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Craft club topic of the month - knitting!

kniting can be an expensive hobby unless you think about getting stuff, needles can be found cheaply, or borrowed from mates if you're not picky about what they are made of.
 
Choc said:
ruby, what do you mean by "just blocking it" together?
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Blocking is what you do when you've finished something and before you sew it together - you can just press the pieces with an iron through a damp cloth, or you can pin them into shape on a flat surface, damp them and leave them to dry - or some similar process. With the scarf I dunked it in water, squeezed it out very gently, pinned it into shape on a towel, measuring it so it came out straight, now I've covered it with a sheet and am leaving it to dry. I did try pressing a bit with a damp cloth but it just totally flattened the life out of it.

I've actually never blocked anything before, partly because most of what I've knitted has been big messy chunky stuff that wouldn't benefit much from it and partly because I didn't know you were meant to. The main point of doing it with the scarf was so it would lie flat and not be bobbly. But you can apparently change the shape or fit of things significantly by blocking them.
 
I have been following this thread with great interest and blame it for making me send my partner up into the attic to search for my old red knitting needle case and the big bags of wool which I refused to throw out 5 years ago, I knew they'd come in handy one day :D .

I am now half way through a multi coloured mohair poncho.

Thank you all for rekindling a much loved hobby :) .
 
Siouxsie said:
I am now half way through a multi coloured mohair poncho.
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Oh dear god, what are we responsible for? :eek: ;)



I have finished the scarf, blocked it, and it is a thing of great beauty and wondrousness! Blocking it has created a flat piece of lace out of what was a sort of bubbly humpy thing (nice though the bubbliness was), and enabled me to shape the edge to show the scalloped effect properly. I wish I had a camera...

Now for the birch shawl. I am wrestling with the tension square. What does "K2 tbl" mean? Yes, I know it means "knit two together through back of loops", but do you put the needle down through the loops at the back of the work or up?

And more confusingly, what about "P2 tbl"? If you purl at the back you end up with an extra stitch from making an accidental yarnover - do you have to put the yarn to the back first?
 
I'm STILL waiting for my blinkin' needles and wool... ordered them well over a week ago from Angel Yarn. But they won't take enquiries unless items are more than 10 days late.... this is so annoying.... :mad:
 
Oh grrrrr ruby, I really wanted to see that scarf finished.


I wold have thought that when you want to knit purl, you out the wool to the back, between the needles so you don't have a yarn over, good patterns give you a stitch count at the end of every row on which you increace or decreace, I would check the stitch count to work that one out. I can't help you a lot though, I've been knitting 20 years and i've never knitted lacey stuff at all, my first project is going to be a baby cardigan with some patterning on the front in a lovelly pale blue rowan cork.

But befoe i start that, it's back to knitting endless blanket squares. I've also seen a couple of other great ideas for blankets, I'll have to save up for them though.
 
Justin said:
Don't tell me it went the same way as your television.
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I have got a matchbox camera but it was so rubbish I never bothered to put the software on the new computer and god knows where the discs are now.
 
RubyToogood said:
Now for the birch shawl. I am wrestling with the tension square. What does "K2 tbl" mean? Yes, I know it means "knit two together through back of loops", but do you put the needle down through the loops at the back of the work or up?

And more confusingly, what about "P2 tbl"? If you purl at the back you end up with an extra stitch from making an accidental yarnover - do you have to put the yarn to the back first?
Click to expand...

oh dear, this is reaching serious levels...i have to admit so far i haven't got the foggiest what you are talking about....i hope i will get there one day.

i can report that i have finished my second baby hat and am currently working on a third...the next baby better be a girl ;)

i have also bought some wool to start on an adult hat but i haven't got a pattern yet..

i quite like to buy stuff before i know what i will knit, this is not really clever though, already it would be good if i had this and that rather than that and this etc..
 
I have Icelandic wool! I went to the Handknitters Association of Reykjavik yesterday and made a purchase. more today - I´m going to throw mr moose´s clothes away so I´ve got room in the suitcase. ;)
 
Just make him wear them all on the plane. Couple of jumpers, three or four shirts, several sets of underwear, he'll be fine :)
 
ha.

fat boy tried to freezehimself to death by underdressing on a night shift last night when he had to spend half the night outside. I've been promiced all sorts of nice things if i make his hat up for him tonight, It's a boring pattern, 4 inches of rib, 6 inches on stocking stitch, then shape the top, but it's in a chunky wool so at least it's going quiclly and it is a break from blanket squrees, I made 10 of them yesterday, I think i've got about 100 in total now.
 
RubyTooGood said:
Oh dear god, what are we responsible for?
Click to expand...

It's not for me!!......well it might be, depends on what it looks like when I'm finished :D .

I love knitting but hate the sewing up.
 
Oh guess who's knitting a scarf????


Me!

It's a but duddy but I'm having a ball and my housemates are constantly pissing themselves at my 15mm needles. They say they look like special needs needles :(

Anyway - it's stripey and chunky and going to be very long.

When's the next meet up? I know Ms T is away until mid march (I think) but we could fit in at mine if folk want another soon?
 
So am I, perhaps mrs m and her freind and PieEye would like to suggest a few dates.

hah, and i just finished the hat and he looks really nice in it and he's grinning madly at me. So it's back to an evening of blanket squares.
 
Actually...if Morley's don't sell needles, does anyone know anywhere between Farringdon and Brixton that does... I'm on my bike so I can stop off... I really want to do some knitting tonight if poss.
 
Morleys do sell needles but they might not sell 15mm ones. Can't offhand think of anywhere that does on the route you describe...
 
ok thanks... it's so hard to call them from work, but I might just do so anyway... I could detour into the West End... but I hate doing that...

fingers crossed..

cheers... :)
 
Heh heh... just phoned... got put through to 4 seperate people... each claiming to put me through to someone who can help me.

Finally the last person...

me: "Do you sell 15mm needles"
her: "Do you mean knitting needles"
me: "Yes"
her: "do you mean the jumbo ones"

:confused: :confused:

cue much confusion.... as I remembered the pair of "needles" that actually look like rockets at the last craft club..

anyway, upshot is looks like they do, although it seems that there is a possibility they are selling some other kind of large needles, possibly made from elephants.... :D
 
toggle said:
So am I, perhaps mrs m and her freind and PieEye would like to suggest a few dates.
.
Click to expand...

This is cool as long as Ms T didn't want to learn to crochet - I'll pm her and find out and if she does then it would be polite to wait until she can join in.

But - we could have another knitty one in the mean time if people are up for it.

I'll do some pming and start a thread if it's all ok - rather than hijack this one!
 
I was just thinking we should all have a thought about any other crafts we'd like to do. Eg, I could probably get someone to come and teach us Japanese calligraphy one evening...
 
Hey Ruby - I was having horrible trouble with p2k tbl, the same thing as you that I kept on making a stitch when I didn't want to - and madzone posted a link which made it very clear.

It's easy when you know how :oops: but I just couldn't get it until I saw the picture.

Here is my thread from January: link
 
always up for a knitting meet up but am not around from 25.02-07.03.

i would also be interested in crocheting, sewing, pottery and loads of other stuff really. it could also be interesting to have mrs t's friend over to have a therapeutic knitting talk.

baby hat no 3 is half done now. knitting is such a calming thing to do :)
 
I can't do a meeting until end of March, but do go ahead and do the crochet one anyway as I'm v. happy with my knitting. Hendo's dad has given me a load of needles that used to belong to his wife, but they're all relatively slim ones.

Still need to get some bigger needles so I can try my hat again but I went to ALL the charity shops in Cheadle yesterday, and the only one which sold them didn't have any chunky ones at all, so it's off to Morley's for me. Harumph.

Gaijingirl: Morley's sell loads of knitting needles of all sizes.
 
innit said:
Hey Ruby - I was having horrible trouble with p2k tbl, the same thing as you that I kept on making a stitch when I didn't want to - and madzone posted a link which made it very clear.

It's easy when you know how :oops: but I just couldn't get it until I saw the picture.

Here is my thread from January: link
Click to expand...


Aha fabulous, cheers, that's really helpful. What's particularly confusing is that you're going the opposite way through the stitch from how you would normally, so in a way you're really purling when you're supposedly knitting and vice versa (ignore me if that doesn't make sense, I know what I mean!).

Gaijingirl, calligraphy sounds cool!
 
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