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Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 5th, 2018, 8:51 pm
by SonOfTheExiles
I heard that a textiles mill recently dumped a lot of incorrectly dyed wool on the open market.

I trust none of their off-colour yarns will start showing here up at Librivox. :mrgreen:


Chris

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 5th, 2018, 10:58 pm
by mightyfelix
The turning chain is what is probably messing you up. The chain counts as one of your double stitches. (This is because it visually resembles one at a casual glance.) So, when you started with 80 stitches, what you should have had was your turning chain and then 79 dc. Then, on the next row, you'd start with a turning chain and make 79, but the 79th one needs to be in the top of the turning chain from the previous row. If you forget to work into the top of the turning chain, you'll lose a stitch at the end of each row. Here is a good close-in image of what that should look like.

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 1:15 pm
by JayKitty76
mightyfelix wrote: December 5th, 2018, 10:58 pm The turning chain is what is probably messing you up. The chain counts as one of your double stitches. (This is because it visually resembles one at a casual glance.) So, when you started with 80 stitches, what you should have had was your turning chain and then 79 dc. Then, on the next row, you'd start with a turning chain and make 79, but the 79th one needs to be in the top of the turning chain from the previous row. If you forget to work into the top of the turning chain, you'll lose a stitch at the end of each row. Here is a good close-in image of what that should look like.
Oh! Thank you, Devorah! I bet that is probably what it is...I'll try that and see what happens! Thanks :thumbs:

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 1:18 pm
by JayKitty76
TriciaG wrote: December 5th, 2018, 6:01 pm You might just be losing your place, not finding each stitch in the bottom row that you're supposed to build from. Is your yarn really fuzzy, such that the stitches are really hard to see?

I made my husband a scarf using really fuzzy yarn. I couldn't for the life of me see my row of stitches. The thing is the worst shape ever, because I kept adding and removing stitches. :? But he still wears it on really cold days! He wraps his neck inside his collar and tucks it inside his coat, so no one can see its sorry shape. :lol:
Hi Tricia,
My yarn is semi-fuzzy...it's 100% acrylic and yeah, maybe that's the problem? I make sure (as best as I can) to try to not skip a stitch, but maybe it's just the fuzziness...Does acrylic yarn differ in any fuzziness from regular cotton or other types of yarn?
Thanks, Tricia, for your advice :)

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 2:02 pm
by mightyfelix
JayKitty76 wrote: December 6th, 2018, 1:18 pm Does acrylic yarn differ in any fuzziness from regular cotton or other types of yarn?
Depends. It's not only the type of fiber it's made from, but also how it's processed and spun. Cotton tends to be one of the least fuzzy types of yarn. You couldn't really make cotton very fuzzy even if you tried, because each individual strand of fiber is very short. Mohair (goat) is one of the fuzziest yarns I've run into. It's so very fuzzy (btw, the level of "fuzziness" is sometimes called the "halo") that it's quite difficult to pull your stitches out if you need to go back and correct something. Silk and bamboo tend to be quite smooth and strong, but don't have any stretch or give in them, so they won't bounce back into shape if stretched like animal fibers will.

Acrylic... Well, it's kind of a wild card. It's essentially plastic. Completely synthetic, completely man-made. So it can be made to have quite a few different textures, depending on what kind of yarn the maker is going for. I've seen some acrylic yarns that are very scratchy and coarse and not fuzzy at all, but I've also seen some that have a nice squish to them and a bit of a halo. Acrylic also tends not to have much elasticity, I think no matter how it's made. (I think.)

I like to find yarns that have a nice blend of fibers. Some wool or something for elasticity, maybe some silk or nylon for strength, and so forth. I've seen some nice acrylics out there, but only a few. In general, I prefer natural fibers when possible. (But of course it's not always possible.)

Sorry if that was TMI. It's also all from memory and off the top of my head without any fact checking, so I may have garbled some details.

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 6:04 pm
by Rapunzelina
Hi, Devorah! Your post is very helpful! Thank you for being so informative!

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 7:13 pm
by annise
My daughter presented me with some fuzzy yarn so I would knit her a jumper and I couldn't - I couldn't even see the stitches to count. I think much large needles would have helped, but that is not the sort of jumper she wanted

Anne

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 6th, 2018, 7:37 pm
by mightyfelix
Aw, thanks. I was afraid I would bore someone to death. :shock: :lol:

I've worked with some pretty fuzzy yarn before, and sometimes you just have to do it by feel.

(Fun fact with mohair: If you need to back up and fix something, but you can't pull your stitches out because the halo keeps wrapping around everything, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. I don't know why, but cold makes the hairs easier to slip through each other. Repeat as necessary until you get back to the place you messed up.)

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 7th, 2018, 3:59 pm
by JayKitty76
JayKitty76 wrote: December 6th, 2018, 1:18 pm Does acrylic yarn differ in any fuzziness from regular cotton or other types of yarn?
mightyfelix wrote: December 6th, 2018, 2:02 pm Depends. It's not only the type of fiber it's made from, but also how it's processed and spun...
Wow, Devorah, thanks! That is so helpful. I think it's figured out...I've kind of got everything straightened out and I found that working into the chain stitch (just one dc, two stitches from the top) actually enlarges it, increasing the number of stitches... I'm probably not doing it right :| :) I tried to work into the top of the turning chain, but my needle got really stuck...
mightyfelix wrote: December 6th, 2018, 2:02 pm
Sorry if that was TMI. It's also all from memory and off the top of my head without any fact checking, so I may have garbled some details.
No, that's definitely not TMI at all, it's just what I needed to know-- thanks, that's awesome!
mightyfelix wrote: December 6th, 2018, 7:37 pm Aw, thanks. I was afraid I would bore someone to death. :shock: :lol:
No, actually, that was really interesting and informative! That helps a lot!
mightyfelix wrote: December 6th, 2018, 7:37 pm (Fun fact with mohair: If you need to back up and fix something, but you can't pull your stitches out because the halo keeps wrapping around everything, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes...
Cool! That's really unexpected (as in not the type of thing you would predict to help with mohair :lol: ) That's so awesome!

Thank you Devorah for all your help, your advice is wonderful!

Best,
JayKitty

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 10th, 2018, 4:53 pm
by JayKitty76
Can anyone tell me how to post a picture in a thread without uploading? I can't figure out how to do it, and in my other crochet thread I am trying to let Devorah see what my piece looks like so far so she can see what's going wrong. :oops: :oops:

Thanks :D

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 10th, 2018, 6:30 pm
by mightyfelix
You would probably have to upload it to your own location, maybe Google drive or Flickr something like that, then post a link to that location.

However, I'm not sure a picture would help. When I said "have a look at it," I meant if I could handle it, examine it stitch by stitch, stretch it here and there. You can try, but usually a picture won't give near enough detail for me to figure out what's going on. I've gotta get my hands on it to do that. :?

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 11th, 2018, 12:48 pm
by JayKitty76
Oh, sorry, Devorah, I missed your meaning :oops: Thank you for your help with everything :thumbs:

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: December 18th, 2018, 10:04 pm
by Hazel Pethig
Other needle arts...
I am a quilter and I've got 2 quilts on the go now. One is called La Passacaglia and the pattern is from the book Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein. There is a huge facebook group devoted to this quilt and many people are very devoted to it. I'm really enjoying making it, it's my largest EPP project to date. I'm lucky enough to have an office job with quite a bit of free time and a boss who doesn't care what I do as long as my work is finished, so I sew this project at work. I can't post photos here but here is a link to a google search with tonnes of photos of other people's quilts https://www.google.com/search?biw=1242&bih=632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=1tAZXLbPJ5Oh_wSV6rXAAg&q=la+passacaglia+quilt&oq=la+passacaglia+quilt&gs_l=img.3..35i39l2j0l2j0i24l4.6750.6905..7084...0.0..0.89.166.2......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i30.2pNrvK9uODw

Any other people who EPP out there?

Hazel

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: January 5th, 2019, 8:12 am
by Kikisaulite
WOW! :shock: Hazel, that looks really amazing!!! I do not do quilts (in fact never liked them), but this looks real real cool! Could you show us how your work is turning out...? (There must be a way to upload photos somewhere for people to see them here... I think I will go and look...)

EDIT: Experiment to upload a picture on some random site to get a link to show here.... it is essential to be able show each other your needle art projects after all.
https://imgur.com/a/YfW1SmY
This is my unfinished latch hook rug, BTW. A lo-o-o-ong term project :D
Can you people see the picture...?

Re: Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Posted: January 5th, 2019, 9:14 am
by Hazel Pethig
God idea to use imgur. I already have the app. I'll do that later today

Hazel