[Sarvi]

I know a lot of people here are into knitting, crochet, embroidery, and other complementary-to-sewing crafts. I thought it might be fun to have a little nook of our own.

Some of my favorite knitting patterns are from Brooklyn Tweed, so when they finally came out with a children’s collection I was thrilled. I’ve made one cardigan already and was pretty thrilled with it despite a load of errors on my part. I’ve started a second, in a tiny size for my cousin’s little boy who just turned one. His mom is a baker and though I don’t think she knits or sews she really appreciates hand made and gets how much time, effort, and expense goes into it. It’s a little shawl-collar cabled cardigan and I plan to make him a full outfit with shirt, vest, pants, and tie as I’m pretty confident I can make something that will suit his mom’s taste.

What are you guys making? Do you have favorite tools or materials? Do you make things to coordinate with your sewing?

[Nicole]

I do a little embroidery, I am not very good but I muddle along. I used to smock but I went off that.

I love silk embroidery thread and I like to press my threads before stitching with them.

I want to learn to knit so badly, that is on my sewing bucket list.

I think a wee boys outfit, hand made, top to toe would be perfectly adorable.

Thanks to Sarvi, I have many hand knitted cardy’s to compliment my girls home made clothes. You cannot compare, even very expensive purchased commercial knits to hand kitted things.
The hands knits are so lovely, especially when the knitter chooses exquisite wool.

[vothgirl]

The first craft I ever learned was cross stitch. My mum taught me that the back should be almost as neat as the front. I have a long-running (as in, it’ll take me another decade at least :-P) cross stitch project that I really should pick up again.

I am currently learning to knit for the 4th time I think. I’ve never stuck with it long enough to finish anything and lay it aside until a year or two later when I want to learn again. I have the added challenge of being left-handed when most how-to books assume right-handedness – while knitting requires both hands, some motions just don’t come as naturally to someone as strongly left-handed as me! This time I think I’ll stick with it tho ;-). I have a good instructional book (mostly pictures) and am starting with something simple yet actually functional – a winter hat (pattern by Purl Soho). I’m using a pretty basic acrylic yarn but have promised myself that if I finish this project I can get nicer yarn for the next one ;-). I have several talented knitters in my family as well as Flickr friends, whose beautiful knits are very motivating and encouraging.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by vothgirl.

[vothgirl]

Sarvi, after seeing your gorgeous mustard cardi on Flickr I went online and looked at the Brooklyn Tweed website – so many lovely patterns and yarns! I’ve put several on my mental knitting dream sheet.

For my mum’s birthday last week, I gave her a skein of this: http://www.tanisfiberarts.com/colour/aurora
Since my mum is Canadian I thought she would enjoy yarn from a Canadian fiber company ;-).

[Sarvi]

Ooh, that yarn is luscious!

I wish we all lived close enough for a stitch & word that rhymes with stitch. I have two ‘students’ right now (friends I’m helping with little things, really, they’re teaching themselves) and it’s so much fun to see somebody face light up when something clicks for them.

Reading is usually the best way for me to learn something, maybe because I can keep rechecking the written instruction, but with crochet I absolutely could not make the 2D illustration into a 3D object I could manipulate in my head. I had to have somebody show me in person and it took about five seconds for it click. That five seconds cost me a fortune — the crochet class required buying materials in addition to the lesson fee. Ah well!

I am very curious to try a bit more of the other needle arts like embroidery and cross stitch. They’re more social than sewing, aren’t they — you can sit out in the sun with your friends and a nice drink and chat. That’s hard to do behind a whirring machine.

[Nicole]

I would love to join a sewing group. I used to be in a furniture restoration group, we had a blast, scrubbing away with our steel wool.
Every now and then you would drop your steel wool in your wine instead of the metho.

[Rhythm]

I do a bit of embroidery myself. @vothgirl – I so agree with your mom on the back being just as neat! Check out my recent most cross stitch – http://rhythmofrhythm.blogspot.in/2014/11/cross-stitch-family-portrait.html

Planning to do a set of kokeshi dolls next!
Would love to learn to crochet!

[with love Heidi]

I’ve done cross stitch, knitting and crochet as well as sewing. My primary choice is crochet, especially if I have to watch TV or a movie. I spent a couple of years traveling on buses for 6 hours at a time at night, I can now essentially crochet granny square blanket in the dark!
I am very slow at knitting and don’t enjoy it as much. in fact I am still working on my first knitting project, it’s been a WIP for about 12 years!

[Kim]

I like to knit in addition to sewing. I started knitting again 6 years ago when my daughter was expecting. I used the book Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson with the suggested Addi Turbo circular needles. I knit all of the kids winter hats now using a modified pattern. I just started a thrum baby hat and a toddler sweater. I like to listen to Martine on the IMake Guernsey podcast while I’m knitting.

[Jane]

I tried to teach myself how to embroider as I love some of the cute details that can be added to garments. I just couldn’t get it and it frustrated me.

I took a Craftsy class for crochet in November and am “hooked” (bad pun intended 😉 ). I never knew how simple crochet is, I just love it. Hubby bought me another Craftsy class for Christmas to learn to crochet Amigurumi (stuffies). Crochet is the perfect cold weather craft. I am currently working on a blanket for my son (whom never asks for me to make anything so when he asked for a blanket I jumped at it), I am able to stay warm under the finished piece of blanket while I continue to work on it.

With the success of learning to crochet via a Craftsy class, maybe I should consider tackling knitting. I had tried to learn to knit in the past and was terrible at it, not enough hands to hold everything.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a knitting/crochet/embroidery/etc circle to sit and drink coffee and work on projects while talking and enjoying each others company? Right now, all I have to keep me company when I crochet is the cat attacking my ball of yarn.

Jane

[Margery]

Many years ago, when I was in Austria, I bought some beautiful yarn and a sweater pattern. Those Austrian ladies could knit like maniacs and they made it look so easy. I was able to finish 2/3 of the sweater, but after more than a decade (I hear you @vothgirl) I finally gave the pieces to my stepdaughter to unravel and crochet into something useful.

I’ve always loved hand work and the last few years I’ve been working to improve my embroidery skills. A year ago I took a workshop with the lovely Rebecca Rinquist (see her O&S blog post, June 24, 2014) and that was a liberating experience. Now I am combining my garment sewing and embroidery skills. As you know, the O&S patterns have beautifully clean silhouettes, so you can go simple, or heavily embellished. I like to work with all kinds of yarn, thread, floss, wool, cotton, silk.

I may not be knitting, but I still have a good reason to go to the yarn store!
(Does anyone really need a reason?)

[Sarvi]

@motherof5 That is so funny about the steel wool! I would love to be part of a group like that. In junior high school (about age 12-14) that was the only class I did well in. Still love the smell of sawdust and the clang of tools.

@rhythmtyagi Wow, you must be so proud! I could hardly the back of your work from the front. And I bet it’s not only so satisfying to get such a great result, but it also makes the piece sit more smoothly in a frame or on a garment.

@heidi I’m so impressed you can crochet in the dark! It’s true, one’s hands can ‘see’ on their own. In film school I knit one long scarf in the dark during screenings — albeit with so many mistakes I called the pattern “movie lace” for all the holes in it, ha ha. I can’t imagine doing that with crochet but I bet your fingers know their way around a granny!

@kim How do you like those Addi needles? I’m so curious about them but I’m not an advanced knitter so I stick to bamboo which is more ‘grippy’. I bet the Addi needles would be a dream to use for something like mohair lace, which is so challenging on bamboo.

@jesims I love a good (bad) pun 🙂 Isn’t having your project warming your lap such a cozy feeling? I have a little “kitten” of the human variety here who likes to nab my supplies so no fear, it’s not only your cat who does it. Maybe you could make an amigurumi in the shape of a ball of yarn!

@msherrill That’s so interesting about all the different materials you use to embroider. You must be able to get so many different kinds of effects. And you’re so right, reasons to go into yarn shops are many, and reasons to stay out of them are few!

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Sarvi. Reason: trying to fix @ tags
• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Sarvi.
• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Sarvi.
• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Sarvi.

[JWo]

@vothgirl, I’m left-handed too and my grandmother taught me to knit almost 40years ago. Mostly I sat opposite her and copied her right-handed knitting but occasionally we used a mirror. It seemed like a great idea at the time but, like you have found, there are fewer resources for lefties. That makes things so much more difficult and frustrating! Plus everything is reversed. So I’m not surprised you have found it tricky to stick with it.
My advice to other lefties learning to knit is to try to do it the right-handed way, if possible.
But if you are a left-handed knitter, ravelry.com has a forum for lefties (“on the other hand”) and there are some really good websites (www.yarncraftsforlefties.com) and videos on YouTube specifically for us.
And recently I realised that I could use a mirror just like I did with Gran all those years ago. The only difference is that now I have my iPad and all those fabulous YouTube videos aimed at righties. It really has changed and improved my knitting!!
Good luck!

[Sarvi]

@JWo what a clever idea to use a mirror! I’ve read that for knitting Fair Isle it’s great to be able to knit both English and Continental — maybe lefties have advantages when it comes to certain kinds of knitting?

[vothgirl]

@rhythmtyagi that cross stitch is adorable! I saved the Martha Stewart pdf template to my phone’s Kindle app and am already thinking how I can adapt it to resemble my family – mostly, how I’ll make the man’s outfit look like a military uniform ;-). I love that the baby is in a carrier as I use my ring sling and ergo all the time! I like the sizing adaptation you did too. Thanks for sharing, it looks like a fun project!

@JWo and @sarvi , I’m using the Continental method for knitting. It seemed to work best for me since I am much more dexterous with my left hand ;-). This is the book I have: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Visually-Knitting/dp/0764596403/ref=sr_1_4_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421189009&sr=8-4&keywords=teach+yourself+visually+knitting and overall I like it. Tho what held me up for a while (& was a great source of frustration) was figuring out how to hold my yarn. The method in the book just didn’t work for me – my yarn was way too loose and therefore so were my stitches. My sister sent me this link that I found enormously helpful: http://newstitchaday.com/how-to-tension-your-yarn-when-knitting/ . I modified it very slightly (an extra wrap around my ring finger), and have had great success with it. I’m looking forward to improving in skill and experience so perhaps someday I can attempt something like this that I saw on Instagram: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/call-of-the-loon 😀 (I think it would be an awesome – if slightly ridiculous – reference to my Canadian heritage).