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Knitters and Needleworkers of Free Republic, Unite! (a vain vanity)
Knitting a Conundrum

Posted on 10/12/2005 6:35:50 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum

Ok, come out of the woodwork. We know you are out there, doing needlework at your computer terminal. Knitters, cross stitchers, crocheters and others. What's your craft? Wanna share? Want to form an online knitting circle or whatever?


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: crochet; crossstitch; embroidery; fiberarts; knitting; knittingcircle; needlearts; needlework; quilting; selfexpression; selfpxtherapy; sew; stitch; thread; yarn
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Stitch, stitch, stitch. Embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint. Knit, purl, yarn over. Double crochet three times into the next stitch. Tatting. Netting And even things not exactly needlework: Braiding. Sprong. Spinning. Weaving.

What do you do? Wanna talk about it?

1 posted on 10/12/2005 6:35:52 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
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To: Knitting A Conundrum; Monkey Face; Utah Girl; secret garden; xsmommy

Needlework ping! I know there are more of us out there. If you know someone who likes needle crafts or related stuff, tell'em to come and talk to us!


2 posted on 10/12/2005 6:38:01 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

I'm not very sophisticated with my needle work. I consider it therapy. I'm currently working on a Christmas stocking for my new daughter in law ... felt applique and a crocheted baby blanket for my new great nephew. I know it's not needlework but I'm also going to do a little scrap book for him spelling out his name with photos of his immediate family.


3 posted on 10/12/2005 6:39:35 AM PDT by Mercat (God loves us where He finds us.)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

If any of you knitters are interested in acquiring hand washed, hand dyed, hand spun wool, let me know. I have a (reasonably priced) source for you.


4 posted on 10/12/2005 6:43:15 AM PDT by trad_anglican
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To: Mercat

Close enough for me! For a few years, I had the job of making christmas stockings for a group of kids my mom's work sponsored. Making them can be fun. I never made any two alike...Simple felt pattern, and then I had great fun with glue and trims....


5 posted on 10/12/2005 6:44:16 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: najida; PaulaB; pissant
Najida,
Do you think this would be a good thread to post some babes? I mean, afterall, babes wear knitted stuff, too!
6 posted on 10/12/2005 6:44:49 AM PDT by Maximus of Texas (Pull my finger)
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To: trad_anglican

Cool...I knit for reenactors. It's getting almost impossible to find 100 percent wool for the projects I make...I spin, some, but don't really have time to do what I do and spin, too...


7 posted on 10/12/2005 6:47:02 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Maximus of Texas
like this?

Where
8 posted on 10/12/2005 6:51:10 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

LOL, yeah!


9 posted on 10/12/2005 6:53:05 AM PDT by Maximus of Texas (Pull my finger)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Sounds like a fun post; unfortunately, I am craft impaired. Sigh... I keep most of the crafty people in supplies by shopping at craft shows.


10 posted on 10/12/2005 6:54:39 AM PDT by Vor Lady (Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Bump for later!


11 posted on 10/12/2005 6:54:55 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Teach a man to fish & he eats for a day; teach him to surf the net & he'll never bother you again)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Spin and weave on a four harness jack loom.

I used to have a handweaving studio when I lived out east, now I just do it for pleasure and as an aesthetic and creative exercise.


12 posted on 10/12/2005 6:55:49 AM PDT by wildehunt (I told them they'd need horses...)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Bump for later!


13 posted on 10/12/2005 6:55:56 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Teach a man to fish & he eats for a day; teach him to surf the net & he'll never bother you again)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

I heart counted cross stitch!

If there was a way to quit my current job and just craft all the time, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I would love to join your "group"!


14 posted on 10/12/2005 6:57:31 AM PDT by IN Farm Girl (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by the grace of God)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

I'm an avid cross stitcher. Have enough patterns to open my own store. Haven't done any in a while. Will pick it up again as soon as I get my kitten declawed in a couple of weeks.


15 posted on 10/12/2005 6:57:36 AM PDT by proudofthesouth (Boycotting movies since 1988)
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To: Grannyx4

My grandma brainwashed me as a baby...I think she taught me how to thread a needle when I was maybe 4. I have no memory of learning how. I have just always done it.

She also taught me a little bit about embroidery and how to crochet when I was 9...and I sort of picked up knitting on my own with a little bit of help around the same age.

This is what happens when you corrupt a kid....turn'em into crafting junkies...


16 posted on 10/12/2005 6:58:46 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: wildehunt

I'm jealous of your loom. ;}


17 posted on 10/12/2005 7:00:47 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: IN Farm Girl

Neat!


18 posted on 10/12/2005 7:02:03 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

My Grandma tried to teach me to embroider when I was a kid, but I was all thumbs. My mom was a terrific crafter. She'd go to shows, look stuff over then go home and create her own or recreate what she'd seen and liked. She once told me "any idiot can cross stitch"; well here is one 'idiot' who can't!

Both of my grown daughters all on their own have taught themselves to crochet and to knit and to quilt. In fact, I kid the oldest about taking over from Martha Stewart next time Martha goes to jail.


19 posted on 10/12/2005 7:03:37 AM PDT by Vor Lady (Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected the expected?)
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To: proudofthesouth

Isn't amazing how the crafting books and supplies just pile up? I mostly do small pieces, like socks and knitted lace, but boy, even buying little bits of yarn it adds up...


20 posted on 10/12/2005 7:04:41 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Arent' Grandmas the best? That's how I first got attracted to needlework. I used to watch her embroider and sew and crochet. I absolutely loved to watch her crochet plastic bread bags into rugs. She was a farm woman and a firm believer in the "make it do or do without" philosophy.

My favorite remembrance of her is the time she embroidered denim shirts for the three of us girls. This was the rage in the early 70's in our part of the country, but Mom and Dad couldn't afford to run to the department store and buy three store-bought shirts for us. So Mom found some plain denim shirts, took them to Grandma, and explained what she wanted.

I don't remember my sisters' shirts, but mine had snowflakes and red and white trim. The first day I wore it, the richest girl in school (her dad was Ryan White's first lawyer in his AIDS battles) told me she wished she had a shirt like mine. I couldn't wait to get home that afternoon to call Grandma and tell her what Suzy Vaughan said about my shirt!


21 posted on 10/12/2005 7:08:02 AM PDT by IN Farm Girl (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by the grace of God)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

I sell afghans, lap ones and large ones; also do needlepoint, cross stich; am doing quilting right now, I am making a bunch of $199.99 quilts right now...and I am also working on a 'Queen Anne' 98 x 108 quilt...its turning out very pretty....

I love to do these things...have sold a number of them...mostly give them away to friends and family members...


22 posted on 10/12/2005 7:08:54 AM PDT by HarleyLady27 (My ? to libs: "Do they ever shut up on your planet?" "Grow your own DOPE: Plant a LIB!")
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

It's a LeClerc Artisat, made in Quebec, and it's at least 30 years old.

I paid $350 dollars for it, which seemed exorbitant at the time. My Ashford spinning wheel, also the same vintage, was $85, as I recall, and totally beyond my means, but I had to have it.

I had sheep then too. Fortunately I got over that.


23 posted on 10/12/2005 7:08:58 AM PDT by wildehunt (I told them they'd need horses...)
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To: wildehunt

I thought about sheep once, because we have a place that's about 2 acres that we could retire to, but then I woke up.


24 posted on 10/12/2005 7:13:20 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: IN Farm Girl

That's a neat story.

One funny thing: my mom just couldn't learn to crochet as a girl. But when she was in her mid-forties, she got me to teach her.

Anybody got any pics to show off?


25 posted on 10/12/2005 7:14:33 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: HarleyLady27

My stepmom loves to piece quilts. She lives back in west Texas in a wide spot in the road that used to be a railroad town, and does a lot of sewing. But she sends her quilts off to be quilted.


26 posted on 10/12/2005 7:17:22 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: wildehunt

Shortly after 9/11, when nobody was buying on Ebay, I got a good deal on my loom, about $100. But my majacraft spinning wheel cost more than your loom did!


27 posted on 10/12/2005 7:19:08 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
The hardest piece of knitting I've ever done:

Where

I do historical knitting. That is, I buy and collect old patterns. This pattern comes from a little book printed in 1845. Lots of lovely lace patterns in it. The only problem is that they didn't proofread the galleys very well. The patterns are full of typos. Getting this pattern together took me 3 or 4 times, a lot of frustration, and even so, I call it a recreation of her pattern, because I am not sure if this was exactly what she had in mind, although it is close. It's a collar. It makes a piece of lace that curves in a little bit. In the time period it was written, people used to whipstitch on their collars rather than sew them as a piece of the dress, so they could remove them and wash the collar more often than the dress, which might be of fabric that didn't wash well.
28 posted on 10/12/2005 7:24:33 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
Saddleblanket used for a decorative touch over a lightweight commercial pad.
29 posted on 10/12/2005 7:26:08 AM PDT by wildehunt (I told them they'd need horses...)
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To: wildehunt

neat work! I like it!


30 posted on 10/12/2005 7:29:20 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Oooh, aaaah.

I love it; so precise!. Thanks for sharing!


31 posted on 10/12/2005 7:34:08 AM PDT by IN Farm Girl (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by the grace of God)
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To: wildehunt

Ooooh, aaaah.

That is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!


32 posted on 10/12/2005 7:34:46 AM PDT by IN Farm Girl (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by the grace of God)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Wow..

If patience is virtue, you must be a wonderful person.


33 posted on 10/12/2005 7:42:26 AM PDT by wildehunt (I told them they'd need horses...)
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To: wildehunt

I've started volunteering in a technical library. I catalog articles and shelve naterials and found out that I am a natural technical services librarian tech...it seems that I have a way of looking at things that involves seeing tedious activities as challenging and fulfilling, and I patiently look for meaning where it takes some doing.

This makes me weird, but it comes in handy when figuring out some of the antique patterns....


34 posted on 10/12/2005 7:49:41 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum; everyone

What a great idea for a thread! : ) I'm not one for knitting...my Grams tried teach me when I was about 9, maybe a little younger, and I was horrible at it, lol. Think I still have that "scarf" somewhere.

My mom was ALWAYS doing some cross stitch project while I was growing up so I gave that a try instead. Turns out I'm pretty good at it :)

The last project I did was of the islands of Hawaii. Took me a while, but I got through it. Now I'm looking for a new project. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything that really strikes my fancy yet.
If anyone has any ideas of good places to find patterns they would be welcome and MOST appreciated :)


35 posted on 10/12/2005 8:14:02 AM PDT by EHC Southern Pride (Where ever you go, go with all your heart.)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Counted cross, needlepoint, embroidery, crochet, and I recently learned how to knit (very recently, LOL!). I have done some quilting in the past, but wouldn't say that I am any good at it. I did hardanger (once), and do basketweaving and make fabric flowers out of ribbon.

I would love to learn how to crochet doilies or collars, and/or do tatting. (Hint, hint!)


36 posted on 10/12/2005 8:20:28 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Teach a man to fish & he eats for a day; teach him to surf the net & he'll never bother you again)
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To: alwaysconservative

If you can crochet a granny square, you can crochet doilies.

That has a lot of the basics. Crocheting in a circle. Crocheting in clusters, and joining the clusters by chains. Going up to the next row.

Find an online pattern you'll like and I'm sure we can walk you through it!


37 posted on 10/12/2005 9:54:14 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: alwaysconservative; Knitting A Conundrum; secret garden

xs stands for cross stitch : )


38 posted on 10/12/2005 9:56:42 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: xsmommy

That is how I knew what you were interested in from the very first time I saw your name!


39 posted on 10/12/2005 10:08:57 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

you'd be amazed how many people think i have a kid whose name begins with X!! LOL!


40 posted on 10/12/2005 10:09:55 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
my most recent completed xs project. i bought the mats by the artist that did them specially for this pattern because i loved the piece so much. it should be done at the framers this week.


41 posted on 10/12/2005 10:14:18 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: xsmommy

Just like you can tell a real knitter when they see k1 p1 yo - they know that doesn't spell Kipiyo....


42 posted on 10/12/2005 10:14:20 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

kipiyo kay ay ; )


43 posted on 10/12/2005 10:16:34 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: xsmommy

That is a cool sampler...I like samplers. There are some gorgeous historical ones out there, and it's hard to think that most of them were made by grade school aged and junior high aged girls.


44 posted on 10/12/2005 10:20:01 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum
Tribute to knitters:

Zot!

historical pictures of knitting women with historical artwork. I was pretty proud of this collage. I only have primitive editing software.
45 posted on 10/12/2005 10:24:12 AM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: xsmommy

LOLOLOL!


46 posted on 10/12/2005 10:41:48 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Teach a man to fish & he eats for a day; teach him to surf the net & he'll never bother you again)
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To: alwaysconservative

it made me think of cowboys,what can i say?? ; )


47 posted on 10/12/2005 10:43:00 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

I can crochet, quilt, tat (very badly), sew, embroider, cross stitch, needlepoint, make lace (badly) and knit (REALLY BADLY!).

Most of my 'needle' crafts for the last few years have either been utility sewing (curtains, bedspreads), costumes...which require LOTS of beading and handwork, a gift quilt and that's about it.


48 posted on 10/12/2005 10:43:25 AM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: Maximus of Texas

I can see babes wearing knits ;)

49 posted on 10/12/2005 10:47:58 AM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: IN Farm Girl; Knitting A Conundrum
Arent' Grandmas the best? That's how I first got attracted to needlework.

I can remember my Grandmother standing by the fireplace, holding me in her arms, and telling me that Huey Long [Long died before I was born] was a wicked man who wanted to "take from those who work and give it to those who do not work". She planted the seeds that grew into my poliltical philosophy. Later when I was 8 or 9 years old she taught me to embroider, crochet, tat, and sew. I mostly do needlepoint now. My Grandmother's influence in my life was profound in every way. I miss her every day.

50 posted on 10/12/2005 10:51:48 AM PDT by caryatid (Old times there are not forgotten!)
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