Hi all - just popping by to say hi. I am thinking about newt years knitting and really should make a start on it as DD and DS will both need warm things again and would like to make DS some longies to wear with his night nappies.

I have almost finished DH pair of socks.

Joy love the layette - what is your user name on Rav - I am mumsbusycrafting.

gee joy, that layette reminds me of the things I knitted when I was having babies...it's lovely! I still like to use lace stitches from time to time, too.

ruthie

Thanks girls I do love a classic knit - something about the fit I think, I love yokes and raglan sleeves.

My ravelry name is skillyskally.

Aaaaaw - I just found the perfect blanket for bub's cot, as it matches the room exactly I'm not paying that much though. Wonder if I can hit up my Nan to make me one if I buy her some cotton. I would never have the patience to work that much garter stitch or weave in all those ends, but she prefers simple things these days, just can't affor the yarn.

Gee it's quiet around here lately. Has everyone stopped knitting for the warmer weather? I started knitting the baby mobile last night with the wool I dyed on Thursday night. Bear #1 is now blogged! Don't you just love a quick knit?!

Joy - the little bear is so cute - love the dye ups.

I have joined the southern summer of socks knitalong - hoping to get the pair finished for Tim and a few extras - Mum and Dad have requested a pair for christmas - we will see!

ohhh it has been quiet in here!

I'm still knitting and crocheting...made a cute dolly on my blog last week, been crocheting some hexagons and started a lace headscarf from a jo sharp book today while the movers packed around me

I'm also organising a sydney snb for mummies meeting in the park so if you're a sydney knitter just ask me for the details

what is everyone else doing....

joy not long to go now!

Corrie:)

oh wow- it's been aaaages since I have popped in here- I kep forgetting. Too much time at Ravelry I think

some gorgeous things happening though.

I am busy Christmas gift knitting- lots of felted handbags, mobile phone cosys and the likes- learning lots and having fun.

you can see stuff on my blog: http://tanyadrummond.blogspot.com or find me on rav: TanyaDrummond

Thinking with the amount of yarny goodness on here - maybe this from 2008 - group should be revived.

I would be happy to join in. I find Ravelry a little overwhelming and would love to find out when to get decent yarn other than the usual large chain stores that never have anything decent.

I'd like to join in too

Shellbee - Morris and Sons in Melbourne, Sydney and online have beautiful yarns (but quite expensive), or Bendigo Woollen Mills have a wide range of colours in a variety of plies and are available online. They are very reasonably priced compared with Spotlight etc. around $14/200gm ball.

Jay i have tried both those options and still couldn’t find what i was after.....i just finished a Spiderman blanket for my DS so wanted a vibrant blue and red and really struggled to find anything in Aus and almost resorted to buying from the US. In the end i found a hideous acrylic yarn but fortunately it knitted up ok.

What does everyone else have on their needles at the moment?

I'm another one who finds Ravelry overwhelming (I'm way too anti-social for it ) but would love to chat here.

shellbee - I've just had a look at my bookmarks, these are some UK sites I've used (their postage is generally quite reasonable - in fact, it can be less than postage from within Australia, depending on how much you buy):

http://www.modernknitting.co.uk/
http://www.fleming.flump.net/~webofwoo/shop/index.php (seems not to have been updated for a while, maybe shoot them an email before ordering to make sure they're still in business?)
http://www.angelyarns.com/

eBay seller artofyarn is also UK based and has some great yarns.

Here's some Aussie shops I have in my bookmarks... I've bought from Wondoflex and Yarnsgalore before, they were both fine:

http://www.wondoflex.com.au/
http://www.yarnsgalore.com.au/default.asp?
http://www.ozeyarn.com/
http://www.blacksheepwool.com.au/australian-yarn.php
http://www.tangledyarns.com.au/catalog/index.php

Oh and http://www.beadopalwoolqueen.com.au/ has all the lovely Opal yarns, although I usually get them from o/s because it's cheaper that way.

If you're after undyed yarn, http://www.oceanyarns.com.au/ is your friend (though, once again, I get mine from o/s).

http://www.yarnmarket.com/ is a huge US site, they have everything, just about! The Loopy Ewe is another popular US site - http://www.theloopyewe.com/

And then of course there's Etsy, madeit, Artfire, Madeitmyself, DaWanda and all the handmade places.

HTH!

Wow, what a great list JJ!

Shellbee - good to hear you found a solution even if it was horrible acrylic. Sometimes finding the perfect colour can be so difficult.

I'm currently reknitting the sleeves for a cardigan I finished for myself in January. They turned out too tight, so it just sat in my drawer for 6 months. I've finally pulled them undone and I've nearly finished my second attempt. Hopefully this time will fit better!
I just finished making a little toy lion from a vintage pattern, I'll try to take a picture and post it soon.

ive got a raglan lace cardi on the needles for the baby atm. enjoying the challenge of the lace. Though must remember to put in life lines - when im knitting with people running through my house ( hubs does guitar lessons on a monday afternoon and i got distracted and had to frog an inch or so)

Thanks for the list!! jj a few on there im not familiar with.

Anyone brought from here? http://www.suzyhausfrau.com.au/ some really beautiful colours that im dreaming of.

I'm another who would love to join in. I'm pretty much a lurker on ravelry.

I am a fairly basic knitter with not many finished projects. I've been knitting since '07 but with three boy's under the age of three most of the items I started got unravelled

Now that I have two at school and a little girl to knit for I would love to get back into it. I'm waiting on some circular needles so I start a Kaia babydoll for Sydney, who is 15 mths old.

Look forward to seeing some finished projects and hopefully completing some of my own

Wow JJ, thats a great list. TBH it never occurred to me to dye my own wool. Is it very difficult? Ocean yarns looks like a great recourse but what do they mean when they say the wool is untreated?

I’m currently knitting Peppa Pig for my DD. She keeps telling me to knit faster as she wants it NOW! After that I plan on trying my first pair of socks.

Does anyone actually have photo's of their finished porjects on Ravelry as yet? Maybe we could share that way?

Ive died with Kool aid and food colouring. lots of fun. I love the colour ranges i can get. Have been reading about jelly crystal dying and will test in school holidays with the boys.

Bloomin Peppa bloomin Pig - thats all I hear around here at the moment.

I have some older projects on rav - nothing recent. I use it mainly for searching
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sarahau
just updated it with what Im working on now but no pics yet - that involves getting off my bum.

actually that faceless lil doll is all hand dyed.

screamapiller - just rav'd the babydoll That is really cute, think ill be adding it to my list - what colours and yarn are you thinking?


Are we all only knitters here or do we have some like me who also play on the dark side with hooks?

Nope, not difficult at all. You pretty much just learn by doing, there's not much that can go wrong (though I've set my yarn on fire a few times - don't do that! ). I started off with food colouring but quickly moved on to acid dyes (the only acid involved is vinegar so it sounds scarier than it really is). I've been doing it for 2 1/2 years now and I'm still enjoying it heaps. I'm trying to get my Etsy shop stocked up at the moment but my latest lot of undyed yarn seems to have been stuck on a plane somewhere for the last couple of weeks.

I'd say untreated means that the yarn isn't superwash, so it will felt if you machine wash it.



Every now and then. Though I'm definitely not as much of a hooker as I am a knitter. Right now I have a crochet blanket going for "light relief" in between my other projects. It's just straight rows of half trebles - I'll probably sell it when I'm done.

I'm on ravelry, but I don't have any photos up. I usually use it to look at other people's versions of things I am stuck on.

I occasionally turn to the dark side too. I have an ongoing granny squares blanket that I pick up when I need a break from knitting.

Hey All, I'd love to join in too.
I'm on Ravelry. I also manage to remain antisocial most of the time (although a random did compliment one of my pieces and I got scared )

JJ thanks for directing me top Knittingcentral, I had a fun time clicking on links Do you find, after a time, that you can guage from the name of the pattern whether its going to be worth clicking on or not. I found this outfit and toyed with the idea of making it for DS perhaps in some really scratchy wool!



I can crochet (i/e do the stitches) but I can't read a pattern and that really frustrates me so no I don't crochet.

yeah - generally from the names i can tell. But its still great for a click through.
Grabbed family circle last night at the shopping centre and they have a couple of cute patterns in it. Really love Retro baby out fit and the kids kaftan.

but have to finish the baby cardi I have on first and the bloom dress, and i might of wandered though spotty today and picked up some colours for a granny ripple baby blanket. Opps - oh well. At least Ill be amused and I cant annoy my husband - right?? i can use that cant I.

Yes babe thats why I brought more - I dint want to have all that spare time to annoy you.

Hi all, can I join you?

I have been knitting since I was about 15, but I am having a little break at the moment. I just separated from my husband 5 weeks ago and I have found for the past few months that if I sit down to knit my brain goes into overdrive and starts thinking all sorts of unhelpful thoughts I have moved in with my parents while I decide what to do and our house sells, so hopefully I can get back into it soon as I really miss it. I have also been going through my stash in preparation to move and I have had to throw heaps out as I don't have anywhere to store it



My DD would love a Peppa Pig (so would I ) Can you share a pattern?

71Cath I'm sorry that you are going through a hardtime at the moment I hope it gets better for you soon. My brain is a bit evil in that it will wake me up at 3am to think about things I, either have no control over or, can't do anything about at 3 am.

I hope you can get back to knitting again soon.

JJ I will have to add dying my own yarn to my never ending to do list!

Oh and no hooking here , yet another on that list! Although I did do a surface chain stitch on the Spiderman blanket if that counts

71Cath sorry to hear about you and your husband. The peppa pig pattern was purchased from ebay. Managed to find one here

And here I am on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/projects/shellbee5 .That reminds me I still need to take a photo of that blanket also.

Thanks Shellbee, I am bidding on it right now!

71Cath it's free from here!
So where do the 'hookers' hang out?

Oh wow, i didnt know about that site, thanks aimayi!

Aw, that Peppa Pig is adorable. Can't believe someone is selling a single-page pattern for $9!



Haha, yes. You have to wonder about some of the patterns that make it in there, don't you. I particularly love the scarf patterns that go like this: "Cast on xx stitches. k every row until you run out of yarn. Cast off."

I got my Addi Express knitting machine yesterday. It's one of these things (except I paid a lot less for mine!). I mainly wanted it to knit blanks for dyeing. I don't think I'll be using it for anything else, because unless you use exactly the right thickness of yarn (which I haven't figured out yet), the knitting tends to come out a bit uneven. But it's fine for the blanks. Easy to work and the kids love cranking the handle so I'll put them to work.

Damn, I am now the highest bidder! Hope somone else jumps in in the next 3 hours

I have been knitting, since I was taught to knit a cotton face-washer in grade 2.

I have knitted for myself, boyfriends, one husband, 3 children and 2 grandchildren and one dog.

I have just heaps of left over wool from my past knitting, so I am now knitting squares to make into a blanket for the "Save the Children", who take these blankets to the poor areas of India and Africa.

However, I have just been diagnosed with tears in the tendons of my shoulders, so I have to leave off the knitting until these get better from injections.

DH sold something on eBay recently. At one point the highest bidder asked a question and because 20 mins later DH had not responded (the item had two days to run and funnily enough DH wasn't sat in front of the computer hitting F5 fir the entire 5 days) they retracted their bid and stated their reason as "seller failed to answer question"
Just saying...

Actually, I reckon you could just retract your bid, stating that you found the item for free on the Internet.

Hello mollysheepdog. Have you tried using circular needles? I find that they are much lighter and require less arm movement. Either that or try crochet.

I didnt know you could retract a bid- off to search...

Woohoo! I have been outbid!!!!

Popped out this afternoon and bought the wool for Peppa Pig. Hopefully this is just the project to get me back into knitting again, thanks Shellbee and aimayi

well the only bloomin knitting I have done all weekend and for the forseable rest of the weekend was frog the entire left front of the baby cardi.
aghhhhhhhh. Hopefully tonight I can redo the side.

Good luck with peppa Cath!

You know you knit too much...

... when you get your 10yo to work your knitting machine (see above) and hear him complaining about how much he "hates this 4-ply yarn".

... when you tell the same 10yo to frog something for you and he knows exactly what you mean.

Hoping to finish a pair of socks this afternoon and start on another pair... I have a deadline on both of these, so have to get on with it.

Happy knitting everyone!

That's so unfair! My slaves are too little to help yet. DD tends to crawl off with my yarn, mess it up or drool all over it. DS is better, he tells me that (you) "can knit now Mummy" when DD has gone to bed. He also tells me that he is going to learn to knit when he gets older, I hope he does.

i give a ball of really cheap acrylic hideous yarn and a 10mm knitting needle to my youngest so he can stab that and i can get on with mine. the other 2 dont care. Im not allowe dto knit anything for my eldest though.

DH has just returned home after 2.5mths o/seas working so not much knitting getting done here at the moment. He’s back to work Wed and the kids are at kinder/day care so maybe I can get stuck into Peppa. Cath how are you going with yours? What yarn are you using? The price that pattern went for is making me think I might print off the freebie and sell mine! I think I paid about $1.50 inc postage!

JJ excuse my ignorance but what do you do with the knitting machine? Does it make socks and the like? Lol about the little slaves. Mine know its instant trouble if they touch my knitting and are quick to tell anyone else that may pick it up for a look also!

Hello to everyone else

Hey Shellbee, you should definitely sell yours - the one I bid on went up to $9.50 (plus $1 postage)! Fortunately I was outbid

I am planning on starting Peppa tonight, the kids have gone back to their Dad's for 2 nights. I would like to make it a xmas surprise for DD, but she will probably find out. I just bought some cheap wool from Big W (on a crazy budget unfortunately ).

Gee this thread is going about as well as my knitting at the moment. I'm in the process of making 250 Pom Pom making kits for a Kinder fundraiser and lets just say its a tad time consuming! Peppa has been relegated to sitting on a cupboard to gather dust at the moment. I think the fact that I’m not overly keen on sewing together all the little fiddly bits like ears and arms is decreasing the motivation a little also.

On a exciting note though my tiny little town that consists of a school, pub and general store has just opened up a yarn shop. Its so unbelievably exciting. This tiny little shop has been empty for so long and now its a yarn shop. And i can walk to it....

So how is everyone else?

I haven't reposted as I have only just started knitting again in the last few days

I changed my mind and have started a Rainbow Dress by Tikki using BWM Luxury 8ply in pink. I also bought Spring Flowers patterns for when I'm feeling a little more confident in my abilties.

My mum tried to teach me how to knit when I was a youngster but patience wasn't/isn't her strongest virtue. I've basically learnt to knit by watching online tutorials, I'm not a super great knitter yet but I figure I can't get any worse by knitting more

shellbee- Yay for the yarn shop!

I've been sewing little felt animals for a mobile, my knitting is on hold at the moment. I( need to block the cardigan sleeves I knitted so that I can sew them in and finish it!

Hi everyone!

My knitting's been on hold too... my arms have been sore. I have fibromyalgia and sometimes the pain catches up with me and I really have to pace myself for a while. Still gotta try and finish those socks this weekend though...

shellbee, I hear you about the sewing. I don't like making jumpers, cardigans etc. either because it involves quite a bit of sewing, and I'm BAD at that and it ends up looking like it's been done by a child.

Also, you asked about what I'm doing with the knitting machine - I mainly got it to make sock blanks. Basically they are long pieces of knitting that you can then dye with long colour repeats (if you wanted to dye a skein with long colour repeats you'd have to make an extremely long skein, which is very fiddly). But I've found that knitting flat pieces with the knitting machine is a bit of a pain, so I've been making tubes. The principle is the same though. I don't think it would be good for socks and the like as the knitting tends to be fairly uneven, and you can only make one size. So everything else is going to remain handmade.

Hi all,

I have actually started Peppa - going well so far, I have done about 20 rows which is more than I have knitted in the past year, so very happy

DS has found a golden snitch pattern so I have to make that after I have finished Peppa.

Hey All,
I think I would be so excited if a little yarn shop opened in my local shops but I also think DH would ban me from crossing the threshold (well he'd try )
I had a little bit of knitting excitment today, after stalking about 3 different newsagents for the last month or so I finally found a Fall edition of Interweave Knits and I think I might have to make this for my SIL for christmas.
Or perhaps this for me.

It's been a bit quiet in here lately so I thought I would bump this thread up a bit.

I am knitting a cotton bolero for my best friend at the moment. I finished the back last night - only started on New Year's Day! I find it almost impossible to knit for myself, but really easy to knit for someone else, so I am really enjoying it. I get the kids back on Sunday for the last 3 weeks of the holidays, so I assume that will cut into my knitting time

Anyone else knitting something exciting?