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Dec. 1st, 2007 02:23 pmSo I finally joined craftster.org, and after perusing the Spinning forums, I suddenly want to adopt a rescued sheep or two and buy a spinning wheel....*LOL*
The knitting stuff is cool too, of course. :^)
Part of the reason I joined, though; is I've been trying to figure out a lace for a Christmas present. It's been a process of trial and error:
I started with a pattern I bought at Knit/Purl downtown. It didn't work--it was really difficult and didn't look right. I tried it and pulled it out several times, thinking I was doing something wrong. I go back to the store, a woman working there tries to help me figure it out. What we try? Doesn't work. I go online to research YOs (aka yarn overs). I try again. It still doesn't work. I get frustrated. I've pulled it out and started over eight times by now, no exaggeration.
I look online for easy lace patterns. I find a nice simple one that's part of a larger pattern (for those of you that care: the RS are basically K1, YO, K2tog, and the WS is just P across all stitches). It looks awesome...but it's slanted! WTF?! I do more research online and in my Stitch'n'Bitch book. Ummmm...duh. K2tog is a slanted decrease. All decreases are slanted.
So I find a decrease that slants the other way (SSK, aka slip slip knit). I've knit a swatch that has one decrease for half of it, and another decrease on the other half, with the theory that they balance each other out. But the decreases, with this yarn, don't look as nice and neat as I'd like--if I was using a true lace yarn, maybe; but I don't buy mohair!! I might still use this pattern--I think I like the way it looks kinda stretched, which is how it's going to be worn. I'm just worried the decreases will show in a way I don't like. I'm going to keep knitting this for a bit and see how I feel.
I find another lace pattern, and it's very pretty, but not...lacy...enough, and it doesn't look very good when stretched. The picture online uses much larger needles with much thinner yarn, so I may try a swatch with bigger needles to see how it looks. If that knits up nice, and all that, I may use that one. But I'm not at home where I have all my knitting needles.
The reason I'm not saying what I'm trying to knit, is that I'm knitting a Christmas present for someone. So I can't give too much away. And I'm knitting presents for several people on my friends list, so don't assume it's you!!
In any case: I'm realizing that designing knitting patterns just isn't all that hard: ssk's slant one way, k2tog's slant another way, yo's look like this; this yarn knits x stitches to the inch on x size needles and therefore a fair isle graph needs to be x stitches across to fit someone's wrist... I'm writing things on scraps of paper like "RS: K1, *K1, YO, K2tog*, repeat between * until marker, *K1, YO, SSK*, repeat between * until last stitch, K. WS: K1, P to last stitch, K1." And then I realize...wait a fucking minute! If this works, I've designed something! People sell knitting designs!
And then I have images dance through my head of ending up in Knitty. Tee hee hee....
This post must be so boring to non-knitters. Oops. Sorry.
The knitting stuff is cool too, of course. :^)
Part of the reason I joined, though; is I've been trying to figure out a lace for a Christmas present. It's been a process of trial and error:
I started with a pattern I bought at Knit/Purl downtown. It didn't work--it was really difficult and didn't look right. I tried it and pulled it out several times, thinking I was doing something wrong. I go back to the store, a woman working there tries to help me figure it out. What we try? Doesn't work. I go online to research YOs (aka yarn overs). I try again. It still doesn't work. I get frustrated. I've pulled it out and started over eight times by now, no exaggeration.
I look online for easy lace patterns. I find a nice simple one that's part of a larger pattern (for those of you that care: the RS are basically K1, YO, K2tog, and the WS is just P across all stitches). It looks awesome...but it's slanted! WTF?! I do more research online and in my Stitch'n'Bitch book. Ummmm...duh. K2tog is a slanted decrease. All decreases are slanted.
So I find a decrease that slants the other way (SSK, aka slip slip knit). I've knit a swatch that has one decrease for half of it, and another decrease on the other half, with the theory that they balance each other out. But the decreases, with this yarn, don't look as nice and neat as I'd like--if I was using a true lace yarn, maybe; but I don't buy mohair!! I might still use this pattern--I think I like the way it looks kinda stretched, which is how it's going to be worn. I'm just worried the decreases will show in a way I don't like. I'm going to keep knitting this for a bit and see how I feel.
I find another lace pattern, and it's very pretty, but not...lacy...enough, and it doesn't look very good when stretched. The picture online uses much larger needles with much thinner yarn, so I may try a swatch with bigger needles to see how it looks. If that knits up nice, and all that, I may use that one. But I'm not at home where I have all my knitting needles.
The reason I'm not saying what I'm trying to knit, is that I'm knitting a Christmas present for someone. So I can't give too much away. And I'm knitting presents for several people on my friends list, so don't assume it's you!!
In any case: I'm realizing that designing knitting patterns just isn't all that hard: ssk's slant one way, k2tog's slant another way, yo's look like this; this yarn knits x stitches to the inch on x size needles and therefore a fair isle graph needs to be x stitches across to fit someone's wrist... I'm writing things on scraps of paper like "RS: K1, *K1, YO, K2tog*, repeat between * until marker, *K1, YO, SSK*, repeat between * until last stitch, K. WS: K1, P to last stitch, K1." And then I realize...wait a fucking minute! If this works, I've designed something! People sell knitting designs!
And then I have images dance through my head of ending up in Knitty. Tee hee hee....
This post must be so boring to non-knitters. Oops. Sorry.
