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_

Continuation from my previous post. I promise its almost over 😀🫣

Finally this is the most recent addition and I must say most dreamed of and something I kept putting off for long time. Originally I wanted the full set which has all sizes available but whenever I would see the price I just used to tell myself maybe next time or maybe when we have special occasion. Surprisingly they were pretty hard to find in uk (I mean full sets) and I just didnt want to risk paying customs on top of that pricy bill already therefore I have discovered this on etsy. I dont usually knit with larger sizes, so I have decided to gift myself small set for my birthday this year. I have purchased two more sets of tips and still on lookout for 1 that was out of stock so I would have all small tips as they are my go to sizes.
These are not for everyone due to them being super sharp, however I love how pointy chiaogoo needles were to me at the beginning however I think I still need something more pointy. These will be for lace knitting that I hope to do this year. Im sure everyone has heard a lot of things about Hiya’s and hopefully I can tell something more when I give them a go.
This is Hiya Hiya Sharp in 5” tips.

From crochet hooks I only have 1 set and they are very comfortable to crochet with. I would like to give clove hooks a try. So maybe one day 🫣🤭

ps somehow first message doibled and not sure if there is a way to delete one

@sophs29 I think chunky with a 2.5 hook would be really hard to work. I'd go for more like a 4/4.5 (usually DK says to use a 4mm, so 2.5 is 1.5 smaller. I'd size down similarly)

I don't even want to think about how many hooks I have!

@WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally I paid an extra £ to have the yarn pre-wound into a cake because my DC run for the hills if they see me advancing asking them to hold their arms out for an hour 😂

Yes @CrochetBug I don't even want to attempt chunky with a 2.5! I think I'll try 4/4.5 like you said, 4.5 is my fav hook! How did your crafty Tuesday go by the way??

@12roundsofwhitelowfatspread Child labour is unreliable labour! DH made me a swift out of scrap bits of wood when he got fed up of being asked to hold the skeins and it works a treat

Morning ladies, I have bought my winding umbrella from amazon for about £15, works really well. I also got tired of all the time it used to take me to wind the yarn. Now I can get it done in under 3 min

I’ve given my self a numb finger tip from all the crochet!
I’m on my third square of the 50 stitches blanket. I’ve had to start the squares over so many times but enjoying the challenge of learning something new. My second square (puff ball) is a bit too loose so I may redo that later down the line.

@Ladywithacat your needle/hook collection is a dream!! All your little cases make me so jealous! All of my hooks are just shoved in a pencil case/make up bag 😂

@sophs29 Thank you! I have seen some pretty lovely knitting needles/crochet hook cases on Etsy that are handmade.

or if you have a sewing machine that can turn in to a great project that would also help you to get it all organised 🤩

@Ladywithacat I do have a sewing machine and overlocker! (I used to be a seamstress)! A hook case is on my massive list of things that I want to make 😂

I bought a Wool Jeanie for about £15 on Amazon and it’s bloody fantastic- no balling needed!

re hook collections- the only set of hooks I’ve ever owned or used is a really basic set from Hobbycraft that cost about a tenner and have never let me down yet- but someone in one of my many Facebook crochet groups shared this absolutely beautiful set which I’m so tempted to get for myself!

@sophs29 I do have overlocker too but I just cant be bothered with it. I can never get the tension on all 4 threads look good and end up just telling myself everything will be lined and no one will know that they are not overlocked 🫣

@AngeloMysterioso these are beautiful! I remember coming across all these fimo covered crochet hooks which are very lovely. I wonder how comfortable they are to crochet with?

Lots of lovely hooks and needles! I'm very jealous of @Ladywithacat's too - even though most of them are for knitting! They are just so pretty. I definitely need more. DH got me a washbag for my birthday, but it is a lot smaller than he expected, and now I know just what to put in it! He also got me a hook case, but it is tiny, none of my hooks fit in properly.

@Skiphopbump I haven't started the blanket yet, I want to make some progress with my poncho first. I've been at it for 4 days now, and I haven't actually got a single stitch to show for it yet😂

Do I need a wool winder? Is that just for balling up yarn you spin yourself? Is a Wool Jeanie the same thing? I smell an opportunity to spend some money😀

Haha @Ladywithacat sounds the same as me and my overlocker then! Some days it's a dream and others I'm ready to chuck it out of the window!

@AngeloMysterioso I have covered all of my cheapy hooks with fimo, mine are not pretty though, I just used scrap clay from other projects! I intended just to use them when I started out but find them really comfortable! That set you attached is beautiful!

Are you all mainly crocheters? 🤩 I do a bit of amigurumi, other than that I dont have patience for crocheting clothes… I will attach what I made for Christmas gifts to our smallest family members

I do have one crochet hook which is personalised version of my lovely cat. Its too precious to crochet with, Im scared to damage it and its a little heavy. Great gift idea for crafty friend or loved one 😍🥰

@sophs29 I knew there had to be a good use for Fimo! I had some as a teenager which was <cough> several decades ago now, and never knew what to do with it.

@Ladywithacat They are gorgeous! You definitely aren't the only knitter, I think we're a fairly even split. Several of the more talented posters do both. I've tried a bit of amigurumi, and I just don't really get on with it. Perhaps I'll try again when I'm a bit more experienced. My mum is a knitter though, and she was very jealous how much more quickly my crochet garments worked up than her knitted ones.

Wow @Ladywithacat you're very clever! I only crochet, I did learn to knit many years ago but I'm so impatient I like things to work up quickly so I personally don't enjoy knitting and probably wouldn't remember how to now anyway!

@QuantumWeatherButterfly haha yes it's perfect for that use! 😂 I can't remember why I got into clay..either to make earrings or some random hobby I wanted to start 😂

I have tried crocheting a dress from cotton, it turned out to be lovely bikini dress that I am still yet to wear. I started with amigurumi, but then picked up knitting and just felt in love with it. I think the big turning point was when I discovered hand dyed yarns. They are quite costly and I figured out knitting uses less yarn than crocheting.

I am looking forward to see everyones creations 😍

@sophs29 Tuesdays craft café was ok thank you. No 'new' members, so just the same people who usually come to a church café. I took some random balls of yarn and hooks just in case, even though it's advertised as a 'bring your own craft' event.

@AngeloMysterioso I've got one hook that looks exactly like one of those. I'll have to dig out all (well as many as I can find) of my hooks and take a photo.

@Ladywithacat I've realised that hand dyed yarns are my downfall. I've got lots of 10g and 20g mini skeins that used to come with the subscription box I got. I probably should have made them into balls when I got them, doing 1 per month would have been ok. Now I've got those plus the 50 and 100g ones I've treated myself to since. So I'm tempted by a yarn umbrella/swift/winder thing.

I haven't seen @lucysmam for a while. Hope you're OK if you're still around. Or maybe I've just missed a post.

Actually getting the hang of knitting is on my to do list this year. Along with turning the 3 patterns in my head into actual things, finishing the nativity set. Finishing the embroidered piano hanging for Church. And Finishing other wips.

@CrochetBug I only skein mine up when I am ready to knit with it. I keep having myself hand dyed yarn advent calendars and knit with it every day. The little 20g skeins do wind up really fast, especially if you dont have to set up umbrella all the time.

Hey @CrochetBug & everyone 👋 thanks for thinking of me. I'm still around...just completely lost my crojo for a while &, other than finishing the second dino, haven't properly picked up my hook or thought about crochet until this week when I started "For...Me".

Now you've tagged me, I'll have a read of what you've all been up to though! I hope everyone's well 🙂

@Ladywithacat thank you. I think I can ball the mini skeins on my own, the bigger ones aren't so easy. Mind you my mum could be my second person, the DCs hate helping.

@lucysmam glad you're still here and getting your crojo back. Is that the 'for' blanket? It's on my to do list for my bed. I just need to decide exactly what colours I want and then I'm commissioning some hand dyed yarn specially. I've been looking for probably a year now, and the colours I want just don't exist. So I've been saving up!

The saga of the poncho continues. I've done the foundation row again, and it's still 6cm too long. I've done the maths and that equates to being about half a stitch out on the gauge swatch.

If I dropped back too 6.5 I'm pretty confident it will make it too small. Plus it's harder yarn to manage with a smaller hook. So I'm going to go with it and hope I have enough yarn. No one is going to notice a poncho being a bit big, are they?

CrochetBug, yes, the For blanket. I finally decided to just go for it. The worst that's going to happen is I have to frog I already had to frog 2 rows because I mis-read 🙄