I’m doooomed!
My mostest favoritest local yarn shop, Charlotte Yarn, has started carrying yarn which has been exclusively dyed for them by Danette Taylor.
I love Danette Taylor’s yarn! She custom-dyed the green yarn for me for this blanket when I couldn’t find bulky green cotton I liked anywhere else. And I love Charlotte Yarn! They’ve got fabulous service, a great selection, and the best prices in the Charlotte area. And they had this skein of Danette-dyed variegated blue alpaca on display that was 436 yards for only $36. It’s enough to make a girl jump on the Clapotis bandwagon.
Is this the end of my bank balance? ARGH!
Categories: Uncategorized
Can you recommend any books or websites for people who want to learn to knit? I’ve always wanted to be more crafty and seeing all the neat things that you make has inspired me to learn.
Can you recommend any books or websites for people who want to learn to knit? I’ve always wanted to be more crafty and seeing all the neat things that you make has inspired me to learn.
Aw, how nice!
Yes, actually I have a few recommendations! The absolute best way to learn, in my opinion, is to see the steps broken down, then to watch someone else doing the stitches to see the motion. I did my purls backwards for years and didn’t realize it until I took a “beyond beginners” class, even though I didn’t think I really needed to. Hey, guess what, I did!
If you aren’t in a position to have hands-on help at a good local yarn store, there’s an excellent online resource. http://www.knittinghelp.com has Quicktime videos of casting on, knitting, purling, and anything else you might like to learn. Highly recommended.
As far as knitting books, the big one at the moment is “Stitch ‘N’ Bitch” although I already knew how to knit by the time I picked it up. A very comprehensive resource is “Vogue Knitting” which has pretty much everything you’ll ever need to know about different techniques. Also, Reader’s Digest Knitter’s Handbook is a good reference material, but it’s a little dense. I tend to go to Vogue first.
If that’s a bit pricey, look at The Knit Stitch (The Knitting Experience, Book 1) by Sally Melville. You can get one of those for about $15, and it’s got a lot of great patterns that you can do even if you only know the basics.
As for first projects, well, there’s always the garter-stitch (knit every row) scarf. Personally, I usually recommend washcloths as a first project, for several reasons. One, you can pick up Sugar ‘N’ Cream brand cotton from your local big box or craft store for under $3, making it a cheap project. Two, it’s small, so you can finish it up before the turn of the next century. Three, even if it turns out looking like crap, who cares? You’re not going to wear it anywhere. You can still use it in the privacy of your own home and have the pleasure of using something you created yourself, out of your own two hands.
And here’s your reassurance that your first few projects do not (and probably will not) turn out well. I tried to make this pattern for a diamond-shaped washcloth. It’s square in the pic, but you start at one corner, get bigger, then decrease again. It’s easier than it looks.
Aaaaanyway. Here’s my first washcloth.
That’s not some trick photography, it really is that amorphous.
So remember: we all start out looking like crap, but we do get better. 🙂
Aw, how nice!
Yes, actually I have a few recommendations! The absolute best way to learn, in my opinion, is to see the steps broken down, then to watch someone else doing the stitches to see the motion. I did my purls backwards for years and didn’t realize it until I took a “beyond beginners” class, even though I didn’t think I really needed to. Hey, guess what, I did!
If you aren’t in a position to have hands-on help at a good local yarn store, there’s an excellent online resource. http://www.knittinghelp.com has Quicktime videos of casting on, knitting, purling, and anything else you might like to learn. Highly recommended.
As far as knitting books, the big one at the moment is “Stitch ‘N’ Bitch” although I already knew how to knit by the time I picked it up. A very comprehensive resource is “Vogue Knitting” which has pretty much everything you’ll ever need to know about different techniques. Also, Reader’s Digest Knitter’s Handbook is a good reference material, but it’s a little dense. I tend to go to Vogue first.
If that’s a bit pricey, look at The Knit Stitch (The Knitting Experience, Book 1) by Sally Melville. You can get one of those for about $15, and it’s got a lot of great patterns that you can do even if you only know the basics.
As for first projects, well, there’s always the garter-stitch (knit every row) scarf. Personally, I usually recommend washcloths as a first project, for several reasons. One, you can pick up Sugar ‘N’ Cream brand cotton from your local big box or craft store for under $3, making it a cheap project. Two, it’s small, so you can finish it up before the turn of the next century. Three, even if it turns out looking like crap, who cares? You’re not going to wear it anywhere. You can still use it in the privacy of your own home and have the pleasure of using something you created yourself, out of your own two hands.
And here’s your reassurance that your first few projects do not (and probably will not) turn out well. I tried to make this pattern for a diamond-shaped washcloth. It’s square in the pic, but you start at one corner, get bigger, then decrease again. It’s easier than it looks.
Aaaaanyway. Here’s my first washcloth.
That’s not some trick photography, it really is that amorphous.
So remember: we all start out looking like crap, but we do get better. 🙂