Well, it was really supposed to be all about ME and MY knitting, but I guess you can come in as well! 
I’m going yarn shopping today! I found a list of Massachusetts yarn stores and there are a few not too far from where I work, and one near where I live.
This is my favourite chart on the subject:
http://secure.elann.com/faq.asp#estimates
I knit other people’s patterns or design my own, as the situation warrents. My three current projects are:
a) Corset that I’m knitting to myself via the tried and true method of ‘holding it up to myself periodically to see if it fits’.
b) The Cabin Fever Ridgeway Pullover in blue heathered wool for my father.
c) A rework of the Diamond patch sweater on this page I knit the one you see pictured for my mother and she dieted out of it, so I have it now. I’m making her another in a blue and teal hand-dyed.
My most recently completed project was a baby blankie based on the art from Puzzle Pirates.
Stupid question, maybe, but are you turning the work after each row? I made a rookie mistake once while knitting, since the pattern didn’t refer to a wrong side row I thought I was supposed to knit left to right and then right to left. I’ve since learned :smack: to turn the work after each row so my empty needle is always on the right, since I’m right handed.
How are you purling?
Good news for me, and anyone living in the Boston area - there is a knitting supply store on Newbury Street (I forget the name, but it’s right near the Common). If you buy your supplies there, you get free knitting lessons! Hopefully I’ll have time to go tomorrow - the woman there was very kind to the newbie, and helped me find the yarn I was looking for, this really neat eyelash yarn in greens and blues, very pretty.
Also, I learned that eyelash yarn is a pain in the buttocks to work with, at least at first. All those fuzzy little eyelashes getting in the way, so I can’t see my stitches. Oh well, it also looks like it will be a little more forgiving with mistakes, since you really can’t see the stitches well, it just looks fuzzy! 
HURRAY! More knitters! Good point on the SnB yo error. Have seen many struggling with that. TheKnitty messageboard is also a good place to check out for tech advise and other chitchat with fellow addicts 
:smack: I meant advice, really I did !
preview is my friend preview is my friend
Last night I ordered four balls of the Red Hat type of this yarn. My KnitPicks catalog has a very easy pattern for a shawl with an automatic fringe when you’re done. Christmas present for my step mom!! Only problem is, there seems to be a run on size 11 circular needles, 32" long. Michael’s didn’t have them, Knitpicks was out of stock. I suppose I could use my size 11 straight needles.
I’m a relatively new knitter, and I’ve made lots of scarves and the Kittyville hat from Stitch’n Bitch…it was a lot easier that I thought, and it looks great! I reccommend a CD-RoM I got at JoAnn’s called Knitting Made Easy…great, clear videos, easy to understand and visual help for those printed directions. I just picked up a pattern for an easy sweater, and now need the money for the twelve balls of yarn it will take. But first, I want to make socks and a pair of mittens. I love the Magic Stripes-type yarns, and really want to try them. Lillith Fair is my personal knitting advisor, and she’s been making some amazingly complex baby hats…I’ll try to find a link later.
I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up at 3 am and started working on a swatch of a yarn Lillith Fair bought for me in San Francisco. But I don’t have a problem, really! I did join the Yarn of the Month club, though…
The problem with that is that unless you have a very unusual supplier, there are no 32" straight needles. If that’s the type of scarf I’m thinking of, it’s knit horizontally (i.e. each row runs the length of the scarf instead of the width), which means you’re going to want anywhere from 3’ to 5’ of stitches on the needle. Can’t do that with straight needles.
Other good Boston area stores: I absolutely LOVE the Knitting Room, which is in Arlington. Spent $60 there last saturday actually. And Windsor Button, which is on Temple Place (kinda between the Common and Downtown Crossing area) is very comprehensive in its selection - good for lots of different price ranges of yarn.
I am currently knitting this in colour 4905 of this. I also have a sweater on the needles in Rowan Summer Tweed - silk and cotton blend, but I don’t care for the pattern so I’m going to rip it out and make a lace wrap instead.
I have only been knitting since January but my experience was the first few projects were a bitch and then it clicked. My eyelash yarn project left me loathing the stuff though! No more novelty yarns for me. I owe my husband a pointy hat with a bobble on top some time so I’m in the market for any patterns that sound like that
Re Dyeing: The knitty board - already linked to in this thread - has an entire section devoted to discussions of dyeing, questions and answers and peoples’ experiences.
I’m late back to the thread, but thanks, Amarinth! Your explanation of the yo make total sense and I finally understand what I was doing (wrong).
I have gone through the dishcloth stage (I did a new lesson with each dishcloth), although I might do one more to learn twists. I’m currently knitting some placemats for my mom, but I’m ready to move on to scarves and, especially, socks.
For me, the yarn store has temporarily replaced the bookstore as the thorn in my budgeting side!
What’s this wrapping the yarn around the needle for a YO? The way I was taught was to just bring the yarn to the other side–if, say, I’m knitting, I YO by bringing the yarn to the front as if I were going to purl, but I knit. It works perfectly.
Aeryn Sun, I must have the pattern for those pants.
And make me another who recommends picking a project you want to make, regardless of whether you think you know enough to make it–ninety nine percent of it is just following directions, and you can always ask for help with something you don’t understand. You’ll enjoy it much more, and it’ll be educational too.
I… don’t think I am turning my work… hmm. I’m going to have to knit a little and get back to you on that. Either I’m not turning it, or I always am, since my empty needle is always on the right by the time I start a new row. Erg. I’ll be able to check soon, since my mother just sent me all her old yarn and needles, since she doesn’t use them anymore and I love learning how. I know I can… my aunt taught me when I was eight years old and I had no trouble. It’s so much easier with a human instructor! (those links above are going to be invaluable, I watched a couple of the videos and had many “OH! I get it!” moments).
I’m not sure how to describe how I’m purling… the best way I can explain it with my lack of proper terms is that it’s like knitting, only backwards. I hold the yarn I’m working with in my right hand with my fingers shaped so the pinky and index fingers are raised with the yarn draped over them, and my middle and ring finger are together with the yarn going under them. And then I … knit backwards. Ugh. Does any of that make sense? 
It sounds like you’re turning the work, but I don’t think you’re purling correctly. It’s not about how you hold the yarn between your fingers.
When knitting, you stick the needle so it’s sticking out the back of the stitch and you wrap the yarn around the needle and pull it back through. Purling, you stick the needle so it’s coming out through the front of the stitch, then wrap the yarn around the front of the needle and pull it back.
Purling. The difference is where you put your “empty” needle.
Yeah, that sounds like what I’m doing - the needle goes in front of the stitch…
wait a minute…
I think I’m wrapping the yarn around the back, not the front. :smack: I will be trying this out and see if that’s what I was doing wrong. Thanks for your help and the links, ivylass, I will be following those very closely to see what I did wrong!
If you knit a row and then purl a row, you’ll have a stockingette stitch seen here (second basic stitch)
Well, I found some size 11 needles online at Joann’s, but they’re 34", not 32". I ordered them because I’m not knitting in the round and I don’t think the extra two inches will hurt.
They probably won’t. They may actually help, in that the stitches won’t be quite as scrunched up.
