somehow I didn't see it before. Grrr

I haven't used chunky monkey, I want to though it looks lovely. I just need to find the right pattern!

@WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally you can still pop to the local shop and pick a new colour I'm not an enabler honest As long as the yarn is the same weight and fibre it should be fine.

@CrochetBug I think you are one of the worst enablers on the thread! There are two local yarn shops - one doesn’t stock any cotton and the other only has sirdar happy cotton which are 20g balls but for the same price as the paintbox yarn. They also don’t have a huge colour selection as it’s a little display. Fantastic range of other wools - I can get a range of acrylic, wool, mohair, alpaca, chenille and bamboo but cotton is really lacking in this part of the world!

Oh didn't realise it was cotton, sorry! Just use what you have then
Navy and mustard is lovely. Or light blue would be nice too.

We don't even have a local yarn shop, other than Hobbycraft. Which is shit for yarn.

Could you change the stitch instead and substitute a different one @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally?

@WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally I would just go for mustard and be done with it - but then my DH has zero sense of colour and what works, he often protests my choices, but then sheepishly admits I was right.

My birthday yarn is lovely! I got enough Drops Muskat cotton in mint green for a lovely summer top in moss stitch, which will be new to me, and also so very nice King Cole cotton bamboo for a granny-go-round top, also for me.

I also got a lovely hook case, but the Prym ergonomic big hooks I got for Christmas don't fit in it, so I need another solution for those. I feel a pencil case beckons! Then I think my other hooks will fit the case.

I'm half way done with the kids jumper sleeves, but I'm making myself stop and sew in some ends before I continue. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend, and then it is on to the poncho!

Ooh happy birthday @QuantumWeatherButterfly all of my hooks are in a pencil case, I keep meaning to make a hook roll but never get round to it.

@WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally my local yarn/fabric shop has two cotton yarns in white and cream. That's it 😂 I've never heard of crab stitch..off to google 😂

Happy birthday @QuantumWeatherButterfly

Im very good at starting projects and not actually finishing them so today I finally sewed in the loose threads and finished this little blanket.

That’s so pretty @Skiphopbump
happy birthday @QuantumWeatherButterfly !

Lovely blanket @Skiphopbump !

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound I quite the effect in the photos and can’t quite work out how I would recreate that. I can’t buy more yarn until I get paid anyway so I’ve got a little while to either work a different way of doing it or work out which colour to buy.

Happy belated birthday @QuantumWeatherButterfly

That’s lovely skiphopbump

i am just starting a Harry Potter blanket for my nephew. Aim is for his birthday in April but backup is Christmas!

Pretty blanket, @Skiphopbump !

I like the sound of yours too, @Sirzy - what kind of Harry Potter one is it? A house colours one, or does it have pictures?

Knitting and Crochet club went really well today - I took my own WIPs along for the first time, and actually managed to knit a few rows while chatting to the students about theirs! They were very interested to see my handspun alpaca and asked lots if questions about it.

What type of Harry Potter blanket?? I love Harry Potter!

I did a Ron Weasley blanket, finished it 5 years ago.

this is it.

This is my colour scheme for my temperature blanket.

also I have changed from chunky to dk lol. Yeah chunky was way too big, I underestimated the size it would be big time. It was gonna be like 4m long and 2.5m wide lol.

I need a HP Blanket. I don't, but I want one.

Thanks to whoever posted the leather patches for the temp blankets. My mum ordered one for hers. I can't even explain how amazing her temp blanket is, I'm just waiting for her to finish the border and send me a photo.

I may have spent about eleventy billion pounds on indy dyed yarn this week.

Hi there, I'm trying to finish things off which I started last year before I start anything new.

I'm finishing a Dorothy Mouse, and need to start a baby cardigan I was asked for between Christmas and new year - but they're dithering over pattern and yarn choice.

My first yarn purchase of this year came today, it's Rowan felted tweed, Aran weight, in Clay and it's for a Kim Hargreaves jacket with a mandarin collar and peplum. I've made one before in a navy felted tweed and spent an inordinate amount of money on Swarovski buttons for it. This will be a big project and I can't wait to start it. I've possibly spent the last six or so years making for others - mainly baby stuff, but we have had six grandchildren in the last six years and it has been a delight to knit baby stuff after many years of making complicated 'designer' knits.

They say a change is as good as a rest.

This Dorothy Mouse is looking quite good - I may be in further demand for soft toys. Everyone seems to want one now.