You could make mitred squares with your leftover sock yarn. Collect enough squares over time and bam! Enough for a blanket! Like so.
Not even close…the last KnitPicks catalog had some kind of cashmere yarn going for $50 a skein.
Are you moving the yarn to the correct side of the needle when you switch knit for purl and back? The working end of the yarn should be behind the needle to knit and in front to purl. When you go to switch stitches, you have to move it to where it needs to be.
What?! At Knitpicks?
I do that constantly while I’m reading here. Why, oh why, can’t we have disagree buttons everywhere? I’m cee3 at Ravelry. There’s an SDMB group on there, but it hasn’t had any activity for a long time. Should we revitalize it?
I’m a wannabe yarn snob. I love the fancy stuff, but I can’t bring myself to actually hand over the debit card for it. I’ll occasionally buy a pricey skein for something small (hat, gloves, etc.), but I mostly stick to the less expensive Knitpicks stuff or washable wool/acrylic blends (especially for the kids). I also like to find yarn at yard sales or sheep festivals. I got 2500 yards of DK alpaca at Maryland Sheep & Wool for $60. I found a bag (probably about 15 skeins) of Adrienne Vittadini Daniella (merino/cashmere) for about $25 at a yard sale.
Right now, I’m waiting for some very special yarn from Three Irish Girls to do a baby blanket for a close friend. Meanwhile, I’m doing a bunch of little projects…I’m going to felt mittens tonight for my boys, then start on fingerless gloves for them. Then, I’ll probably make my mom a pair of fingerless gloves for Christmas and maybe some legwarmers for myself. I also have a sweater for me and a sweater for my son on the needles, but those will probably wait until after the holidays.
I just found your group and joined. There was another group that I was thinking of but I can’t think of the name now.
No, you’re right. It wasn’t KnitPicks. It was Patternworks, I think.
ETA: Yup. Andrea silk yarn. $55 for a 3 1/2 ounce skein. There are others in the $50-$60 range, too.
You think yarn is expensive? Try beadwork =) or regular sewing … there is a project I have on the back burner that I am buying materials for as I get dribbles of money. The cost for the bullion alone has been around $1000 as it is 24c gold, and I haven’t even sourced the royal purple dye for it yet. I suppose i could always go on vacation to turkey and go shellfishing =) At least I have the fabrics.
I have made elizabethan gowns for people for profit that the base material costs for were $2500, and I still ended up with them shelling out more [they sourced their own half pound of seed pearls and roughly 2 pounds of real garnet seed beads.]
Oh, hey, I started that Ravelry group, didn’t I? I should check it every now and again! If anyone else wants to be a moderator of the group, let me know.
I’ve been in a knitting lull most of the year, and then the last 10 days or so have been knitting and weaving up a storm. I feel like I need an extra set of hands to actually get done all the projects I want to do! I’ve woven 2 scarves on my little Cricket loom, I’ve started a Christmas stocking for my son (it will be felted - I hope to make one for my husband and one for myself, too, but my 3-year-old doesn’t have a stocking yet), and I’ve made a little set of mittens for my son. The mittens were really fun - I’m going to start a pair for myself pretty soon (either these or these). And I want to make myself a pair of these felted slippers, too.
And I should think about if I’m going to knit or weave Christmas gifts, too… It all has to be out of my stash, of course, because we’re broke. I will say that the great thing about weaving is that it uses less yarn that knitting, so my stash can go farther. Also, it’s a LOT faster - I can start and finish a scarf in one day.
I am dying to try and knit something with cashmerino yarn, or cashgora, but I am still a beginner. I could probably knit a scarf with nice yarn and not fuck it up. I’m still working on hats - I’ve been knitting patterns that aren’t in the round (where you sew it together in the end) and it always seems to end up slightly askew. :: look of despair::
I’m faeriehazel on Ravelry. Currently I’m working on this scarf - I found this yarn called Silf Kash which is pure wool but feels super soft, and the scarf is turning out quite well (only a third left to do!).
ETA: I’m thinking about picking up crochet as well - is it hard? Where’s a good place to start? Is there an equivalent of a knittinghelp website for crochet?
I haven’t seen a crochet site like knitting help… would be handy wouldn’t it? Very handy for me. You see, I can crochet but my trouble is reading the patterns. Most of what I have done involves Grandma sitting me down and showing me and saying ‘Now do it’, so when I go to try a pattern I have to puzzle out what the instructions mean and how they relate to what I know as most of the time I wasn’t TOLD what sort of stitch I was doing… I just did it.
These are the mittens I need to finish for myself, Pretty Thing Cowl is on the needles for my friend for Christmas, I have way too many other things on the needles that I am picking my way through and I really should just get up the gumption to frog Phoenix Rising and redo, because the middle is so borked up (I kept adding stitches, and forced it smaller, and really it just looks bad IMO, and will look even WORSE once it is blocked).
Man, I don’t know if I’m prepared to knit anymore. I just wanted a hobby that was more productive than drinking, and could result in some cool scarves or socks. This is some hard core shit, yo.
I aspire to be a casual knitter. No sweaters for me. Scarves, hats, and shawls. I’ll try socks and maybe an afghan at some point. My highest aspiration at this point is to knit a hat that doesn’t look like I tried to knit it with my toes.
Annie’s Attic Stitch Guide has videos
The Crochetville Forums have lots of helpful folk
I ordered the yarn for my little stuffed animal friends and I am DYING here. I wanna get started!!!
Thank you… thank you. Let us be sisters in casual knitting. I’m going to duck out now until I actually get my knitting materials, considering I don’t actually have a knitting project at the moment. When I get my materials, I may be back, so long as you all promise not to kill me for sucking.
Same here - I can’t usually be bothered to get proper gauge, so I know that knitting a sweater would just be an exercise in frustration. Plus, I have knitting ADD, and I would get bored of that sweater looooooong before it was finished. I keep meaning to knit a little hoodie for my son, but it hasn’t happened so far and he keeps getting bigger, so the likelihood of it actually happening is getting slimmer. I keep plenty busy with non-fitted things like scarves and wraps and felted things. The mittens mentioned above are the most fitted thing I’ve ever done. Oh, I do hats, too, but the fit on most hats isn’t that critical. They’re stretchy. 
I do want to learn stranded knitting, but all the patterns seem so… advanced. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions/good ways to learn?
Big yarn on appropriately big needles makes anything easier.
Stranded knitting is typically less stretchy than non-stranded knitting.
I’d be tempted to suggest knitting a hat pattern with a decorative (stranded) band or something.
Of course, my first stranded project was a sock–it still doesn’t have a mate, because it’s toe up on too small needles, and the pattern isn’t well written ( I knew it when I started but still . . . )
It’s my rainbow fishes sock, if you are curious.
Second stranded project is this star and moon sweater on my lap (I linked to it earlier).
And third is the unphotogenic sweater for my other niece, which is finished, but not yet photographed.
So obviously I’m the jump in with both feet kinda knitter.
I’d pick a pattern with a simple clear repeat (as opposed to a pattern with a big picture)–if you pose this question in the group on ravelry, I’ll dig up some magic links to some patterns to show what I mean, but I’m too lazy to try to link them here.
But stranded knitting isn’t hard, really.
I found this pattern for a crochet ice skate ornament and it’s so cute. I can’t wait to try it. I have to find some big paper clips or see if it’ll work on little ones.
Adorable ice skate ornament. Too bad I don’t crochet.
Do you have a picture of that? I would love to see it if you do.
I’d like to try stuffed animals someday. First I must conquer the hat. I just finished one for the boyfriend and it’s too damn small. (I haven’t washed and blocked it yet … hopefully that will help?) The first one was too big (and I just lost it today, boo). I think I have a better idea of the measurements now so I’ll try another one.
Question - can you use Magic Loop knitting for large diameter objects, such as a hat? Or is it better to use 3-4 dp needles?
Yes, you can. Just make sure you have a nice, long cable - I like a 47" for projects like that. You could use dpns, also - just personal preference, I think.