I was browsing hot patterns on Ravelry and came across this one a few pages in. It's truly the best thing I've ever seen. The name, the description, the pictures. I just can't. 😂

UPDATE: This is now the hottest pattern on Ravelry. Good work everyone 😂😂😂

This just happened and I absolutely had to share with people who would get it (and enjoy it).

I was just on a flight from LAX to SEA, knitting my little heart out (just started the Clematis Sweater by Emma Knits). We landed the usual way, but for whatever reason, the pilot had to slam on the breaks more aggressively than usual.

Ya’ll… my yarn YEEETED out of my lap and began its journey down the aisle. I watched on helplessly. It made it ALL THE WAY to the front. 😂😂😂

I leaned into the aisle and made it clear that I was the owner of the rogue hank, but there wasn’t much anyone could do.

The flight attendant snagged it when it was safe and I thought was going to bring it back to me, but did one better: she handed it to the first row who wound the yarn a bit before handing back to the next person. The whole plane knew the assignment. By the time it got back to me, there were so many people invested that there was a round of applause.

I definitely need to finish this project now… it has way too good of a story to go with it!

Faith in humanity: Restored.

(Videos in comments, some sweet ppl sent them to me!)

I'm reading Paladin's Grace and the protagonist knits in addition to being a soldier. He makes socks for all his soldier buddies. I don't often see knitting referenced in novels and I'm just so chuffed 😆

Husband washed my Ivy Sweater and put it in the dryer 😭

These scarves being sold at nearly $600.

They look like every beginner’s very first project with scrap yarn, uneven tension and missed stitches.

Consider me mind boggled.

I was making a Science themed scarf for a family member - pictured here are the electromagnetic lines and taxi cab number panels I designed. I’d done more panels, including hazard signs, Schrödingers cat, the Arecibo message and trigonometric graphs. I was on track to finish it by his mid October birthday, having worked on it since last November. Anyway, today it was in my backpack when I was robbed, along with my hand knit bee jumper. More upset about this than my laptop 😭 Just wanted to show my projects off here in lieu of being able to gift them 🧶 bee jumper based off petite knit’s foxtales, with re-designed yoke.

Update: For anyone who is interested, the colourwork charts for this pattern are available here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bee-colourwork-charts. Any proceeds raised will go towards new wool for the next bee jumper 🐝

i just finished my second olga sweater and i was ecstatic when i finally binded off and sewed all the ends in. i soaked it in warm water with wool wash (it’s friends extra fine merino wool), squeezed it gently, gently wrapped it in a towel, and laid it on the blocking board.

and it was huge.

this photo was after a full cycle in the dryer on delicate and warm as a last resort and that didn’t even help.

so now i’m stuck with this monstrosity and can’t stop crying.

i will never use this yarn again.

EDIT: after crying myself to sleep last night i decided to come back to this post and clarify some things. i’m not an experienced knitter, i’ve only made 3 (i believe) sweaters and only one of them turned out good. no, i typically don’t do gauge swatches, and to be honest yes it is out of laziness. but i also don’t think i deserve to be mass downvoted for admitting to not gauge swatching.

i’m currently dealing with some neurological issues, which are affecting my sleep, mental health, and motor functions. it’s taking a huge toll on me and i’ve had to take a break from working because of it.

this sweater was supposed to be the one thing that went right for me in the last few months. it was supposed to be a good thing that made me feel better to have finished it as i put 88 hours into it.

that’s why i was so upset about it. i guess it was just a reminder that not everything in my life right now is shitty, and it feels like i can’t even have that one small thing.

not to sound like a pity party but that’s the explanation for why i said i couldn’t stop crying. it just really hit a nerve for me.

so yeah. sorry i don’t gauge swatch

EDIT 2: i left the sweater laying flat on my bedroom floor the night i tried blocking it, and apparently the knitting fairies paid me a visit because it shrunk right up. the shoulders are still a tad bit wide, but i honestly don’t care about that. the length on the body and sleeves is exactly what i want.

no idea how or why that happened, but im not complaining

She picked out the yarn. She picked out the project - mountainberg by Bitchcraft (it’s a lacy tee with a deep V - she planned to wear it backwards so that the lace motif is in the front and the V is in the back). She even requested modifications to be done to the pattern (such as narrower body and smaller V-neck). I worked my ass out for a week straight to finish the project for her because she wanted it for our trip and thought about it less than two weeks before it.

I finished it today, past midnight. I even stayed up to block it, so that it’s dry in the morning. Now it’s dry, she tries it on and the first thing she does is make a face.

Because - even tho I warned her about it like a 100 times - she “didn’t realise” the neckline would be “so high up” when work backwards. And that she can’t pull it down because there’s a garter stitch detail on the shoulders. So she’ll just “wear it the proper way around, I guess”. Just to then point out how much better this would be if the lace went around the whole thing and not left a stockinette part in the middle - which again, I told her a thousand times - not only would be difficult to design because there are increases for the neck, it also plainly wouldn’t look good - there would be too much of everything.

So she’ll just sighs, says “guess I’ll wear it backwards as long as I can stand it and then put it on the other way around” and gives me back the project. No “thank you”, no “i love it”, nothing.

I mean, I didn’t expect gushing or whatever but I’m honestly so sad right now. I know her and I know it will grow on her - she will maybe even brag about it being made by her daughter - but jesus fuck, a “thank you” would be nice.

This happened yesterday and I’m torn between being amused, annoyed and a bit shocked.

I’m visiting my grandparents at the moment with my mother. My uncle, her brother, is also staying. He’s always had a thing for formal wear and dressing well, and recently he’s discovered that he likes knit ties, those silk, kinda mesh ones that are flat instead of pointy at the bottom.

Yesterday evening, we were watching a movie together and I was knitting during it. I was working on a lace top with 6 mm needles.

After the film, my uncle started talking about those knitted ties he likes and showed me pictures. He asked me whether I could knit that. I told him, probably yes.

He then proceeded to instruct me on how to do it. He said those needles I had there were way too big (obviously), and that I would need to sew a lot to make the tie, as it’s basically a double layered thing.

I told him that I’d make it in a tube, and he then told me all the ways that he would do it (he doesn’t knit).

It was kinda amusing to me to that point, until I started sort of teasing him that he can just make it himself, it’s not that hard and he already knows so much, I’ll even teach him the basics.

He reacted with clear discomfort and told me that knitting is a women’s hobby and that he had no interest in doing it because he’s a man.

That comment surprised me more than anything else. He was comfortable discussing the technical details of a knitted object and asking someone else to make it for him, but unwilling to consider learning the skill himself because of gender. I didn’t argue with him, but the exchange stayed with me.

I’m sharing this partly to get it out of my system, and partly because I’m curious how common this still is. Have others run into similar attitudes around crafts or hobbies? And how do you usually respond in situations like this without escalating things?

Thanks for reading.

Friends, today I come to you with grief. Last weekend I was the subject of a robbery; my car window smashed, my sense of safety violated. The thieves neglected to take my iPad from the backseat, and instead went for my most prized hand knit. Three months of labour. The most beautiful combination of Peer Gynt and mohair. The perfect oversized fit which provided both comfort and a sense of put-togetherness. Gone in an instant. I pray that ye hold thy sweaters tight today, for today, don’t forget, is all we really have 😔

This is probably an unpopular opinion but i don't care.

I have to say that I enjoy the community that social media helps us create but the other side of the coin is feeling like everyone is on a competition and it has ruined it for me.

People are obsessed with knitting faster, with having huge stashes to show and then be like tehee I bought so much yarn I'm so quirky and to have the best anesthetic pictures where the focus is the red cable on top of the bag of the expensive needles instead of the project. Everyone is knitting the same thin scarf, the same fish sweater, the same fox cardigan, buying from the same (in my opinion boring) designer. To be clear there's nothing wrong with any of this but when EVERYONE is trying to do it just cause they saw it on tiktok I kinda have to roll my eyes.

People post on r/knittinghelp feeling bad because they're not fast enough, they haven't learn to be perfect fast enough or stressing about perfect tension when they learned to knit 3 days ago... i just wanna shake them to tell them it's ok to make mistakes and to be slow.

Then is the dummification. People want everything explained immediately without having to put any effort. Like literally the other day one lady was asking for someone to explain short rows to her because the pattern just told her to turn after every row? Like there's nothing wrong with not knowing that's how they work but how hard it is to look for a YouTube tutorial? Hell ask AI or something.

And the cherry on top, some knitters/crocheters are straight up horrible people or bullies and can't help but to go around being an asshole to other creators.

Maybe it's because I'm a millennial but why is everyone just trying to one up each other all the time?

Edit:

1. if everything that you took from my post is that I want millions of data centers, AI in every service and for it to take the jobs of artists then you're exactly the kind of person I'm talking about in this post and the only reason AI has been so successful is your refusal to use your own brain and your 6 grade level reading skills.

2. You don't know where i live and how the situation is. I keep my distance from these older women for a reason. I refuse to hang out with those who call PoC "the blacks", make fun of whoever that has a foreign accent and that, at thr end, barely interact with me themselves because I'm "young".

Bright Student Knit Kids Cardigan by Yarnspirations

Hey Duggee motif designed by me!! :)

So before I begin, it’s important to note that my son has autism, and I want to clarify that I am in no way angry with him, just upset with myself and unyielding stubbornness LOL

I haven’t knit my son anything because at this age they grow so fast, he has sensory issues, and sweaters/cardigans are such a huge commitment (for me at least being a WFH and support needs mom). But I was getting sad because he’s getting bigger, and I wanted him to maybe have an heirloom or something in the future. So I said screw it im gonna make something even if he out grows it in a month.

I decided on the above cardigan and as I was knitting I realized the back was so empty and I could do something to make it special for him. Right now he LOVES the show Hey Duggee, so why not make a motif of his favorite character? I spent several hours creating a knitting chart and calculating how big it would need to be to fit on the back panel etc. Once I finished the chart I got SO excited, because I had never made my own chart and I was proud of how well it came out. (Mistake number 1: I shouldn’t have gotten so hype before making sure he was okay with the material)

Fast forward to when I completed sewing the piece together (before I added in the motif) and I had him try it on. He was not happy at all. Crying, screaming, the works. I had it on him for less than a minute, I just wanted to make sure it fit, which it did, and I immediately took it off. No amount of knitting is worth completely dysregulating him! At this point I really should have just accepted it, but I was dead set on finishing this cardigan because I HAD A VISION!!! I thought maybe he would be more excited once he saw duggee on the back, so I pushed on. (Mistake number 2: Special interests do not negate sensory issues.)

After several days of duplicate stitching Duggee, he began to take form, so I asked him to put it on again, still no dice. I was so close, and maybe he couldn't fully see that it was Dugee yet, so I decided to continue. (Mistake number 3: Always assume competence. He saw the chart and he knew it was going to be Duggee. Why didn't I let it go? Idk LOL)

Well, I finished the cardigan yesterday, and I showed him the motif which he was very happy about! He loved the button nose and pointing and singing head shoulders, knees and toes on duggee. I ask him to put it on again and of course he said "NO!" And I said “Why? You don’t like it?” And then he proceeds to tell me 

“uhh… put it in a trash...” 

As a support needs mom l was SHOCKED, but also could not help but to laugh. I felt proud that he was able to clearly communicate his thoughts and his feelings, but also slightly crushed after all that work. I knew better, but my knitter's pride knows no bounds.

Anyway, I just thought this was funny and I wanted to share with you guys, because I know at least you all will appreciate the effort! Thankfully my nephew is the same size as my son and he was more than willing to model it for me and i got to imagine what my son would look like if he wore it lolol

Even though he will more than likely never wear this cardigan, seeing his joy over his favorite character was enough for me. It’ll be a funny story to tell one day, and maybe he’ll pass it down to someone else in the future... Idk how to end this but I feel like there’s a metaphor in there somewhere… Sometimes things in autism aren’t always functional, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have meaning. His language, stims… this cardigan. They may not always follow their “purpose” in the typical sense, but I see him, his way of communicating, and I see how it all makes him happy. And really, that's all that matters to me.

But I guess the real moral of the story here is... don't let your knitting pride get in the way of reality LOL

I thought it was a stupid superstition. Been together almost 20 years, married with children, made him a an awesome cardigan in an old traditional pattern. He chose the colours, and the buttons. Hours of love put into it. Expensive quality yarn bought locally. I finish it, forsaking projects I would rather do, because I love him and want him to have something I made to keep him warm. A few weeks later he says we’re done out of the blue. FML. I even started on the same pattern for myself so we could have a matching set.

I’m never knitting for anyone other than me or my kids ever again!

***

ETA OMG I love you guys! Your comments made my day! I’ve been reading and cackling, trying not to confuse my kids by me giggling in the middle of a separation. I love this community, you are the best.

And seriously, seconds after I got the news, my expression went blank, and all I could think was ‘the sweater curse got me’. I even did my due diligence and knitted some of my hair into it. Non-knitters would never understand. I could never share this to the uninitiated without sounding crazy.

I was yesterday years old when I finally learned I have been twisting my PURL stitches! For like years without a care in the world.

This is my second shirt but first one where it’s knit in the round until the arm holes….. 🤦🏽‍♀️

So in a way excited because that probably explains sooooo much - including tightened gauge and why one side looked different. I will be frogged but once this is the best mistake I’ve ever made. Thanks for commiserating with me!

she was a BEAUTY a WORK OF ART my FIRST EVER COLOURWORK

i undid like 70% of the colourwork to REDO IT in the dark purple so it was visible (some of you may remember, i posted it here)

she was my PRIDE AND JOY

and she ACCIDENTALLY FELL IN THE WASHING BASKET

AND IS TINY TEENY TINY AND STIFF AND FELTED

absolutely devastated 😭 no coming back from this

RIP to my little bunnies + crab

Went to one of my local thrift stores and found all of these needles. Now, I know there are fakes sold online, but even then the chiaogoo needles and the clover interchangeable set are still going to be well loved regardless of authenticity.

These were all new in case or barely touched. Either someone launched into knitting before deciding it wasn't for them, or we lost a soldier recently. If it was the latter I'll honor them by actually finishing my projects 🫡

(P.S. I found this old singer sewing kit and was amazed to find it still in the wrapper despite the box being damaged. Can't find much about it online but I'm assuming it's an older edition of one of their modern kits.)

Please, please, PLEASE try amigurumi if you haven't yet.

There have been so many amigurumi patterns I've been eyeing, but doubted if I'd manage to knit them up. Gave the tsutsu bear a shot yesterday. I haven't felt this much joy in a while. It feels like when I first started knitting. The excitement of creating something out of a string. BUT NOW IN 3D!

If you feel like doing something fresh or something, I wholeheartedly encourage you to try amigurumi.

Just needed a place to grieve.

It's my birthday this month and my mom managed to snag a copy of this book for me off of eBay. Thrilled is an understatement.

…why, and are you psychotic? 😅

This is my opinion

At this point, I am TIRED of the whole "Choose continental knitting it's faster!!" or "Choose english knitting you get better results and tension!!". Even as a continental knitter or a picking knitter or whatever you call it, I find it irritating to see english knitters be told to use continental as it is "more faster" while I even see like in rarer cases throwers, flickers or english knitters say continental's tension is worse.

Personnally I choose continental because I crocheted first before I started knitting so obviously it's more natural for me and I can simply tension it more like I do with crochet by adding an extra loop on my pinkie. I have tried english knitting but either the yarn wool gets in the way or I find it super weird to hold my yarn and work my knitting at the same time. I can also do purling naturally like I am hooking the yarn with my needle like in crochet as if I'm yarning over my working needle.

Some prefer flicking, throwing, irish cottage, portuguese, russian styles of knitting for themselves. Like literally choose the one style or even make up your own style that you're more used to and the more muscle memory, you start to get faster.

tl;dr NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME MUSCLE MEMORY AND WAY OF TENSIONING YARN, let them be for god sake.

Sooo for the last week I’ve been seeing some moths in my house. I used to share a house with roommates and that came with a pantry moth infestation which has left me a but traumatised. So I initially figured a pantry moth hitchhiked to my new house with me and I went trough all of my dry food. The thing is that I already keep everything in glass jars so I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. And then it clicked: the moths were always in my living room where I keep my yarn 😩 So today I’m working from home and baking all of my wool clothes and yarns, and tonight I’m going to get more plastic bins to put everything in. No more cute crates to display yarn!

Edit: Wow I expected maybe 5 responses. Thank you all for your tips. As I've said in a comment below, I'm optimistic that thanks to all of your advice I will be able to get them out of my yarn. I have a little shopping trip planned tonight, all of my yarn has been baked and the big spring clean is on!