Knitting in the Playground

[Helanna]

Knitting a whole blanket? A very small blanket is like, 6'x5'. Sounds tedious.

I was actually thinking of doing a baby blanket for my cousin. That would be a little smaller, at least, and give me incentive to finish.

[Juggling Goth]

Yeah, I cannot do large projects, but I've done a baby blanket. I did a Debbie Bliss pattern that had big moss stitch (knit one purl one, next row purl one knit one - makes a chessboard pattern) hearts and stars on it, which also helped with not getting bored.

[Kato]

Yarnovers, maybe? If you accidentally wrap some yarn around the needle, that makes a hole. Good if you're knitting lace and doing it deliberately, not so good the rest of the time.

I was going to ask how you accidentally yarnover but then I recalled that's not so hard when you are getting started.

Knitting a whole blanket? A very small blanket is like, 6'x5'. Sounds tedious.

Ah, it's not that bad depending on what yarn/needle you use. With a properly large gauge you could do it in a day, I'd wager.

[Juggling Goth]

I was going to ask how you accidentally yarnover but then I recalled that's not so hard when you are getting started.

Yep! I didn't drop many stitches as a newbie, but I had an amazing ability to end up with more than I started with.

[The Succubus]

It sounds like something I'd like to try. With regards to blankets, is it possible to knit a blanket from lots of little squares? Had a cool idea to make a blanket with small versions of each of the LGBT pride flags but I imagine it'd be tricky.

[noparlpf]

It sounds like something I'd like to try. With regards to blankets, is it possible to knit a blanket from lots of little squares? Had a cool idea to make a blanket with small versions of each of the LGBT pride flags but I imagine it'd be tricky.

Now you're combining knitting and quilting, I think. Go for it.

[Kato]

It sounds like something I'd like to try. With regards to blankets, is it possible to knit a blanket from lots of little squares? Had a cool idea to make a blanket with small versions of each of the LGBT pride flags but I imagine it'd be tricky.

Hm... not too sure how complicated the flags are but I'm sure not too hard. noparlpf is right, though, it would involve quilting as well which... I'm not sure, is there much more to quilting than sewing together pieces of fabric?

Anyway, sounds like a good plan! (I'm still trying to finish my gloves. I hate noticing three rounds later I screwed up something and then having to go back...)

[noparlpf]

Hm... not too sure how complicated the flags are but I'm sure not too hard. noparlpf is right, though, it would involve quilting as well which... I'm not sure, is there much more to quilting than sewing together pieces of fabric?

Anyway, sounds like a good plan! (I'm still trying to finish my gloves. I hate noticing three rounds later I screwed up something and then having to go back...)

Nah, quilting just means you're not only knitting at that point. I'm being pedantic. It is a gaming forum.
Most of the flags are just striped. So that's easy enough as long as you know how to switch over colors. Which I don't, but it can't be super-hard, right?

Gloves sound complicated.

[The Succubus]

This is encouraging, so far. Any recommendations for a starting point to learn, like books or videos?

[noparlpf]

This is encouraging, so far. Any recommendations for a starting point to learn, like books or videos?

I can recommend a few videos that didn't help me when I tried to learn casting on last year.
So yeah, I'd also be interested if anybody has some useful tutorials.

[Kato]

Uhm... it's kind of hard to judge what is helpful and what not, I'm afraid. As I mentioned above, I quite like the slingshot method for casting on and a certain search engine suggested this video tutorial which I think explains it well enough. Then again. I'd have a really hard time explaining it in plain text or even with pictures better than the video but then I'm a pretty poor teacher.


Next step would likely be just knitting a few rows and purling a few rows to get feeling for it.

[Savannah]

I would actually suggest crocheting rather than knitting for making up a blanket of little squares. Knitting is almost always quite stretchy but primarily in one direction, and it's rare for a stitch of knitting to be the same height as it is wide, so you run the risk of the blanket wanting to stretch/not stretch in different directions, resulting in weird sagging, and your squares not being, well, square. Granny-square style crochet is commonly pieced together like that, and each square is both square and not very stretchy, meaning everything fits together and hangs well.

You probably could do it with knitting, but you'd have to plan it out very carefully, and it probably wouldn't be the best thing to try if you're just getting started.

[Kato]

How dare you suggest crochetting in this knitting thread, mudblood.

But in all seriousness, yeah, Savannah does have a point. But in my experience learning crochetting (properly) is harder than knitting. I guess depending on what you use for your pattern you can also make a nice knitted quilt but yeah, it might be a bit more difficult getting perfect squares and such.

I'm not into t but a friend of mine is constantly making hexipuffs, which are basically stuffed six-sided quilt elements. (Don't ask why I bring this up. It has to do with quilts)

[Savannah]

I hate crocheting. Doesn't mean it's not better suited for some tasks than knitting

[noparlpf]

Remind me what size needles are good for making something like a scarf or random strip of knitting to practice? I found a pair of size 11 needles I apparently nicked from my mum during their last move. Plus some yarn. No idea what sort of yarn. It's brown and about 3mm thick at rest.

[Kato]

Remind me what size needles are good for making something like a scarf or random strip of knitting to practice? I found a pair of size 11 needles I apparently nicked from my mum during their last move. Plus some yarn. No idea what sort of yarn. It's brown and about 3mm thick at rest.

Er... stupid American sizes? Okay, that's reasonable large (unless it's 11 in UK system or old US?). I'd say if you are just practicing larger needles are better as you can more easily see what you are doing... I wouldn't mind the yarn to be honest if you are not going to keep it. Or use it at least. Usually the yarn says what needles it is best used with.

[noparlpf]

Er... stupid American sizes? Okay, that's reasonable large (unless it's 11 in UK system or old US?). I'd say if you are just practicing larger needles are better as you can more easily see what you are doing... I wouldn't mind the yarn to be honest if you are not going to keep it. Or use it at least. Usually the yarn says what needles it is best used with.

The yarn is without any label or anything. Yeah, US 11. It says 8mm on the other side.

[Kato]

The yarn is without any label or anything. Yeah, US 11. It says 8mm on the other side.

Yeah, that's what I assumed. Yarn is usually measured by weight/length so it's a bit hard to judge but as I said, if you are merely practicing any yarn should be okay. Unless you want to start doing something for real, which is where you need to think about WHAT you want to do to consider what yarn to use. But for the moment I'd recommend just knitting with what you got and try the basic stitches.

[Kato]

So, desperate attempt not to have this drop into obscurity again

I finished an at least somewhat elaborate lace cowl birthday present this week and am almost satisfied with how it turned out

Next up I'll turn to the dark side and try crochetting a little Black Mage figure. Shouldn't take too long or be too difficult but I might have not much time the next days.

I'm actually thinking about trying to do an OotS character for fun but I'm not sure how well a stick figure translates into a model...


Any of the beginners have made any progress they want to share?

[noparlpf]

Well, I stopped by the clothing section last time I was at Target and the scarves cost $20+ so I need to get on with learning to knit so my face stops being cold. However, I have my mum's cats in my small apartment for another two weeks yet, so it's been nearly impossible to do anything with yarn without the kitten attacking.

[Helanna]

Well, the other day I was was at the craft store, and I decided to pick up some of that Red Heart sashay yarn, which is more like a lacy ribbon than yarn and is used to make these scarves.

I always wanted to try knitting with that type of yarn, but I never did because I thought it was going to be difficult. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be insanely simple, I think the entire scarf took less than 4 hours to make! I was pretty pleased with the way it came out, too.

[noparlpf]

I managed to get a couple of (messy) first few rows out in spite of my cats. I think I did something wrong because there's a big loop somewhere, but otherwise it's not going too badly for a first try.

[Savannah]

Big loops are often the result of accidentally looping an extra strand of yarn over the needle (which is a legit increase known as a yarn-over...not ideal when you don't want it, though ).

This is what I'm currently working on:

Six needles (The picture only shows five, but you need a sixth to knit.)

[Juggling Goth]

Six needles (The picture only shows five, but you need a sixth to knit.)

BOOM.

I'm doing a sock at the moment. Fakey fair-isle self-patterning yarn. I never felt inadequate about knitting on four needles before!

The yarn is without any label or anything.

It's probably a bit late now, but there is a way to find out at least which of the 'standard' sizes the yarn is. (Working out the material it's made of is trickier.) If you wrap it around a ruler with no gaps or overlaps, you can count the wraps per inch (wpi). Knitting patterns won't give you the wpi; they'll say things like "DK" or "bulky". The first table on this Wikipedia page translates wpi into sizes.

[Savannah]

Six is actually a little easier than four, as the angles aren't as extreme, so don't feel bad

Also, I love you forever for that chart.

[noparlpf]

It's probably a bit late now, but there is a way to find out at least which of the 'standard' sizes the yarn is. (Working out the material it's made of is trickier.) If you wrap it around a ruler with no gaps or overlaps, you can count the wraps per inch (wpi). Knitting patterns won't give you the wpi; they'll say things like "DK" or "bulky". The first table on this Wikipedia page translates wpi into sizes.

Won't your wraps per inch vary by the width of your ruler?

[Savannah]

The length of yarn wrapped would vary, but as I understand it you're measuring the width of the yarn, not the length. All you care about is how many strands, lying alongside one another, make up one inch.

[noparlpf]

The length of yarn wrapped would vary, but as I understand it you're measuring the width of the yarn, not the length. All you care about is how many strands, lying alongside one another, make up one inch.

Oh, right. I'm kind of out of it today, don't mind me. I was thinking you'd somehow be measuring the length of yarn it would take but that makes no sense.

Edit: Seems like mine's about 11-12 wraps per inch. So that's..."sport" or "DK". And the needles I found are like, twice as big as recommended.

[Castaras]

Big loops are often the result of accidentally looping an extra strand of yarn over the needle (which is a legit increase known as a yarn-over...not ideal when you don't want it, though ).

This is what I'm currently working on:

Six needles (The picture only shows five, but you need a sixth to knit.)

I'm going to have to try doing this sort of knitting, looks like fun and would make it easier to do some of the stuff I like doing if it works for me...

[Savannah]

I'm about to rip part of this #%@^ thing out for the THIRD time

Ahh, the joys of making up your pattern as you go along.