I dread the day I learn to sweater, this is gonna happen to me I just know it (right now I have two blankets on needles...and it's soon to be four socks on needles, once I finish off the skate guards I promised my future bro-in-law)
I have finished cutting out all the pieces for both dresses! It was close for the second dress, and I did heck up somewhere along the line because I didn't quite have fabric in the right configuration so that I could get both sleeves cut on the grainline - but fortunately, it's got one of those prints that looks basically the same no matter which way it's oriented, so my mistake won't be obvious (hopefully) to anyone else who looks at it once the dress is finished. Now I just need to finish sewing both dresses. I'm planning on blitzing through the second dress up to the zipper step, tomorrow, and then doing the zipper on both dresses; I'd rather not have to mess around with switching out the foot on the sewing machine more times than I have to. (And if I really, really have to, I'll just...hand-stitch the zipper in. It'll take longer, and I might need to pin them in place and finish them on one of the sewing machines on the cruise, but it's an option. All the pattern calls for is basting it into place, so it shouldn't take that long to sew it in by hand if I have to; it doesn't have to be perfectly sewn, it just needs to be secured into place. So I may do that anyways, because I think I'm starting to psych myself out with the idea of having to work with the zipper foot for the first time.)
Front for the second dress is pieced together, and I got the first dart for the back done. All the seams have been pressed, I've been pressing as I go. (Because not doing that is Pain.) My low back is Not thrilled, but I think it may still be complaining from having cut the fabric yesterday.
Accidentally switched stitches. This is why you don't abandon your projects for weeks. :/ Spoiler: Not sure how big
Dresses are getting close to finished! I've got the zippers put in (I hand-basted them), and now it's just putting in the facing and the sleeves and doing the hems. At least, those are the three remaining steps I know of, directions will say if I need to do more than just that. Bonus of doing the facing: I gotta flip the dresses right-side out first, so that I can pin the facing in, which means I can figure out where the pockets need to go and seam rip.
Facing is in, and so are the pockets! I did one set half by hand - attached them to the dress by hand, then sewed them together by machine - because I'd learned with the first set that there just wasn't quite enough space in the pocket opening to get it around the free arm properly. I did need to adjust the pockets on that one, though - I put the first one in at the wrong spot, having somehow managed to seam rip two openings on the same side of the dress. Now I need to do the sleeves and then hemming. And then throw them in the wash to get the chalk markings off. God help me, I need to do the sleeves.
The dresses are done! I'm not thrilled with the sleeves, but considering that I got told last night that we're leaving today, I'll live with it. I can rip the sleeves out and redo them so they don't look rushed and amateur later. Right now, they're hemmed, washed, and packed - that's all that matters. (Although the space fabric frays like hell; I'm glad I hemmed all the exposed bits that could possibly fray before washing it.)
Soooooo I'm trying a new thing - I did an unboxing video for my fiber club! Spoiler: video I really just wanna ramble about fiber? I feel like I'm always very awkward on video but oh well.
Okay, question: when knitting, do right handed people generally hold the string with their right index finger or their left (and vice versa)? Because I started out with my right but have switched to my left some time when I wasn't paying attention, and now I'm curious.
I have it wrapped around my left index I'm p sure, since it needs to be held so i can grab it with the working needle (right), but i believe there's different approaches, just how i can literally ask any of my acquaintances who knit to pick up stitches for a start and they all do it wildly differently (Which i don't mind I can't do it well at all it ties my brain in knots lmao, i can only do pickup on a knitting loom)
i usually hold it with my right hand or have it wrapped thru my right fingers if i care about tension
I usually do right index, bc I can only do knit stitches with left not purl (it gets all twisty and hecked up and I haven’t debugged that yet). Sometimes if it’s a project where I’m just knitting though I’ll switch to give my hand a bit of a break bc I have RSI. I’ll also, if I’m knitting something two color stranded, have one color on right and the other on left. Also if you didn’t know, there are names for these! There’s english vs continental (I thiiiiink english is right for righties and continental is left, but I’m bad at remembering this one). These are also called throwing vs picking, bc w right you “throw” the yarn around the needle but with left you “pick” at it with the needle.
english is right handed knitting, continental is left, it's definitely not a lefty righty thing because p much everyone I know does it the way they learned it, not based on dominant hand. I'm also right handed, but I knit continental, and I'd like to learn one strand in each for double knitting purposes... iirc it's a little assumed that you'll eventually pick up both for colorwork
...i just realized i guess i was assuming lefty knitters do everything mirrored? like go left to right. but that... doesn't make any sense. i was writing up a whole thing about how i thought the finger used for picking/throwing flipped for lefties, but realized that doesn't make sense.
oh man, no, it's...well the only thing reversed I've heard is that purl is a little easier for righties, and knit is a bit more of a wrap? so like, the motions are reversed, the fingers are basically the same!
So, we have a Lot of very fine (as in width) mohair blends that mom got like ten years ago and we never really did anything with. Any suggestions for projects? (They are so fuzzy.) Edit: mom says it's fingering.
I want to practice some lace knitting techniques in prep for an actual project. The lightest weight yarn I have rn is approximately sport. Would I just bump up the needle size by like two to get a lacy gauge? I’m gonna get proper lace weight yarn eventually but I want to practice with what I have for now.
