One of my favourite knitting YouTubers. I first came across Cheryl Brunette when I had my Bond Knitting machine and wanted to know how to use it! I think I've watched most of her machine knitting videos but need to catch up on her hand knitting tutorials.
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I'm constantly on the lookout for patterns for things I can make as small fundraising or craft fair items.
So what in my mind makes a good fundraising item? To my mind the item has to be safe, quick and cheap to make, durable and easily cleaned. A bit of a lucky haul today. I went in to Kilburn to snap up some last minute food bargains. For some reason I ventured in to my local Traid Clothing Charity shop. It's very rare for me to go in there, unless there is a sale on, but I was in the mood for a bit of a wonder. Good job I did! I managed to find two 50g balls of Stylecrafts Senses yarn - 80% acrylic, 20% mohair in Eucalyptus for £1.99 for the two. They retail at just over £3 each so not a bad find. I also found 4 x100g balls of Contessa Aran yarn - 80% acrylic, 20% wool in cream. I'm guessing this is a 'retro' yarn as I've never seen it in the shops or online before. At £1.99 for two, again not a bad find.
There are times when I want to get things done .....fast!, usually when the knitting pattern calls for long stretches of stockinette (or garter) stitch, which is where speed knitting comes in.
If you're going to learn how to speed knit then why not learn from the fastest knitter(s) in the world? I had to laugh when I discover this video. There are certain things you will NEVER! hear a knitter say and I well and truly fall in to the category of 'not a hope in hell of me saying that'. I'm not sure if it's something to be proud of looking at my stash, but it's nice to know I'm not alone.
Having watched numerous videos and practiced the two colour brioche stitch over and over, I have to say I'm beginning to feel a bit more comfortable with the technique. Granted I don't know much yet, I still have to learn how to increase and decrease and how to correct my mistakes, but I feels as If I'm well on the way to becoming a fully fledged brioche knitter...........yippee....it's the hardest thing I've had to learn in a long time!
I learnt how to knit the Kitchener stitch using knitting needles before I learnt the more common method of sewing off your stitches using a tapestry or wool needle. Kitchener Stitch is once method you can use to 'graft' two pieces of knitting together. It makes an invisible join if you get the sequence and tension right.
Doreen kindly demonstrated to the group how she made the very quick and easy knitted flowers she has been attaching to her Twiddle Muffs. The pattern is VERY versatile. Doreen cast on 40 stitches and cast off 6 stitches at a time. The video below demonstrates the flowers being made by casting on 46 stitches and casting off 8 stitches at a time. The more stitches you add and the bigger the needles you use the bigger the flower will be.
The Long Tail Cast On is a great cast on to know if you need to cast on quickly and you have a lot of stitches to cast on.
Having both a yarn winder and swift is a God send if you work with hanks of yarn which are 'plaited' and need to be wound in to balls or cakes of yarn before they can be used. I have a couple of yarn winders, acquired with the purchase of various knitting machines, but I'm yet to own a yarn swift. I rarely buy hanks of yarn so it's never been a necessity but It is on my knitting wish list.
Having moved from Portsmouth, where I had a large garden to take care of, to a gardenless abode here in London, I'm seriously beginning to miss having a bit of outdoor space to look after. There's a bit of land around the Portacabin I use as my office that can be turned in to a temporary garden which I guess is going to have to do for now.
I have to admit Russia was never a place that even remotely interested me. In fact I was slightly scared of Russians.....even thought I didn't, and still don't know any! You see that's the problem with watching too much TV and subliminally ingesting the crap that is called TV. In my mind Russian women are nice to look at (in a hard sort of way) but the mail order Russian bride always springs to mind, and Russian men are all in the army and want to drop bonds on me and my menfolk. Can't governments just drop bombs on each other and leave the rest of us out of it?
Wow! how beautiful are wood-turned coloured-pencils pieces of art? I stumbled across these visions of beauty as I was surfing the net and had to find out how they are made. If I didn't know before, I certainly know now that wood turning is something I definately want to turn my hand to.
Ever wondered how wax models are made, you know, the type you find at Madame Tussauds and...........ok, Madam Tussauds! Watch the video below to find out how.
How do bees make honey? I should really know considering a few years back I had this crazy idea that I was going to get a hive to help bump up the dwindling bee population. In fact I went as far as buying a book on the subject which I flicked through .......................and then put aside???? Not sure what happened there, I did go out soon afterwards to buy some lavender plants so I probably thought that was an adequate contribution towards the fight against bee extinction and ultimately our own. No bees, no pollination, no people!
Needle felting is a process which uses barbed needles to interlock wool fibers to form a more condensed material. Wool fibers have scales which when rubbed against each other catch and lock into place to create this denser material called felt. Felting needles are used to entangle the fibers.
At some point today I'm going to be making my way out of bed.....permanatly. I've sat up to do a bit of crocheting, I managed to get up to get my breakfast, and I managed to get up to further understand (eavesdrop) my Mum and sisters telephone conversation.
I was so pleased to discover this very stretchy cast off (bind off). There are quite a few stretchy bind offs out there, but the thing I like about this one is that it doesn't flare and it's easy to learn; simply bind off as you would normally but give the stitch on the right hand needle a quick twist! Who knew the cure for tight ankles when knitting socks would just be a quick twist of the needle.
A lady in my Twiddle Muff knitting class mentioned that she and her son had made the Knit a Bunny From A Square Pattern. It's something that I looked at a few years back and found ingenious - who comes up with these things? I'm guessing origami had some kind of influence in it. Anyway, I came across this video which wasn't around when I first came across the pattern and I have to say I think her bunny looks better than the other patterns I've come across.
The long tail cast on is a great cast on to know if you're in a rush or have a lot of stitches to cast on.
You can estimate how long a tail you need by knitting approx. 10 stitches. Unravel the stitches and see how much yarn you have used - if you need to cast on 60 stitches make the tail six times this length. I was doing my usual Saturday morning shop when I discovered a new yarn in Poundland. I initially only picked up one ball, priding my self on my frugality, but then I decided I wanted more so I went back to get it - frugality is rubbish, not doing that again, it just makes you do things twice.
I went back to Poundland to see if I could get some more of their new yarn which has a 20% wool content. I was cautious when buying my first batch as I did wonder how well it would wash but there were absolutely no problems; mind you I only washed my newly made pair of socks using hair conditioner, by hand, so it's yet to be put through the 30 degreees machine wash as recommended on the label.
I'm trying to get to the end of this week, so I can knuckle down and start thinking about what I hope to achieve in 2017 knitwise. The club will no doubt evolve in to the sum of it's parts but I'd like to have some patterns and tutorials lined up for the beginner knitters.
I came across this picture when I was scouting around looking for an image to add to my About Me page. I was looking for a picture that depicted a caring hands-on Auntie, but this one looks more like Stepford Psycho Mommie and soon to rebel crazy kid.
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Craft - 'An activity involving skill in making things by hand.
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