You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Off Topic Chat
>
What have you made lately?
Sarah wrote: "Aww Esther it didn't work. If anyone is on Ravelry I'd love to see what you've made. My Ravelry.I completed another unicorn yesterday for my bf's niece and she loved it. She did a great impressio..."
Those are adorable. My stepdaughter tried to teach me to knit but I couldn't sit still without reading for that long, lol. Maybe I should try audio books:)
Where did you get the patterns from?
Some day I would like to quilt.
The only thing I have been making lately is food. I made Peppermint Patties for Christmas and they are so addicting. I make them almost weekly now…bad Lisa, lol.
Yum, Lisa!! Peppermint patties are amazing!! My hubby does not like mint and chocolate together (I know, he's weird;) ). So anytime we get a mint/chocolate candy from a waiter after we go to dinner, I get them all :-) woohoo!!
Stephanie wrote: "Yum, Lisa!! Peppermint patties are amazing!! My hubby does not like mint and chocolate together (I know, he's weird;) ). So anytime we get a mint/chocolate candy from a waiter after we go to dinner..."There is nothing wrong with that:)
Can anyone recommend a youtube channel for knitting? I learned as a child but that was many many moons ago! I learned to hold the yarn in my left hand but I don't know if that is continental, or English or American or vulcan.Or is it better to take up crocheting?
Any and all advice is appreciated thanks
I hold the yarn in my right hand, and I think that is American. I think left handed if you are a right handed knitter, is called Continental or English. I tried to learn that way, but my brain wouldn't let go of the way I already had learned it. I have never watched knitting on You Tube, but I have watched things on a couple of crafting websites. I bought a couple of Crafty.com video lessons.
You have to decide, Joan. It depends on what you want to make, or learn to do.I can offer up that crochet is probably easier and the least expensive as far as tools go, but I personally enjoy knitting more. Both can be frustrating, initially to learn. One caution I can offer, whatever you decide to start with - make sure the yarn you choose for your first project is smooth enough to allow you to see and count the stitches. Don't pick something that is very hairy or furry and fluffy, no matter how pretty it looks or feels. It is almost impossible to learn to count stitches when you cannot see them!
If you want to do crochet, I found the planetjune videos very helpful. She has videos and photo-explanations, both for left-handed and right-handed people :) http://www.planetjune.com/blog/tutori...
I tried to knit but I can't. I stick to crochet, although I haven't crocheted in a long time.
I haven't made anything for ages but my mum bought a couple crochet hooks up at the weekend as I am going to try to crochet a rug (a long runner) out of old tshirts. The floor is quite cold in the boat. I'll let you know how I get on. I haven't crocheted in over 20 years so it might involve a lot of swearing.
Lisa wrote: "The only thing I have been making lately is food. I made Peppermint Patties for Christmas and they are so addicting. I make them almost weekly now…bad Lisa, lol."
I've never heard of peppermint patties. I'm a chocolate lover, but mint-chocolate is also not my kind of thing. They look good on the picture though!
I made 'arretjescake' in the weekend. It's making a batter of eggs, sugar, flower, cacao (or chocolate) and butter, break cookies in small pieces and stir them through, and let it set for a couple of hours in the fridge. I think it's typically Dutch. It's so unhealthy but soooo good!
Not mine, but it looks similar:
@Joan, I hold the yarn with my right hand when knitting too, and that way is how I have always seen it done at least in Uruguay and Argentina. I thought that holding it with your left and was exclusive for left handed people. I enjoy knitting more than crochet, but both are different and offer different possibilities. I would say that crochet is faster to learn, but knitting is more mechanical as fast to do once you already mastered the basics.
@We used to make something very similar to your arretjescake. We called it (in the Rio de la Plata) "salchichon the chocolate", that literally means chocolate sausage, because we actually shape it like a sausage, and when cut the portions look like disks. It's delicious. Kids specially like to do it, since it doesn't need to be bake or anything. It has been ages since the last time I eat one.
Sarah wrote: "I haven't made anything for ages but my mum bought a couple crochet hooks up at the weekend as I am going to try to crochet a rug (a long runner) out of old tshirts. The floor is quite cold in the ..."LOL, Sarah! I have been saving old denim blue jeans for ages. I have always wanted to crochet a rug with them, but it hasn't happened yet. I think the t-shirts will be easier. How are you going to cut the strips and join them? I have seen various ways.
I saw that one person had cut the t-shirt in strips so they were loops and then slipknotted them together to make one long chain of which they crocheted. The final product looks good. I might need to use the links Peggy posted to refresh my memory on getting started.
Thanks Cherie, Peggy, Sandra and Sarah. Sarah I will certainly be using your swearing technique - the yarn keeps sliding off the needles when I want it to stay but clinging when I want it to slide!
Oh, poor Joan! Yes, that is a beginner issue. The stitch is either too tight or too loose. You will get the hang of it soon. Your needle makes a difference too. I don't like the plastic ones but they may give a little more control in the beginning. I like aluminum best, and feel that they make things go smoother as you learn to control the tension. Don't try to make "something" at first. Try to make squares about 8 inches by 8 inches. Finish one and start another. Keep doing them until you feel that you have the hang of counting and you can consistently make them square. Don't pull the first ones apart and try to reuse the yarn. It only makes things worse. Save your squares and you will be amazed to see your progress. Then start on a real project. On your needle size. Buy three to start (sometimes you can get them in packages o three). Use the one recommended by the yarn manufacturer as a start - like J and then buy the next size smaller and the next size larger. Sometimes it is easier to learn with the larger size for the yarn, and as your tension and control become better, to move down to the smaller size to get the correct number of stitches per inch on the gauge.
@Joan I was just going through my crochet folders, I have an entire crochet book for beginners if you like to learn how to crochet, I could upload it for you. I never tried knitting, buy I would love to learn it.
Cherie wrote: "Oh, poor Joan! Yes, that is a beginner issue. The stitch is either too tight or too loose. You will get the hang of it soon. Your needle makes a difference too. I don't like the plastic ones but th..."Thanks for the hint - you are right I gave up the plastic needles and switched to aluminum ones - and put aside the pretty fluffy yarn. A friend who gave up on knitting - gave me some cotton yarn and aluminum needles (size 10.5). As you suggested I stopped unraveling the practice squares. At least I can use the cotton squares for dish rags.
I also want to show off my husband's web page of his family tree. He has been working really hard on it to make web pages with clickable links. He has organized the tree back to the 1600's with clickable links to family all over the world (concentrated in the remnants of the British empire -jolly good and all that)
Jesty.org His ancestor Benjamin was the first to vaccinate someone against small pox using cowpox - Jenner then repeated it for an experiment.
Wow, Joan. Such a great work your husband did!
Love it Joan. I have been doing our family history for the past 20 years along with my dad. It's quite addictive. Jesty is quite an unusual name here in the UK I'd have thought. Has that made it any easier for your husband to research the name? The names we've had to research are Mortimer, Bennett, Hall and Lamb and there are loads of them! In Wiltshire alone, there are 4 different Mortimer families back in the 1700s and further back which don't seem to join up anywhere.
That looks awesome Joan! And way back to the 1600s, that's amazing. And to find out things such as that vaccination!It must be so interesting to research your family history, but I would have no idea how to go about it. I would love to know more about especially my dad's side of the family. He, his brother and sister and his parents were all born in the Netherlands, but my dad is quite dark-skinned and people often think he's from Turkey or Northern Africa. And my niece was born with a Mongolian Spot, something quite rare in white children, but much more common in children who have an Asian or African background.
I can see why you'd be intrigued Peggy. I started it all off when I was asked for a school project to find out the births, marriages and deaths of my grandparents and their parents. Some of these we knew, while others we didn't. And it got my Dad curious. This is a good place to start and then go from there. In the UK, there are local record offices which hold records as well as some of the local churches (less of this happens now) so if you know who you are looking for and roughly when and where they were born, you can look them up and find their parents. Census records are very useful and have lots of information on them. You can also order the actual certificates from the registry office. I guess there must be something similar to this in the Netherlands. We use the website Ancestry now as they have a lot of online records available - I know they occasionally do free trials so it might be worth checking it out.
Thanks for the info Sarah :) Did you come across some interesting or surprising facts about your ancestors?
Ooh Peggy and Lisa they look supper tasty. Oh I love mint and chocolate nom nom >.<@ Joan & Cherie: It's defo a beginner thing. I was so confused why my first square wasn't working out well, I did Double Crochet rows (US terms - Single Crochet) and it was quite odd at first as I couldn't get the tension right, it was too tight. I was holding the yarn ever so tightly in my left hand. It took me a little while to loosen my grip as I was worried I'd keep dropping it, but after a few weeks you get the hang on it, just test the tension out ad a larger hook is defo great for begining with. I go with the aluminium hooks too, I don't like the plastic ones the yan doesn't seem to run smoothly over them. I do like the look of the rubber silicone handled hooks =P
@ Joan & Sarah: The family history tree is awesome Joan, thats pretty amazing he's gone that far back. My mom does this too, she uses the website Ancestry too. I have a tree on my mom's account too but unfortunately haven't got too far as my Grandma is 88 now and she's not remembering names as well anymore. And there can be quite a few with the same name, I have no idea who I'm looking for.
Joan wrote: "Can anyone recommend a youtube channel for knitting? I learned as a child but that was many many moons ago! I learned to hold the yarn in my left hand but I don't know if that is continental, or En..."Yes on the left hand, it is continental. that's the way I knit as this way makes more sense for someone who is mainly a crocheter as I am.
Not a tutorial but when I hit a wall and need a video on a precise issue I usually look for it on the drops design page. I like them. they are slow and you see very well. If not I google untiI find one that makes sense to me. Groups on ravelry I usually a great also.
Peggy wrote: "Thanks for the info Sarah :) Did you come across some interesting or surprising facts about your ancestors?"I found some interesting news articles about some family members back in 1800s. They were mainly argricultural labourers and often quite poor. One guy (4x great grandfather) was put in jail for a few months for hunting rabbits to feed his family. I found this really sad. Another guy, not to directly related, stole a harness from his employer and was sent to Tasmania on the prison ships and died shortly after. He left behind a wife and daughter. A little girl who died in a house fire. Soldiers fighting, being captured and/or dying during ww1&2. It tends to be bad things which you can find out about - crimes, deaths, accidents etc as opposed to nice, happy times. Although, photos i guess are always nice and positive. I love seeing all the old clothes.
So many things you found out Sarah! It makes sense that it's mostly bad things, because that's what gets registered. Although of course births and marriages that you found out about were all happy things :)
Family history became big here in the 1990s. Mainly as it was shameful to talk about your ancestry before that. If you were from convict stock, that was terrible and lower class. Even though 90% of us were, you didn't talk about it. In the 1990s, particularly as more and more records became digitalised, you wanted to know where you came from.So because of this and my super dedicated Aunt, I know that my great great great grandfather was sent to Tassie for stealing a pair of shoes and a loaf of bread. He married a free woman and settled in the back paddock of what is now Lexx's Dad's place. How fricking weird is that?
Other side, we knew nothing, but my brother commissioned some genealogy finding when we were at Edinburgh Castle. Dad's last name originated in Yorkshire in the 13th century. To me that sounds static. To him, he would have been super chuffed that everything about him was Yorkshire through and through (well, everything on paper ;) )
Esther...thanks for the information. I will look at drops design and ravelry. And thank you for explaining that I knit continental. It seems funny that the types are english and continental when, I think, felt was invented by ancient persians or mongols.
anyone interested in their ancestry should check out the genealogy site of THE CHURCH OF LATTER DAY SAINTS. They have a surprising database even if you don't know of any Mormons in your family. Travis do you live near where the Mormons started?
I have used that site extensively Joan - it has been a real help.
I've made a few small things in the past few months. I got some grey for the elephant after xmas and it wasn't the correct grey and it frayed a lot with the smaller hook that was recommended so the elephant has been put on hold for a little while.Instead with the grey I made these ballerina style slippers:
I love this love heart placemat so will be making more of these:
I made this cute valentine teddy bear for my partner =P
And my latest creation a little cupcake =] I'm going to try some crochet thread so I can make a little one to goon a keyring at some point:
The cupcake is cute! Looks like you're having great fun, Sarah.
Hehe =]I'm going to message the designer and see whether she'll allow me to sell some of the finished products. If that happens I'll let you know.
One of the things I've been busy with is thishttps://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/...
Little giraffe for my neighbour .. Thinking of making a sheep too .. Or shall I go for a rabbit?
Very cute, CFDeeDee! How about do both, the sheep and the rabbit.
I was looking for a cute rabbit .. But found none ! I found an owl, maybe I'll make one for myself to put on my book shelf
I found a cute rabbit somewhere recently. I'll have a look tomoz and see if I can link you too it. And I agree make the sheep and the rabbit ooh and the owl hehe
LOL .. I'll make only one for my neighbour and the rest for me :P The sheep was really hard to make, it was made with a loop stitch, and when I tried it one stitch was long, the other short XP
I made a cute Stegosaur for my bf's nephew, it's super cute I want one for myself.
He's really cute! The picture behind him looks interesting. :) The man and woman by the car - looks very 1950ish.
Very lovely Sarah, nice colours too :D
Really cute, Sarah!You have good vision, Janice. ;)
Sarah that is so cute, I am sure your nephew will love it.
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Dark Witch (other topics)The Fox Wife (other topics)
The House of Lost Secrets (other topics)
Somewhere Beyond the Sea (other topics)
Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jennifer Chiaverini (other topics)Paulo Coelho (other topics)
Fumi Hancock (other topics)
Going from knitting to crochet should seen rather easier to me. Many knitting patterns combine crochet in finishing edges. I can do both quite easily and I can crochet with both hands. I taught myself to do it left handed to help my sister learn. She is very, very left handed and could not do it with her right hand. She is very dyslexic and cannot read and understand patterns though. She only learns simple patterns that someone showed her. Mostly, she makes the old "ripple pattern" afghans.
My oldest daughter and granddaughter are left handed. My daughter learned to knit right handed though. She could not figure how to do it with her left hand no matter how hard she tried. My granddaughter can knit left handed. She only knits simple scarves and is happy. Neither of them are interested in crochet. I tried to teach myself to knit left handed but I could not get my head around it. I can do the knit stitch but the turn to pearl back eludes me. The muscle memory takes over and fights with what my eyes want them to do.
My other two daughters can both crochet, one well and the other not so much. Neither of them are interested in knitting.
I really cannot remember which one I learned to do first, but I think it may have been knitting. My mother always knitted and I think I learned when I was 8 or 9. I think our neighbor taught me to crochet when she was teaching her daughter. We made placemats.
I am a craft junkie and always going back and forth to something or wanting to learn something new. Some things I finish, most I don't. I always have great plans though. :o)
If you love what you are doing with your crochet, I wouldn't worry about learning to knit, unless you really, really want to.