thegiddystitcher

The title makes a bold claim, I admit. But go with me here.

This is the Tea Rose Slip On by Retro Claude, knitted in Stylecraft Special XL which is super chunky 100% acrylic yarn. Definitely not what you think of when you think knitted jumper!

I only tried this as an experiment because I happened to have the yarn lying around after buying it for an abandoned wedding-related idea at the start of the year. Figured I had nothing to lose!

It was an EXTREMELY quick knit, the yarn is incredibly soft and lovely, and the colour. Be still my heart 😍

The pattern is free and the designer is honest about only having tested the size S. As a result, the neckline in my size L turned out to be waaaaay too wide even for someone who loves a good wide neckline. So I just grabbed a crochet hook and slip stitched around and problem solved! Albeit in a slightly sloppy way.

So yes, conclusion, super bulky jumpers CAN work and not be frumpy and awful to wear. One day I'll post a photo of me actually wearing it to prove that last part but, as Aragorn would say, it is not this day.

(Sorry to anyone who saw this on Mastodon already for the repeat. Crossposting between the two is temporarily broken, because of course it is 😅)

#SkipTagginator

Everything about this is wrong in every way.

Shame on you, Sainsbury's.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/17097990

Behold the socks that created my obsession! These were actually the third pair I knitted but the first ones that made me understand why knitted socks are so great.

The pattern is the classic Hermione's Everyday Socks, and the yarn is a special blend of all kinds of things including silk and bamboo, bought as a souvenir from a shop called Yarnia in Portland during a big US road trip we took in 2015. You can sort of see the different strands in it in this pic here.

These are my lucky socks. I wore them to job interviews, I wore them the day I got accepted into uni, and I wore them for confidence whenever I was doing something scary.

Alas, after years of heavy use, one of them has a hole in the ball of the foot and I expect the other one won't be far behind.

So given that for once I've managed not to overburden myself with Christmas crafting this year, I think my project for the holidays is going to be to learn how to fix these. At least they'll be usable for wearing around the house, and given they're 8 years old that's pretty good going really!

(Please excuse the wildly different colours from one image to the next, this was a long time ago and I did not know how to camera)

Behold the socks that created my obsession! These were actually the third pair I knitted but the first ones that made me understand why knitted socks are so great.

The pattern is the classic Hermione's Everyday Socks, and the yarn is a special blend of all kinds of things including silk and bamboo, bought as a souvenir from a shop called Yarnia in Portland during a big US road trip we took in 2015. You can sort of see the different strands in it in this pic here.

These are my lucky socks. I wore them to job interviews, I wore them the day I got accepted into uni, and I wore them for confidence whenever I was doing something scary.

Alas, after years of heavy use, one of them has a hole in the ball of the foot and I expect the other one won't be far behind.

So given that for once I've managed not to overburden myself with Christmas crafting this year, I think my project for the holidays is going to be to learn how to fix these. At least they'll be usable for wearing around the house, and given they're 8 years old that's pretty good going really!

(Please excuse the wildly different colours from one image to the next, this was a long time ago and I did not know how to camera)

Got myself into a bit of a pickle, same as basically every year, where I probably need to make something for my grandma but am out of ideas.

So I thought a thread about what sort of gifts we're all making might be fun but also might kick my brain into gear ideas-wise 😄

My mam has requested I sew her a draught excluder for her living room door, which is a sewing project so simple even I presumably can't muck it up. But so far I've got no real knitting plans beyond a vague "make some tiny last-minute baby stuff for new parent friends".

Dazzle me with your festive knitting plans!

Mod: if you want to steal bits of this for an official sticky thread of your own or whatever feel free.

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We're at the end of our rope with Asda. Everything is being substituted, and we're fine with that when it's just another brand of the same thing but like they're sending entirely different vegetables to the ones we need, they're substituting meat-free ordered items with actual meatballs, etc etc. It's got the point where the delivery guy just apologises sadly every week.

It's possible to set "do not substitute" on everything but it's a ballache, and then we'd still have to go shopping anyway since half our order would still be missing.

So. Which supermarkets actually deliver most of what you order? Or at the very least, have a sane policy of substitutions?

Thanks!

Edit: Added a cute dog pic for a bit of extra casualness.

Just wanted to drop in and say, bloody hell, this is actually great! I was expecting people to have much worse taste in music. DJ shows I've managed to catch have been full of bangers too.

Keep up the good work!

(Please forgive this being a day late, it's a busy weekend in our house and I lost track a bit. Paying the "elderly dog we're dogsitting" tax by way of apology)

The observant among you will realise I totally put this theme here in the calendar because I knew I'd have a doll to knit for my friend's baby. Forward planning, baby (+ toddler)!

We've almost all either got kids of our own, or been recruited to knit tiny things for someone else's tiny people. So let's see what sort of things you've been making for the little ones!

Technically the winner of the Halloween theme was...um...me. And I hate that so will just breeze past it, but I do love the socks so have put them in their rightful sidebar spot anyway 😂

Speaking of which. This fortnightly themes thing was a fun experiment, but clearly we don't have the numbers to support the current format and make it competitive. I hugely appreciate everyone who entered a project so far, and have really enjoyed seeing your work, but I also don't want anyone to feel like they have to post just to avoid me looking like a billy no-mates.

SO. On that note, I throw it open to you. What would you like to see going forward?

a) wider-ranging, more general themes?

b) longer timescale for each theme?

c) get rid of themes entirely and try something else?

Maybe instead of people submitting individual posts we can have a sticky thread prompt of the week or something, idk, just brainstorming. Feedback welcome, and if none is forthcoming I'll just try more stuff until something sticks because I have no shame 😉

Please excuse the poor quality photo, I finished weaving in the ends JUST as our annual Spooktacular movie marathon was kicking off so it was heckin' dark and spooky in our living room 😂

Spiderweb top as per the tutorial here: https://youtu.be/VtQjWlf8NKA

Random black fingering weight yarn I had lying around 🤷‍♀️

Tbh the pattern is not amazingly well-designed, there are weird gaps under the arms and it assumes your body has certain proportions that mine does not (it's very tight around my hips, and fixing that the way the video suggests would result in the neck being way too big).

But it's also a very quick, very simple bit of fun, and I'll probably spruce it up a bit with some fixes for next year so I can wear it outside the house!

🕸🕸🕸

Edit: We have established that everyone here is in fact old.

Like, I say that I'm getting old. I make jokes all the time about being middle aged. But I never really felt old until now, you know?

This realisation is brought to you not by random aches and pains, not by the ever-increasing number of grey hairs, not even by my long list of old lady hobbies.

But rather by how much I'm looking forward to spending a thrilling Friday night *checks notes* watching Top of the Pops reruns with the folks over on Mastodon. It's kind of hilarious because the rest of the week the #TOTP tag is usually all internet security and whatnot, and then we just shamelessly take it over for a couple of hours every Friday.

Missed it last week because husband was out somewhere so we caught up later, but it wasn't the same without the live tooting gang. Really excited to get back to the routine!

What have I become 😭

Tell me about your exciting Friday night plans a day early, that I may live vicariously. Or maybe join me in my grumbles about advancing age, idc, just distract me from all the work I'm not doing right now.

Inspired by this post by @lazerp@lemmy.world , I had to make a start on my own spiderweb top last week. I'm a bit older and...let's say "slightly" wider...than the target audience so honestly not sure if it's going to work or not but it's so fast and cheap to make I figured why not!

The dummy was already wearing that hat, so it's just coincidence, but I will 100% be wearing those together as it's clearly fate.

Just a note for anyone else trying to follow the video tutorial linked in the OP, the white version that the designer is wearing has 11 segments (like mine) but if you follow the instructions she gives in the video you'd end up with 12. So just personal preference and something to bear in mind, there!

Hopefully I can get this done pretty quickly in between other projects. What else are you all crocheting this Wednesday?