NarniaWeb Community Forums

Bella, thanks so much for the tips about joining and using double-pointed needles! They did make sense and are useful, though I'm afraid my needles aren't overlapping in a very orderly fashion...

Thanks for the advice, wild rose! I'm working with a set of plastic double-pointed needles, but I inherited some metal ones that look like wonderful weapons. Starting off definitely looks tricky---I kind of cheated and knit the first few rows on straight needles and then slipped them onto double-pointed ones; I'll have to go back and stitch a few stitches together then.
Aaah, that backpack is very pretty! How sturdy is it? I'm guessing it's sturdy enough for general purposes, but not the sort of backpack I'd carry on campus (I have a pretty large, heavy-duty one, so...).

wolfloversk, I'm sorry that I don't have any advice on your questions. But I'm glad you asked the cross-stitch question because now I can take note of Mel's (and anyone else's) answer and maybe take it up again.

I finally finished up my fingerless gloves! Happy day, but alas, they're a bit big. But I spent over a year working on them, so oh well. *hugs them*
I am now working on a project with double-pointed needles, and it's going pretty well so far, even though I'm half-making up the pattern. So, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and things to start going wrong, of course.

Valia wrote:I finally finished up my fingerless gloves! Happy day, but alas, they're a bit big. But I spent over a year working on them, so oh well. *hugs them*

Happy day indeed! Depending on the yarn content, you could get them wet and then squish them to size so that when they dry they're the right size... (I should do that with my first pair, since I've ended up not wearing them as much now that I have a pair that fit snugly. )

Wrose, the situation with yarn is very similar here. That's cool that you can order it in bulk! I'm sure there is something like that here, but it's hard to find these things. Some people spin their own yarn, which I would really like to do, but right now I'm forced to buy it from the store.
Oh, that shop sounds really lovely! There are a couple independently-owned knitting shops, and they are beautiful, because they have really nice supplies and a nice feel, overall. Sometimes they have days when people can just come in and knit, which I really like.

Valia, I'm glad that what I wrote made some sense! Ditto, it's always hard for me to keep the needles that way.
I have the metal ones and.... yes. They hurt.
Oohh, I'd love to see pictures of your gloves, if you can post them!!

I'm on spring break now, so that means I hope to have more time to knit. I finished the sweater for my grandmother, and I'm hoping to send it to her soon. I haven't shown her a picture, because I want it to be a surprise. I'll try get one to post here.

Oh, hmm, let me see. Apparently it's an acrylic, Mel, so maybe shrinking wouldn't work? Bother.

*takes mental note of Twig's cross-stitch comments*

Oooh, a sweater, Bella? I look forward to seeing it pictures of it!

Here're my gloves, and here's the scarf I made back in January. Sorry for the blurry pictures; I'm not a good photographer.

Sooooo, based on a friend's recommendation and having heard the name from some of you all, I joined Ravelry today. I can already tell this is a bad idea because I think I've saved about a dozen things to my queue in just a few pages.

PP, I've just never tried it before at all... so I really don't know how it's done or where to start. Does the size of the stitches have to be specific other than being the same? I think the instructions were a bit like Meltintalle described... So I would do half X's up all the way to the edge of the pattern/color then turn around and finish them all the way back? I guess I was confused as to if I do the whole row or only 3 x's at a time (the diagram in the instruction only showed three x's, but didn't detail anything about whether or not it goes on further)... Thanks for the help guys

Valia, those gloves are really neat! I love the yarn. Did you sew the spaces between the fingers?
Lovely scarf! It looks warm.

Ravelry is like the goodreads of knitting. I joined it, and, due to the extensive library of patterns, I've been able to control the urge to queue everything that looks good, but it's hard. The forum on there is very helpful for craft questions!

wolfloversk, is the cross-stitch kit just one of those little ones, probably a couple of inches square? I have one of those half-finished somewhere, but a cursory glance at my desk drawer hasn't revealed it, so I have no idea where it is now...

In retrospect, it would've been good to know about only doing half the x's as you go along when I first tried cross-stitch, Twig's. It would've made my work a lot neater.

Bella, the pattern called for ridges along the fingers and then, yes, I sewed them closed. And the scarf is warm, especially if you triple-wrap it.
I have avoided goodreads, but I understand what you mean. Hurrah for self-control in not queuing everything. The hard part for me will then be actually using some of the patterns...

Speaking of, my dad liked the fingerless gloves I made and would like me to make him a pair for fishing (which means I need to find some specific type of wool now...). So, I have two options: a) adapt the pattern I used so that it's a larger size and will fit him, or b) find a men's fingerless glove pattern. Does anyone know of a simple pattern that I could use, or does anyone have any tips on how to increase the size of a pattern (...maybe without knitting a test glove for size?)?

So here are some pictures of that quilt I was working on:

That looks very cosy (it's winter here).

I've spent a couple of hours looking online for patterns for gloves/mittens with a Hobbit theme. Among them I found a crochet pattern for Bofur's hat.

http://www.smree.com/2013/03/bofur-inspired-hat-pattern.html

I also found 'travel mitts':
http://www.fiddleknits.com/travel_mitts.html

and 'Ori-esque mitts':
http://theknittinggenie.com/2013/01/03/ori-esque-mitts/

Now, back to my fingerless gloves - am doing the second one now (left hand) - these have short fingers, not just a combined space.

Oh, that quilt is very pretty, Lady Haleth! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Ooh, fun patterns, Auntie! Are you knitting or crocheting the fingerless gloves?

So I finished my first knitting project on double-pointed needles a couple months back: a baby hat for a friend's baby. And it actually turned out very nicely despite me modifying the pattern a bit as I went, though it was pretty simple.
I also finished off a washcloth that my sister had started probably about...seven or eight years ago and gave to me a couple of years ago to work on. And I'm almost done with another Weeping Angel washcloth, hurrah!

I'm now trying to figure out what project I should start next: another washcloth (simple and quick), a dishtowel (though I'd have to find/modify a pattern, but it'd probably use up the rest of the cotton yarn I have, which'd be nice), a beret (which I'd really like to do, but it might require a bit more concentration), or something else altogether.

I like that pattern, Lady Haleth. Is it a scrap quilt?

How are your fingerless gloves coming, Auntie?

This is my current project:



It's actually my second pair of socks, but I haven't tucked in all the ends and done a proper photoshoot with the first.

So creative! And all I do these days is mending...

Actually, that can be fun too. The other day I opened a box of mending that hadn't been opened for a few years--I won't tell you how many--and had a grand old time with it. The best of it all was that when the stuff was fixed up, half of it went to the thrift shop. Hurray for more space!

One of my mending projects is an antique piece of eyeletted linen that must be hand-sewn with much care. I like hand-sewing in moderation, so it should be good for those moments when the brain is engaged and the fingers are not.

Valia wrote:Aaah, that backpack is very pretty! How sturdy is it? I'm guessing it's sturdy enough for general purposes, but not the sort of backpack I'd carry on campus (I have a pretty large, heavy-duty one, so...).

Thank you so much, it's not sturdy enough to carry a bunch of books , but it's made with a thick, rough linen base, so I can dump my art stuff and notebooks in it and it's okay.

Lady Haleth, I love your quilt, it's beautiful.

Mel, those socks looks really nice. I love the yarn.

We recently got a new sewing machine which is really cool cause both our other ones broke. This one is able to take very thick cloth, which is great for costume sewing, since we tend to use a lot of thick wool. I have a couple of projects in mind, but they will have to wait till the middle of August.

My latest achievemt is I bought a loom for tabletweaving. Now I won't have to go tying the end of my weaving to the doorknob or bed post, I can put it all on the loom and it will remain neat and tight all the time and thus make it easier for me

here's a picture of what it looks like. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, and I probably won't get one until the end of August which is very annoying as my hands are itching to try it out...but oh well.

aileth wrote:One of my mending projects is an antique piece of eyeletted linen that must be hand-sewn with much care.

That sounds pretty and rather more interesting than the mending projects I've got waiting. When people mention 'mending' I think of sewing up tears and replacing lost buttons and such stuff that takes five minutes but doesn't have the same excitement that creating something new has even if the new stuff takes way longer.

I've seen looms like that before, wrose. They look so complicated when they have yarn wound on them, but I imagine they must be really nice when you're working on a project.