Knitting

Is this actually a widespread thing? I'd never heard of it (sorry if this doesn'tfit the sub)

Just have to vent, because I’m struggling to finish this sweater. The body was knit with US 17s (12mm). Now I’m doing the sleeves on US 19s (16mm) because my gauge was too tight with the 17s. I have discovered I don’t like knitting with these size needles. They’re uncomfortable for me to hold and knitting with them feels like a chore.

Vent over. Hopefully I’ll get this sweater off the needles today or tomorrow, and now I know to avoid any more projects using these needles.

So I want to knit up an all-over lace top, which is originally made with two strands of Lang Yarns Mohair Luxe. I've been searching for non-animal alternatives for quite a while now. My best bet might be Lammy Soft Sensation, but as it's rather cheap I'm afraid it might also look and feel cheap. Does anyone have experience with it? The reviews I can find online are rather scarce.

Also been looking into Alize Cotton Gold and Hobbii Amigo. They're not exactly mohair-y but might provide a little fluff and, more importantly, softness.

What do you think? Are there better options? TIA!

The pattern is free on Ravelry- 198 Yards of Heaven. I used Madeline Tosh Vintage in Fatal Attraction (1 skein). I'll have to post it after it's dry because this picture doesn't do the color justice.

Caveat: when the article mentions the "dominant hand" and "non-dominant hand" they really just mean "right hand" and "left hand". These knitting styles do not adjust to your personal handedness. So I guess you can read it as written if you're right-handed, but if you're left-handed this was not written with you in mind.

One day I might finally cave and buy a real yarn swift & winder, but for now this shall suffice

Seems to be put together with images from The 4-H Knitting Handbook.

While I am asking about what knitting resources you use I might as well plug this thread asking for knitting resources for beginners.

I have a Ravelry account I rarely use. I come here from time to time. I still have a few how to knit books I got as a child. And I have a few specific tutorials (none are video-only, they are all image + text tutorials) bookmarked online that I know I'll need to refer back to sometime in the future:

• https://sheepandstitch.com/what-is-knitting-gauge/
• https://nourishandnestle.com/tension-in-knitting-too-loose-tight-or-inconsistent/
• https://www.yarnspirations.com/blogs/how-to/how-to-knit-cables
• https://sarahmaker.com/stockinette-stitch/
• https://smokeandslate.com/pages/weave-in-ends-stockinette-stitch

Finally, I keep the pattern I am working on written out in Obsidian (@obsidianmd@lemmy.world says hi), with a little note at the bottom describing the tension I am using and this: "Finished row x, need to start at row x + 1". (If I wrote 'row x' I would have no idea if I just finished it and need to start x + 1, or if I just finished x - 1 and need to start row x. That was a serious issue for me when using just a counter that ticks up. I could just technically write 'Finished row x' but I feel better both writing that and 'need to start row x + 1'.)

Slow but steady progress on my socks

Pattern: Hermoine’s Everyday Sock

Needed a new car knitting project as my Kelowna sweater is too big now to work on comfortably. So I cast on some socks for me.

Pattern: Hermoine’s Everyday Socks

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Palm Springs colorway

Decided to get sleeve island out of the way. I’m worried I won’t have enough yarn even though I’m on gauge. I am using different yarn than the pattern and it’s definitely not the bulkiest bulky yarn I’ve ever used.

I picked up 12 stitches in the underarm (instead of the pattern’s 6) because I was worried about holes. I may have some small ones to close up at the end but we’ll see how they look after blocking.

Pattern: Kelowna sweater

The socks with my first ever fish lips kiss heel are done! They even got a spin through the washer and dryer because our dog spilled milk on them (yes our dog lol).

My spouse tried them on and they fit perfectly. For my next pair of socks I’m not sure if I’ll use this heel again - I do really like it but now it’s got me wondering what other awesome heels I haven’t done yet.

Just finished this. Took about a month. The pattern is free!

Since it’s unisex I used a Caron cotton cake in DK I think and knit the small size. I followed the guidance on the label for needle size. It started as an experiment and ended as a happy accident.

Also, I modified by adding the panel in the hood and icord string.

This week got away from me, I spent most of today thinking it was Wednesday. I started this sweater on Saturday. Thankfully we were in a city visiting family, as I’d overlooked the fact that this pattern uses 12mm needles for the body (the largest I have is 8mm). I was able to run to the store and pick some up right away.

I tried all 3 sizes for the neckline and none looked like the right fit, so I decided to do a provisional cast on and worry about the collar later.

The pattern is this one! https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-bear-hat-8

I made some adjustments, like starting with 8 rows of ribbing, then doing two kfb increases in row 9, before doing the rest of the pattern as described. I also picked up 10 stitches instead of 8 for the the ears, because of personal preference.

I was able to finish it in one evening, and I'm thinking of making another for his cousin that will be born just two months after him :)

(Please excuse the fuzz and pilling, these are OLD)

Ok these are definitely not the most "impressive" cabling project I've done, but they are by far the most special to me so I'm going with them for cables month! A few reasons I love them so:

• I won this yarn in a knitting group on Google+ (RIP), about a month after I'd started knitting in 2013. It was my first ever fancy yarn and I was so incredibly excited!

• Because I was such a new knitter, these gloves were my first ever cables, and also my first time using DPNs. Felt like too many extra hands, I still don't like DPNs to this day!

• And because I like to jump in at the deep end, when one of them went wrong I decided to drop stitches down and figure out how to rebuild the cables as I picked the stitches back up. Worked pretty flawlessly and I was SO proud of myself!

• Last but not least, they always remind me of a friend who sadly passed away a year or so later. She helped me a lot with my first few projects, shoutout to Bernie ❤

Pattern is Roundabout Fingerless Gloves, and here's a bonus pic of the other side where the left one is looking weirdly baggy but I swear they do actually fit irl 😄

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Started a shawl in late January, and it needs to be finished by July. Which, for most people I'm sure that's nothing but I am a very slow knitter, really!

The pattern is lacy and complicated and mistakes will be really visible, so it's no good to work on while watching TV or doing anything else and I'd just not been putting time aside to properly concentrate on it.

The solution: A spreadsheet to keep track of how far behind I am, and a graph so I can watch myself (hopefully) catch up.

There are very few problems in life that can't at least be a bit improved with a spreadsheet, and I reckon that applies to knitting just the same 🤓

I just finished this cardigan and because it was a gift I tried really hard to make it look tidy.

The yarn is recycled yarn ("I used to be a pullover") in Murano green.

The pattern is adapted from the raglan pattern in Ann Budd's book "The knitter's handy book of sweater patterns."

Edit: a few more detail shots of the cardigan:

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Back of the zipper. I made a tiny strip to cover the zipper fabric.

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Front of the zipper. I knit a strip sideways along the entire edge of the front panels and folded it onto itself to make a roll that would cover the zipper.

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The cuff. I had such a hard time finding a cuff I liked and that would look good and not wavy. I ended up making a 2x2 rib and I really like how regular it is.

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The front panel mounted on my knitting machine, taking up 198 of the 200 needles available.

First attempt at the fish lips kiss heel. I got stalled on these socks for a couple weeks because no matter how many times I read the instructions it didn’t make any sense to me. Plus I don’t get much time to knit most days, usually just 10-15 minutes while I’m waiting for my kid to get out of school.

I ended up finding a video (Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Betty Mueller on YT) and it made sense! It doesn’t exactly follow the FLKH pattern instructions but it worked for me. Unfortunately looking at them this morning I’m pretty sure the sock is too long for my spouse, but I have to wait til they get home from work before I can see for sure. Either way I really like how quick and easy this heel was so I’m not concerned if I have to tear it back a bit and redo.

Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this, but it only just occurred to me to try - and it worked!

I gave it needle size, ply and the garment size I wanted - as well as asking for Australian sizing and instructions (so you'll need to change that for whatever you're used to) and from what I could see it was pretty good. Haven't actually tried it but I may for a small project and see how it goes.

Edit to say that I'm very aware of chatgpts limits (I work in a field where it's being abused) but thought it was an interesting idea. Simplicity would be key. I'd consider myself a beginner this might be a good way of creating small simple projects. Or nonsense! I have bags of cheap wool that I got through my local buy nothing group so I'm always up for a bit of experimentation.

Basic ranglan sweater. I used a cake of self-striping yarn for the body and finished off the sleeves with a spare skein in mustard. The pattern was very fun and easy to follow, I'm looking forward to knit more kid's projects because they're so quick xD

• Pattern: Sweater Sincronía from Revés Derecho (spanish)
• Yarn: Revés Derecho Sweet Love in 007 Rainbow and King in 0017 Mustard.
• Needles: 5,5mm/US 9 Knit Pro Trendz

I’m knitting an Andrea Mowry shawl and I love the buttons she uses for this pattern. I just don’t know the name/style of these particular buttons.

Spotted in the wild

I was on such a sock knitting THING last year and have really lost my mojo lately.

This second sock, I posted it two weeks ago maybe and since then all that's happened is I made a mess of the gusset. Not enough to bother frogging it but definitely enough to be grumpy about it.

Anyway hopefully showing off my woeful level of progress will humiliate me into getting a wriggle on, because I really do love this yarn and it deserves to be a cool pair of socks!

All balled up: !

If there's one design feature that is quintessentially knitting, it's got to be cables! Chonky ones, intricate ones, symmetrical ones or weird ones, almost every knitter has tried them and found out the biggest secret of our craft: cables are a lot easier than they look 🤫

For once, I know exactly which project to post for this one. Just have to actually take proper photos, approximately eleven years after finishing the knitting part.

Cables are so squishy and fun, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to show!

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Anyway. Normally I announce a winner of the previous month but "winner" might not apply this time around!

Congratulations @kurobita@feddit.cl on the dubious honour of having the most highly upvoted knitting fail 😂

Very much appreciate everyone who shared, and it just goes to show crafting doesn't always go to plan.

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Ok, off with you. Go find your cable-est thing to show us!

(I need to come up with some new themes before next month so if anyone wants to make a suggestion, do feel free)

This meme brought to you by my spiralling anxiety and some slight bickering when I packed a sock project into the car last night despite it being dark already 😅

(I will update the monthly theme tomorrow I promise, it's been a busy few days!)

Ok I wasn't sure what to post as a knitting fail. Tbh, there've been a lot, because that's how you learn!

There was the lace shawl I made after just a month of learning to knit, out of completely unsuitable cotton yarn that did the finished piece no favours at all (never mind all the actual knitting mistakes I made, too).

There was the summer top I frantically knitted for a holiday and finished literally in the car on the way to the airport, only to find out it was about three sizes too small because I'm nothing if not optimistic.

But these were forgivable, for I was just a newbie.

Not so with the time I decided to jump on the trend of everyone knitting the Find Your Fade shawl. I went through the stash, picked out a combo of yarns that could definitely not be described as a "fade" but I quite liked anyway, and got to work.

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Unfortunately I'm crap at knitting shawls, and it took a year to get through the first two sections. So I've now been knitting in general for about 7 years, and on this specifically for 1.

THEN, and only then, I go to start the third colour and realise I've just sort of...completely mixed and matched yarn weights and this was never going to work? Honestly no idea how it never occurred to me until that point.

So, long story short, absolute fail, frogged it and was very salty about it. This may or may not have been when I decided a ban on shawl knitting was in order, a ban which has served me well.

Slow progress, as per, but it'll do.

On the left is the start of my Big Damn Heroes shawl, honestly not sure if I've posted this here yet but it's been at least a couple of weeks since cast-on which should tell you all you need to know about rate of completion 😅

Definitely requires a bit more concentration than I've been able to give lately, so I just keep defaulting to the socks instead.

Speaking of, that's the second sock of a pair using the Show Off Stranded pattern.

The weird heel construction (knit the gusset along with the heel flap) resulted in a slightly different fit than I'm used to, but I think it feels ok. Will only really know once I'm wearing them as a pair, so fingers crossed, but the yarn is so happy right now I don't care about the perfect fit 😄

What's everyone else been up to? Feel free to humiliate me with your productivity levels, I don't mind at all...

Just finished the video, which is crap, buuuut is good enough, heh.

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(my wife made this on her phone, and I just love it, heh).

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Cast on 4 stitches.

1. kfb S2 wyif move yarn to back, slip last slipped stitch to left needle. Knit in the front of the last stitch on the left needle, slip stich, knit in the back.
2. kfb ( K1 S1 wyif )2 kfb
3. kfb K1 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K1 kfb
4. kfb K2 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2 kfb
5. kfb K3 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K3 kfb
6. kfb K4 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K4 kfb
7. kfb K5 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K5 kfb
8. K7 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K7
9. K3tog K4 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K4 K3tog
10. K2tog K3 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K3 K2tog
11. K2tog K2 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2 K2tog
12. K2tog K1 ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K1 K2tog
13. K2tog ( K1 S1 wyif )2 K2tog
14. Reorder stitches (From left to right) as follows, 5,3,6,4,2,1

(Realized a little late that 5 & 3 could be knitted together before moving the stitches to the right needle, and would move the yarn to the left side for starting the I-cord knitting, but yeah, you can do that. If you don't do that, then just change the K1 in row 15 to K2tog).

15. K2tog K2tog K1
16. K3
17. K2tog K1
18. K2 Repeat 18 to the length of tail you want.

Pull tail through remaining two stitches. Sew in ends.

Notes:

> Reorder stitches (From left to right) as follows, 5,3,6,4,2,1 >> WIthout using the tail, slip the first two stitches, slip the next stitch onto the front of the right needle, slip stitch, slip the last stitch from the left needle. Slip the first stitch from the right needle onto the left needle. Turn the left needle and knit those two stitches together through the back. (The video will help with this).

> Added times to jump to different parts in the video description.

Ok! Hopefully that's all good...enough...

(and to make sure Lemmy or Connect doesn't remove my link, here it is in text form https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zzwqjmdkNd4...And Lemmy/Connect kept this link after posting...So I guess I don't need this...But I'll leave it down at the bottom anyway).

I've been saving this one. It was my first attempt at knitting in the round and I totally twisted my stitches 😂

I read in the pattern about checking your stitches before joining for in the round knitting, but I didn't quite understood what it meant until I was several rows deep into my project and there was a big turn in the middle lol.

A friend told me that twisted cowls were actually a thing so I went ahead and finished it. I even wore it a few times and then I was made aware I also twisted my stitches from knitting into the back loop xD I could not unsee that so I threw it deep into my closet and forgot about it.

Triple fail:

• Twisted stitches in the round
• Twisted stitches from knitting through the back loop
• Taking the picture with the inside out hah!

But wait, there's a happy ending.

As I was getting my stuff ready to move I dug it out from my closet and decided to frog the darn thing. I re-knit it in the Free For All pattern and I'm much happier with it now. I'm looking forward to use this version when cold season finally hits.

(In hindsight I should have done this pattern in the first place, it's been in my favorites forever, but back then I didn't really know how to read patterns in English so I never realized it was knitted flat lol).

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• Original pattern: Meila Cowl by Valerie Hobbs
• New pattern: Free For All Cowl by Jen Peck

Garnspecialisten offers surplus yarn from the fashion industry at a reduced price and seems to have a range of type, quality and price points.

I don't know if the shipping is justifiable for those in the US/rest of the world but, for those in Denmark and North/Central Europe, I definitely recommend checking them out.

• Pattern: Sweater Sincronía (in Spanish)
• Yarn: Sweet Love in 007 Rainbow from Revés Derecho

I got this cake for Christmas and looking for some way to use it I thought I'd try my first kid sweater. The pattern is a very simple raglan sweater, but the self-striping yarn makes it look way more interesting. I'm gonna need to get a matching yarn to finish off the sleeves, but I'm kinda getting why people love knitting for kids so much, it's so fast!

Lifeline is in so I’m ready to try the fish lips kiss heel for the first time. If you’ve done this heel before I’d love to hear how it went.

Two at a time toe-up socks with a P1, K3 pattern across the top of the foot, yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Gradient in Storm

I had to put my cabled sweater in hibernation because my #postCovid brain couldn’t grok it. Which made me sad.

Then came the January Stitches and Cream sock club with a heel-up(!) DK slipper pattern which I can do(!!) and it’s SO MUCH FUN it’s probably illegal in several regions. Needless to say it’s way less complicated than it looks 😆 @knitting@a.gup.pe @knitting@lemmy.world #knitting #sockknitting #breien