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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49863 is a reply to message #49862 ] |
Fri, 18 May 2012 23:03   |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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Knitting this week has been a mix of disaster (ripped a sock cuff back to the yarn. GRUMP) and success (turning heels of a different pair of socks went smoothly) and near disaster following success (this making up stuff as I go along is...tricky.) Directions--when I try them--meant for other people's feet don't necessarily work on mine. It's a good thing I try the socks on every other row at least, because they were about to be uncomfortably tight. Seriously uncomfortably tight. I think--hope--what I will make them OK, but I've written down what not to do next time, to ensure no similar problem.
I am using yarn, but I'm buying yarn faster than I'm using it--apparently the self-control button has decided that yarn is like certain staples in the kitchen...if you're using something regularly, you'll barely keep up if you buy a little more than you think you're using. You need more than you think you need. Yet I'm not knitting noticeably faster (not and keep working on the books.)
I'm over (no, wait...I think maybe I'm over for now) the impulse buying of gorgeous yarns with no plan other than "That's STUNNING! Must HAVE!" But the buying of things I immediately know what to do with...when I have time...is still a tough one to resist. Even the too-big floppy socks--full of mistakes and less than beautiful--feel so much better than store-bought socks that I'm frantic to have enough (that fit a little better) to wear all the time. Happy feet, o happy feet. (Sorry, feet, you get to be happy just twice a week until the hands upstairs knit more socks.)
I did finally get my yarns organized, into plastic bags, listed in the computer, and out of sight. But that only turned up the desire to buy more ("Can't...see....yarn. Must...need...more...yarn...") The work bags (one project per bag, with its needles) let me see yarn--but that's not stash, because it's on the needles, right? It doesn't count as yarn. It counts as "yarn about to be used up and thus not available." (The "about to be" part is...um...virtual reality. I'm a slow knitter.)
At least it's now hot enough that the hand-washed wool stuff dries outside in less than a day. Which could mean the clumsy too-big first pair could be worn every day, except then they'd wear out before I got enough socks made.
E
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49872 is a reply to message #49870 ] |
Sat, 19 May 2012 02:20 |
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 Stardancer
Messages: 182
Registered: April 2011
Location: Florida, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Sat, 19 May 2012 00:53 |
If you make a 4 x 4 inch/10 cm x 10 cm gauge swatch, then rip it out and measure how much yarn you used, you can figure how much you would save by making your sweater 8 inches shorter. Tedious, but less tedious than running out of yarn. Or you might look for a similar but shorter cardigan pattern and see how much yardage the shorter one calls for, as a guesstimate. Eight inches around a sweater is quite a lot of fabric, so you may well come out right with your chosen yarn.
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Gauge is awesome when it works. However--a Cautionary Tale--I have managed to get at least THREE different gauges on one project. It's an argyle vest for my fiance, and so far I've only worked on the back. It's one color and not too argyle-y yet, so you'd think it would be that hard. But I tried knitting with the recommended (tiny) needle sizes and my gauge was too big--I didn't have enough stitches to the 4", or whatever it was. So I tried again on smaller needles and that worked okay. Until partway through, when my knitting must have inexplicably tightened, because it started growing smaller at the top. ARGH.
The moral of the story: Gauge is a cruel, cruel mistress. But still worth trying. At least in this case I know I CAN attain the correct gauge with the needles I'm (still, very carefully) using.
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49874 is a reply to message #49862 ] |
Sat, 19 May 2012 07:57 |
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nickithomas
Messages: 44
Registered: December 2011
Location: Speen, Bucks, UK |
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But . . . pardon me . . . I’m having a stupid moment . . . I can’t find where to click on the colinette pages to find the practical details. http://www.colinette.com/products/Zanziba-%252d-Rose-Garden. html for example. I want it, but what’s it made of? What’s the size and what’s the gauge? What am I missing?
blondviolinist already found it above but yes, each yarn has a 'home' page that shows the label. E.g. http://www.colinette.com/categories/yarns/zanziba/
Is this the right time to mention that the yarn that first attracted me to Colinette, being a slow knitter frustrated with taking months or even years to complete a garment, was their Point Five which knits on 12 (yes, TWELVE) mm needles...? http://www.colinette.com/categories/yarns/point-five/
It knits up like this: 
[Updated on: Sat, 19 May 2012 08:07]
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and all our little lives are rounded by a sleep.
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49880 is a reply to message #49862 ] |
Sat, 19 May 2012 19:22 |
Katsheare
Messages: 133
Registered: December 2011
Location: Berks., England |
Senior Member |
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I also don’t know what time frame you’re talking about, but knitting has gone from something embarrassing your grandmother did because she didn’t get out much to madly hot and cool (so to speak) in something like the last ten years over here—I don’t know if America led the way on this or not. Or anyway that’s about what friends my age say about looking around on the tube and in staff meetings. Ten years ago, everyone scowled at their newspaper or their notepad. Now they knit.
The visit to England was for Christmas 2009, and I'd been reading about how huge knitting was getting in the UK. I think the trendiness was pretty much simultaneous. I've been knitting since way before it was cool (just after Cosby sweaters stopped being desirable and before they started being awesome for Ugly Sweater Parties) but from 2001 to 2005 worked at a JoAnn Fabrics in the San Francisco area, and got to see the growing popularity first-hand. When I started there, pretty much everything hand-made was growing in popularity, most people saying it was because of the World Trade Center attacks and wanting something more homey and comforting, but I've no idea if that has any traction or not. Anyway, since I was in the 'trade' (and the resident knitter at our store. I still miss complete strangers coming up to me with a very long project held out like a sacrifice, saying 'Someone told me you know how to bind off'...) I was paying attention to what was happening elsewhere, and while big knits were being organized in Golden Gate Park, the same sort of thing was taking place on the Underground.
No, I think my 'wool/yarn' problem (which I sort of equate to the 'all soft drinks are Coke' thing in the American South) was much more that Google hates me. Or I don't think the right way to get Google to give me the information I want. Or something. But the first time I asked my partner's family about 'yarn' they all gave me stares as blank as a sheep's. So now I use 'wool' (even if it's cotton or alpaca) to make a 'jumper' (because sweaters are sweatshirts, I so don't get that one) and continue to doubt my ability to effectively translate from American to British. (And that's not counting accents. Oh, lordy, the accents...)
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49905 is a reply to message #49872 ] |
Sun, 20 May 2012 23:49 |
Joseph-ine
Messages: 53
Registered: April 2011 |
Member |
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| Stardancer wrote on Sat, 19 May 2012 16:20 |
| Diane in MN wrote on Sat, 19 May 2012 00:53 |
If you make a 4 x 4 inch/10 cm x 10 cm gauge swatch, then rip it out and measure how much yarn you used, you can figure how much you would save by making your sweater 8 inches shorter. Tedious, but less tedious than running out of yarn. Or you might look for a similar but shorter cardigan pattern and see how much yardage the shorter one calls for, as a guesstimate. Eight inches around a sweater is quite a lot of fabric, so you may well come out right with your chosen yarn.
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Gauge is awesome when it works. However--a Cautionary Tale--I have managed to get at least THREE different gauges on one project. It's an argyle vest for my fiance, and so far I've only worked on the back. It's one color and not too argyle-y yet, so you'd think it would be that hard. But I tried knitting with the recommended (tiny) needle sizes and my gauge was too big--I didn't have enough stitches to the 4", or whatever it was. So I tried again on smaller needles and that worked okay. Until partway through, when my knitting must have inexplicably tightened, because it started growing smaller at the top. ARGH.
The moral of the story: Gauge is a cruel, cruel mistress. But still worth trying. At least in this case I know I CAN attain the correct gauge with the needles I'm (still, very carefully) using.
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I agree
I made my friend a baby blanket, and even though I used some of my squares to "gauge" the project, I still had to completely rip two of them apart to get the gauge to work (sort of - the darker squares ended up be different again even though it was the same yarn - I blame finding it harder to crochet in dark colours for that). by the time I had finished half of my squares, I had also worked out that the gauge listed for the pattern was completely unobtainable due to the row count being set up for the stripe system (alternate squares) and not for the block colours. Instead of being able to get squares I got rectangles and nothing I did would change it.
"sod this!" I cried and changed the array of squares (now rectangles) to suit myself. It got done in the end at least.
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49914 is a reply to message #49911 ] |
Mon, 21 May 2012 09:08 |
Katsheare
Messages: 133
Registered: December 2011
Location: Berks., England |
Senior Member |
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| Mockorange wrote on Mon, 21 May 2012 11:38 |
My feeling (and I may be quite wrong here) is that the difference between those who use 'jumper' and those who use 'sweater' is a minor social class variation. I have the impression that 'sweater' may be very slightly more upper class than 'jumper', but it may in fact be more of a regional divide thingy.
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Ah, yes, class distinctions. Give me a good decade living here and I might get them, and remember them in the wild. Maybe. Actually, we live in Berkshire, so the extremes of class can be observed. Some of the extremes of region as well. since so many people have moved here for work, etc.
Part of my challenge is that it's such a small percentage of our language that's not perfectly shared, barring accent, and I never know where to look. I oughtn't call the taps the faucet? The sidewalk's pavement? My store-bought items are actually shop-bought? What has helped are new friends here who are willing to correct my pronounciation (lorry. That's a toughie for a midwesterner-by-way-of-California) and that my partner was a Brit stranded in the US for 30 years.
On a similar note, have you seen this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PfDnNojo0Xg ? Speaking of US/UK relations...
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| Re: Forum Knitting [message #49923 is a reply to message #49862 ] |
Mon, 21 May 2012 15:43 |
Mockorange
Messages: 161
Registered: January 2012
Location: England |
Senior Member |
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Katsheare wrote:
Ah Spike! Totally bonkers! And "It's about time we had some sophistication on this show." *SMIRKS*
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