Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Yarny
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| Re: Yarny [message #49553 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 22:19   |
EMoon
Messages: 664
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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I started with a blanket for a charity. And then a scarf for a gift. The blanket isn't done, because I found out that acrylic yarn catches fire easily and then melts onto the person under the blanket...not the kind of blanket to knit for a kid in foster care. The colors were perfect for a blanket for a boy--not plain dull blue or brown, but a sort of autumny variegated group of colors. Not finding that in Superwash (the things made for this purpose have to be machine washable.) So the blanket is on hold...I need to find someone else to make it for, who is adult enough to use it maybe as a lap blanket while sitting on the porch in cool weather--not near a fire.
E
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| Re: Yarny [message #49554 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Thu, 03 May 2012 23:01 |
 Joseph-ine
Messages: 53
Registered: April 2011 |
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yay - thankyou! I have a list now of shops - its growing larger after I did some googling the other day! I have to be near some of them on my travels around Manhattan surely!
My first crochet project was a blanket. Its not finished because of course I started looking at other patterns and realised how many other things I wanted to do (it was a step-by-step magazine but it supplied only acrylic when the pictured yarn was clearly cotton or cotton blend - grr). Since I started I have done a scarf (it was a bit boring), but did make a lovely pair of warm fishnet style mittens for a friend, toys, two baby blankets (the last one was a mammoth effort which I have only just finished) and now I am finally doing scarves again, because when you find a really nice pattern, you really want to make it and wear it and have people say - "Oooh that's a nice scarf, where did you get it?" and you get to say "oh well actually I made it"....
I was delighted by the mentions of the male knitters, and it reminded me that way back knitting was the domain of men (was reading something about the history somewhere but I am getting my info from some favourite childhood books). Written by Monica Edwards, one of her characters was a wonderful creation, sea-man, pirate (poentially), smuggler etc, also knitted, because as a man of the sea, you had to know how to make nets, and knitting was also their domain. he knitted his own socks etc, although, the description of his guernsey's used to make me want one of the oiled knitted jumper (sweater?) but have never found out if they are still made, or even if the yarn is still made.
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| Re: Yarny [message #49558 is a reply to message #49557 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 01:22 |
jjmcgaffey
Messages: 53
Registered: September 2010
Location: Alameda, CA |
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I started by trying to reproduce a thing my grandmother made. She was very crafty - and awful at it, because she loved pure polyester. I and my sisters got these gorgeous velvet dresses, beautifully sleek and not fluffy at all (I think I was 8 at the time, and my youngest sister was 3) in different colors...but they were polyester velvet, and they ITCHED! So we wore them for Christmas pictures to be sent to Grandma, and no other time.
Anyway. So she made me these bedsocks - no heel, knitted flat with doubled-yarn garter-stitch soles and stockinette tops, and knitted together in a ridge up the front, in the middle of the stockinette (long-tail caston, so there were stitches on the starting edge too). They were almost knee-length, so solid they were almost rigid (I have no idea what she used for yarn - not acrylic, much harder), and so warm my feet sweated to death in them...but a great idea. Years after I got them, I decided to reproduce them, with variations (mostly, crew length or shorter) - got a Readers Digest Needlework book and worked out how to knit from the diagrams.
I've now made...oh, a hundred of them? When I started it took me about a year to make a pair, carefully working each stitch; also, I HATE purling, trying to keep that tension straight for the stockinette was a pain. So I figured out that knitting left-handed (knit _from_ the left needle _to_ the right one) is exactly the same as turning it around and purling right-handed - that made the stockinette much easier. Now I can finish a pair in about 2 weeks, or days if I don't have anything to do but knit - so I have way too many and I had to expand my repertoire. I've now made a hat (which was beautiful (varigated rainbow) but utterly uncomfortable), I'm working on a baby blanket, and I'm almost finished with an earwarmer (3-inch band to go around the head and over the ears, leaving the top of your head free).
I've done all of this in acrylic, mostly Red Heart yarn. I _have_ lots of nice wool, but not wool blends...and I don't do hand-wash. I now own a skein of superwash wool, which is going to turn into a pair of socks. Someday.
Oh, and re: yarns - these aren't wonderfully pretty (no glitter or rainbows), but I bet the texture is amazing. http://yarn.polarknit.com/
jjm
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| Re: Yarny [message #49562 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 05:09 |
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I learned to knit when I was about 3, and one of my earliest memories is showing Grandma how well I could knit - my memory of the memory (if you see what I mean) says it was a garterstitch square for an Oxfam blanket. After that I probably did make scarves, and doll's cardis and so on, eventually graduating to making jumpers for myself.
These days I tend to knit more socks and shawls and hats. And dolls and Daleks and so on...
If you want Malabrigo Arroyo, Nest in Crouch End now stocks it - www.handmadenest.co.uk/ and they do mail order...
Marion
Keeper of the Knitronomicon
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| Re: Yarny [message #49564 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 07:29 |
Katsheare
Messages: 133
Registered: December 2011
Location: Berks., England |
Senior Member |
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The first time I visited England I wanted to visit some yarn shops, see what cool local stuff might be on offer. Google search: nothing. No one I knew at the time was a knitter (though since moving here I've inspired a couple friends to become reacquainted) and I sat with my cup of tea (or pint, depending on the time of day and company) trying to figure this out. Everywhere we went we passed fields of sheep. How could there be no product of that?
Because it's WOOL here. Oh. 'Wool Shops' turned out results (no so many as I'd been hoping for, though in the meantime a very nice wool shop has opened in our town centre) and I've since almost entirely stopped using the word 'yarn'. The opening sentence of your post today made me homesick in a way I've not really been yet.
My first project was a muffler, supposed to be in k2p2 rib, for my baby sister. When an aunt, a very accomplished knitter herself, looked at it, she asked how I'd managed to learn lace. Ugh. I think it took me 10 years of knitting to make my first scarf.
The thing I love about knitting is that there is always some new challenge for you (okay, maybe not always. Maybe those people who have truly devoted their lives to it, the EZs of the world, maybe for them it's truly all been done.) some new trick to learn or try or whatever. You don't have to, either. You can stay in your comfort zone forever if you like, but there's more out there, if you're interested. I love that.
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| Re: Yarny [message #49573 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 12:20 |
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nickithomas
Messages: 44
Registered: December 2011
Location: Speen, Bucks, UK |
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I'm a lapsed knitter, been about 7 years now since I picked up needles in anger, part of a weird set of changes that happened when my marriage went kaput (also including not being able to READ - horror! - although thankfully that came back after a few months...). Anyway, I did love knitting although I was always slow so went for the larger needle patterns so I could feel SOME progress was being made. I had great fun accumulating stocks of odd balls in sales etc and then using them in Kaffe Fassett type patterns, but I think my favourite UK yarn supplier for a single wool project was this one: http://www.colinette.com/
They do a lot of mixed colour yarns, and I love some of their mixes, plus they do several nice chunky varieties for slow knitters like me. They only supply hanks, which I found irritating initially, but then someone gave me a wool-winding gadget and it became part of the joy of starting a new project - the evening spent creating all my lovely balls of wool... Now I've looked at their website I am seriously tempted to start again...!
Can't resist including a picture of the knit I am most proud of, because I cobbled together different patterns to design it myself. I still wear it now and on the rare occasion it raises a compliment I am just so chuffed...
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and all our little lives are rounded by a sleep.
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| Re: Yarny [message #49581 is a reply to message #49580 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 19:24 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2596
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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| ravenclawgirl wrote on Fri, 04 May 2012 19:11 |
Please tell me someone else out there started with something that wasn’t a scarf
My first crochet project (to the best of my memory) was a blanket for my Barbies. It vaguely resembled a yellow rectangle that bulged out at random bits.
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LOL I think my very first knitting project was also a blanket for the Barbie/doll. It was either pink or yellow and sounds very much like yours... *g*
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Yarny [message #49586 is a reply to message #49573 ] |
Fri, 04 May 2012 21:56 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2731
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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| nickithomas wrote on Fri, 04 May 2012 11:20 |
I'm a lapsed knitter, been about 7 years now since I picked up needles
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Ah, you should go from being a lapsed knitter to a RELAPSED knitter. That's what I did about a year ago, largely prompted by all the fiber fiends on this forum. I agree with Katsheare that there's always something new to learn or experiment with--that's been the case with the projects I've done, and it's immensely satisfying when things come out right. And they make such gorgeous yarns these days, going into shops is a real financial hazard, but they're so nice to work with.
And I really like your sweater! Beautiful work!
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Yarny [message #49612 is a reply to message #49551 ] |
Sat, 05 May 2012 19:38 |
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| blondviolinist wrote on Thu, 03 May 2012 21:51 |
Oooh. Artyarns really does have gorgeous stuff.
And looky! Almost finished legwarmers! (I really like the look of those knitting needles.)
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Ohh, yeah, Artyarns! I've seen it, but never bought any. *wants it*
Smooshes!
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| Re: Yarny [message #49613 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Sat, 05 May 2012 19:42 |
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After I taught myself to knit a couple of swatches and things, I started with . . . socks.
Smooshes!
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| Re: Yarny [message #49614 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Sat, 05 May 2012 19:46 |
CateK
Messages: 9
Registered: August 2011
Location: upstate New York |
Junior Member |
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You could combine your love of yarn and your interest in Japan, and visit Habu Textiles
http://www.habutextiles.com/
They have some absolutely amazing yarns, including 6 pages of silk yarns. And not just any silk, but, for example:
"Daijoshi Silk
This yarn is handspun from partially degummed brown/gold cocoons, so it still has a slight body."
Kind of like buying not just black tea, but black tea from the first picking of a particular plantation in a region of Ceylon....
Cate
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| Re: Yarny [message #49630 is a reply to message #49554 ] |
Sun, 06 May 2012 12:13 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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Ravelry.com is the best place to find out more than you ever wanted to know about fishermen's ganseys - try the Historic Knitting group, and I'm sure there are others. I know I was reading such a discussion there recently.
(Ravelry is a social networking site for knitters and crocheters and it's free to join.)
[Updated on: Sun, 06 May 2012 12:19]
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Yarny [message #49633 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Sun, 06 May 2012 12:30 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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When I teach people to knit I start them off with a simple bag, knitted in the round on a short circular needle -- no purling, I think it's confusing enough to master ONE stitch (knit) rather than two (knit and purl).
It's also a short enough project that people don't generally get bored with it, which is often the problem with scarves.
One reason I do this is that I like to show people how to knit in the round before someone tells them it is supposed to be "difficult." Most people I've taught have done just fine.
(The other reason is that I do knitting history and knitting in the round is older - knitting back and forth on two needles does date back a few centuries, but it never became the "normal" way to knit sweaters until the 1930s or so. So if you want to do knitting from the 1600s, in the round is IT.)
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: Yarny [message #49695 is a reply to message #49694 ] |
Thu, 10 May 2012 17:01 |
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Oh deary me, yes, I got that too. Horribly tempting, but luckily my purse went 'EEEEEK!'.
Marion
Keeper of the Knitronomicon
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| Re: Yarny [message #49711 is a reply to message #49546 ] |
Fri, 11 May 2012 08:04 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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Apparently I have to go to France for artyarn. And not the near end of France either.
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I'm on the not-near-end of France... just sayin'...  Also, there are things like post offices around here...
I don't remember what I learned on the first time I learned to knit at 7 years old. It probably was a scarf. It (knitting) didn't last all that long anyway.
When I relearned to knit something over a year ago, it was a scarf. What I was going to do with a chunky-weight acrylic scarf in California, I'm not entirely sure, but I figured that scarves were traditional starting-to-knit projects, the yarn was cheap, and it had a scarf pattern on the label. I got rid of it once I discovered yarn that wasn't acrylic.
I've made a few scarves since then. None of them have been plain garter or stockinette stitch (though I did one for my mom that's mostly stockinette, but has a lace panel up the middle - this was her request). I've done one shawl, am halfway through the second. Have done a few hats, but I don't wear hats, so mostly they have not stayed with me. But mostly I've made socks. I don't necessarily like making socks in and of themselves (though heel turns are pretty cool) - but there are so many fun patterns one can put on the leg of the sock, and so many fun colours one could use, and if one doesn't like the result, as long as it fits, nobody really has to see them anyway. I want to learn to make sweaters next...
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