Time for Afghans!

[joyce1954]

This is the time of year to start an afghan. It is just starting to get coolish and a project in the lap while watching a movie is just a fun way to stay warm and keep the thermostat down.

I prepare for this time by keeping an eye out at garage sales, Goodwill and any other 2nd hand stores for yarn. There seems to be a bag of partial skeins of yarn in just about all the places mentioned and at very cheap prices too. So I spend a couple bucks here or there and stockpile until the cooler weather sets in and start a scrap project.

Granny Squares are a favorite as there are as many patterns as days in our lives. And ripples are fun to mix 'n' match scraps too. I've had fun with a daisy maker from time to time too.

But I find I enjoy new patterns from time to time. So, how about some patterns and ideas for scrap yarn? I'll go thru my patterns and post something a little later. But in the mean time...whatcha got that's cool?

[gardengal]

This isn't exactly scrap yarn, but my present project is a baby blanket. I'm using a knifty knitter long loom and varigated pastel yarn. I'm doing a double knitted stitch so it's coming out thicker. Baby will be here 5 weeks from today, so I've got to buckle down and work on this every chance I get. I'm only 1/4 of the way through it.

gardengal

[gardengal]

Here is what the loom and knitting looks like. Mine that I'm working on looks just like this except that I'm using a longer loom to make a wider panel. I'll have to join two panels together to make the blanket wide enough.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Knifty-Knitter-Long-Loom-Series

gardengal

[Micah68]

My favorite scrap pattern for afghans is plain old Granny Squares. The one I am working on now has black as the main color, with jewel tones....sort of an almost Amish color scheme.

My girls use my leftover scraps to make potholders and doll baby blankets and such.

[SheWoff]

Only scrappy one I use is the granny square. And I have used that from afghans to slippers. :-D I need to make me another pair of slippers too....oh now I got to go get out the yarn and the crochet hook. A good reason to sit in the recliner and recooperate!

She

[Martinhouse]

I got tired of trying to mend my knitted slippers so I fixed them for almost forever.

I stuffed a flip-flop sandal in them and coated the whole bottom with hot-melt glue.

Only two problems with this. You must absolutely NOT put them in the dryer, (no problem for me cuz I don't have one!) and my mom told me the glue made streaks on her new laminate floors.

It does use a good deal of the glue, but only once, and for me, is well worth it.

Carol

[Sassafras]

Here is what the loom and knitting looks like. Mine that I'm working on looks just like this except that I'm using a longer loom to make a wider panel. I'll have to join two panels together to make the blanket wide enough.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Knifty-Knitter-Long-Loom-Series

gardengal


I was looking at these looms this past weekend thinking I might like to try using one. I've tried knitting the old fashioned way, but found it very difficult without access to an in-person teacher. Is it difficult to use one of these looms? Is it something a beginner could use?

[hunybee]

Time for Afghans!
http://www.inhisimage.org/images/Afghan%20Man.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/a/af/20050613051527%21Question_mark.png

[gardengal]

Hunybee, that reminded me of a joke I heard after 9-11 when the security tightened at the airports.

An old woman was detained because she had knitting needles on her. And when they asked what she was going to do with them, she said "I'm going to knit an Afghan.

Sassafras, I don't have anyone to teach me how to knit either. I started with the round looms making hats, then got the long looms. I had a little trouble understanding the turning peg, but dd figured it out. If you do a google search you can find lots of you tube videos out demonstrating how to use them.

gardengal

[Sugaree]

http://www.inhisimage.org/images/Afghan%20Man.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/a/af/20050613051527%21Question_mark.png

you know, I clicked on this thread in hopes of finding something zany like this- hunnybee you came through girl! :mrgreen:

I would love to learn how to knit or crochet. Need to track down someone who can show me- I catch on very quickly if I can just sit & observe for a while.

[gardengal]

Well, Sugaree, I hope you can learn it easier than I did years ago. I was sitting on a hassock next to my mom's chair and she was teaching me to crochet. I got so turned around that I fell off onto the floor. Mom about died laughing. She told me she'd heard of people with two left feet, but never heard of someone with two left hands.:mrgreen: I did eventually learn to crochet. My big problem is the patterns. They are like a foreign language that I just can't master.

gardengal

[Midnight Blue]

Only scrappy one I use is the granny square. And I have used that from afghans to slippers. :-D I need to make me another pair of slippers too....oh now I got to go get out the yarn and the crochet hook. A good reason to sit in the recliner and recooperate!

She

I have made tons of afghans! I am working on four or five right now. I couldn't really explain the patters or different stitches (the self taught thing again), I just go when something pops in my head. I also make scarves, baby, blankets, hats and slipper socks.

[Midnight Blue]

I did eventually learn to crochet. My big problem is the patterns. They are like a foreign language that I just can't master.

gardengal

I am the same way with patterns on most craft projects. I just can't stick to them and many times they just confuse me. I learn the stitches the best I can and then just experiment.

[gardengal]

I made a purse for my dd out of cotton yarn in a double crochet. Just made it as wide as I wanted the purse then kept crocheting until it was long enough to fold double with a flap over the top. Then I stitched the sides together and crocheted a strap. I picked a piece of material and cut two pieces the size of the purse, put them together with a zipper, then stitched up the sides and bottom. I put that inside as a lining and hand stitched it to the crocheted purse. Then I added a toggle button on the front to close the flap. It turned out real cute for not having any pattern.

gardengal

[Disastercat]

Just lost my longer post and I'm in a rush now but everyone should look into getting
Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman
http://www.amazon.com/Knitting-Without-Tears-Easy-Follow/dp/0684135051

Even if you don't learn well from books (I don't) this easy to read and easy to follow book will get you all the basics for knitting. Including how to create and design your own sweaters, afghans, socks etc that fit you. Elizabeth was the modern "inventor" (her own worlds) for the percentage systems used in so many on-line patterns and programs today.

But she can show you (even a math idiot like me) how to use a tape measure and a simple formula (works with a calculator if you are like me) how to design a sweater that fits you and it doesn't matter if you are a size 8 or a size 36. She gives a few hints on things a very large figure may want to avoid, along with practical hints like measuring whichever part of YOU or the intended wearer is the largest: your chest or hubbies tummy.

However, this book is mostly just good basic knitting instructions and will get you knitting simple things like hats, shawls and afghans in a few hours. From there, a simple sweater in the round, with cut slats for arm holes (which may be the oldest way of making a sweater) is easy, followed by slightly more complex forms.

Her other books are also worth getting but this is the foundation and I tell people if you can only afford one knitting book, get this one. I'm not sure where my old post is, but later I can dig out the three or four books I think any prepared house hold should have because they cover patterns for all sizes and almost any garment you would really need to keep people alive in under heated houses during a long Winter.

More later,
DC

[joyce1954]

you know, I clicked on this thread in hopes of finding something zany like this- hunnybee you came through girl! :mrgreen:

I would love to learn how to knit or crochet. Need to track down someone who can show me- I catch on very quickly if I can just sit & observe for a while.

Crocheting isn't hard when you have someone on hand to coach you. Sometimes the pics in the How To books are a little confusing for beginners. That is my problem with the knitting How To books. It is almost like I am trying to learn a new language instead of a new way to knot yarn.

[joyce1954]

http://www.inhisimage.org/images/Afghan%20Man.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/a/af/20050613051527%21Question_mark.png

But, but, but I was hoping for a newer 'pattern' of Afghan! I got one that old!

[joyce1954]

I am the same way with patterns on most craft projects. I just can't stick to them and many times they just confuse me. I learn the stitches the best I can and then just experiment.

My mom told me that when you are reading and using a crochet pattern that first you look at the ledgend (list of abbreviations used) and then when following the instructions you work from comma to comma in the instructions for the row or round. She said they use commas to say Step 1, Step 2, etc for that row/round and end with repeat to end meaning you repeat the from the first step for that row/round. Does that make sense?

[Midnight Blue]

My mom told me that when you are reading and using a crochet pattern that first you look at the ledgend (list of abbreviations used) and then when following the instructions you work from comma to comma in the instructions for the row or round. She said they use commas to say Step 1, Step 2, etc for that row/round and end with repeat to end meaning you repeat the from the first step for that row/round. Does that make sense?

Not to me, but I'm weird. :lol: I just follow what's in my head. Sure sometimes I end up undoing the project several times and starting over, but I have yet to end up with something I wasn't happy with.

[babysteps]

Oh good, I'm not the only one. I saw the thread title and thought it said "Time for Afghanistan" and was trying to figure out what kind of craft that would be...

[Midnight Blue]

Oh good, I'm not the only one. I saw the thread title and thought it said "Time for Afghanistan" and was trying to figure out what kind of craft that would be...

:lol: Hmmmmmmmm, think on that, I will.

[momof23goats]

I like mmaking them I got t o get going and get a cople done fast, the girl down the road had her baby a month early, so I got to get dgoing on these and sticking caps.