We had a lovely day on Saturday - went to Sandgate in the morning, walked out on Shorncliffe Pier and strolled along the boardwalk, finishing with a coffee overlooking the water. There was a yarn shop in Redcliffe that I wanted to see but I was very disappointed when I got there. It was very small and there wasn't much in the shop at all! There is another one I want to look at, but it seems for now I'm stuck with Spotlight and Lincraft. Which is okay, I guess. I'll find out good places to buy yarn along my knitting journey.
The brown jumper has grown! It was a good thing to work on whilst watching DVDs because it's so mind-numbingly simple. The back is half done! Mind you, the back of the baby jumper is also done. I'm very pleased with the colours and this is my first time knitting with 2 balls. So have learned a new skill :)
Bells is a bad influence - she tempted me with a miniature sock tutorial pattern on Friday. So of course I had to try it!! I found it very awkward for the first couple of rows and thought, "what a moron I am to think I can do this!!!" But then I saw my little sock tube peeping out from the misshapen triangle of my DPNs and thought, "wow!"
But I do have one BIG problem. No-one has ever shown me how to pick up stitches from the side. I had a lot of trouble doing it on Glynn's jumper and I just couldn't get the right number of stitches picked up. So if anyone knows any tutorials I could watch, that would be wonderful. I couldn't find one on knitting help - just for picking up stitches from the top.
Have just seen Rosered's beautiful socks so it is very humbling to post this picture of my sock-in-progress, but humility is good for the soul!!! You can see where I stuffed up the picking up stitches after turning the heel. The other side is worse - it has a couple of little holes in it :(
I think your little sock looks fab! Everyone has a bad first sock story - mine - terrible ladders until I learnt to shift the stitches around the dpns!
ReplyDeleteGrumperina has a very good tutorial on picking up stitches on socks on her blog (I think there is a link in her sidebar) - it is by photos, rather than video, but is very clear.
Here's a lesson on knitty: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATwin04TT.html
ReplyDeleteMaybe that will help?
There are also different ratios depending on whether you are picking up from stockinette or garter...I'm not sure if this article mentions it since I only skimmed...
it took me a while to remember to SLIP THE FIRST STITCH of every row in the heel and then its almost a breeze picking up, because its quite obvious what you should be picking up! otherwise i have no idea which part of which stitch im sposed to be knitting into! try knittinghelp.com for good video tutorials, i think the advanced section has stuff on DPNS etc and the sock looks very cute.
ReplyDeleteWow - socks already! I've been working up to them for ages and ages....even bringing back all that sock yarn from germany hasnt got me over my fear yet! And I'm also too chicken to pick up stitches too - I send the finishing to my mum (*blushes*).
ReplyDeleteI love Coupling too - laugh out loud hilarious.
Tanya, my hat goes off to you. Socks!!! Already. I am in awe.
ReplyDeleteWow, you are just powering ahead! I'm frankly amazed :D Others have already mentioned the sites I was going to suggest for the whole picking up stitches thing.
ReplyDeleteThere are about a squillion online yarn shops, not to mention eBay, to fulfill every knitterly dream and further your addiction. Check out the Knitting Wikipedia list of Australian Yarn Shops!
Oh no! You've been sucked into the sock vortex!!! Once you've learned to turn that heel, you'll either be permanently addicted or indifferent evermore. Looking forward to see which is the evolution!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the growth of the kidlet jumper : )