Knitting!

I am looking to make myself a scarf, but I am being terribly picky about what I want from said scarf, so I am hoping that the good people of knitting will be able to help.

First: weight. I want something lighter-than-usual but heavier than lace. I considered the Irish Hiking Scarf and the "wavy" scarf from Knitty, but I want something lighter than those (I live in the Bay Area, so it's not that cold). Clapotis looks like about the right weight, but I want a normal-width scarf, and it seems like that wouldn't work well with that stitch pattern.

Second: yarn choice. Finding the right color shouldn't be an issue as I want it to be solid cream-color, which I would imagine I can find in most any yarn. However, one of the items that I will frequently be wearing this hypothetical scarf with is a black velvet jacket. Therefore, I need to use a yarn that will not shed, unless I want to marry my lint brush. Recommendations?

I am a fairly new knitter, but I am not afraid to try new things and would like something that will teach me new skills and hold my interest (more than, say, 5 feet of garter stitch).

My friends and I are going to attempt a group knitting project for a friend of this (brave or crazy? I'm not sure: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTjosephine.html

The big problem is that Adriafil Charme doesn't come in the right color. We want to make it in a soft, spring-y to mossy green. We're not sure if all the various elements in the yarn will dye properly (we're willing to try if it will) and don't really have the money to experiment at the moment.

Does anyone know if this yarn will dye or what a good substitution would be? It's going to be an extra special present, so while price is an issue, it's not as much of an issue as how the sweater will look and feel.

Hi there,

I know that a lot of people are getting really into the whole knitting olympics, and I got really excited (ok, maybe too excited!) and put down my needles to start a new LJ community: knit_olympics. I thought it would be a good way to share the projects we envision, get advice on the projects we want to use for such a challenge as well as give each other advice and bond with other people that are as crazy as we are for voluntariliy signing up for such impossible tasks!

So hop on over!

So I just spent the last 2 and a half hours making the Leaf Armband in Moda Dea Cache (Tootsie). I guess this yarn is too thick for that pattern to work out very well, cuz the leaf-on-purl patch in the middle came out really puffy, and looked almost like there was a pocket stuck on the front of the armwarmer.

I bound off, tried it on, admired it for a few minutes, and then frogged. ;) Yet, I feel a warm sense of satisfaction. I bought this yarn a while ago, and haven't had any idea what to do with it (I was thinking about making Clapotis, but decided against it) and now, while I've frogged the armwarmer, I feel like I'm one step closer to knowing what to do with it, since I can cross one idea off the list.

Does anyone else buy yarn just cuz it's pretty and then go through multiple projects to test out how it works for various articles of clothing? Or am I just silly?

so, am i insane?

i bought a brand new sweater, to rip apart for the yarn.

it was on clearance for $15. it's cashmere. it's this weird heathered light teal-aqua color, which is just not me, but a good base for some violet color.... and it's a girls size 14, with a hood. i'd estimate it to be fingering weight.

now i have to go find a good pattern for it.... Suggestions? the thing weighs over 10 oz, so i'm guessing that by the time i take it apart it'll be somewhere around 8 1/2 - 9 oz.

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I know it must drive everyone mad for the constant pattern requests, but hey look, a pattern request (sorry). My father-in-law has just died and we'll be travelling down by train next week for the funeral. My health isn't good so I'll probably need to take plenty of rests in the quiet over the days we are down there, and I could do with something to knit to keep me occupied.

I usually knit toys but they take a bit too much concentration right now, so I'm thinking a scarf, preferably in aran (worsted) weight. I need something I can knit on the train, so nothing requiring too much concentration, but then again I don't want mindless garter or stocking stitch as that will give me too much time to think about things...

Can anyone suggest something that might fit the bill maybe? Ribbing drives me insane, but pretty much anything else is worth suggesting. I'll be in town next week shopping for suitably sombre clothes, so can pick up suitable yarn.

Thanks

A friend of mine has a nine month old son, and I offered to make him a scarf and mitts set. She said she would love that, and asked that it be black with light blue paws. Intarsia makes my teeth itch, but for him, I said sure--it'd be a fun challenge.

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His there. I'm half way finished with the Knitty breast cancer supplement heart scarf & am ready to knit the matching half. I have a question, though. I've placed the stitches from the first half on a makeshift stitch holder, but it's still attached to the balls of yarn (I'm using double stands of yarn). Do I cut the attachment? How much of a tail do I need to leave? Do I just weave the tail in & then use the unfinished loops to graft with the second piece? TIA. I will post FO pics when this cutie is done!

I know this has been asked before, but I can't find it anywhere here or with Google. I'm thinking about making the Flowerbasket shawl, which calls for a laceweight yarn held doubled. Since it's a shawl and guage isn't super important, what weight of yarn is approximately the same as laceweight doubled? I know I've seen some sort of chart or something.
I've found the wraps per inch charts, but it says that laceweight is about 20 wpi or more, so half of that is 10 wpi, which is bulky, which I'm sure is wrong.

i was just sitting around this morning after going through my yarn, thinking about what projects i want to get started on. and then i started wondering, what would happen if you did a cable pattern on a mobius scarf. i understand how to do both things but haven't actually done either yet so i can't picture in my head what would happen. does anyone know? since the mobius works from the spine out, would you get cables running the width of the scarf (the short direction)? if not, what would happen and what could it possibly look like? i'm really curious. something to put on my experimental list for the future. first i need to actually make cables and a mobius separately. :-)

How cute is this?

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As a follow up to this post, as far as I can tell, Adriafil is still making Charme (or their website is hopelessly out of date), but Plymouth is no longer distributing it. Am I crazy? Is there any way to still get a hold of it? On ebay just a month or two ago, there was tons of it, but now I don't see any.

Also, to clarify my original question about yarn substitutions, does anyone have experience with Adriafil Charme or something similar and knows what would look and feel similarly? One of the review I read said that it looks almost like velvet, and I'd like this to have a similarly luxe feel.

TIA.

Forgive me if this has already been discussed here, but I've got 2 questions about ribbing and didn't find anything in the memories and google search isn't helping.

1.) Does it matter how many stitches you cast on, as long as it's an even number? (I want to start with a ribbed scarf.)

2.) Is it K2P2 for every single row or do you alternate and do K2P2 on one row and then P2K2 on the next?

I just learned how to purl, thanks to jadewaterflame and wanna practice some more.

Edit: Just one more question, I promise. Is there anything, any pattern, that I can knit with one skein of yarn? I saw this pretty shade of blue in Caron So Soft but I was short on money and ideas, so I only got one skein of that and two skeins of pink Lion Homespun so I can do the double stranded scarf without going crazy trying to unknot the skein.

Okay, this is a follow-up to my question from late last night about how to finish Blackberry...

1. When doing shoulder seaming, SnB recommends what they call "fake grafting," where you sew stitches that LOOK like stockinette stitches. But what if you've worked the whole thing in reverse stockinette? Is it possible to fake graft reverse stockinette?

2. I keep trying this mattress stitch thing. But it always looks like total s**t when I'm done. Any advice on how to perfect it?

3. I still don't get how blanket stitch can be used to join two pieces.

Help!!!

I drew a chart for my Poster Boy bag from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, didn't like it, did another one, was satisfied and was just about to start knitting when I realized my graph is way off. I generated the graph paper from http://www.tata-tatao.to/knit/matrix/e-index.html but I was a total idiot and entered my gauge instead of the entire amount of stitches and rows that the chart should occupy. So, now I have this very nice, painstakingly done chart that is done on a grid that is 26 rows and 18 stitches instead of 74 rows and 55 stitches. Is there any way to salvage it?

Thanks in advance!

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Call me crazy, but I really want to make the mukluks in the Winter IK. I'm having some issues, though.

The pattern calls for six skeins of Plymouth Foxy. I looked it up on an online yarn store (sorry, can't remember which one) and it was $120 for five skeins. Um, a little rich for my blood. Is it usually that expensive? I haven't found it in any of my local shops yet, but there are a few more I could try.

I tried subbing a fun-fur-esque yarn, but it just isn't looking right. It's fringe, not fur. Any suggestions or advice, or should I start selling my body on the street?

I just got my power back. When it went out, I thought, "Okay, well I'm going to knit then; millions of men and women knit to candle light." While I was lighting my candles, I got DARK BROWN wax on my white yarn. *sob* I'm making the Irish Hiking Scarf, and a majority of it fell on a cable.

The yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease, the White Multi. Does anyone know of any way I can get this out? The wax was a gel-like wax, so it looks almost like I spilled hot chocolate on my yarn. Should I just frog it and cut off the wax stained parts?Please help me!

Edit: Thanks everyone for the comments. I have had the scarf in the fridge overnight, and I have a feeling I'm going to have to just frog it and start again. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the fifth time I've frogged it. Knitting tired is not recommended.