Great idea by Astraea - any general tips for quilting/knitting/crocheting/you name it here. Is that too nonspecific? :) I'd split it into fabric/yarn posts, but that leaves out the inbetweens like weaving and felting and embroidery.
I personally adore the website knitting help. The videos are really clear, show both Continental and American style, and have some of the trickier moves as well as the basics. I've used it a lot when my own personal experts aren't available (like at midnight when I'm really trying to get a row done lol).
As a lefty, I have found that if I work a pattern from the top down, instead of the bottom up (on a flat peice, not socks) It is easier to follow, while maintaining right side and wrong side.
I guess I'll throw an endorsement out for the Stich n Bitch books, for crochet or knitting, in case anyone doesn't know how and wants to do a yarn piece. I could already crochet before I got ahold of The Happy Hooker, but for knitting I started with Chapter One, Page One of the original SNB book. I LOVE THEM SO HARD. If you read it with your yarn and hook/needles in hand, you'll have either craft down in no time. Lots of pictures and step by step directions, awesome if your learning style is anything like mine.
I taught myself to knit about two months ago using Debbie Bliss's Learn to Knit book: it has some fantastic one-color stitches for beginners. Every time I tie a slip-knot to start my cast-on, I have to look at the pictures at knitty.com's Techniques with Theresa.
Also, if you have a yarn snarl, and don't have a ball winder, Knits With Balls has a tutorial on how to wind a center-pull ball with a paper towel tube.
Agree with car about knitting help. I just learned how to do a felted join when joining two different colors of yarn from there, and I may not use any other kind of join again!
I also learned a great tip from someone I used to work with: When you're knitting a sweater, knit both sleeves side-by-side on the same needle, using two different balls of yarn. (This also works for the front panels of cardigans.) It ensures that the two pieces end up exactly the same, with the increases and decreases in the same places.
Shopping tip: If anyone's ever been interested in KnitLites (the knitting needles with LED tips), Clover appears to be closing them out as a product line. $10 plus $5 shipping gets a full set (6,8,9,10,10.5, 11, 13, and 15) complete with batteries.
Apropos of nothing, but I just went Googling for knit teaspoon patterns and oddly enough, the first link took me to some Who Ten/Donna fanfic. Knitting fanfic. I think I just died. :)
I've found that PostIt flags are great for keeping your place in a complicated pattern. Also, when knitting a repeating pattern, I'll thread a piece of yarn through the loops on my needle after knitting the last row in the pattern. That way if I screw up later, its easy to rip out and I know exactly where in the pattern I end up.
Liberal biology teacher mom with many interests and little ability for follow-through; working on that. Transplanted midwesterner now in the northeast.
9 comments:
I personally adore the website knitting help. The videos are really clear, show both Continental and American style, and have some of the trickier moves as well as the basics. I've used it a lot when my own personal experts aren't available (like at midnight when I'm really trying to get a row done lol).
As a lefty, I have found that if I work a pattern from the top down, instead of the bottom up (on a flat peice, not socks) It is easier to follow, while maintaining right side and wrong side.
I guess I'll throw an endorsement out for the Stich n Bitch books, for crochet or knitting, in case anyone doesn't know how and wants to do a yarn piece. I could already crochet before I got ahold of The Happy Hooker, but for knitting I started with Chapter One, Page One of the original SNB book. I LOVE THEM SO HARD. If you read it with your yarn and hook/needles in hand, you'll have either craft down in no time. Lots of pictures and step by step directions, awesome if your learning style is anything like mine.
I taught myself to knit about two months ago using Debbie Bliss's Learn to Knit book: it has some fantastic one-color stitches for beginners.
Every time I tie a slip-knot to start my cast-on, I have to look at the pictures at knitty.com's Techniques with Theresa.
Also, if you have a yarn snarl, and don't have a ball winder, Knits With Balls has a tutorial on how to wind a center-pull ball with a paper towel tube.
Agree with car about knitting help. I just learned how to do a felted join when joining two different colors of yarn from there, and I may not use any other kind of join again!
I also learned a great tip from someone I used to work with: When you're knitting a sweater, knit both sleeves side-by-side on the same needle, using two different balls of yarn. (This also works for the front panels of cardigans.) It ensures that the two pieces end up exactly the same, with the increases and decreases in the same places.
Shopping tip:
If anyone's ever been interested in KnitLites (the knitting needles with LED tips), Clover appears to be closing them out as a product line. $10 plus $5 shipping gets a full set (6,8,9,10,10.5, 11, 13, and 15) complete with batteries.
Apropos of nothing, but I just went Googling for knit teaspoon patterns and oddly enough, the first link took me to some Who Ten/Donna fanfic. Knitting fanfic. I think I just died. :)
I've found that PostIt flags are great for keeping your place in a complicated pattern. Also, when knitting a repeating pattern, I'll thread a piece of yarn through the loops on my needle after knitting the last row in the pattern. That way if I screw up later, its easy to rip out and I know exactly where in the pattern I end up.
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