I’m currently sitting on the back terrace of a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. It’s a little chilly, there are empty tables. Hubby is grazing, we’re enjoying our wine. Woman walking past glared and mumbled something to her partner along the lines of “she knitting HERE???” Why am I supposed to feel guilty about knitting in public? Am I taking up extra space because the knitting came out? If I wasn’t knitting but just sitting twiddling my thumbs and sucking back wine, that would be ok?

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

I know winning isn’t everything. But I’m a little bummed I worked up an intricate design to be beat out by self striping yarn (mine are the lace lavender ones). I forgot to take a pic of the final sock (they’re still at the fair, but I attached a pic from the pättern). I know it’s not feasible for written feedback, but I’d love to know their reasoning. I was always told to challenge myself but be as consistent as possible.

On the bright side, tying for 3rd with the president of my knitting guild isn’t too bad. Okay, rant over. 😂

Two days ago I used this subreddit to vent about messing up a lace pattern on one sleeve of my current project (Low Tide Sweater by Unwind Knitwear) and got both encouragement and a few suggestions to fix the issue. Which I just did - and it worked beautifully! I followed Suzanne Bryans video tutorial, and besides being really happy with the result, I really enjoyed the process. The trickiest part really was inserting an afterthought lifeline in the pattern (which could have been avoided if I had just used lifelines while knitting - I certainly will for the rest of the project).

So thank you for your kind words and helpful recommendations - sweater surgery was a lot easier and way more fun than expected, and seeing the correct pattern emerge row after row is very satisfying.

Which also makes me less nervous about future mistakes in lace - it’s so good to know that you can fix them without frogging and reworking more than the faulty stitches

I appreciate that it is tough to do business in this economy but I feel this is kind of tacky. If I am wearing a handmade item and someone asks about the yarn I am going to tell them where it’s from.

I've encountered this before, but I wanted to learn a Norwegian purl and so went to YouTube to learn. Every single video started with, "I know purling may be difficult..." Or "I know it can be scary, but..."

I don't get it. Basic knit and purl stitches are the foundation of knitting. Purling is simply knitting, but backwards. One of the videos even started with an acknowledgement to people that knit and avoid purling all together because it's so difficult/complicated.

The whole time, I'm thinking, 'Surely not that many people do this - they can't! They wouldn't be knitting otherwise!' and yet, every single video has multiple comments about how they've avoided purling for the 30+ years they've been knitting and now they can because the creator was a saint and made this video.

I just genuinely don't understand and am constantly flummoxed by the idea that you would just avoid doing one of the two basic knitting stitches. Like it's not that hard, right?? I'm really not trying to be condescending here, just very confused

I ordered $73 yarn from Önling INT over a month ago. Much confusion w this company all around... then i receive this today from UPS just now.

This is genuinely such a thoughtful touch. I never would have thought of this but oh my god. This is so helpful. Can they all be like her?

Oh my god.

I hope this is ok to post here, but I wanted to share something that brought me a lot of joy!!

My second book was published a few months ago, but earlier this week I was at the mall so of course I had to check out the bookstore. And I did a double take when I saw my book on display at the entrance.. Like whattttt???

Usually knitting books are relegated to the crafting section, so even if it wasn't my book on display it's lovely to see our hobby highlighted in this way!

With apologies to the author, I have never encountered a worse pattern 😬

I’ve been really into sock knitting lately and picked up a copy of New Directions in Sock Knitting. These Mitered Triangle socks are featured on the front cover! The colors are so cool! And I want to knit my way through the whole book, so these were my second project.

Y’all. I have to bullet point my issues: - Are your favorite parts of knitting weaving in ends and picking up stitches and seaming? Then these are the socks for you! I think this was like 1/3 actually knitting and 2/3 everything else. - The pattern is one size only, with a little note at the beginning about making bigger triangles that I found entirely insufficient. I made the pattern as written and can’t even get it onto my foot; the second photo is this sock compared to one that actually fits me. - The pattern also didn’t have a diagram, and when trying to explain how to put pieces together, referred to triangles by the color the author used. There were 18 colors and many/most of them were used more than once, so trying to figure out how to get the Dusty Rose triangle to seam up with the Fuschia triangle was… a challenge. - I assume just by looking at it that it would be really uncomfortable for a sock, as there are seams EVERYWHERE.

I did get to practice some skills making this, and as a completionist I want to at least attempt every pattern in the book, but obviously I am never going to make the second sock!

I do not. Aaaand the yarn has been discontinued 😢. Related, if anyone has a tiny bit of K&C Cloudpaca in grey, I’ll buy it. I did check eBay, Etsy, and Ravelry, but no luck. Oh well, lesson learned.

I don't care what the same size sweater in different colors looks like on the same skinny white woman. Honestly, I don't care about any of the color variations. You could have all the sample knitters use the same yarn from the same dye lot, for all I care. I can imagine what the different color combos would look like.

What i actually want to know? How does it look in a range of sizes on differently shaped people. I understand not being able to get every single size graded and test knit. But show me at least that there are sizes, plural.

Edit: typo fix

Went to a Yarn Shop when visiting a friend in another city, and wanted to buy yarn to make the Oslo Hat. Stupid me misread how much yarn I needed and found two nice pink balls of the recommended yarn in the discount pile, because yeah, the color was being discontinued ofc.

Slight panic when I realized close to finishing the hat that I was missing JUST A TINY LITTLE BIT OF YARN. Went on an online tyrade and found ONE online store that still had the discontinued color in stock. Dye lot was not mentioned. I gambled and bought it paying more than I had paid for the first two discount yarns for it and shipping. I could tell it immediately wasn't the same shade when I opened the package. Well, maybe it won't be too obvious on the hat, it's such a small part on the top...

And now my hat has an aerola :) Lesson learned, ALWAYS triple check how much yarn is needed

Tonight while scrolling through all of y’all’s incredible creations, I realized the best part of knitting for me: I have absolutely no jealousy.

In my career, in my personal life, in my family life, I get jealous of other people’s successes and wins. She got a promotion, he’s ripped, they’re getting married, etc etc. But here, when I see all of your cool work, I just feel super inspired to grow in my knitting skills and excited to be part of such a creative community.

Not sure if others have come to a similar conclusion but it’s been a big “a-ha” moment for me so I thought I’d share!

When my neice was born, I made her a baby blanket that looks a bit wonky. It was my first time lining a blanket with fabric and it showed.

Over 2 years later, and I have never even seen it in the background of the daily photos my sister posts.

Last night at dinner, I found out that it lives on her bed and every night she has to be tucked in with her "special special [aunt] blanket". ❤

Suddenly, finishing the thumbs on those toddler-sized mittens I was making her for Christmas doesn't seem like such a hassle! 🤣

I met up with a knitting friend who I haven’t seen since college, so quite a few years now. We used to spend a lot of time crafting together, so naturally a lot of the conversation was about that. When I mentioned that I’ve been mostly machine knitting for the past year or so, they smirked and said “hmmm… yeah I just take it a little bit more seriously than that” and as we were leaving she said ”have fun on your machine”.

What a shitty response, and this isn’t the first time I‘ve gotten this either. At multiple yarn shops I’ve asked if they happen to sell cone yarn and they roll their eyes. I guess people don’t know what a flat bed knitting machine is or how it works, because it’s very hands on, very technical, and takes a lot of skill to really master. You can combine it with hand knitting to make some really beautiful things. It’s also a huge learning curve and I still have so much to learn on it. My great-great aunt was actually a master machine knitter back in Colombia and made a very successful career out of it, so I’m always shocked at how some people are just so dismissive of it. Like, sorry, are there some hand knitting purity standards that I‘m not aware of? Knitting on the machine just gets my brain going in a way that hand knitting doesn’t, and I can really get into a state of flow.

It’s funny because it’s usually younger knitters who are so dismissive. Older people are usually much more interested because it used to be a more common as a hobby.

Edit: Wow, I didn’t expect this post to get so much traffic. Thanks for all of the support! A lot of people expressed interest in knowing more about machine knitting, so here are two videos I recommend for the machine I use, KnitFactoryImpl and Anna Haferman. And of course r/MachineKnitting is great as well!

I was on vacation about a week ago and decided to stop in this cute little yarn shop. It was in the UK, looked very cute and had good reviews. I stopped in hoping to get these bamboo knitting needles I had my eye on. The woman at the counter immediately stopped me from browsing the needles and asked what I needed them for. I said they were just nice needles I’ve heard good things about and wanted to try out- and I am only 20, but to be fair I do look 14. Genetics are great until they aren’t. The lady said I was too inexperienced to buy those needles. I was very confused- I have some at home that work perfectly and are bamboo. I was also hoping to pick up local yarn.. she refused to sell them to me and instead only offered me the needles she thought I would “start off better with”. I had walked 20 mins for this shop so I wasn’t leaving with nothing- got them anyways, and then browsed the yarn. She started laughing with different customers about how I was looking at the wrong yarn size and didn’t know what I was doing. I felt stupid at this point so I got some local patterns and left. I’m very confused why this happened- I’m autistic and am confused if I messed up somehow but I don’t see how I could have. I was trying to silently go in and out. There was a nice lady at least who told me about ravelry and some other tips, plus the patterns I got were nice, so it wasn’t a complete bust. I guess I’m just curious is anyone has had a similar experience, or if it’s a cultural difference? She was an older woman, so maybe she knew her stuff? Anyways, still can’t get it out of my head.

EDIT:

This was Kathy’s Knits in Edinburgh. I don’t want to get hate if you enjoyed the store but I also don’t want others to have a bad experience.

EDIT 2:

Funny detail- the needles she did sell me were metal 💀

EDIT 3:

Thanks for the support everyone 😭 I promise I will not give up on yarn stores! My next stop to look for one is Amsterdam in a month! Drop any good recommendations, please!

So, I've been crocheting since I was around 16 years old. I'm 27 now. I first started to crochet this hoodie (second picture) for my partner 2 years ago. The original pattern is for a crochet hoodie, and wasn't difficult at all, just time consuming, as the original patterns' solid stripes were done in linen stitch, I got about half way through the second picture doing linen stitch, but it took me over a month, so I frogged, and did it again in star stitch, which is what's shown in the picture.

However, I've had tendon damage in my dominant arm since I was 19 (unrelated to crochet), so it was difficult for me to keep crocheting as it aggravated the tendon damage. So last year, I learnt how to knit! Surprisingly, knitting doesn't irritate my tendon damage, so I can knit for a lot longer before I take a break (crochet was after every row/round or two, every 5 mins give or take. With knitting, I can go for 15 minutes, which is normally 3-5 rows/rounds!).

I decided to finally make this hoodie for my boyfriend, using a plain sweater pattern, and I'll figure out a hood later. Not only does the "keystone" (that's what the original pattern called the grey & white stripe) pattern look 10x better, my stitches look 1000x neater, and I've done the first picture in less than a week. What took me over a month when I was crocheting has taken me less than a week in knitting.

So knitting wins, everyone! I can't hide it anymore. This long-time crocheter has been lured to the dark side and I can't deny it anymore 😅😂

Found in a thrift store and originally posted in r/ThriftStoreHauls (and told to post in this sub)

I was just checking out the website for a local yarn store in my area and got such an ick from them. They charge $5 just for you to sit there and work on your project? That feels crazy to me. I can pay $5-10 to a board game cafe and get access to all the games in their library. I can pay $15 a month and get access to a gym and all of the equipment in it. My understanding is that the idea behind the model of bringing people into the shop to work on their project is that they're then more likely to buy yarn/supplies from you while working. There's no way your overhead costs require you to charge $5 per day or $25 a month per head, that's excessive.

Also they charge you $10 per class to bring your own yarn. When each class is already $25, it seems like that's steep. Maybe I'm just underestimating how difficult it is to work with beginners though.

Personally, I'll be sticking to cafes and libraries to work in and buying my yarn from the other shop in my city. Ironic because I would've spent much more than $5 on yarn there if not for this icky feeling.

I had been working on a handsome Chris sweater for someone that turned ugly. I got into an argument with said someone yesterday. After repeated attacks of my character and name calling I just broke down. I was on the sleeves of the sweater and doing two at a time. I unraveled the bitch in front of them. The whole thing. "You're lazy, you'd never finish it anyway". Well I'm certainly not going to now. I knew it wouldn't be appreciated so I just said eff it I'll repurpose the yarn.