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Annoyed by the underarm holes on raglan and round yoke sweaters?

These holes appear no matter whether you are knitting bottom up or top down.

None of the methods I have seen seem to close the holes completely, so I leave an extra long yarn end at the top of the sleeves, which I use to make a few stitches to close the holes.

🎥🧶

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Went shopping today and god am I glad I can knit. Widely available clothing has become so BAD. Not only the fabric quality (plastic everywhere) or the finishing (please I am begging you - finish a seam for once, modern fashion industry!). But also like. The sizing??? I gained weight, sure, but nothing fit me in any way, everything sat weirdly! I was handed a 29in wide jeans when I mentioned my usual pant size ('XL') and like... 29 was where I was at 8 years ago, when I weighed WAY less. Who is grading patterns nowadays, I just want to talk.

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For knitting it is 100% Seeknit, their Koshitsu needles are firm, slick but feel soft in your hand. The cable is thin and flexible, but firm (and it swivels!). I have never seen a cable snap. The brass fixtures are beautiful as well

If you could let me know your preferred craft as well and why you like that particular brand. Thanks! 🧶

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i swear time doesn't apply to knitting because like. what do you mean the back of my sweater took a week to knit and now the identical front piece is done in less than 48 hours? the majority of which I didn't spend knitting?

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I finished the Braidy Loop Sweater by Other Loops. Yarn is Knitting for Olive Merino in Dusty Aqua, held with KFO Mohair in Dusty Sea Glass. The pattern was a struggle tbh and I have scrapped all plans to make more by this designer. I can't recommend it, there are mistakes and it is written weirdly. Also, it is not graded very well (not size inclusive too).

However, I am overall happy with my result. It's pretty and that yarn combo is great for spring! The colour is a nice grey-ish aqua, marbeled with the darker green.

Only modifications are a bunch of elastic in the neckband, longer sleeves and I bound of the body without the double knitting, to allow it to flare out more.

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What I'm up to

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I finished the Braidy Loop Sweater by Other Loops. Yarn is Knitting for Olive Merino in Dusty Aqua, held with KFO Mohair in Dusty Sea Glass. The pattern was a struggle tbh and I have scrapped all plans to make more by this designer. I can't recommend it, there are mistakes and it is written weirdly. Also, it is not graded very well (not size inclusive too).

However, I am overall happy with my result. It's pretty and that yarn combo is great for spring! The colour is a nice grey-ish aqua, marbeled with the darker green.

Only modifications are a bunch of elastic in the neckband, longer sleeves and I bound of the body without the double knitting, to allow it to flare out more.

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:))))

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No-Nylon Sock Yarn

This might be the hardest task for knitting without plastic. I’ve gone to some local stores and snooped around online looking for sock yarn and every time I do I get the same canned response.

“You know those will wear out, right?”

It’s easy to find 100% wool yarn, even non-superwash (yes superwash yarn contains plastic), but you’ll be darning them often if you wear them very much.

So is it fruitless? Well no, there are non-plastic alternatives to nylon that can give a yarn strength, such as mohair and silk. There are construction techniques too that a good sock yarn should have regardless. High ply-count and longer fiber strands, for example. BFL wool is notorious for its longer staple length, so does corriedale and targhee. And if the ply is 4 or more it will make for a better sock yarn foundation.

The most trouble I’ve run into now has been finding yarns that can fit this bill.

I’ve spent the past week trawling through Ravelry’s advance search for yarn, and the process has been slow and insightful. The more particular I search, “silk OR mohair, AND wool, AND NO manufactured fibers, 4-ply OR 5-ply+, AND NO superwash, AND not discontinued”, the less results I get. But still, there are results.

One would expect, with a search this tailored, you’d have at least a list of options, but I’ve still hit roadblocks. These come in two main forms: insufficient tagging or unavailable for purchase.

I cannot count how many times I’ve found a yarn that got me excited, only to click on the about page and read “80% SW Wool”. ‘SW’ meaning superwash. Or even worse, no mention of superwash on the about page, and then finding out the yarn is in fact superwash when I went to a retail listing. It makes me ask, if you’re using superwash wool, why not tag that as part of the care instructions so it can be searched through Ravelry? Why use superwash wool at all if you’re just going to recommend people handwash only?

The other pitfall is that these small dyers (as the majority of them are) don’t have the stock or have all together discontinued dying, yet haven’t updated their yarn’s about page to show it’s no longer available. Or, equally sad, when there’s simply no buying option available at all. Ravelry doesn’t always find every online store, so I try to look up the producer by name, and this sometimes gets me to an Etsy shop--But still, some yarns just seem to exist on their about page but nowhere else.

Still, I’ve managed to make a short list of yarns that pass the inspection and have some method for purchase. And honestly, all you need is one good product line for a lifetime of knitting if it fits all the bills. But I look at the number of yarns I could otherwise choose but are now discontinued (1/4th of them!) and wonder how long my current list will last.

So remember to support small dyers and yarn makers, and do your due diligence to make sure you’re getting the right product.

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Yarn holder

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The way everything is so expensive and it's not even good 😐

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Finally blocking my wedding shawl! Queen sized bed for scale. Can't see the bed? Oops, yeah, the shawl is covering everything except the pillows.

Pattern is the Rosemary shawl.

Detail shots!

It's not quite squared, but I'm planning on blocking it again closer to the wedding. Just wanted to see how large it was and how many mats I'd need. Literally every blocking mat I own, apparently.

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Get a hobby, they said. It’s therapeutic, they said.

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before and after

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everyone will look at my fish hat in an expeditious style

(pattern from here, slightly modified to be longer so that there's lots of room in the tail for hiding packets of fruit snacks)

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everyone meet Pickles

Realized I never actually posted Pickles on here once he got his button eyes. Pickles is 100% hand knit on circular needles from a nice mystery fingering-weight merino yarn that was gifted to me. The only sewing on Pickles is the yarn holding his eyes on, everything else was knit into his form. 18 inches long and about 9 tall, Pickles took about 230 hours to create.

He is soft and traps heat well when held. Stuffed with nice high loft filling, he gives a solid and comforting feedback when hugged.

Pickles has NO pattern, but instead was inspired by/adapted from African flower crochet plush patterns using knitting techniques. (if you aren't a thread artist, imagine you heard a song and so you decided to write out sheet music for a completely different instrument)