Nadina’s Free online knitting patterns

I like all sorts of yarns. For me it is a matter of what is being made and
who it is being made for..

Acrylic is great for babies and kids because it can easily be washed. It is also great for people who are allergic to wool. It is also quite good for people like my husband who are dirt magnets!
There are so many kinds of acrylic yarns today that have very exciting textures in addition to all the fun furs and feathery yarns.

Wool is also wonderful. There is nothing like a great wool sweater or hat for warmth. Wool has a good feel when you work with it and there are some wonderful wools where you can actually feel the lanolin as you work. Wool can also be remarkably durable and while it can’t usually be tossed in the
machine, it can be washed.

There are so many kinds of yarn–cottons, silks, natural fibres….
All sorts, all weights, all colors, all textures! Oh, did I mention …I’m a yarnaholic?

I don’t think I can think of any I wouldn’t give a try for something!:)

There is nothing wrong with knit casting onto the needles. It is the way I have cast on for many years. When you do, try this, it makes for a neater cast. Put the loop on your left needle, start by knitting into that loop and pull yarn through, then up over left needle (2 loops on left needle). From that point on, instead of going directly to the loop (as you would when knitting), place right needle BETWEEN loops on left needle, yarn over, draw through, and place loop over left needle. Going between the loops on the hook makes the edge much neater.

Pulling a loop THROUGH the stitch to cast-on a stitch is called the Knitted Cast-On and pulling a loop BETWEEN two stitches to
cast-on a stitch is called the Cable Cast-On. You can read about A LOT of ways of knitting in Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook

So here’s my $.02 on the idiot’s guide…

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knitting & Crocheting, by Gail Diven & Cindy
Kitchel

Very good instructions & pictures of how to do cast on, knit, purl, increase, decrease, bind off. It also goes into knitting in the
round, fair isle, intarsia. Other sections on how to fix boo-boos such as dropped or twisted stitches, guage, and a discussion of different yarns & needles. 3 projects are included to use the skills as you learn them: a knitted dishcloth (increase/decrease), a scarf (knit/purl/counting stitches), and a hat (knitting in the round).

I would recommend this book to someone just learning how to knit—in fact I just used it to learn how to crochet, and it was clear & entertaining. I lent it to another woman who wanted to learn how to crochet, and she’s doing very well with it, too. But using it as a reference for either knit or crochet? I honestly cannot see myself ever opening it again, now that the
basics have been learned. A wonderful book to get someone started, but it’s a book that could be outgrown rather quickly.

I can tell you it’s not so easy to sew on buttons, especially with some of the interesting buttons you can get today!
You dont want the buttons you sew on a cardigan to look loose and dangly…Sometimes the chosen buttons can be too heavy for the knitted fabric. (This is fairly common with heavy pewter or other relatively heavy metal buttons.) The easiest way I’ve found around it is to sew on a smaller “backing button” along with the main button, but on the back of the buttonband. This goes a long way to stabilize the flopping button, and also keeps the knitted fabric more stable. The backing button can be an inexpensive plastic button that matches the buttonband color as closely as possible.

SO: Reinforcing with a clear plastic button (on the buttonband’s wrong side) will help prevent your knitting from stretching out when you wear your sweater buttoned.

This is especially helpful with soft, less stretchy yarns like cashmere and alpaca.

If you’ve raised livestock for very long you learn that most animals who are not healthy, die and the issue stops there. The old farmers never ate sick animals, those got hauled away/burned/buried. An injured animal that wasn’t drugged is safe to be butchered, but the degree of injury would affect adrenaline and likelihood of toughness, thus the decision would have to be made carefully and that animal might be best as dog food. (more…)