i was just looking through the classes online taught at my LYS, and lately, i've been interested in knitting socks. and i always hear about the heels of socks wearing out fairly easily. i saw this:

Sock 103- Toe up w/ afterthought heel
Saturday, May 13 and 27, 10-1pm
$35
This is a really fun beginner level sock that you can make with a replaceable heel. So when you wear the heel out, you can knit in another! How neat!

i've never knitted socks before, and this sounds PERFECT. but i've never heard of it before. has anyone else? i'm interested to know more about it before i sign up.

So. Say you wanted to felt something, but

a) you had no access to a suitable washing machine (the ones at the laundromat won't let you stop midway through the cycle and are all front-loaders), and
b) you're trying to avoid doing it by hand because you are a big fat wimp.

What else is out there? Do I need to get over my reluctance to do it by hand, or is there some technique I could MacGuyver out of using a blender or something? (I actually don't even have that, come to think of it -- I have a big stock pot and an electric mixer, though.)

I've completed knitting the scarf part of Knitty's Nagano Sakura, and now I'm trying to figure out the felting part. Thanks.

Tags: technique - felting

C L I C K

made it in my digital imaging class, pretty basic, but i hope you like it.
let me know if you have any problems understanding it, or if something is wrong!

Hi there fellow knitters! For those of you who have been searching for a knit-it-yourself substitution for the Anthropologie Poet's Muse Cardigan. I think I have found a close cousin!

This weekend at the Knit and Crochet Show in Oakland, CA there was a very similar item on display at the Windy Valley MuskOx booth (MuskOx fiber is also known as Qiviut and is super soft and warm). I had the chance to try it on and I must say that although it's not identical, I immediately bought the pattern and have plans to cast on as soon as I procure yarn for it!

The site for Windy Valley is here and although they don't have the item listed, I'm sure you can e-mail them to ask about it. I paid $5.00 for the pattern and ordered $30.00 of fingering weight alpaca and silk yarn from Elann.com to make it (exact same yardage even!). I would have loved to make it from the Qivuit fiber, but at $66 per ball, I've had to make a cheaper choice.

The cardigan is a wrap style, just like the Anthropologie one, but the fronts are a little more pointy, with one side being slightly longer than the other. The sleeves have rushing at the bottoms (which is just the cutest design feature) and there is a small ruffle on the edging (I usually dislike ruffles, but this one is fairly subtle). Although it's fingering weight, the pattern calls for US 6 needles so it won't be too much of a strain to knit with. I do have a photo of the item (which shows the fronts tied together in a knot, but at the booth they had it on a mannequin wrapped over one shoulder), but it's from the printed pattern so I didn't intend on sharing here just in case it violates some copyright law.

I hope this helps all of you out there that were looking for a pattern to recreate the Anthropologie Poet's Muse Wrap Cardigan!

My LYS was having a huge sale this weekend, and I bought six hanks of Berroco denim silk in color 1414 (dye lot 21). I want to make this sweater, but I need seven hanks to do it. I knew when I bought the yarn that I was likely going to be short (I hadn't taken my measurements to be sure), but I couldn't pass up the price.

So now I'm trying to figure out what to do. Obviously, if I could track down a hank in the matching dye lot, that would be great. But if that's not possible, is there a way I could modify the pattern to add in a contrasting color, either in the cable part at the top (not sure that would look too hot) or stripes or something at the bottom part?

I suppose the other option would to try to find something else to make, but I really like the look of that pattern.

Hello Everyone...

I went to a big yarn sale this weekend up in Maine. A place called Bumblebee Quiltworks is going out of business and they are selling everything for 1/2 off. I bought what i thought was cherry tree hill supersock yarn to make sock. What i ended up buying was Supersport yarn instead. I am so bummed. I was wondering if one skein is enough to make a short pair of socks. I know that they would have to be ankle socks. Has anyone used this yarn before to make socks. It have about 270 yarns of yarn. If it isn't enough what could i make i have two skeins in different colors.
TIA
Jennifer

Thanks for everyone's input on the interchangeable needles... I've decided to go ahead and buy a set, and there are a few sets on ebay right now for $24.99 buy it now, with like $6 shipping. Cheap! (Even cheaper than after the 40% off coupon at Michaels!)

Thought I'd share just in case anyone else was thinking about buying a set. Just search Boye Needlemaster and they'll come up...

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to knit a tanktop for to wear at a friend's wedding, and would really like to try my hand at Knitty's Soleil. http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTsoleil.html

The problem? I've never knitted with circular needles.
Or done any clothing other than hats and mittens.
Or had to decipher a chart.
Or done any lacework.

So I'm a little intimidated, but have done my share of mittens/hats/scarfs and really REALLY want to move up to clothing. Which leads me to my question for y'all - I've seen a spate of people who have finished Soleil on this site, and looked at their entries and want to know - how hard/easy was this pattern? Would you recommend it as a first clothing/lace project?

I'm also looking at yarn substitutes, but I'm more curious as to how this pattern knitted up.

Hi Everyone,


I have a 6 month old chihuahua with a knitting fetish. He decided to tangle an entire ball of yarn into a giant mess. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to untangle this disaster?

This may sound like a terribly beginner question but how would someone go about calculating their own thumb gusset? Is there a set formula or do you wing it and hope for the best?

I'm very new to this whole knitting thing. I can cast on, knit, purl and bind off... but now I'm trying to figure out ribbing. I'm trying to make this, but the ribbing seems weird to me- is it normal to do one row K2 P1, then the next P2 K1? It doesn't seem like it'd come out right.

Also, I was just messing around trying to practice ribbing, doing K2 P2. By the end of each row I'd have two more stitches than I cast on- does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

TIA.

Hi, this is the first time I have posted...I love this community.
I searched the forum and couldn't find anything specific to repairing buttonholes. I have a store bought sweater (from a non-knitting time in my life). The button holes are unraveling. Otherwise the sweater is fine. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to repair the buttonholes?
Thanks!

Current Mood: curious

I'm working on a baby sweater, and am shaping the back neck. I'm not positive I understand what the following instructions mean:

Row 1 (right side): For right shoulder, work in patt across 18 sts for neck edge, with second skein of yarn, bind off 17 st for the left shoulder, work in patt across rem 18 sts. on each shoulder

I'm with them right up until "with second skein of yarn", I have no idea where this second skein is coming from. Do I just attach a second skein and use it to bind off those 17sts? There's a note between this row and the next that says to work both shoulders at the same time using separate skeins of yarn for each shoulder, so it makes sense, I just want to be sure that I'm doing this properly.

Thanks!

Light up knitting needles - perfect for knitting the with dark or fuzzy yarns. Or to use during movie previews....

http://www.laknitterieparisienne.com/Knit_Lite.html

I don't think they are for sale quite yet, but they are pretty cool

I just finished up (and gifted) the squid hat I'd been working on for some time. Well, mostly off and on, because although it wasn't challenging, it just wasn't a very interesting knit once I got started. Maybe I've just got too many other fun projects going now that I couldn't be bothered.

Anyhow, it was a big hit at the baby shower and I'm thrilled to cross it off my to-do list. Here's the original pattern: http://www.poormojo.org/cgi-bin/gennie.pl?Squid+232+bi

Current Mood: tired

I have a friend who's getting married in a couple of months and I wanted to knit her something that I could finish quickly but that would be cute and useful for her... so I got the idea to knit a couple of dishcloths to give her along with her actual wedding present. Could anybody point me in the direction of some cute patterns for dishcloths? Thanks very much!

Or alternatively, if you have another idea for something I could knit quickly that would be a good wedding present, I'm open to suggestions...

I finished these socks this past weekend, using KnitPicks Dancing in the colorway "Jig." I absolutely love this yarn. I don't like socks with tall cuffs, so this comes about two inches above my ankle. I got both socks out of one skein of yarn, with some left over.

This is the website where I got the pattern, but for some reason it's not working for me at the moment. Thankfully, I printed out the pattern, because I love it so much. I'm definitely going to buy more Dancing yarn in another colorway, to make this pattern again.


( A photo under the cutCollapse )

I had an up-close photo of the stitch pattern, but it ended up really blurry. Hopefully I can take another photo of the stitch pattern so you all can see how pretty it is.

I'm working on the Irish Diamond shawl in a black alpaca laceweight
and hand't been able to find my knitting in a week.

I just found it.

I was in the middle of a purl row and it looks like my addis slipped
out of about 10 stitches. One of the ladders is almost at the
neck. I was on my 7th set of repeats of the first pattern
too. There's 14 or 15 total.

So, I'm going to frog it and do what this other woman did to speed up
her knitting. She saw that the other side of one of her lace
patterns was all purls. She's making them all knits to make it go
faster. So that's going to be my plan as soon as I get it re-cast on
my needles.

I am going to knit one of the Jems and I want to swatch for it.

Why do I suck at reading knitting patterns? I feel like I have my mind half the time. So it's a 10 stitch lace pattern, which STARTS with a YO. So obviously I would want some built in stitches on my swatch, atleast 1 or 2 on either side of the swatch to keep it's shape.

So last night I attempted to swatch for MagKnits Calla and it came out HORRIBLE. I built in 2 knit stitches before I began the complicated pattern, then purled the reverse side, and came around the the front again. I know I followed the pattern, and in row 1 (RS) i had 2 stitches left at the end, on row 3 (RS) I had 4 stitches left on the end. Am I missing some little snippet of logic here?

If it is a 10 stitch pattern that includes YO's and SSK's, I read it and I create a stitch just as many times as a reduce a stitch.. so is there anything I need to keep in my mind that I have not fully understood yet? If I cast on 14 stitches for a 10 stitch lace pattern, and I knit the first 2 stitches, then YO and SSK and go through it all, at the end of each row I should have 2 left over stitches to simply knit, right?

Sorry I am so terribly daft :(

Current Mood: quixotic

About an hour ago, I sent off my first KnitPicks order for a set of Denise needles, two balls of twist and one of butterfly for the lavender Stockpot Scarf (mother's day, her favorite clothing colors,) and two balls of Dancing in Tap and two in Ballet.

Now, I had planned knitting a pair of Crusoe socks, but after looking through back entries, there's an error or two in the pattern that cause a headache. I'm looking for a fun pattern... one that makes the yarn look good, but not like the same stuffy sock pattern. The first set of socks is for my friend's birthday in July, she likes the short socks like the Crusoe pattern, or anklets like in a recent FO posted in the same yarn.

So, what I'm asking, do you know of any short-socks patterns that are top-down? I haven't tried toe-up, I suppose I could... basically, any pattern. I've googled and searched all over for an anklet pattern with a little more style to it than straight fabric... and can't find one. I can't believe how many free sock patterns there are on the web, but they're all pretty much the same -- it's driving me insane!

We live in Fresno -- which if you don't already know, it's uber hot here in the summer. Socks, for most of us, don't get much use during the sweaty months. I'm still going to make the socks for her, she loves socks, she can wear them for one of those rare cold nights.

Edit-- Thanks for the suggestions, I'll just do fewer repeats of the cuff... But, I guess what I'm really just looking for now is a pattern that shows the yarn off well.

Tags: what to do with this yarn?

I remember seeing a butterfly shawl pattern. It was lace and looked like a giant butterfly. I seem to remember that it was a purchased pattern but for the life of me I can't find it. I used the community search and google but my google-fu must be running a little bit low tonight. I was wondering if any of you other wonderful knitters may have stumbled across the pattern. Thanks for any help you can give.

Tags: pattern request, technique - lace
Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: The Bear Necessities

A few months ago several people graciously proofread and test knit this pattern for me -- I've finally gotten around to formatting and publishing and had to share again!

( See a pic of the bagCollapse )

The Andrea Bag Pattern.