Craft Corner

Hi @CheerBear and everyone, just wanted to share a knitting project that has just been completed. It's a jumper for my companion (C), finished just in time for his birthday at the end of this month (though more in preparation for winter than the hot weather we are having here at the moment!)

A closer look at the stitches, a variation on 'moss stitch'...

Closer still. The yarn is a mix of wool and bamboo, feels very soft...

This is the first jumper I have knitted since 1985.

Now the story behind it. I started knitting this jumper in about November 2016. By January 2017, I'd finished knitting all the parts and really enjoyed the process of doing the knitting, as I pretty much always have. I actually wanted to give C the jumper for his birthday in February 2017, so only a year late finishing it! The reason for the long delay is I got very stuck on the sewing up part of the process. This has happened to me over and over when I've knitted things in the past. I am an okay knitter but have a lifelong mental block about sewing.

Over the past year, then, I kept having massive resistance to attempting the sewing and would leave the pieces in their bag for months at a time. Then I'd get tenacious again and have a go, only to end up kind of freaked out worried that I wasn't doing a good enough job. By the start of this year I had managed to sew up the neckband, shoulder, side and sleeve seams and half of fitting one sleeve into the armhole. At that point I'd had enough. I rang around various places to see if there were any services for sewing up knitting!

After many dead ends, I eventually found someone at a craft shop in my vicinity who was willing to take it on. And so, just in the past ten days, I have twice made a three-and-a-half hour round-trip on public transport to get it there and later pick it up. Seven hours travelling, but worth it to me! The woman who finished it off for me was lovely, only charged me $15 for the job and wouldn't take the $25 I instead offered her. She is also willing to do this for me again when I finish another knitting project. I feel like I've hit the craft lotto in finding her!

She also said that she didn't need to unpick any of my sewing and that everything I had done with that was more than fine. She wanted to encourage me to do my own in future. I may do that with more confidence in the future, but am very glad to know she is there to help if I can't.

So, this jumper, mostly my work, with some sewing assistance from a lovely craft lady. C already loves it, though I'm going to wash and wrap it before his birthday later in the month. Thanks for reading my epic adventure in craft, anyone who made it this far!

I can finally see the image @CheerBear and it was worth the wait. That's beautiful, the green colour is lovely too, and the shell stitch is so precise. Lovely work. I'll bet it's soft and snuggly too, it looks like it would be. go you!

Isn't it a delight when we find someone to help us with things we just can't seem to get done @Mazarita. What a lucky find for you, and I agree the bus trip sounded worth it to finally have an item you and the recipient will love so much.

Nice to know you already had the skill to do the sewing yourself, so maybe next time.

I confess I am not much of a knitter, and am not good at knitting or crochet garment or toy pieces either, so much so that I never finished a pair of pair of baby booties, not once. Knitted one bootie, that was it, can't seem to do the second one the same, ever.

I will also adapt a pattern to add the sleeves, necklines etc onto the rest of the garment to avoid seaming. The only jumper I ever began a friend ended up finishing it for me afte it languished around the place for so long she took it to finish it for me. She was an amazing knitter.

Waiting on the images to come through ...

@CheerBear and a Hi to @Mazarita @Bubbles3 @TheVorticon @Queenie hope your craft adventures are keeping you happy.

Okay, I had a try at a tiny crochet thing, not the actual micro crochet, my eyesight and hands won't allow that. I was cross eyed by the time I finished this one last night.

I couldn't find a pattern I was prepared to make, they all seem to be in pieces and for sure that just isn't in my skill range, so I made on up as I went along and decided to make a mushroom.

Here's a couple of poor images, can't get the macro setting to work properly so they are a bit out of focus I'm sorry.

And, I forgot to put a ruler beside to show sizing but it's 2cm from top of cap to bottom of stem, and 2.5cm across the cap, the stem itself is 1.5cm long. I used a 1.6mm steel hook with #10 thread, and old, old Panda Ruby 10 I found out of place while tidying the craft room.

Thanks so much, @Former-Member, @CheerBear

It's funny with the sewing block I have, @Former-Member, because I can do some quite complex patterns of knitting just by reading the patterns (or used to be able to all those years ago when I was more active with it). Your idea though of knitting in the bands etc is a good one. You must be good at improvising with knitting. I wouldn't have a clue how to do that with the bands if it wasn't written down in a pattern for me.

@CheerBear, the stitch is quite simple, once you get the hang of repeating it. Despite what I just said to @Former-Member about not being able to improvise, I remember now that I did actually adapt the pattern slightly. It was regular stocking stitch in the pattern on the lower part of the jumper. But I didn't like the look of it that way so just did the moss stitch all over.

Now to start thinking about my next knitting project. Will probably wait until at least April before starting anything though, as it's really too hot to be knitting here for now.

Thanks again for the encouragement. I love this thread.

Hehe, I totally get the sewing block @Mazarita, see my story about joining pieces up there.

I rarely knit, but I am an avid crocheter.

I have multiple projects on the go at any one time. At the moment my fall back pieces are for the house, things like shower cloths, and washing up cloths for the kitchen (so much more durable and cleaner than sponges etc). they're small and quick to do so have a new thing to work on really quickly, also good for learning new stitches.

the trick to doing knit on, or crochet on necklines and such is to read your pattern, then for knitting, pick up the required number of stitches evenly across the already sewn up garment and then just follow your pattern to finish it. Or make it up as you go along to your own specifications too. If you think of it as starting from a different point, it might be easier to recognise how that would go.

I agree that this summer has been so hot it's been hard to hold work that's even hotter. I use cotton, so it's not as hot as wool, at least to me.
I love crochet and sewing, I can rabbit on for hours and hours .... I don't mind if you want to ask crafty questions either.

Thanks for the tips, @Former-Member. I can imagine really liking having multiple projects on the go, as I have a lot of nervous energy in my hands and like to have something to do with them (like typing big long messages on the forum, lol). But I find yarn is a bit too expensive for me to do that. I use Bendigo Woollen Mills, which I find to be really good quality yarn at a much more reasonable price, but still too much for doing it too regularly. I source knitting needles and other little tools needed pretty cheaply from op shops or ebay.

Still waiting for your photos from the latest post to come through but I saw some of your handiwork earlier in the thread and it looks great!

@Mazarita ooh, Bendigo mills do have some lovely yarns and as you say, quality yet expensive. I only buy on at least a half price special, usally closer to 75% off, and I use mostly cotton or cotton blend.

I do have other yarns depending on the project. If I use acrylic, I'll iron it with a hot steam iron to remove the stretch and scratchiness from it. (Note: the technical term for this is understandably disallowed by the forum rules)

The ironing makes it soft and flowy. (you block it and steam iron it exactly where you want it, so the yarn 'dies' and it can't be undone or reused or anything).

I shop online, have you ever checked out Love Knitting or Love Crochet? They are fabulous and have lots of specials, but I shop clearance for the stuff I want. A few years ago I was incredibly fortunate to catch some unbelievable overseas sales on quality yarn that I still have a huge stash of. Postage from the UK is less than in Australia, and both LK & LC have tools and hooks and needles too. Ebay is a good place too, and I love op shops for the tricksy old fashioned tools!

I'm still waiting on your images too .... Thanks for lovely comments.

Oh, wow that is superb @Mazarita the image finally came through, that was much faster than I've had happen previously.

What patience you must have to do that so beautifully tensioned. The colour is truly lovely too. You must be so darned proud of yourself! (Rightfully so too):heart: