Inheritance – Knitting and Crochet Treasure Trove

A friend of the family recently passed away after a long illness.  She was very talented at both knitting and crochet.  Her work is exceptionally good with a skill level that I can only hope to obtain one day.  At one point in her life, she even owned a yarn shop.  

Now that she is gone, I have her knitting and crochet items.  Needles, yarn, patterns books, tools, and a few gauge swatches.  Some items are newer, others are vintage.  But I am thrilled to have them all.  My favorite item is the 3-ring binder full of patterns in sheet protectors.  There are a few of the free patterns that you can get at Hobby Lobby in the yarn aisle – the ones on a pad in front of a certain yarn.  The oldest is from the early 80’s and has her comments on it.  Others are from yarn shops that no longer exist.  It is interesting to see which patterns she saved.  A few she saved for only a portion of a project.  One is for a child’s sweater and there is a handwritten note to convert the yoke portion of the pattern to an adult size.  After seeing that comment, I’m looking at all patterns with new eyes.

 

Other items fill out my own collection.  I now have a copy of The Magic of Shetland Lace Knitting by Elizabeth Lovick.  It’s a book I’ve wanted for quite a while but have been too cheap to buy, thinking that I could never knit such delicate fabrics.  I am itching to pull out some of my lace yarn and get to work but no more WIPs. 

 

I also got a couple of sets of knit blocking combs.  Another item I’ve wanted for a long time, but I already own blocking wires and pins.  I couldn’t justify buying yet another blocking accessory.  Now I need to educate myself on what types of projects they are best suited for.

 

As for needles, I now have several pairs of needles in sizes 1 – 4.  There are a few pairs of straights and lots of circulars.  Before now, I never owned needles in these sizes.  My Denise interchangeable sets don’t have these super small sizes and when I was in a shop, I was never sure which sizes/lengths to get so I would tell myself I would pick them up later.  Of course, that never happened. 

 

I am very grateful to have received her stash.  And when I’m no longer able to stitch, I will be sure that I pay my stash forward to some else who loves playing with yarn. 

Project Boredom

Right now, I’m about 60% done with a self-designed knit afghan – using Lion Brand Heartland yarn in Grand Canyon.  This is the same project that I mentioned in previous posts.  I am at that point where I’m bored, and I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels and not making any progress.  Even starting a new skein last night didn’t make me feel like I was making progress.  It happens to me on every project – I’m bored with the current work and I want to start something with that pretty, new yarn I just bought.   What are my options? 

1.        Stop buying new yarn.  Not gonna' happen.  Yarn just keeps appearing at my house.  I don’t know who keeps ordering it online and visiting yarn shops.  (insert eyeroll here)

2.       Start another project.  I try to avoid this option unless I have a good reason.  Giving in to this temptation is how WIPs are born.  I want to keep my WIPs to no more than three at any one time.  Besides, I will get bored with the new project, too.  If I’m not careful, my house will be full of WIPs and nothing will ever get finished.

3.       Be strong and persevere.  This is the option I use most.  I tell myself to do just one or two rows and I will finish eventually.  I’m not in a race to finish.  The enjoyment is in the creation process.  Blah, blah, blah. 

4.       I can’t justify buying more yarn/patterns/kits until I use up some of what I have on hand.  I must confess that this is my biggest motivator for using option 3.

 

I have developed a new bad habit during the pandemic.  I will finish stitching a project and then it goes into my final-finish pending pile – the projects that need the ends sewn in or blocking.  I’m up to 4 projects and about to add another item to the pile.  I need to get this one under control soon.

Interchangeable Circular Needles by Denise – They Rock!

In a previous post, I sang the praises of circular knitting needles.  This post is about a sub-category of circular needles – interchangeable.  For those who are not familiar with them, interchangeable needles come in a set with several different sized needle tips and lengths of cable.  The needles attach to the cable by either screws or snaps.  You can easily make the exact size/length needle needed for your project.  Instead of having five different circular needles of the same size with various lengths, one set will make them all (just not at the same time). 

There are a lot of brands out there – Lykke, HiyaHiya, Addi and ChiaoGoo are well-know names.  Due to the cost, I have only tried two brands.  One I love and one I did not care for (I will not talk about them).  I am going to talk about why I love my Denise interchangeable needles.

 

About 20 years ago, I was looking to get some circular needles.  I was new to knitting and wanted to get the best tools I could without spending a fortune.  During my research, I found mention of interchangeable knitting needles in a forum post.  Realizing that option could save me money, I started looking at brands.  I easily found the Boye brand at my big-box craft stores but they didn’t get great reviews.  On a different forum thread, I found a recommendation for Denise.  I had never heard of them, but several people sang their praises.  My LYS did not carry them, so I found my set on Ebay (Denise did not have a retail site at the time).  I loved them from the very first time I project and now own two complete sets.  I also have a set of their interchangeable crochet hooks and their travel knit set.

 

Pastels Knit - Supports Breast Cancer Research!

Why do I love them?  Several reasons.  First, the needles are easy to connect to the cable, require no tools and rarely come apart while stitching.  In 20 years, it has only happened to me twice.  I think both times were due to user error locking in the needle.  They are made of a plastic resin, so they are smooth but not slippery.  They are warm to the touch and very quiet.  I have yet to wake my husband from a nap while I am knitting with Denise.  A standard set has 4” needles from US5/3.75mm to 15/10mm and six cables Six cords: 5” 9” 12” 14” 16” 19” (13, 23, 30, 36, 41 and 48 cm).  It also comes with four buttons to make a cable a stitch holder or a flexible straight needle.  There are two connectors so you can connect two cords for a custom length.  It comes in a hard-shell case with a slot for everything.  From their website, this set is $69.95, and they are also available on Amazon, much more affordable that some of the other more famous brands.  My two sets are older, so the needles are white, and the cables are a light aqua blue.  The new sets have color choices – the standard blue (white needles, dark blue cables, blue case), Brights (primary colored needles, red cables, blue case) or Pastels (pastel color needles, pink cables and case – they will give $5 to cancer research with this kit).  Plus, they have lots of other needles, cables, and accessories.

Crochet Kit

The crochet kit has 4 5/8” hooks in sizes (one each) F5/3.75mm to 19/15mm, 7 cords: 2 each 3” and 5" (8 and 13cm) 9", 12" and 16" (23, 30, 41 cm), four end buttons (turn any cord into a Tunisian/Afghan hook or stitch holder), and two extenders for cord-to-cord connections.  It also has a hard-shell case.  These kits come in blue (grey needles, dark blue cables) or the Brights and Pastels (now with lavender cables), all in light blue cases so it’s easy to tell them apart from the knitting kit.  They are priced at 64.95 for the set.  Lots of accessories for crochet, too.  I don’t use these as often because I don’t do a lot of Tunisian projects.  Being able to select the cable length is great for Tunisian because you won’t have a very long needle for a narrow project, saving weight and making it easier to stitch.

 

Are there any drawbacks?  A few.  The needle ends have a moderate taper, so I’ve had issues when doing lace patterns that require knit 3 or 4 (or more) stitches together.  It is possible for the needle to discolor from a yarn’s dye.  My size 5 needles from one set are teal colored from a shawl project.  It doesn’t bother me, and I’ve used the needles on other projects with no discoloration issues on the lighter colored yarns.  One cable had a tiny rough spot near the connector.  I look a nail file and a couple of light strokes and the rough spot was gone.  If you are a person who has a lot of WIPs, it is very possible to run out of needles/cables to hold all your projects (ask me how I know).  I overcame that issue by limiting the number of WIPs I have at any one time.

 

All in all, I highly recommend the Denise brand.  Several of my knitting friends purchased them based on my recommendation and they are also very happy with them.  Full disclosure – I am not getting paid by anyone for this endorsement. 

Latest EBay Yarn Purchase

Newest Skein - Ignore the Started
Project (I Frogged It)

A few months back, I purchased a skein of Lana Grossa Twisted Cashmerino from WEBS.  It was a closeout sale with a price of $27.00 for a 150 g skein (900 meters), 90% merino and 10% cashmere, fine yarn (size 3 needles).  The original price was almost $60.00 so I couldn’t resist trying it at the “bargain” price.  Of course, I fell in love with it.  It has long color-ways in combinations that I would never put together.  It has great stitch definition and a lovely feel.  I managed to find another color way from a yarn store in Germany (yes, really).  I used that skein to make the Lana Grossa shawl below, complete with the ball tassel trim.  I love it and want more but where to find it?

I have a bad habit of buying clearance yarn, falling in love with it and not being able to get more.  Universal Handprints Fusion is another recent example.  I bought the yarn about 6 years ago from Tuesday Morning.  Finally stitched some up and the finished product is beautiful.  You would think I would learn.

 

My Fav Crochet Shawl from Lana Grossa

My old friend, EBay, to the rescue.  I have a saved search and check it every few days for new listings.  This yarn doesn’t get listed too often so it doesn’t take much time to look.  There was a skein listed a few months back, but the seller wanted $29.00 and I could not bring myself to pay more than I paid for the two new skeins.  So, I passed and waited (somewhat) patiently.  About 3 weeks ago, a skein was listed for only $9.99, buy it now.  It was the same colorway as the skein I had passed on a few weeks ago.  The colors are a little more muted that I would usually select (creamy white, light blue, light grey, medium grey and light tan)
but I think it will stitch up beautifully.  It took the USPS forever (almost 4 weeks) to deliver the package.  I am very tempted to make another one of favorite crochet shawl pattern from Lana Grossa.  Decisions, decisions.

Tatsiana Kupryianchyk – Crochet Genius

Thanks to a random post on one of my Facebook groups, I have found an amazing crochet designer - Tatsiana Kupryianchyk. Her Ravelry store is full of patterns for beautiful sweaters, unique mandalas, afghans, pillows and even amigurumi. All the pictures in this post are from her Ravelry page. 

The post that I saw featured the Alma Sweater complete to the armhole splits. But the pattern that makes me drool is the Fjell Cardigan. She has 26 sweater and accessory patterns.  There are a few shawl patterns that really caught my eye, too.

Alma Sweater

Fjell Cardigan

If you love mandalas, she has 35 different patterns. All are beautiful and unique. My favorite is the Sakura Cabled Mandala. The texture on this one is made it stand out to me. It is shown as a pillow and the fact that is has pom-pom on the edge has no influence on my love of this pattern (and those who know me start to laugh).  Don’t skip the Squares and Pillows section with 26 patterns. Several of the squares have a mandala feel and all are quite lovely. 

Sakura Pillow

She has 11 blanket patterns and if you are looking for something different, check here first. I want to try the Coral Story pattern featuring crochet brioche. Several of her patterns feature the crochet brioche with stunning results. 

She runs a permanent sale on her Ravelry page where you get discounts when you buy multiple patterns. I will be buying the three patterns that I mentioned here but there are so many wonderful designs, I suspect I will be buying many more. I don’t get any kind of compensation for recommending a designer. I just write about what I love.  

I know there are people who don't like Ravelry.  Personally, I'm glad that there is a platform where talented, independent designers can share their work with a wide audience.  Especially when they are from other parts of the world.

Jane Crow – The Designer I Want to Be When I Group Up

Fruit Garden Crochet-A-Long

Jane Crow is amazing.  I first saw an example of Jane’s design on the Deramores website for the Fruit Garden Crochet-A-Long in 2019.  I was stunned at the unique squares she designed and the beautiful afghan she created.  I downloaded the pattern and discovered that it wasn’t that hard.  Her instructions are clear and she provides lots of comments to help you along.  I did not purchase the yarn kit at the time because I foolishly thought I would be able to get it later and stitch it up when my schedule allowed.  I must devote the time needed to get all the yarn ordered and start on this one.  Although I have the technical skills to make this pattern, I'm still a bit afraid of it.  It is always good to be challenged on your projects.  

Persian Tiles Afghan 

 

She is also the genius behind the popular Persian Tiles afghan that I have seen all over the Internet over the past few months.  I've seen this afghan kit for sale at Mary Maxim and other online yarn companies.  There are several other color ways for this one available and it seems to be sold out quite often.  

 

I like this pattern but I prefer the William Morris-esq feel to the Fruit Garden pattern.  I am a big fan of William Morris designs in general.

Here are a couple of her other designs.  All of the picture are from her website and the patterns are available for purchase.  Enjoy!

Frida's Flowers Afghan

Magic Circle Afghan

Circular Needles – Why I Love Them

As any serious knitter knows, there are many types of knitting needles, straights, circulars, double-pointed and variations of these basics made from wood, metal, and plastics.  How is a new knitter supposed to choose needles?  Here’s my two cents. 

For new knitters, I always suggest that they skip the straight needles completely and just buy circular needles.  Why?  Because they can do anything a straight needle can plus more.  Straight needles are great for flat projects that are not too wide but circular needles are dual purpose.  Use them for flat or circular knitting.  They have ergonomic advantages like spreading weight of the project better, allowing you to rest your work on your lap.  This results in less strain on your hands, wrists and shoulders, serious considerations for avid knitters.  Project weight can be substantial when working on large projects like afghans.  On straight needles, the changes in weight distribution as you work can impact your stitches, making it hard to keep them uniform.  When you stop working, you can slide all your work on to the cable, no worries about your work sliding off the needles so no needle caps are needed.  Personally, I find them easier to store and I never have to worry about losing one of my needles (it has happened to me with straight needles). 

 

When shopping for circulars, what type to buy?  They are so many options and even more opinions.  The most common materials are steel, aluminum, plastic, bamboo, and wood.  Personally, all my needles are either aluminum or plastic resin (Denise Interchangeable).  I find that these two materials give me a comfortable knitting experience will all types of yarns.  Good quality wood needles can be pricey and since I don’t really need them, I can’t justify the cost (yet).  In the past, I’ve had issues with bamboo spoons splintering or breaking so I’m not overly inclined to try knitting needles.  Between the aluminum and plastic needles, I tend to prefer the plastic ones.  They are light weight, warm to the touch and very quiet.  My aluminum hooks have longer, tapered points so they are better when a pattern call for knitting 3 or more stitches together or lace. 

 

As for what size to buy, it depends on what type of yarn you are going to use.  For every size of needles, there are multiple lengths of cord.  Since there are so many options out there, I use interchangeable knitting needles as much as possible.  More about them in a future post.