Knitting! (and other needle arts...)

Cloud Mountain · Post by **Cloud Mountain** » January 18th, 2007, 10:13 pm

Just like to stop here from time-to-time to be certain you're JUST talking about knitting. (Yes, I still don't knit.)

kri · Post by **kri** » January 18th, 2007, 10:20 pm

Cloud Mountain wrote:Just like to stop here from time-to-time to be certain you're JUST talking about knitting. (Yes, I still don't knit.)

What, do you think this is some sort of secret thread that we give a boring topic name to so no one but those of us in the know will read it? Come on, we're smarter than that. We wouldn't actually let you see our super secret thread.

gypsygirl · Post by **gypsygirl** » January 19th, 2007, 4:57 am

Ssh! Don't even joke about the SST!

KATWAL · Post by **KATWAL** » January 30th, 2007, 3:31 pm

I don't knit but when I saw this on the web, I thought of all you LV Knitters.

There is a Super Knit Sunday, Feb. 4 - Knitting for charity.

If interested here is the web site

www.diynetwork.com/kiy/shows_dkng/

Katwal

kri · Post by **kri** » January 30th, 2007, 4:09 pm

KATWAL wrote:I don't knit but when I saw this on the web, I thought of all you LV Knitters.

There is a Super Knit Sunday, Feb. 4 - Knitting for charity.

If interested here is the web site

www.diynetwork.com/kiy/shows_dkng/

Katwal

It seems as if knitters are always knitting for charity.

asy · Post by **asy** » February 8th, 2007, 7:16 am

Oooh! More knitters!

I think I'm going to like it here...

I've just finished knitting a whole lot of Slippers. They're Knit-then-felt, from a pattern by Fibretrends.

I knitted a pair for my Partner, a pair for myself, and a pair for my daughter. I also knitted a pair of booties and a baby bonnet (all felted too, to be given as gifts) and a little sheep. Unfortunately, and very frustratingly, my slippers and the face of the sheep didn't felt. Sometimes wool you think will felt, won't. Even though I've had other balls of the same brand and type which have felted. Grrr...

Now, I'm knitting myself a jumper. It's been a VERY long time since I knitted myself anything (other than slippers). It's in a sort of mushroomy colour, which looks sometimes fawn, and sometimes almost olive green, in 8ply wool. It's a feather and fan pattern, and goes down past the hips. It was a boat neck pattern, which I don't like, so I changed it to a round neck. Looks good so far, am about 2" into the sleeves and it's looking very much like I'll run out of wool. Again frustrating. I'll have to go to the store tomorrow and see if I can still get a few balls of the same dyelot.

Not sure what my next project is... I'm sure my daughter will think something up for me

I'll knit myself another pair of slippers first, though... (Maybe this time I'll be a good girl and test felt the wool!)

asy

kri · Post by **kri** » February 8th, 2007, 8:26 am

asy wrote: I knitted a pair for my Partner, a pair for myself, and a pair for my daughter. I also knitted a pair of booties and a baby bonnet (all felted too, to be given as gifts) and a little sheep. Unfortunately, and very frustratingly, my slippers and the face of the sheep didn't felt. Sometimes wool you think will felt, won't. Even though I've had other balls of the same brand and type which have felted. Grrr...

Hmm....have you tried washing the piece in case it has any chemical residue of anything left on it that's preventing felting?

asy · Post by **asy** » February 8th, 2007, 8:42 am

This is washed felting, not needle felting.

You knit the piece oversize and throw it into the washing machine with the smallest level of the hottest water the machine will take, and run it only on the wash cycle (not the spin, or it pulls it out of shape!).

This turns the 100% will into felt. It's really cool, and very easy.

But I've learned, from hard experience (!) that if it hasn't felted in the first 10 minutes, it ain't gonna.

It's annoying, but not deadly, I'll just knit up yet another pair. They're a really fast knit, 4 nights in front of the telly! The really frustrating bit is I really loved the colour of these ones, they were a raspberry pink, with a cornflower blue trim. Will have to look at the wool store tomorrow and see if I can get the same sort of colour again...

asy

kri · Post by **kri** » February 8th, 2007, 11:21 am

asy wrote:This is washed felting, not needle felting.

You knit the piece oversize and throw it into the washing machine with the smallest level of the hottest water the machine will take, and run it only on the wash cycle (not the spin, or it pulls it out of shape!).

This turns the 100% will into felt. It's really cool, and very easy.

But I've learned, from hard experience (!) that if it hasn't felted in the first 10 minutes, it ain't gonna.

It's annoying, but not deadly, I'll just knit up yet another pair. They're a really fast knit, 4 nights in front of the telly! The really frustrating bit is I really loved the colour of these ones, they were a raspberry pink, with a cornflower blue trim. Will have to look at the wool store tomorrow and see if I can get the same sort of colour again...

asy

Oh, I understand what kind of felting you're talking about. Did you actually wash the piece with wool safe soap though? It may be a long shot, but chemical residue can prevent wool from felting. It just doesn't make sense that you've felted with the same brand/type of yarn before, and it doesn't this time.

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » February 8th, 2007, 3:16 pm

I've heard that there are certain colors of wool that don't felt as easily... White and Dark Blue ... something to do with the chemicals/bleaching used in creating those colors.

asy · Post by **asy** » February 8th, 2007, 3:16 pm

Yeah, it's just the wool

The bottom of the slipper felted just fine, but the top is not felted at all. And all the other stuff in the same load felted fine.

Just frustrating, but an excuse to go to the wool shop

asy

kmerline · Post by **kmerline** » February 8th, 2007, 9:43 pm

I want to chime in because I just knit a pair of slippers from the same pattern Asy has, but I haven't felted them yet.

I read somewhere that yarn will not felt at all if it has been bleached.
I was using left over Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride I had in red and blue, also two whites, "hospital" and "off-"

I made swatches of the blue and the 2 whites, and felted them by hand using the usual method.

The blue felted beautifully; the 2 whites did not felt at all. So, I can make nice, thick, washable slipper socks out of the white, and use the red & blue for more slippers!

ahab · Post by **ahab** » February 12th, 2007, 7:03 pm

OK -- I definitely do *not* belong on the knitting forum. And it's quite possible that hard-core knitters already know about this. But I (or, more precisely, my wife) thought you might be interested in Save the Children's "Caps to the Capital" site. Apparently, in July of last year -- in the wake of a report that found that "many of the 2 million babies who die each year in the first 24 hours of life in developing countries could be saved by simple, cost-effective measures, like placing a knit or crocheted cap on a baby’s head for warmth" -- STC launched "Knitters and Crocheters for Newborns: Caps to the Capital," and among other things suggested that knitters and crocheters show their support by knitting caps for newborns.

By the end of the year, the headquarters of STC had been flooded by more than a quarter of a million handmade caps from America's knitters.

STC has put up images of some of the caps, along with messages accompanying them from the knitters, at

http://www.savethechildren.org/campaigns/caps-to-the-capital/

(Click the link under "In Your Own Words".)

Again, probably a lot of you already know about this (and may have even knitted one of these caps yourself!), but I thought I'd pass it along.

Cheers,

Stewart ("Ahab")

kri · Post by **kri** » February 12th, 2007, 8:54 pm

ahab wrote:OK -- I definitely do *not* belong on the knitting forum. And it's quite possible that hard-core knitters already know about this. But I (or, more precisely, my wife) thought you might be interested in Save the Children's "Caps to the Capital" site. Apparently, in July of last year -- in the wake of a report that found that "many of the 2 million babies who die each year in the first 24 hours of life in developing countries could be saved by simple, cost-effective measures, like placing a knit or crocheted cap on a baby’s head for warmth" -- STC launched "Knitters and Crocheters for Newborns: Caps to the Capital," and among other things suggested that knitters and crocheters show their support by knitting caps for newborns.

By the end of the year, the headquarters of STC had been flooded by more than a quarter of a million handmade caps from America's knitters.

STC has put up images of some of the caps, along with messages accompanying them from the knitters, at

http://www.savethechildren.org/campaigns/caps-to-the-capital/

(Click the link under "In Your Own Words".)

Again, probably a lot of you already know about this (and may have even knitted one of these caps yourself!), but I thought I'd pass it along.

Cheers,

Stewart ("Ahab")

Hey anyone's welcome to this thread Stewart

Especially if you're considering trying a stitch or two!

Thanks for the tip!

ancilla · Post by **ancilla** » February 13th, 2007, 6:28 am

Just sticking my nose in here to say that I'm an avid knitter, spinner, sewer, crocheter and learner of the ancient arts of fibre working.

I'm amazed at how many of us are on here. I know I found Librivox through Brenda Dane's podcast 'Cast On' and have enjoyed every minute and every book that I've been able to get from Librivox.

I'm very much enjoying expanding my book library by being able to knit while listening to the books that I've wanted to read for ages, but was never able to because I haven't yet mastered the act of keeping a book open while knitting.

My only issue is when I get distracted by reading a chart or pattern and realize that I haven't fully heard that last paragraph and have to rewind to make sure I understand what just happened.

Then again, I do that with books too and end up having to re-read whole pages because I wasn't fully concentrating.

Oh well.

Anyway, nice to see knitters on here. I love meeting new people around!

Ancilla