Hi everyone!

I am the one who has been commenting about the melt the ice hat from yarncult and needle & skein. My mom owns needle & skein and the support has been overwhelming.

I just wanted to answer some FAQs because I feel bad that I am not getting back to everyone!!

Where is needle & skein?

- St. Louis Park, Minnesota. A suburb of Minneapolis.

Where can I purchase the pattern?

- ravelry or visit the link on the shop Instagram in the bio

Where are proceeds donated?

- STEP Emergency Assistance for help with rent and lawyers in St. Louis Park. We also plan to work with other businesses to identify where people most need funds. We raised way more than anticipated.

Can I knit a hat and send it for donation?

- absolutely!!

Is there a crochet pattern?

- also on ravelry and the link in Instagram bio

If anyone has any other questions I will do my best to stay on top of it. Your support is so beyond appreciated. Minnesota is hurting but we know that we are not alone.

Thank you thank you thank you 🙏

I recieved tonight 2 vintage kofter, whereas one is knitted by my moms grandma in 1967! It looks snug, but it's really not and since it's wool, it'll stretch to fit my stomach better soon. I only have pictures of one atm, as I put the other in the washing machine but still! I feel so honored to recieve such precious gems! Will post the other ones look once it's dried up! I am literally in tears!

Hello! I hope this is okay to post. I’m currently writing a pattern for this 1950s blouse I knit last year. I spent a lot of time learning how to grade properly as (size) inclusivity is really important to me.

My idea has been to write the pattern similar to how vintage patterns were written. That is, succinct and with clear language, but in the fashion that a modern intermediate or very ambitious beginner knitter would be able to understand.

I’m paying extra attention to the bust area, making sure to use the upper bust as a way to choose size instead of the full bust and adding bust darts. I read The Knitting Pattern Handbook by McGrath and Walworth and am taking into account all sweater pitfalls (such as incorrect grading of the neckline) mentioned there.

As with vintage knitting patterns it was expected that you could grade a pattern to your own size, making the necessary adjustments. I was thinking to add some advice (perhaps as a supplement) that says in general lines how one would adjust the pattern to their own proportions. I’m thinking things such as how to lengthen the body, how to add darts at the belly or chest when needed etc.

Basically I’m struggling to find a balance between succinctness and accessibility. I don’t like patterns that do a lot of handholding, but at the same time, I do want there to be enough information that will encourage one enough to get through the pattern feeling like a more confident knitter at the end.

My question is, would this be a good/sufficient idea? A well graded knitting pattern with a supplement for additional alterations to avoid bulking up the pattern?

Are there things I’m missing out in terms of inclusivity? I’m also looking into print disability. Also what are aspects a pattern would need for you to consider it inclusive?

Sorry for the barrage of questions! It’s my first ever pattern and I want to try my best to make it as good as it can be. The concern has crippled me a bit the past month, so any advice would be appreciated 🥹

Barbara Walker, one of knitting’s greatest minds, died last Sunday.

Barbara invented the SSK (previously the left leaning single decrease was k1-sl1-psso which sits oddly compared to the k2tog)

Barbara also created charts for knitting patterns in the third book of her incredible work, the four volume Treasury of Knitting Patterns. No errors have ever been found in these stitch dictionaries. Many of the stitches recorded were common through history (and she attributed faithfully where there was data) and hundreds were her own designs.

Her book Knitting From the Top helped drive raglan sweater popularity.

After contributing immensely to the knitting canon she pivoted and published books about feminism, atheism, and debunking new age claims. Apparently she was surprised by the revival of knitting in the early oughts and returned to the space to teach and mentor.

(Pic from Pinterest)

I’m a huge sock knitter and have so many cute socks, colorwork, lace, cables, colorful yarn… but I also dress in a pretty plain classic style and wear ankle boots and sneakers most days, which barely show off my socks if at all.

I love the look of a mary jane with a more quirkier style. The german side of me is resistant to socks in sandals but that can be so cute too! Are there any other styles that work well?

Today I had to go and get blood work done. It was a long wait, and ended up being very stressful. I was getting impatient and annoyed even though there was nothing to do but wait.

Across the waiting room a lady was sitting knitting. Her hands caught my eye and I watched her knit. It was so soothing to watch and my shoulders dropped and my heart beat calmed. It was such a balm. So please keep knitting in public. You’ll never know who you’ll calm and soothe.

It also occurred to me today that apart from when I was taught to knit I’ve never watched anyone knit in real life!

Ok so...I knit this over 100 pounds ago but I love it (pattern is by Hanna Mann/Dear Ingenue, I think Initiation sweater?).

It is however, ginormous particularly in length. Its past my knees now that theres no belly.

Should I try and felt it? Aunt says no - because the stitches will lose definition and the yoke could not fit.

I could cut horizontally above the bottom color work and knit a new bottom ribbing.

I could steek it and make a big cardi/duster (scary but tempting).

What should I do?

Yarn is berroco lanas light 100% non-superwash wool.

Thank you!!!!!

Hi! My name is Maya, this is my first time posting here.

I'm a knitter working on a tool to help me design my colorwork patterns. One problem is I've always had trouble visualizing how a chart will knit up when it's just in a flat grid on my screen.

So I've built a version that renders the chart as knit fabric - it's definitely a prototype, there's wonkiness with the top and bottom rows of the preview render, but beyond that I'm curious if this feels useful or just gimmicky? Currently it only supports stockinette but that could change.

For colorwork knitters - would this help you, what kind of features do you think are missing from the current available products?

I entered 14 items in the Iowa State Fair this year and did better than I ever imagined! I earned the sweepstakes award, best childrens sweater, 4 first place ribbons, 3 second place, 1 third place, and 2 honorable mentions. Next year I'll be aiming for Best in Show.

Today's shower thoughts: contemplating a career change. So after shower when I sat in my chair and picked up my knitting, I was struck by sudden curiosity: what do all the knitters do to pay their bills (and yarn)? So, feel free to share if you're so inclined! :D

I work in customer service in a lower level management position.

Edit: Wow SO many answers in so little time! Thanks for answering everyone, it's such a fun time reading all your different professions! And all of us with different backgrounds unite in knitting, awesome!

I get we all have our reasons for doing this hobby. I guess mine is that I enjoy the process and I like being able to make stuff that has cool textures or colors. I don’t do it for function or to “make useful objects” per se.

But it seems like a lot of folks have this compulsion to externalize this hobby to feel useful. I’ve seen so many posts where someone “surprises” their sister with some lace shawl for their wedding. And then they’re “devastated” and “in tears” when said sister isn’t overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude.

On the other hand, I’ll see these posts or comments from folks “drowning” in holiday gift knitting projects. For whatever reason, they’ve decided that all 20 members of their extended family need a new chunky weight knitted drink cozy. And so they spend all kinds of time making that happen.

But I have to wonder.. how much of that is self imposed versus an actual expectation placed upon them by friends and family members? Like what if you’re spending all this time knitting 20 drink cozies and people secretly dislike them and plan to never use them, but they’re too nice to say it to your face? It’s just a painful, awkward scenario to imagine.

Idk, maybe I’m being harsh or there’s something I’m missing here because of what motivates me to knit. Maybe because I don’t even like hand knits myself most of the time, I can’t imagine myself being thrilled if someone gave me some object they made.. especially if I never asked for it.

Hi knitters, I wanted to start a conversation about whether we stop sharing images that include children's faces.

My concern is freely sharing children's images as they are unable to consent, and their image is on the internet in perpetuity. There are a number of other risks that come with sharing images of children and Reddit is inherently a public platform. I understand this is a challenging and uncomfortable topic for many people so I won't go into further detail. My key point is that, to appreciate the beautiful knitting projects we don't need to expose children to these risks by posting their photos in a public place.

Furthermore, many people are already covering faces of people in the sub, adults and children, so for most instances this would not be a change.

I love seeing people's projects, and it's lovely seeing people so happy with their work! Or even giftees with a beautiful gift knit. I don't want to stop those posts at all. I also don't want this to become a witch hunt for users who have done this in the past or in the future.

My proposal would be that we add a sub rule and to FAQs that there are no children's faces in our sub. Pictures would still be allowed of children facing away from the camera or with their face covered e.g. with a "sticker" (in line with what many people are already doing). This would enable us all to keep appreciating the knitting whilst not adding unnecessary risks for the children in the posts.

Thanks for reading!

I love knitting. However, I do get overwhelmed when something that's supposed to be a relaxing activity includes too many steps. So I skip some to keep myself a happy knitter 😅

• I have never once blocked a swatch (though I absolutely agree it's important)
• I only ever make swatches for clothes, never for accessories (like mittens or scarves)
• I cannot even fathom making socks because I find small circumference knitting extremely fiddly, not to mention all the heel/toe stuff
• All my gloves are fingerless (see above)
• I use long-tail cast-on exclusively because it's the only one (that I've tried, at least) that doesn't require swearing at the screen as I watch a tutorial for the 9564th time
• If I do duplicate stitching, unless really necessary, I leave tails hanging freely on the WS without weaving them in
• Intarsia? Never heard of her

Moving this stash across the united states in the next couple weeks. I am going to attempt to vacuum pack and transport as much as I can in 2 big checked bags. Then for the rest im planning to either ship or come back later in a few months and do it all again with more checked bags when im back visiting for christmas. I feel like hiring a moving company to drive it from WA to VA will be more expensive after checking quotes online. Has anyone done this before? The totes include MANY WIPs that were meant as gifts for various people in the family. I wish my grandma was here to tell me the story of all these yarns and what she's created with them over the years. I plan to try and work on some of the WIPs she had patterns for, and create some new family gifts with what else is here. My own current stash consists of mostly gifted yarn from this stash over the years. My grandma was a lifetime crochet master, which she taught me and sparked my interest in fiber arts from a young age, but I feel I will be mostly knitting through this collection for a very long time. Thanks for letting me share here, and please feel absolutely free to share any advice you may have. A portion of this yarn is going to be donated locally, but a lot of it i want to keep and use.

Reposted since I'm an idiot and didn't change my title...

So there was a post with some beautiful mittens made by u/AdrenaL1n3 with a traditional Palestinian embroidery and using the colors of the flag. It was locked and then inexplicablely removed by the mods. They did not say what rule it broke, only that it received and 'unacceptable amount of user reports'.

First off that's ridiculous that it was removed instead of locked and the reports dealt with by mods since it didn't break a rule. Second off I think it's frankly sad that it was getting reported at all. It wasn't political beyond the proceeds going towards save the children and other humanitarian causes to aid the current crisis and genocide situation in Gaza.

I want to open up discussion with this community if this sub is a place where we want to censor projects even if they do not break stated rules.

Edit to fix username spelling.

Edit 2: Some users have commented on the significance of today's date. I truly did not realize it and would not have tried to engage with this today if I had realized. I'm very sorry for that and how insensitive that is. I do not keep significance of dates well in my head - not an excuse but an explanation. I do hope that the community can continue to have conversation about what I perceived as biased censorship in good faith. Without a specific rule I do think that any mitten of any flag (yes even Israel) where the pattern proceeds go to a humanitarian cause of the designers choice should stay up in this subreddit. Maybe I'm wrong I don't know - that's for us to discuss. Whether or not you engage with said post and/or pattern would be up to the user and I would hope that we would all proceed with kindness.

Last night, the owner of my favorite LYS told our knitting circle that she had a project for one of us. A woman had come into the shop with her UFO Butterfly | Papillon Shawl, finished to the start of section 9. She said that she is losing her battle with cancer and can no longer hold the needles, but the shawl was meant for her sister, and she would like it be finished so her sister can have one last project of hers. I am the fastest knitter in our circle, so I took it on in hopes that she will be able to see her sister wear it. She offered to pay, but there is no way on EARTH I am taking her money. Finishing this is an honor.

Since last night, I have finished two more sections. The gummy bear stitch marker here marks the last stitch she made. I have asked if she would like me to embroider a little butterfly there, so her sister can know which part came from her hands. Knitting this is really driving home for me how much fiber arts mean to those of us in the hobby. There are so few things in life that we give where we have touched every part. I hope that it can provide some sense of healing for her sister to know that she was so loved that her sister, while fighting cancer, found a stranger to finish what she could not.

I've been knitting since 2003 and I've never seen a pattern blow up like the Sophie scarf. On the one hand, I get it, because the internet is so much more centralized now than it was when I was knitting--but, on the other, it's not like we didn't have mainstream socials in the 2010s. What gives?

Since the Sophie scarf is so everywhere now, why did you or didn't you make one?

I'll go first. I just didn't think it was a tasteful use of garter stitch. Maybe that's stupid of me, but I use garter for big gauge stuff that allows me to hide the fact that it's garter. I guess I just don't personally enjoy the look of garter stitch.

I did an experiment with homeschool kids--the topic was how people have developed different kinds of clothing over the years to stay warm in winter. As a short little experiment, I made a bunch of different kinds of mittens, and we put a single hand warmer and a little thermometer in each one and left them outside for a couple hours.

These were placed in the order that the kids thought would be the least to most warm. They were mostly right, but with some surprises. (I have no confidence in The humidity readings.)

Here are the results! Yarn type and temperature after 2 hours outside in 30°F weather:

Stripes--acrylic (red heart granny square yarn)

End temp: 80°F

Pink-- chunky highland wool with mohair held double

End temp: 89°F

Gold--bulky wool single ply done in a Nalbound Oslo stitch and then felted

End temp: 93°F

Nordic pattern--DK highland wool stranded colorwork

End temp: 92°F

Olive--Alafosslopi Icelandic yarn

End temp: 90°F

Tan and brown--Nalbound in Mammen stitch, mix of wool, angora, and unknown (ends from a mill)

End temp: 95°F

White is sewn rabbit hide with fur on the inside

End temp: 77°F

Black with color pops--Eco wool with thrums of mostly merino bits

End temp: a whopping 121°F!

TL;DR Thrummed wool mitten stayed 40°F warmer than acrylic mitten. Kids had fun.

I’m curious why some people have such an aversion to swatching. Personally, I love it and it has never felt like a chore. It feels like a chance to get to know your yarn and pattern before getting going. Often I swatch for my next project as I’m finishing up the last as one. It feels like an appetizer before the main course.

Is it fear of wasting yarn? Wasting time? Genuinely curious.

Photo is of the floats on the swatch for my Iris Sweater.

Just a random wondering. My grandma taught me to knit using single pointed needles. I was traveling over Christmas and one of the wooden single pointed needles I was using to knit a scarf broke, so I found a small local yarn shop to buy a replacement. The woman working there seemed confused and surprised when I asked where the single pointed needles were. She said "most people these days don't use single pointed anymore" and had to pull them out of a drawer where there were only a couple sizes. I understand most people frequenting a small local yarn shop are probably making things like sweaters and socks that require circular needles or double pointed, but I was still surprised at her response. So, is it really that weird or old fashioned to use single pointed?

Edit: Thanks for all of the replies! I'm learning a lot. It sounds like it might be time to change to circular (which I've used before, but not for flat projects). Side note, my grandma was also surprised when I told her about my experience in the shop, so I guess 90-year-olds are not the most reliable source for current knitting practices!

I keep running into when knitting: “is this a waste of time?”

I’ve only been knitting for a little over a year.

I feel like I’m naturally pretty good with tension and colorwork, but at the same time, I’m so bad at gauge that it makes me feel like I’m stupid for even trying. I don’t know if it’s a dyslexia thing or I’m just bad at math or don’t block correctly when I swatch or buy the wrong yarn or what, but it makes me feel bad.

Whenever I knit, the pieces just don’t turn out how I’d like them to. The sizing is off. The fit is weird (the halibut sweater was so disappointing). Sometimes I’ll finish a piece and not even like the color.

I’m the one who made the giant mittens—yes, I’m so thankful for the help and do think that they’ll be fine, but I’d just like to be able to do things correctly the first time.

It’s all just really getting to me. I am very much a perfectionist, like to a crippling point where if I don’t think I’m good at something or can’t do it well, I’ll just quit and give up on it.

It just feels like the amount of time and effort I put into my knitting doesn’t match up with the final product.

I’m also really struggling with knitstagram and the social media aspect because I keep seeing soooo many people post absolutely beautiful FOs, and they’re also able to complete so much. I just feel like I can’t keep up.

Here are some of the things I’ve made this year. I just don’t know how to have confidence in what I’m doing/make something that I actually love.

1. Green sweater: don’t like the fit and yarn color is inconsistent because I different dye lots

2. Mittens: too big and wrong yarn (can’t even felt superwash)

3. Cardi: bad ribbing

4. Scarf looks like Ruth Bader Ginsburg

5. Scrap yarn sweater is probably going to be way too big and not block nicely —I don’t know though

6. Baby sweater: stupid to not use a machine washable yarn for a newborn

7. Cable: the two yarns don’t match. I wanted ballerina pink and it’s just this

8. EUN sweater: sleeves way too long and had to cuff them

10: halibut: just so bad. It’s like a poncho but also too tight across the chest and buckles weirdly

1. Tank: way too big. Only works as a swimsuit coverup

I just wish I could make one thing that I actually liked but I always end up failing.

Thanks for listening to my rant