hey, i mean this with all the love in my heart. if you are trying to get into knit or crochet, you are probably going to see a beautiful chenille yarn and decide 'i want to make something comfy with this for my first project'. ignore that voice. the devil is trying to get in. please do not start with chenille yarn or you have a 97% chance of never trying fibre crafts again. it is horrendously difficult to work with and even worse if youre trying to learn with it.
i have friends who are far more experienced fibre artists than me who will not touch chenille yarn because it is not worth the headache. the best thing you can do for practicing is start with a nice cotton or possibly a wool/acrylic blend thats compatible with a pretty universal size like a 5mm hook/needles.
i had been knitting for a while when i first tried crochet and i first tried with chenille. i nearly gave up crochet altogether. please. just like practice a little bit first before you try chenille.
Do you hate having a lot of ends to weave in at the end? 🧶🪡 I like to weave in the first one in advance (especially if I’m sure it won’t be needed to close a hole or even out a jog…) to get it out of the way.
Most people I know, hate weaving in ends. I used to hate it too, partly because I was young and impatient (that issue has been resolved: I a
Y’all, I need to share the best knitting resource I have EVER found.
Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag Of Tricks
This book is the biggest knitting lifesaver. It has tips for everything from how to make a proper gauge swatch (that will actually be useful!) to fixing that horrible nubbin when joining in the round to squared off corners on your bind-off and so much more!
Anytime I start a project now, I check this book for tips and tricks. I’ve yet to come up empty. My knitting has improved more than I thought possible with only a handful of small, well explained techniques given in a very down-to-earth manner. Even my tension and consistency have improved leaps and bounds!
I seriously cannot recommend this book enough. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, self-taught or taught by experts, I am sure that you will find something helpful in this book.
Happy knitting!
P.S. here is the ISBN number of the book, in case you have a hard time finding it by title for some reason.
ISBN-13: 9781446309117
P.P.S. Sorry I sound like a salesman here, this book has just really been an absolute lifesaver and I’ve been needing to gush about it to someone other than my mom and fiancé for a while now.
Some gentle crochet and knitting tips for Spoonies with RSI and Migraines
As a spoonie, I have the unfortunate combination of both loving arts and crafts, and living with RSI and migraines.
This can make crafting (and art) tricky, as most projects require at least some close-up work and lots of hand movements.
So I wanted to share a couple of tips today for my fellow crafting spoonies!
Limit how much you do each day. So if you are knitting, stick to a single row on wide projects, and maybe two rows on narrow projects (like scarves). Ditto for crochet. Keep it small.
Use a stitch counter to hold your place. This is especially useful in crochet, as it lets you stop whenever you need without losing your spot.
Stop as soon as you feel pain. I know knitting and crochet can be really helpful for managing stress (which is how I first learnt knitting). But pushing through pain will only make things worse. If your wrists start aching or you feel that familiar migraine pain around your eyes, it is time to take a break.
Unfortunately, none of these will completely stop RSI flares or migraines. But hopefully, they will help you enjoy small pockets of crafting joy, while minimising pain.
I was knitting a honeycomb mesh gauge swatch, and kept wondering what it would look like if I tried the set of maneuvers in this blog post.
a link to a tutorial by Naomi Pankhurst on how to make a really nice hexagon mesh. This blog also has a lot of interesting tutorials, patterns, and other stuff in it that are worth checking out as well.
More adventures in knitting! I just figured out how to remember whether to knit/purl normally or through the back loop for each type of lifted increase.
You insert the needle from the side of the origin stitch.
So if you're lifting from a stitch on the right needle, you come in from the right (either ktbl, or purl). If you're lifting from a stitch on the left needle, you come in from the left (so knit, or ptbl).
The lean of them I find easier to remember. If you lift before knitting the origin stitch, you're adding it on the right of that stitch, so it will lean right. If you're lifting it after knitting the origin stitch, you're adding it on the left of that stitch, so it'll lean left.
For remembering M1R/L, I combined the tip I saw on nimble-needles (about halfway down the page there's a big "how to remember" titled section) that the front leg of the stitch should lean in the desired direction--plus my personal observation/interpretation of "knit (or purl) through whichever side is harder/more annoying to get the needle into because that part of the leg is shorter and has less room." (The site does include a way to remember the second half of the tip, but it's easier for me to internalize "more annoying" than "closer to the next stitch.")
A while ago, I wrote a post about finding vintage patterns online for free. I thought I would do a follow up to that post and explain how to find a substitution for a discontinued or unavailable yarn. It does take a bit of legwork and some math but it does get easier the more you do it.
In order to make this less complicated to explain, I’m going to use an example pattern to walk you through my method. I am going to use the pattern “Round or Turtle Neck Pullover Pattern #s-108” originally published in Spool Cotton #198, Knit for Victory. You can see the pattern here (x)
First, what information does the pattern tell you? Well quite a lot actually. For this pattern we’ll need a gauge of 5.5 sts per inch and 7 rows per inch, requiring 1 pair of No. 3 (about a 3.25mm, US 10) and No. 5 (about a 3.75mm, US 9) needles. It is graded for up to a 46 inch chest. It also suggested Chadwick’s Red Heart knitting worsted in 1 oz balls.
Since this is a vintage pattern, we’ll need to get some basic information about Chadwick’s real quick. With a quick google we find a Ravelry listing for this yarn which tells us it is 100% wool, four ply and is discontinued. Ravelry lists the suggested needle size as US 8.
According to the Ravelry wraps per inch (wpi) information, this yarn has about 9 which puts it squarely in a DK weight (8-11 wpi) yarn. I know, I know the label says it is worsted but is shaping up to be a DK, vintage wool is notorious for being smaller than modern yarns. So we know we could be working for a DK weight yarn to make this easy.
So I personally like the Berroco vintage line and they have a DK weight yarn available. It is 100 g/290 yds/265 m and has 5.5 sts per inch. It is an acrylic, wool and nylon blend so if you don’t like that feel free to find another yarn, this will be the one I use for my example.
As we gathered from the ravelry site the vintage yarn we are subbing comes in one ounce (roughly 29 grams). So if we are making a size 46 which will cover a 46 inch bust for men. The pattern says we need 25 balls – 25 ounces. Since we’ve got to guess based on the ravelry page that would be about 725 grams (29 grams x 25 balls).
So for the vintage we would need 8 hanks of the Berroco vintage DK (100 grams / 725 grams rounded up). If possible make a gauge swatch before buying all the yarn (the stores near me with this yarn retail it for 9.50 USD). If needed, size the needles up or down to reach it.
