Yarns

[jacey]

It must be all the talk of crochet, wool, yarn and spinning from heleninwales and another couple of friends... that and my mum who has just started kntting again after about twenty years...

So last week I popped into the wool shop in Denby Dale to pick up something for Mum and spotted some big balls of chunky acrylic yarn in deep purples and dark, inky blues. I haven't crocheted for forty years, but it was just like riding a bike, my fingers found the stitches automatically. So in one night I crocheted a shawl with a large star set into a roundel. I didn't have a pattern but made it up as i went along. With the bit in my teeth I went and got some more yarn (same colour) and in three nights crocheted myself a long waistcoat. Again no pattern but I took the measurements from a waistcoat I bought about fifteen years ago in Calgary.

The added bonus was that I also got to listen to the audiobook of Curse of Chalion while I was doing it.

I have Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrrell on audiobook, so now all I need is another crochet project and I might actually get round to listening to it.

Comments

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Another prodigal returns to the fold. Maybe after Milford, I should come over with my pattern books. You might find something...or several somethings...you'd like to make. :-D

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I've always tended to make things up as I go along, so I'm not sure I'm all that good at following patterns, but I'd be interested to have a look.

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

Okay, so show off how much more talented you are than I am. :-P Anyway, it gives us an excuse to get together, drink tea, crochet, and natter. Oh, and play with da puppppppy.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

No, not talented, impatient. I always think i can do it better and quicker by doing it _like this_. Of course it doesn't always end up quite as I imagined it.
:-)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Of course we might not actually NEED an excuse to get together. We can just do it any time you like.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Photo?

I got back into knitting last year after a thirty year gap. I'm now happily knitting my 4th pair of socks.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I've never been a knitter. I think the most I've ever managed is half a scarf, but I have an idea for a shawl using very thin wool and very fat needles with a crocheted edge. Not an original idea, but one that's easily adapted to materials available.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

What's puzzling me slightly is that having not knitted or crocheted for many years, I'm actually better at it now than I used to be. The main thing is that I'm less impatient and will undo stuff if it's gone wrong. When I was young, I always used to try to ignore mistakes and hope no one would notice. :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, been there, done that.

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

Someone told me that when her gran taught her to crochet, the first thing she (the gran) did was teach her to chain and make her chain and entire skein, yank it out, and chain it again. I think that's a great way to get someone used to the idea that yanking it out is just part of crochet. Sometimes you can futz it (and I'm quite happy to do so whenever possible), but often you can't. I wish I'd had that part taught to me early on. I'm teaching some girls to crochet, and I often stress, just yank it out and re-do it.

Today, I had to yank out 4 rows of something I'm making. It's a moderately complex stitch pattern with 4 rows of different stitches, and the error didn't show up until I got to that spot on the next pattern repeat. Grrrr.

But yeah, older and less impatient. :-)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

If my gran had tried to teach me that way, I'd never have gone back for another lesson. I would have seen it as a pointless waste of time and given up.

I'm not actually any less impatient than I used to be, but working with computers for years has taught me that the best way to get things done with the minimum of fuss is to pay great attention to what you're doing, to be aware of things going wrong so you can correct them as soon as possible and that re-doing things is always quicker than doing them for the first time. One of the reasons I used to pretend mistakes didn't exist was because I usually didn't notice until I'd gone a considerable way past and then undoing so much was too disheartening for a slow knitter to cope with.

[julesjones]

I do cross-stitch while listening to audiobooks -- I find that (unless I'm very tired) I can't keep my attention on the audiobook if I'm doing nothing else, but I'm fine if I'm doing something with my hands. I keep meaning to re-learn knitting -- the massive RSI episode earlier this year put paid to the last bout of serious intention, but I might be able to hold a pair of knitting needles for more than a few seconds now, so might have another crack at it.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have problems listening to audiobooks if I'm just sitting - which is why I've never made it past the first hour of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell yet, but I managed all of Curse of Chalion (about 18 hours) while my hands were busy.

[tychist.livejournal.com]

I never made it past the first chunk of JS and Mr N when I was reading it. Don't know why. But as for crocheting - I used the internet to learn about three years ago and I usually do it while watching television. Or when people are round and we're just talking. Never thought about doing it to audiobooks. I think that's an idea I can get behind. Experimentation is required. :)

[patanwatyn.livejournal.com]

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