Hobbies

[Carolinian]

I reconciled acquiring new yarn with the new year resolution that I'd end the year with less yarn stash that I began it with. My family and friends can't figure out what to give me for the holidays so I got a couple of sizable gift certificates. I used one and have knitted 2 of the 3 project's worth of yarn I got. The other is still on my fridge. Four projects done so far this year: 2 pairs of socks, a hat, and a shawl. So far I'm ahead.

[mojogirl]

My son's about halfway done with the field part of the blanket (then he has to do a border and weave in the ends.) He's learning the painful lesson to double-check your stitches early and often, he was almost done with row 38 and the colors weren't coming our right... he missed the very first block and now has to pull out and re-do the entire row. D'oh!

[prisma]

That's a hard lesson but I don't think you learn it without something painfully frustrating like that happening. I hope he's not discouraged!

[tabby]

May 16, 2017 12:11:31 GMT -4 mojogirl said:

now has to pull out and re-do the entire row. D'oh!

I've been crocheting and knitting for years, and I can't think of a project I've done where I haven't had to do this. Sometimes multiple rows. Sometimes everything I've crocheted/knitted to that point, so I could just start over. Please extend my hearty welcome to the club to your son.

[Carolinian]

I've done that too!

If your son is enjoying the craft I suggest you show him Ravelry, a community of fiber crafters, mostly knitters and crocheters. You have to sign up but they don't sell your addy or send spam. They have around a million patterns indexed. You can see how other people have interpreted individual patterns and frequently they've written commentary about how they made it. Designers have their own pages so you can see other things they've designed. There are forums for solving problems, finding resources, and just faffing around. If anyone else is on Rav message me and I'll send you my user name so you can look at my projects.

[mojogirl]

Mar 8, 2021 11:23:15 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

I've done that too!

If your son is enjoying the craft I suggest you show him Ravelry, a community of fiber crafters, mostly knitters and crocheters. You have to sign up but they don't sell your addy or send spam. They have around a million patterns indexed. You can see how other people have interpreted individual patterns and frequently they've written commentary about how they made it. Designers have their own pages so you can see other things they've designed. There are forums for solving problems, finding resources, and just faffing around. If anyone else is on Rav message me and I'll send you my user name so you can look at my projects.

I am on Ravelry! I have a different username than here, I'll message you today.

Ravelry was really useful to me; a couple of years ago there was a cabled mitten pattern in a magazine and I *could not* figure the stitches out. I went on Ravelry and and posted my question to the project's comments and the designer answered my question! (I've made three pairs of those mittens now and they are very cool, I still think the pattern could have been written more clearly, lol.)

[Mlle]

Mar 8, 2021 12:24:09 GMT -4 mojogirl said:

Mar 8, 2021 11:23:15 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

I've done that too!

If your son is enjoying the craft I suggest you show him Ravelry, a community of fiber crafters, mostly knitters and crocheters. You have to sign up but they don't sell your addy or send spam. They have around a million patterns indexed. You can see how other people have interpreted individual patterns and frequently they've written commentary about how they made it. Designers have their own pages so you can see other things they've designed. There are forums for solving problems, finding resources, and just faffing around. If anyone else is on Rav message me and I'll send you my user name so you can look at my projects.

I am on Ravelry! I have a different username than here, I'll message you today.

Ravelry was really useful to me; a couple of years ago there was a cabled mitten pattern in a magazine and I *could not* figure the stitches out. I went on Ravelry and and posted my question to the project's comments and the designer answered my question! (I've made three pairs of those mittens now and they are very cool, I still think the pattern could have been written more clearly, lol.)

Ravelry is super-problematic at the moment. Their redesign (last Spring) has caused quite a few problems such as migraines, seizures, severe eye-strain. When it was brought to their attention they started banning the people bringing it up, doubling down, calling people liars and gaslighting. They then re-released classic ravelry temporarily, but on March 31st are taking that down permanently. There is a boycott happening asking people not to login to ravelry from March 31 to April 3rd to show ravelry how many people are affected by and also aware of the site redesign problem. If you want more info there is an instagram hashtag #ravelryaccessibility

Personally I got an immediate headache, and serious eye-strain after about 5 minutes of "nu-rav" but some people have had really severe longterm affects.

Many people have quit ravelry in protest because for such a seemingly inclusive place they acted in such a horrific way towards people having eye/neurological issues. All this over a redesign that should have involved specialists in accessibility and that quite frankly is overly cute and feminized now

[boxofrocks]

My first full sewing project is complete! They are extremely basic drawstring bags that I made from a fitted bedsheet with a non-repairable hole. I'm not at the point where I feel comfortable traveling on a regular basis yet, but when I do, I'd like to use these for holding shoes, clothes I've already worn, etc. inside my suitcase.

First step was picking out the elastic, which was tedious as hell. I researched typical travel drawstring bag sizes on Amazon and drafted my own pattern based on the end size. The pattern wasn't too difficult, as basically it was made up of various overlapping rectangles. I hand-sewed the bag and re-used the elastic to thread the closure. I admit freely that I paid no attention to fabric grain and used paper scissors to cut the fabric.

I have several more holey fitted sheets that need to be upcycled into other uses, so I might try other easy rectangular projects like cloth napkins or cord/makeuup brush rolls. I also need to find more durable bedsheets because getting these upcycling "opportunities" so frequently is annoying, especially when the sheet is only 1-2 years old.

[seat6]

Congratulations on your finished project! It’s very satisfying to make something useful.

I am making ugly sweater wooden cross stitch ornaments. My SIL gave me a kit last year. She said, “I was going to make it for you myself but I ran out of time.” Then I came across the same little kits for super cheap on eBay.

I changed the color scheme so they are red, white, and green and the flowers look like poinsettias, so I guess they aren’t ugly anymore. I can’t say that I enjoy stitching on wood. It’s hard to finish the threads.

Finished ornament

[divasahm]

Jan 2, 2023 23:22:43 GMT -4 seat6 said:

Congratulations on your finished project! It’s very satisfying to make something useful.

I am making ugly sweater wooden cross stitch ornaments. My SIL gave me a kit last year. She said, “I was going to make it for you myself but I ran out of time.” Then I came across the same little kits for super cheap on eBay.

I changed the color scheme so they are red, white, and green and the flowers look like poinsettias, so I guess they aren’t ugly anymore. I can’t say that I enjoy stitching on wood. It’s hard to finish the threads.

Finished ornament

Those are cute, seat6!

I knit shawls/lap robes for our church to distribute to members with friends or family who are elderly or ailing. I think it drives my mom nuts--she taught me how to knit, but she's notorious for struggling to finish anything...