Craft club topic of the month - knitting!

[moose]

Sorry - I got that wrong. "Tweed" stitch. 2 yarns, A and B

Row 1 (RS) Yarn A: k2, *sl 1, k1* to last stitch, k1
Row 2 (WS) Yarn A: sl 1, k1 *slip the slipped stitch from prev. row, K1* to last stitch, sl 1
Row 3 (RS) Yarn B: k1, *sl 1, k1* to last 2 stitches, sl 1, k1
Row 4 (WS) Yarn B: sl 1, *slip the slipped stitch from prev. row, K1* to last 2 stitches, sl 2

Repeat.

 

[eme]

in fact it is moss stitch for that scarf - they've just used two strands of different colour wools, ie:
2 rows in colours A & E,
2 rows in colours B & E,
A & E,
C & E,
A & E,
D & E,
A & E,
B & E, etc etc

tweed stitch looks cool though.... hey have you seen these 'weaving' knitting needles???

 

[moose]

Oooh, they're interesting! *adds to wish list*
"turbo finish"

 

[RubyToogood]

in fact it is moss stitch for that scarf - they've just used two strands of different colour wools, ie:
2 rows in colours A & E,
2 rows in colours B & E,
A & E,
C & E,
A & E,
D & E,
A & E,
B & E, etc etc

tweed stitch looks cool though.... hey have you seen these 'weaving' knitting needles???

Yeah I tried the tweed stitch too and it didn't look right, too tweedy. That two colour moss stitch is actually really nice to knit - normally if you're knitting k1 p1 you have to keep moving the yarn to the back then to the front, but because you've got one colour for the front and one for the back you don't have to faff with all that and it's relatively quick. The fabric is firmer and less stretchy than stocking stitch, and although it's completely reversible, it's slightly different on both sides because you get more of one colour than the other. I thought I might abandon the cable idea and use the Rowanspun 4 ply I got for a wrap to do something like that (but wrap sized). Except that it means buying yet more wool for the secondary colours... any unwanted oddments of KSH or other thin yarn would be very welcome... (I could probably swap for something, my stash is huge).

 

[innit]

I've got about half a ball of that moss-green KSH I used for my shrug, if you want it!

And I went to loop yesterday! It was lovely to look at lots of pretty, non-Rowan yarn. I was very tempted by lots of things, especially the Colinette because they've got some really pretty colourways of Point 5, and graffiti which looks so so great when it's knitted up (I will be making Christmas present scarves from graffiti, I've decided). However I restrained myself from Colinette as I'm sure we'll get even more of a feast for the senses in Wales, and I bought some pretty k1c2 truffles, which is really pretty boucle stuff and knits up so soft and velvety - I'm going to use it to improvise some little handwarmer things for my sister and maybe a scarf as well.

eme, those weaving knitting needles look great!

 

[eme]

but because you've got one colour for the front and one for the back you don't have to faff with all that and it's relatively quick.

ummm... it says you're supposed to be knitting the two threads together... so may still end up with slow old moss stitch...

 

[RubyToogood]

ummm... it says you're supposed to be knitting the two threads together... so may still end up with slow old moss stitch...

Grrr I'm going to run out of yarn doing all this swatching before I even start! I've tried it and I prefer my version. Holding the two threads together just muddles the colours up and it doesn't really look like the picture- in mine they're more distinct. It looks like the type of woven fabric where there's a stripe of one colour going through another, with distinct dashes of each colour.

Innit I'd love the rest of that KSH if you're not going to use it. You wouldn't have enough for the fingerless gloves - I used about two whole balls to make the ones I did. I could swap you for half a ball of pink left over from my shawl if you like (wrong colour for this as my main wool is dark bluey green), or something else from the stash.

 

[moose]

For a girl who couldn't crochet till I met the lovely Ruth from Wingham Wool Work at Glastonbury this year, I'm pretty pleased with the way this has turned out

 

[madzone]

You crocheted a cat!! 'Kin ell that's really clever

The blanket it's on is really nice too.

 

[moose]

The little bugger's been itching to get on it - he started off by sitting on single squares, and has now claimed the blanket as his own.

 

[madzone]

The little bugger's been itching to get on it - he started off by sitting on single squares, and has now claimed the blanket as his own.

It'd be a shame to deny him, he goes really well with it. Those greens are really beautiful, what wool did you use?

 

[moose]

I started off using any oddments of green wool I had in my stash, but soon realised I wouldn't have enough, so I've been buying up any green wool in oddment bins at wool shops for a couple of months - not spending more than about £1.50 a ball. Consequently there's cheapo acrylicky stuff improved by mixing it with decent Rowan/Debbie Bliss/Jaegar/handspun in each square.

 

[eme]

it's super pretty! - you knit / crochet so fast....

hangs head in shame...

 

[moose]

Maybe I just don't have a life

 

[madzone]

I've bought some old needles from ebay and in the package were two old gadgety things. One is called a Korbond 4 in 1 knitting aid and the other is called a ktel knitter. All I can find out about the ktel knitter is it's a device for knitting with one needle I can't find anything about the 4 in 1 knitting aid. Anyone got any ideas at all what they're for?

edit - I've found instructions for the ktel thing now

 

[moose]

My mum has one of those Korbond things, if it's a clear plastic thing with 'arms' and dials. From memory, I think it's a row counter, a ruler, a needle gauge and possibly a knitting pattern magnifier?

 

[madzone]

My mum has one of those Korbond things, if it's a clear plastic thing with 'arms' and dials. From memory, I think it's a row counter, a ruler, a needle gauge and possibly a knitting pattern magnifier?

Yeah, that sounds right. I toook it to the woman in the wool shop and we ummed and ahhed. I was hoping it was some kind of tension gadget, how many stitches per inch sort of thing.
Does your mum find her one useful or is it truly a gadget?

 

[madzone]

Tut tut - this thread hasn't been looked at for days - it's not good enough

I have another favour to ask. If anyone has some kid classic wool hanging around could they wrap it around a ruler till it covers 2 inches then divide the number of times it wrapped round by 2 and tell me the result please? I would be truly grateful. I have a nice pattern I want to use and it's for Kid Classic wool and I'll have to spin the equivalent.

 

[moose]

Yeah, that sounds right. I toook it to the woman in the wool shop and we ummed and ahhed. I was hoping it was some kind of tension gadget, how many stitches per inch sort of thing.
Does your mum find her one useful or is it truly a gadget?

She's had it since the 70s and doesn't knit any more - I seem to remember her using the row counter when I was a kid.

 

[madzone]

I think it's one of those things that looks really technical but when it comes down to it is pretty simple. The 70's was a real time of making gadgets which didn't really help much at all and just meant when you lost something you lost the ability to do 4 things instead of one

 

[innit]

Tut tut - this thread hasn't been looked at for days - it's not good enough

I have another favour to ask. If anyone has some kid classic wool hanging around could they wrap it around a ruler till it covers 2 inches then divide the number of times it wrapped round by 2 and tell me the result please? I would be truly grateful. I have a nice pattern I want to use and it's for Kid Classic wool and I'll have to spin the equivalent.

I have some kid classic at home, but your instructions have made me feel a bit dizzy... too much wrapping and spinning...

 

[madzone]

I have some kid classic at home, but your instructions have made me feel a bit dizzy... too much wrapping and spinning...

Lol - sorry

You just wind the yarn around a ruler for 2 inches and then count how many times it you had to wind it. For example I spun some chunky wool and it wrapped around 2 inches on a ruler 20 times. I divided that by 2 and it's 10 wraps per inch (wpi)

You do it for 2 inches as sometimes it can take ten wraps to go round an inch but 21 times to wrap round 2 inches. 2 inches gives a more acurate average.

Have I made that any simpler or have I made it worse?

BTW it's a handy trick iof you have balls of wool lying round and you've lost the band round the middle, or if you see some wool in a charity shop or whatnot without labels. If you measure the wpi you can then tell if it's 2ply, 4ply, DK, chunky etc.

 

[Ms T]

Lovely cat, moose, and the blanket's not bad either....

Can any of you wonderful people help me with my current knitting problem? I'm trying to knit the border of my cardigan (this is my second attempt -- the first time I didn't realise that I wasn't meant to be knitting in the round even though I was using circular needles). Anyway, I've worked out how to knit normally using circular needles, by swapping them backwards and forwards like normal needles. The pattern says I need to knit until there are 104 stitches left, then turn. So far so good. But by that I take it that you start knitting the other way, effectively going back on what you already knitted. After two rows of this, I have part of the border which is thicker than the other because I've knitted that part twice. I'm sure it's not meant to be like this, but I really don't understand where I'm going wrong. Can anyone help?

This shrug is proving a real challenge!

 

[moose]

Does is ask you to go back to those other stitches at some point, and rejoin the yarn?
WHat pattern is it?

 

[RubyToogood]

Lovely cat, moose, and the blanket's not bad either....

Can any of you wonderful people help me with my current knitting problem? I'm trying to knit the border of my cardigan (this is my second attempt -- the first time I didn't realise that I wasn't meant to be knitting in the round even though I was using circular needles). Anyway, I've worked out how to knit normally using circular needles, by swapping them backwards and forwards like normal needles. The pattern says I need to knit until there are 104 stitches left, then turn. So far so good. But by that I take it that you start knitting the other way, effectively going back on what you already knitted. After two rows of this, I have part of the border which is thicker than the other because I've knitted that part twice. I'm sure it's not meant to be like this, but I really don't understand where I'm going wrong. Can anyone help?

This shrug is proving a real challenge!

When I looked at that pattern I assumed that was the case - that you turn in order to make part of the border wider. It's called short row shaping and you use it for the shaping in socks which are also circular the rest of the time. Are you certain it's not meant to be like that? Does it look different from the photo? I thought maybe it would make the edging right where it goes round a corner or something (and would otherwise not lie flat).

 

[Ms T]

When I looked at that pattern I assumed that was the case - that you turn in order to make part of the border wider. It's called short row shaping and you use it for the shaping in socks which are also circular the rest of the time. Are you certain it's not meant to be like that? Does it look different from the photo? I thought maybe it would make the edging right where it goes round a corner or something (and would otherwise not lie flat).

But by turning and knitting back again you're making one side of the border much wider, and because you have to turn the needles again at the end of the row to avoid joining the ends together it's making one side a lot wider than the other. I think I need to take it in to the lovely people at John Lewis.

 

[Ms T]

Does is ask you to go back to those other stitches at some point, and rejoin the yarn?
WHat pattern is it?

No -- you knit two rows like I said, and then gradually the number of stitches you knit up to reduces down to about sixty. I'm loath to carry on and see if it works because I've already knitted the whole thing once but in the round, and I really don't want to have to unravel it again and pick up bloody stitches for the third time!

It's a Debbie Bliss pattern from her Cathay book.

 

[hendo]

hello babe

edited for sloppiness

 

[moose]

We'll have none of those shenanigans on this respectable thread, thank you

If it's the ribbed edge on the pink shrug, it does look from the photo that the edging is slightly deeper round the back of the neck for better fit, so what you're doing sounds right.

 

[Ms T]

We'll have none of those shenanigans on this respectable thread, thank you

If it's the ribbed edge on the pink shrug, it does look from the photo that the edging is slightly deeper round the back of the neck for better fit.

Yeah -- and when I knitted it in the round it was fine, but now I'm knitting it flat but on circular needles and turning it twice -- once mid row as it says, and once at the end of the row so the ends don't join -- it doesn't seem to be working as it should. I'm obviously not getting something, somewhere.....