There was a lot of talk on knitting Mastodon last week about how long it takes to knit a jumper. And I just happened to have this amazing green super chunky yarn lying around from a previously failed wedding project.
So naturally I took to Ravelry in the hopes of finding something that could be made quickly, but also look halfway decent and not weirdly bulky at all.
Enter, the Tea Rose Slip On by Retro Claude.
Cast on last…Thursday, I think? Spent maybe about 8 hours on it so far. The front and back are completely done and now it’s time for the sleeves already!
What’s everyone else been working on this week? If it’s a fingering-weight jumper project, you have my genuine sympathy 😂
I posted a few weeks ago asking for help to get started so I could do sock knitting. Welll
Here’s my progress on this sock!
But I have a secret…
It’s actually the second sock!!!🥳
😲 You’ve been holding out on us! That’s amazing progress well done, absolutely gorgeous colour you’ve gone with too. Yay, sock gang!
I can’t tell you how much of a wizard I felt like when I turned my first heel. And it’s so portable and easy to pick up and put down, I see why people are addicted to them!
Thank you for the inspiration and encouragement
Picking up the green theme, here’s my WIP for the week. A cowl for a toddler based on this pattern. I’ve made the neck long enough to fold over and I’m planning to finish the edge with a light crochet ruffle in a contrasting color. The blue is just a provisional cast-on, a technique I learned for my previous project.
It doesn’t look like much on the pic, but I hope for the best…
Oh that’s cute! These things never look quite right while they’re in progress but I’m sure it’ll all come together 😄
That yarn is gorgeous. Where did you get it?
Also, as someone who’s never used Twitter but is aware that Mastodon has a bigger user base than Kbin and Lemmy combined, how “worth it” is Mastodon if you prefer Reddit-style discussion? I stayed away from Twitter because of all the drama I would hear about, and because I didn’t care about official announcements from celebrities or corporations. But I do want to support the Fediverse and right now Kbin and Lemmy don’t get much engagement (at least for communities for most of my interests). Since Mastodon is a Twitter replacement, I was wondering if it was worth it.
Thanks! The yarn is just Stylecraft Special XL, Stylecraft being one of the widely-available cheaper brands in the UK. I’m not sure how widespread it is in other countries, or where you are, but if you’re here it’s their Bottle colourway and it’s stunning.
As far as Mastodon goes. I never did Twitter either, partially like you because of the drama, partially just because I didn’t see the point and prefer longer discussions. But I’ve got two active accounts over there (this is my craft one) and honestly love both it and Lemmy very much. I tend to use Mastodon more for stream of consciousness stuff, Lemmy more for open-ended questions and discussion, and then cross-post my craft projects to both because it’s fun getting comments from both platforms in one thread and having my friends from each one interact with each other. This Lemmy post for example was actually a Mastodon toot, which is pretty neat.
Plus of course cross-posting like that gets more action for the less-busy platform, it’s weird because craft-wise knitting is waaaaay more popular on Mastodon. But cross stitch gets more interaction on Lemmy. So I just send posts to both to cover all my bases 🤷♀️
Mastodon discoverability runs on hashtags. To get an idea if there’s much action on there for your niche I would visit mastodon.social (it’s the biggest instance and therefore has most content federated) and search for likely tags, see what comes up. There’s a thriving craft community there, and also a big gamedev community, which are the focuses of my two accounts. But I have heard it’s not quite as good for certain topics, so really depends what you’re looking for.
If you do decide to give it a go, like all Fediverse things it’s picking an instance that tends to be the hard part. But unlike Lemmy you can migrate account every 30 days and all your followers come with you, so a bad choice at the start isn’t really a big deal.
Hope something in this wall of text was helpful! 😅
@thegiddystitcher I really like it! I made lots of blankets in its svelte DK sibling, great stuff.
My favourite crochet cardigan is Stylecraft Special too, they really have fantastic colours and the yarn is surprisingly long-lasting for one of the “cheap” brands.
My WIP is a pair of alpaca socks. It’s a mash-up of two Ravelry patterns - Honey Badger for the stitches and Time Traveler for the structure.
I started out top-down, and had begun knitting the gusset - and stuffed it up completely. I sat staring at it for a minute, then said some swears and frogged. I’m so much better at toe-up, Time Traveler’s heel is so easy.
You know, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone using alpaca for socks before. Does it hold up as well as a typical sock yarn with nylon etc? Or are they more just intended as house socks? I’m so intrigued!
You are spot on - they are to be house/bed socks! I’ll be interested myself to see how they wear. My street socks are generally a merino/nylon mix - hard-wearing, machine washable. I made the mistake of making socks in a bamboo/wool mix one time and they just shredded.
Yeah my one time using no-nylon yarn fared equally badly (despite the dyer’s insistence it would be togh enough to work, grr). Please do report back in with your scientific findings. Looks like they’ll be very snuggly, anyway!
@thegiddystitcher I used alpaca once and the biggest challenge for me was that they don’t have the same elasticity as wool so the didn’t stretch and then snap back the way I would have wanted. Probably should not have done a stranded color pattern with alpaca. Can’t tell you too much about how well they wore because I didn’t wear them much even though they were beautiful.
Oh I never even thought of the lack of stretch but that makes sense! How annoying though, ugh.
@thegiddystitcher Super chunky definitely makes a sweater super fast! My question will be how you like the fit and look once it’s completed …
Oh look at you getting all Fediverse-fancy and joining the Lemmy version 😉
I’ve done the half-hearted “put your head through the neck hole and see” try-on method and it’s hard to tell before the sides are seamed but I was surprisingly pleased with it at that stage!
@thegiddystitcher Didn’t join the lemmy version (yet), just responded to the post appearing over here!
You’re literally commenting on Lemmy right now! I just thought you were doing it on purpose 😂
