Knitting Blogs

It has come to my attention that knitting blogs are a GOOD thing.

Obviously we all know this already but whist reading over my last two posts I was reminded of this fact for two reasons:

Reason 1 - Exposure of knitting numptydom and saving of unnecessary purchases (of needles - if not of yarn):
I was feeling frustrated because I thought that I needed to get a smaller needle size to try and get gauge for the lovely Flair - however if you already have too many stitches per inch and you knit with a smaller needle you will of course get more stitches per inch. Ah the simplicity of it all. Thankfully I didn't jump straight in and order the 3.75mm circs as I was thinking I would, and seeing it written out alerted me to my yarn addled thinking. That's the good news.

The bad news is that having re-measured the swatches I found that I had the right gauge on the 4.5mm needles. I quickly abandoned this swatch as the fabric is quite loose and not what I would like at all. So it would seem I have added some Patons Cotton DK to my stash and must still buy the yarn for Flair - I'm thinking I might skip straight to the Blue Sky cotton Wendy knits the original in and have done with it. Sometimes in life it's worth paying full price.
Reason 2 - Knitters are lovely:
Knitting blogs are also very GOOD as when you finish something you feel slightly dubious about and everyone is lovely about it you start to like it more - thank you all :o)

Comments

Reckless Glue said…
Hi :) I think I found your blog through knit and tonic ...and I'm planning to knit the flair myself (and I'm also a relatively new knitter as well) so I hope you don't mind if I peak in on your progress every now and then (and hassle you if I'm having troubles!)
:) cara

I just bought a whack of yarn for but haven't even begun to swatch let alone knit it...
Sarah said…
It sounds like the Blue Sky Cotton might be closer to an aran weight. By the way when I want to subsitute yarn I find this site really useful.

http://www.yarndex.com/

It always you to find all yarns with a similar weight and if you go into a particular yarn and click on the guage it always you to search by stitches to the inch as well.
Marianne said…
Well, you are getting all kinds of practice with those swatches!
Yes, I absolutely love Knitbloglandia.
Sarah said…
Cara - hurrah, we can have a mini morale boosting knitalong.

Kendra - that is one fab site, thank you. When I looked at the BSky last night the first thing I saw was that it was worsted weight - why didn't I notice that before I bought the DK? - oh well the stash monster is smiling!

Marianne - you know I quite like knitting swatches - they're about the right level of complexity for me most evenings! I may start posting them as FOs!
Charity said…
Like Kendra, I like to check out Yarndex for yarn comparisons. Wise Needle is also a good resource.

Sorry to hear about the yarn difficulties - have you thought about knitting Flair in the DK, and making a larger size? I have heard wonderful things about the Blue Sky yarn, though. :0)
Artis-Anne said…
Hey I think we have all been there :0 and that is a great site that Kendra has given you . I have a small piece of wood which I use when I am spinning that measures wraps per inch so that I can make sure I am spinning to the right gauge likewise you can use that with bought yarn to give you some idea ; or a ruler would do

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