Vast Right Wing Knitting and Needleworker's Conspiracy: Weekend Sit and...

10/28/05 | Knitting a Conundrum

[Valpal1]

Don't hate me, but I own a yarn store. I've never mentioned it on FR before because it's not good to mix politics with running a retail store.

And I have a very good friend with 100 head of merino, ramboulet, finn, cotswald, corriedale and lincoln sheep, 4 llamas and 2 alpacas who keeps me knee deep in spinning fiber and handspun yarn.

ebay is an excellent place for yarn and fiber.

[Alia]

Lucky you!!!

I've only recently found a yarn shop (40 mins away) carrying the yarns I delight to work with.

[Alia]

Instead of cutting out those Holiday Aprons, instead of working on granddaughter's baby blanket, instead of fine crocheting a Christmas dining table doily, instead of hemming and hitting that wee stack of mending.. I was sheetrocking, texturing, caulking, finishing up some cement work. My hands will play with gentler materials today..

However! I do wish to mention a TV show I've come to enjoy very much: Ghost Hunter (with Jennifer Love Hewitt). Friday nights. It's very pro-life. Reminds me in a wee way of "Touched by an Angel".

(Also, watched first three episodes of Season ? of Sopranos, this week.) Waiting for Deadwood and The Shield season releases.)

[secret garden]

How do you do seams? I am anxious to learn how to make a sweater from top down without seams.

[xsmommy]

there you are! i am trying to finish up a xs today because the 30% off framing coupon i have for my fave framing shop, expires on monday! it is probably time to start christmas stuff now anyway. my sisterinlaw and i have a pact that we make each other a cross-stitched ornament each Christmas and for our birthday. she sent me something a few weeks ago that she did for me "just because" and because i had been sending her stuff she needed and she doesn't have a local needlework shop. she wanted to pay me for what i sent and i said, nah, just make me something. It is the most darling little acorn ornament

she made me the beehive one that says INDUSTRY, because i have a bee "motif" in my family room.

[xsmommy]

the pattern is by cross-eyed cricket. they have so many cute finished items. my SIL is a much better finisher than i am. a few years ago, i did a number of their easter egg shaped ornaments, which are done in beautiful silk threads. i am afraid i am going to have to have them professionally finished at the xs shop because i would NOT do a good job, and i don't want to ruin all the work i put into them with a shoddy finishing job.

[alwaysconservative]

LongElegantLegs, I agree with texaslil about your homepage, AND about your link on hats! I love hats, have many, many of them, and wear them when I can. The only ones I don't really care for are those shapeless "bucket" hats that seem to be the fashion now, especially for the red hat society ladies. A narrower or shallower crown would be so much more flattering, IMO, and look less cat in the hat-ish.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

What a neat thing!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

here's a good pattern for a top down raglan sweater with no seams. It was the first top down sweater I made. And it helps you figure out how to do it in various yarns.

http://www.woolworks.org/patterns/raglan.html

How I seam varies, according to what I'm sewing. You can use a grafting technique sometimes, or mattress stitch, or sometimes even backstitch.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

This is why I haven't framed the two pieces of needlework I want framed. I know they would look cruddy if I did it!

[HarleyLady27]

LOLOL!!!! My thoughts exactly....

[Knitting A Conundrum]

New Logo!

[abner]

Ok, here is my progress page!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Doing great! And you are right about chenille...I would have suggested just some plain knitting worsted. Easier to handle.

[abner]

I would have suggested just some plain knitting worsted. Easier to handle.

And you would be correct!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Ok, fellow crafters, question for you:

If you could start a new craft, which would it be?

I think I would like to take up lingerie making, especially bras and lovely lacy slips/camisoles full of french handsewing techniques and fine swiss batiste and lovely insertion laces. And silk ribbons. And delicate silk embroidery, too. Maybe some hand made whitework. Crocheted or hand knitted lace, perhaps, as edgings. Done in a fine linen lacemaker's thread.

Sigh.

I have a victorian era garment, perhaps a nursing chemise or nightgown, and it has the most wonderful whitework on it. Makes the machine made stuff look coarse.

I would like to do things that well.

Sigh again.

[abner]

I would love to learn how to weave...

[alwaysconservative]

That sounds nice! Oh, to make lingerie that fits the way YOU want it to fit. . .

I already do a lot of crafts from bygone days, so I don't know what else I would do. Doilies, I guess. I saw a woman needle weaving the most intricate lace doilies on a board once, and thought that would be nice if I had the time, but it's a matter of priorities and time. Recently I was taught to knit and that has been fun, making that basic scarf pattern with all those lovely yarns.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Weaving is nice. I like it too...

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Doilies are nice and done in so many techniques: knitting, crochet, tatting, macrame, lace making.

They used to spell it D'Oyley, for what it is worth.

A simple knitted one, from Miss Lambert's Handbook of Needlework (about 1845) was to make a checkerboard mat. in a k3,p3 block, and then a p3 k3 block (and so on and so on)out of a cotton thread.

You would want to cast on a multiple of 3 + 2. Slip the first stitch and always end in a K stitch.