Support thread for Woolly Hugs - summer (sort of) 2013

[tribpot]

Our sympathies and thoughts are with daisydotandgertie, who lost her husband this month.

Woolly Hugs is now in action and this is the support and chat thread at which all are welcome - knitters, crocheters and donors. If you are a first time crafter please do have a go. There is bags of support and plain squares are just as important to our endeavour as fancy ones.

As flowers was one of the requested motifs, I'll just note there's a flowers section in the crafting guide. I might try the posies pattern on this sock pattern. For Welsh (or at least Celtic) patterns, I did this for a previous blanket.

Surely your bobbins are all at the wrong end of the colour block on the second row? How are you getting them back to the start?

This suggests it should be knit back and forth and so does this. Is the pattern just charted? If so I think the designer expected you to figure out how to read it.

this is what I'm doing I might just be cutting the yarn at each colour change which might be a nightmare, but I couldn't figure out how else to do it.

although this is how it seems to be done

I have no idea what you are talking about

Night X

Yeah you definitely shouldn't cut the yarn with every colour change, you might as well strand it in that case.

I must have missed the shout out for Survival's blanket, but I did see her thread

What colours are we using? I'll see what I've got in my WoollyHugs box

I've found the thread now! I'm sorted for colours.

What does strand it mean? Sorry, I'm being very thick.

Stranding = carrying the unused yarn behind the work, i.e. fairisle stylee.

I tried that but because it was in the round it was pulling too tight so I had to cut it.

Daisy, you are a star X

Blimey. How on earth do you knit a square on the diagonal?

www.knit-a-square.com/diagonal-squares.html

Nope. Still no clue

I don't think my brain works like that.

BIWI I start with one stitch and increase by one on the first stitch of each row, knit the rest. When one side is as big as I need, I start decreasing on the first stitch of each row and knit the rest until I have one stitch left, then loosen it, take it off the needle and pull the thread through to tighten. I only have to cast on one stitch! I like seeing it grow, and the edges look very nice (if I do say so myself!)

I like knitting on the diagonal. No cast on or cast off!

oops, x-post Moaning!

That makes more sense!

#BIWInicebutdim

Glaikit - if you're stranding you need to catch the yarn every two or three stitches, so that it doesn't pull too tight. Have a look at about 4 mins in. It'd be a pain to do all the way round for a single block of colour, but it would be better than starting a new piece of yarn on every row.

One thing people do to make sure their tension doesn't get too tight when doing fairisle in the round is to .

Thanks trib, no more knitting for me today! And I can't see me being in a fit state to tomorrow!

This is a question for Pistey, or whoever is sewing the blankets together. I have done a flowered square (this one) for Daisy's blanket, but it didn't turn out as square as I'd hoped. Is the shape ok? I don't mind undoing the edging and changing it if necessary.

Looks square enough to me

that's really pretty

That's lovely, Primrose!

That's really pretty, Primrose!