# Yarn Rules



## siouxj73 (Apr 25, 2011)

Apart from writing, knitting main thing that keeps me sane. I love knitting socks, and haven't worn store bought socks since I learned how to knit socks 2 years ago. I'm currently knitting a pretty stripey jumper for my daughter, and working on a number of items for charity. Yarn stores rival stationery stores for my spare cash.

Are there any other yarn addicts around?


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## The Backward OX (Apr 25, 2011)

Quite apart from the fact that all that "knit one, slip one, knit one, pass slip stitch over" makes my teeth itch, I don't think I'd be able to figure out how to turn the corner when I get to a heel.


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## Foxee (Apr 25, 2011)

I'm with you, I learned to crochet and ever since my kids groan if we head for the yarn section of the craft shop. They know I'll check out all the sales, window-shop all the pretty yarn that I could do something with, browse the patterns. I haven't crocheted for a while, though, for instance I'm sitting here with the laptop during some prime crocheting time. I'm getting behind on all my projects.


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## siouxj73 (Apr 25, 2011)

Ox, that's what patterns are for. I love knitting (and crocheting) as it makes a statement about the world and you can use such simple things to make functional three dimensional shapes. There are some very interesting Australian physicists (who are also chicks who crochet) who have used a particular phenomenon in crocheting (when you increase around a circle and it goes all wibbly instead of lying flat) to disprove portions of Euclidean mathematics.

Foxee, my daughter is continually horrified by the size of my stash, mainly because I think she is imagining she will at some point have to give up her bed room. Frankly, the lounge room is a lot bigger


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## Foxee (Apr 25, 2011)

Yes! The yarn stash. I discovered this phenomenon when I stumbled into a Fibers class in college (I needed to fill out my schedule and was going to drop it, got interested and never did). I ended up buying almost $150 of mill ends. I lost the box when we moved.:-(

Incidentally, I have no discernible talent for knitting. Weaving or crochet seem to be the extent of what I can do.


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## siouxj73 (Apr 26, 2011)

I've never tried weaving, but I've been knitting and crocheting for over 30 years now - my mum taught me when I was a kid.

I do love my stash - I find sock yarn in particular to be very irresistible.


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## Foxee (Apr 26, 2011)

Sock yarn is good! That would be better than making endless kleenex box cozies (I've never seen the point to those).


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## garza (Apr 26, 2011)

When I was a kid my sister taught me to sew on a button, but that was a long long time ago and I've forgotten.


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 26, 2011)

I have had a huge spool of green wool that has lasted me for years. I use it for tying up plants, ideal because it simply rots down with the rest when it is thrown on the compost heap.

My Gran used to knit socks in grey wool all the time, without a pattern. She would keep them in a bag and every so often go through it and put them in 'near enough' pairs, then decide which member of her family they might fit.


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## siouxj73 (Apr 26, 2011)

That's a great story Olly. People forget that it wasn't that long ago that everyone - children and adults -  were being asked to knit socks for their boys at war. I don't tend to use a pattern for socks these days as I have one in the memory file, but there are plenty of really pretty ones out there. And masculine ones as well lol. I do tend to make a lot of socks as presents.

Garza - just as well staples aren't in short supply lol.

Foxee - I agree, there can be some pretty pointless (and ugly!) expressions of wool craft - toilet roll covers is another that springs to mind. I do love the idea of yarn craft as art. One of my plans for this year is to recreate a Monet painting in knitting.


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## Olly Buckle (Apr 26, 2011)

Some one I once knew had a project to knit thin rolls of clay, fire them and use them as a screen, I don't know if it ever reached completion.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 27, 2011)

siouxj73 said:


> One of my plans for this year is to recreate a Monet painting in knitting.


It might be more of a challenge to recreate a Turner.


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## vangoghsear (Apr 28, 2011)

I'm just amazed that it doesn't pull apart.  It's like magic; I know it must have a place in real world physics, but 'darned' (heh heh) if I can see how it works.


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## justbishop (Dec 13, 2011)

I'm a fairly new knitter, come to the dark side from crochet 

"Nice" yarn is also a new novelty for me, and I estimate that I've spent a small fortune buying hand painted yarns on Etsy in the past 6 months or so. I don't even want to talk about how much I spent on yarn when I attended SAFF in Asheville, NC with a few members of my knitting group.

Any fellow Ravellers may feel free to friend me there to see my past and current projects. I've also started dabbling in a bit of dying, myself. This is the best of the two colorways I've come up with, on Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn Naturals 100% wool :


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## j.w.olson (Dec 13, 2011)

My wife knits like crazy and frequents ravelry. I go to a knitting group with her, and I'm trying to learn naalbinding (keep getting confused). I know how to knit, but I don't (in three years, I'm still halfway through the same sock. I never really pick it up.

Generally I make chainmaille out of 14 gauge steel, or beaded/wire jewelry.


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## Offeiriad (Jan 4, 2012)

I just recently learned how to knit. And right now, knitting is all I do. None of the purl stuff or anything else remotely fancy. I'm currently on my second project, knitting a scarf for a friend for his birthday this month. My first scarf went to my gf for her birthday/Christmas (same day) and she loved it. The friend I'm knitting for now loved how neat I knit so I decided to make one for him. My co-worker is the one who taught me and gave me a book called Stitch n Bitch for Xmas, but it won't do me much good. I can't learn that kind of stuff from text. I have to see it happening. But that's okay. That's what YouTube is for!! :icon_compress:

I tried learning how to crochet just before I moved from California a few years ago, but it didn't stick.:hopelessness:

I am enjoying the knitting thing, but I know that I will never be able to do tiny intricate work because I have problems holding the thinner needles. :roll:


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## justbishop (Jan 4, 2012)

I suck at learning from videos, but I've heard that Learn How to Knit | KnittingHelp.com is awesome for it.


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## Strideeve (Mar 22, 2012)

I love to crochet in my spear time. Thats all I know sadly.


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## Primrose (Jul 19, 2012)

My grandma taught me how to knit when I was eight, but I've never enjoyed it as much. I learned how to crochet last year and I like it SOOOO much better. It's much more rewarding, in my opinion, but knitting is beautiful.


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## Bloggsworth (Jul 19, 2012)

siouxj73 said:


> Apart from writing, knitting main thing that keeps me sane. I love knitting socks, and haven't worn store bought socks since I learned how to knit socks 2 years ago. I'm currently knitting a pretty stripey jumper for my daughter, and working on a number of items for charity. Yarn stores rival stationery stores for my spare cash.
> 
> Are there any other yarn addicts around?



My wife knits, and being Scottish, always pulls down any unfinished knitting on December 31st. The only knitting I do is that of my fevered brow...


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## MariahNaomi (Aug 6, 2012)

Bloggsworth said:


> My wife knits, and being Scottish, always pulls down any unfinished knitting on December 31st. The only knitting I do is that of my fevered brow...




YES! With your brow! brilliant! lol


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## MariahNaomi (Aug 6, 2012)

my mom taught me to knit and crochet, taught myself embroidery,sewing painting and lots of other things (Like pool <3) last thing i tried knitting was a scarf for my neice for christmas  and that was almost 8 Christmases ago lol >.<  i recently been doing alot of crochet ever since making a hackysack. right now im making an amineko cat and im planning what yarn i want to snag from my ma's stash to play with . (Shes been yelling at me alot lately to write more and clean up the house instead of watching netflix and crocheting. ;D) and now im browsing forums.... 
aw well cant help it if your not inspired to write, but crocheting helps me write so its win win! 
(Forgive the tangent)


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## SkyChive (May 22, 2013)

I taught myself to knit just this january, and have done three scarves, a strange-looking corset and one fingerless glove (not started the second one yet due to exams).
My third scarf was my first attempt at lacy patterns and went brilliantly.
As for crochet, I only own one hook and I use it to make flowers for my projects!
Despite my semi-haitus in knitting right now, the stash has grown considerably, by which I mean I didn't even have a stash and have now filled up a boxful of yarn. D:


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## justme2 (Jun 30, 2014)

Foxee said:


> Yes! The yarn stash. I discovered this phenomenon when I stumbled into a Fibers class in college (I needed to fill out my schedule and was going to drop it, got interested and never did). I ended up buying almost $150 of mill ends. I lost the box when we moved.:-(
> 
> Incidentally, I have no discernible talent for knitting. Weaving or crochet seem to be the extent of what I can do.



I actually did manage to learn cast on, knit stitch and purl stitch, but put the needles aside when I developed a sore left elbow. Crochet doesn't seem to give me that problem. (My needles and practice yarn are currently packed in a box as I prepare to make a short-distance move; I might give it another try when I'm settled and I'll have seating/lighting possibly more conducive to knitting.)

My main issue with crochet is that I have CADD -- Crochet Attention Deficit Disorder; I have so many projects underway that I'm not sure which one to finish first, and others that I really need to get started and finished soon. I was hoping to make a simple shawl to wear to a nephew's wedding in mid August, and I have the yarn and the hook but haven't started it yet. I should also be sorting through my stash and getting rid of any yarn I'm not going to be using in the relatively immediate future but I have trouble letting go of anything. (A pack rat married to another pack rat is a dangerous combination; we've got 10 years worth of detritus to sort through so we're not just moving it from Point A to Point Z.)


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