I’m working on the Twinkleberry socks from this site. I wanted to dip into something with a little cabling w/o committing myself to too much. I thought it was going to be a huge PITA to do the cable part but it’s not so bad. I’m going to do a heel flap and normal toe though. I made the Nutkin pattern from the same page and tried a short row heel and there was no way anyone I know would be able to get that sock on with a short row heel.
I can Kitchener pretty well but I’m going to give three needle grafting a try on this current pair.
Now I have to dig into my stash for a nice solid color to do a real pair of cabled socks with.
I’m working on the Cozy shawl, in this delicious yarn, but I accidentally left my knitting bag at my in-laws’ over the weekend and haven’t gotten back up there to get it. I’ve also got a cabled hat in process, but it’s one of those complicated patterns that needs my complete focus. I have a toddler, so complete focus is not readily available to me, so I have basically been project-less this week!
Last time I checked, there wasn’t an SDMB group on Ravelry – if I make one, would youall join it?
So is Ravelry the place to be? Both times I’ve been to the yarn store, they asked me if I was on Ravelry, and it seems everyone here is on it.
What’s a decent low-cost yarn? I started with the Vanna’s Choice, Wool-Ease, etc. I like the look of Wool-Ease, but it frays like a $%@#. I had some super chunky I was knitting with yesterday, and in the middle of my ball there was a huge “puff” in the yarn that, when knitted through, doubled the size of my stitches for about six stitches. (Actually, there was a second “puff” that I was able to trim earlier in the skein.) The project wasn’t working out, anyway, so I frogged it, but, crap, would I have been pissed if I spent all that time working on something that looked good.
Wool-ease is just absolute shite with the splitting & fraying - I have a grudge against it, really. For machine washable wool, I’d always go for Knitpicks, maybe something like this:
Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool) is a great Wool-Ease substitute - it feels much nicer and isn’t splitty or as prone to pilling.
Yarn.com (aka Webs, a store in Massachusetts) is a good yarn source in addition to Knitpicks, as is Elann. All of those have good deals. Double check the yardage on the Knitpicks items before you buy, though; sometimes they have smaller balls of yarn than expected and it might not be quite the deal you were hoping for.
I haven’t seen yarn sold in balls online. You sometimes find it in hanks, which are big loops of yarn tied together in the middle, or skeins, which are fairly common for yarn sold in yarn stores too. You can work directly from a skein, but you’ll want to ball it up or something if you get a hank.
I ended up buying a ball winder and swift because I ended up buying so many hanks online. If you have a local yarn store that sells hanks (that’s not a “big box” craft store) you can have them use theirs to ball any yarn you buy there, but you don’t get that service if buying online.
Another crocheter on Ravelry here (ChrissyChris). Been wielding the hook since the late 60’s and have a poop-load of scarves and cowls backed up just WAITING for someone to fall in love with them.
Here’s what I’ve got up on Ravelry - just a drop in the proverbial bucket but, like another poster said, just sitting in front of the TV makes me twitchy, I need something to keep my hands busy.
Okay - I’m starting a group on Ravelry, but I need to invite 3 other Ravelry members to the group. So gimme yer usernames and we’ll get this group started! (feel free to PM me if you don’t want it out there for the world to see.)
