Month: September 2021

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The Best Yarn to Use – Part 2

The best yarns to use - Last Train to Knitsville

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The last time we talked about the best yarn to use, we talked about the kind of fiber: wool, acrylic, blends. Some folks will swear off acrylics whiles others (like me) like it just fine. But another consideration of yarn choice is weight: Fine/Super fine, DK, Worsted, Bulky (chunky), Super Bulky. For a very basic chart of yarn weights, click here.

For the longest time, I used only worsted weight. I wasn’t interested in a thicker yarn and I most definitely wasn’t interested in thinner yarns. I told myself I could happily live in the land of the worsteds.

But an interesting thing happened. I would be sitting in the choir loft at church and I would have the urge to knit with Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn using Lantern needles. I had no idea if it was the needles or the yarn that was the great push but it happened week after week and I finally gave in.

My husband got me a pair of the needles. I purchased the yarn and I knit it up. My life changed. I went from using just worsted to using bulky. I even went down to using some DK weight.

But that’s where the rainbow ends. I do have some super bulky and I do have some lace weight and I will be happy to not use them again. Super bulky skeins aren’t very big, so you need a lot of them. The lighter weights do not lend themselves to mistakes and everything takes longer.

These yarns do have champions: the bulky yarns create signature conversation pieces and the lighter weights produce beautiful shawls and gossimer scarves. I would need a new personality to want to make them. 

Give different weights a try. Purchase one skein of something – should be good for a headband at least. If you like them, you can expand the stash and the experience. If not, organize a yarn exchange with some friends – someone is bound to like them and you can ger something better suited to you in return.

 

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Crochet Snobbery

I am going to confess to some crochet snobbery. I founded a knitting group that used to have more than 400 members.crocheted afghan in fall colors from beverlybochenek.com When i moved it off a paying site to Facebook, I culled the group down to about 40 -50 or so and of those, there is a small cadre of regulars. Here’s the thing: hardly any of them knit. Yes, I have a knitting group where many of the members don’t. Knit, that is.

A few of us do both. And our most accomplished knitter/crocheter prefers crochet over knit.

I do not. I still prefer knitting.

See this afghan? It’s stunning. I love the colors; I love the look of it. The techique of putting it together is a great tool in my tool box. This is crochet. But in my mind, this is more of the exception of what crochet looks like more than the rule.

Granny Squares May be the Culprit

This afghan and the Kravitz scarf I make, along with a host of hats, all explode the myth of crochet being junky and boxy. This afghan has beautiful drape and the yarn color flows to paint a lovely tapestry. I did none of the color work. I am a firm believer in letting yarn do the work it was designed to do.

But I also know there are other granny squares that make me want to cringe. Mostly it has to do with color choices but it makes the work look dated – not vintage type dated – old and dated.

As I write this, I have a pattern for a granny square scarf in mind. I have pulled the yarn – Red Heart Super Saver Ombre in Green Apple – and I will be using the black handled Susan Bates 5.5mm hook. I imagine three rows of granny squares and some fringe. It will be boho but not vintage. It will be lovely; worked with join as you go.

I am working at getting over my crochet snobbery. It will take some work but it’s worth doing. There is a great deal of beauty in crochet stitches (though an endless double crochet strains my artistic sensability.) I appreciate the artistry my club members display and I like what I create. 

This will require an attitude adjustment. I think I’m ready to make it. Knitting will probably always be my first love – but there’s enough to go around for crochet.

 

 

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The Need to Knit – and Blog About It

The need to knit is not stopped by something as inconsequential as a hospital stay. I was in the prep room waiting to be wheeled into surgery. I needed something to do and I had orders. That was valuable knit time. 

I remember when we got our first PC and discovered that thing called the information super highway – or the Internet. There was some contraversy about Al Gore discovering it or some such thing. 

And then there was that thing called a blog. 

My blog was originally called the Knitter’s Restaurant because it was going to serve up all kinds of knitty dishes. It was on Blogger. Then I moved it to WordPress and a web host called Ipage. Moved from them when they started to get a little fishy and have been here with Inmotion for the past few years.

The blog itself has gone through some versions. But I believe we have settled into what feels right – talking about crochet, knitting, yarn, projects and that knit/crochet life.

I don’t think I had my shop when I started the blog. I don’t know which came first; the shop chicken or the blog egg. They are both crossing the road though. I’ve had my Etsy shop for twelve years. I think the shop might have come first. 

There’s a great deal to explore in this life and the stops on this train land in places that are fun, spiritua; and free. Glad and blessed to share it.

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Hook and Needles: Double Knit Wash Cloth

So, what’s on the hook and needles? At the moment, I have one thing going. Double knit wash cloths. Dish cloths are still popular on Etsy. I have some in my shop. But these new ones are a little different.

  1. They are going to be select your own color. The exising cloths are sold as a set but these will be one offered at a time and buyers can choose what color is available.
  2. . These are double knit. Durable and soft for both skin and for household use.

As you can see, the yarn is Premier  Home. It’s 85% cotton and 15% polyester. I will do a yarn review and it will be generally a good one but this is quite splitty.  Be that as it may, it’s also very pretty and the double knit makes for a squishy cloth that will feel good in the hand even if it’s just used on dishes.

Just one project going…for now. I have some design time on the books for tomorrow and I’m thinking of adapting a pattern for a bag into a cowl and then maybe do the bag and have a potential matching set. Thinking about it; it would look great as a cowl.

 

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The Best Yarn to Use

What’s the best yarn to use?

The one that makes you happy. Happy when you’re using it and afterward.

While cost certainly is a factor (no one should go broke getting yarn) the costliest yarn isn’t worth a thing if you find you don’t like the drape, the color or the feel of it. On the other hand, you can find some really nice yarns on the shelves of any craft store. Craft stores have stepped up there yarn games of late. They’ve started to include some wool blends and natural fibers other than cotton on their shelves.

When I first learned, acrylic was the yarn of choice. Red Heart Super Saver was the go to yarn. It was inexpensive – OK, it was cheap – had some fun colors and you could tunr out a scarf with it in almost no time or money. Today, RHSS, is not on my list of yarns to buy. 

My yarn snobbery is almost nonexostent but RHSS is a beginner’s yarn and I don’t purchase it to make items I’m going to sell at designbcb. But my stash is about 97% acrylic yarns. I never really got into paying lots of money for a ball of yarn. For one, I didn’t have it. Second, I didn’t see the need. But I have relented from time to time and I have some wool, wool blends, cotton, bamboo and even some silk and camel hair in the stash.

Some folks swear off anything acrylic but I don’t have any more joy knitting with merino or alpaca than I do with a really nice acrylic.

Cost is the most important factor to me. I am likely to purchase a yarn and it is going to take up residence for months in the stash – Some members of my stash are over ten years old. Spending a lot of money on something that may never be used makes no sense to me. Nor do I want to feel that it’s so precious it can’t be used.  My projects will end up on sale or as a gift so I can’t grow attached to fiber that makes them.

This is my year of yarning dangerously so no new yarn is coming in unless it’s going right back out for a project. I will be shopping the stash and I suspect I will find things I forgot I had. I’ve already discovered treasures from the move. I will enjoy my yarns whether it’s made, grown or grass fed.

To read about choosing the fiber for your project: Read this article from The Spruce Crafts.

 

 

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First Knitting Project

 

The first knitting project seems to be a scarf – but it isn’t. That’s how it was when I learned to knit – before there were circular needles. Actually, that’s not true, circulars were around about 40 years before I was. But still, scarves were the things to make first. But nowadays, the first thing we teach new knitters, is to make a swatch. That swatch can easily become the first knitting project.

A swatch is a block of knitting or crochet that is used to measure gauge – or how many stitches there are per inch with a specific stitch. Usually the swatch measures 4×4 inches. I am not from the ‘start by making a swatch’ tribe. I learned about swatches after I learned to knit. They weren’t interesting to me so I don’t make them. I also don’t teach knitting so I am not going against the new norm nor am I teaching a new generation of knitters to rebel. IF you have to make a swatch, make it something that can be useful.

Using a swatch for its intended purpose provides a need; but what do you dio with it afterward?

  • You can unravel it and use the yarn in the project you’re making that uses that yarn.
  • Save them and create a long scarf or blanket with them. (That will require a great many swatching opportunities.)
  • Make them into coasters or cozies like their knit counterparts.
  • Save them and place them into a personalized stitch/yarn dictionary. You can review the collection every year and toss those yarns which have been discontinued and you no longer have in your stash.

As I said, I don’t swatch – mainly because I don’t want to – but also because I don’t make fitted garments so it’s not a necessity. But I am a little intrigued by the swatch dictionary and I could do something of a swatch compromise by making squares and checking the gauge. It’s not a swatch; it’s a square. 

If you need some ideas on what to make first, check out this article from Spruce Crafts.