Knitting for stress

[get the red out]

Strangely enough, I just stumbled onto this group. I have crocheted for years and started knitting last fall (just couldn't get it until someone told me about "Continental Style"). I have been knitting non-stop since then, I love the peace I find from being able to focus on the stitches and see something emerge. I also tend to get horrifically stressed over politics, and I doubt there's enough yarn here in Kentucky to get me through that idiot Rand Paul, but I will keep trying.

I just finished a little cardigan for my niece for her third birthday in September, and immediately started a cardigan for her big sister's 7th birthday, which is the same month and day! I started the swatch on the new sweater right after blocking the one I had just finished. I think I'm addicted, but I don't care, the relief I get from my little projects is amazing!

I guess I'm a stress induced knitter!

[NEOhiodemocrat]

1. I am impressed

with your knitting progress. My one daughter learned to knit at college and taught me, must be about 4 years ago. The family teases me that I had the year of the scarf, then the year of the dishcloth, followed by the year of the hat. I still haven't worked up to an actually fitted item, a sweater would stress me out! I knit while I watch TV, especially news or political shows! I like your quote
"I doubt there's enough yarn here in Kentucky to get me through that idiot Rand Paul, but I will keep trying." Enjoy, and you are an inspiration! Maybe I will attempt something new next item.

[surrealAmerican]

2. You sound like you're ready for ...

... socks!
They're a fairly quick project, and the shaping you'll learn will give you confidence for larger projects too.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

3. I always thought socks would be very difficult!

Maybe I will be brave and try some now. I do shape for the hats so guess it is a possibility. Made some knitted slippers, but they were flat odd shaped and then just sewed up some on the sides to make into shape of slippers. But I sure never considered socks a fairly doable item to knit...hum, now I am intrigued!

[surrealAmerican]

4. If you've worked "in the round" for hats ...

... most of the work on socks is just a familiar straight cylinder with some tapering at the toe which is also similar to the shaping at the top of a hat.
The trickiest part is the heel. If you're not ready to try the traditional sorts of heel flap or short-row heels, you could try a pattern that calls for something called an "afterthought" heel (also known as: "peasant heel" or "toe-heel"). It's done pretty much the same way as the toe.

[get the red out]

5. Thanks!

I got so enthusiastic when I was finally able to knit and not have it look like crap that I went all out and decided I wouldn't give up on projects I wanted to create no matter how many times I had to rip. I think of it as a "learning experience", which has become my mantra, LOL.

I agree with surrealAmerican, socks are wonderful! I really got a kick out of knitting them for Christmas presents. I learned on the Silvers Sock Class web site. I struggled through my first heel but after that it started clicking in my brain and making sense. The internet has been a great resource, I wanted so badly to learn to knit as a child but I knew no women who knitted (crochet was the popular hobby where I grew up, and embroidery), at least in middle age I get to learn something I always wanted to learn.

I get so stressed over politics anymore that I am past being able to watch political shows often, though I read a lot of liberal blogs. I am glad to have knitting and my meditation class, I really "don't play will with others" who have surrendered their sentience to tea bagging or conservatism. I am dreading spending time with my husband's uncle from South Carolina this Memorial day, he loves SARAH....... enough said. Where's the extra sock yarn?????? I may need two projects to go for this one, and a meditation download on my iPOD.


Silver's Sock Class: http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/

[NEOhiodemocrat]

7. OK, socks it will be, but probably in the fall,

I am deep in garden work now, and my this year craft project is learning to weave! I love it, have a small 24 inch table loom and a 4 foot rug loom someone just gave me. For the last few years I have been trying to do some of those things I have wanted to for years, hence the knitting. Also learned to play the piano! Well, only simple Christmas songs, but that is all I have really ever wanted to play anyway. I would like to learn to crochet also, so many things to try, so little time. Thanks for the website, I am going to go check it out now and bookmark it. Maybe I won't be able to wait until fall for socks. But I already have a basket weave scarf started for a gift for my daughter's boyfriend and need to make a scarf and hat(and maybe mittens?) for my grandson's first birthday in September to match the snowsuit I got him. How do mittens rate on the scale of 1-I can actually do this to 10- I would rather pull my hair out?

[surrealAmerican]

8. If they're for a small child, ...

... go ahead and try the mittens. They'll take your undivided attention, but since they're so small, it won't be for much time. Find the simplest pattern you can, and don't try to embellish it. On that 1 to 10 scale, they shouldn't be more than a 6.

[Warpy]

6. I know people who started knitting for all sorts of reasons

including dieting and quitting smoking. It's a pain in the neck to put down to feed another addiction, so it pretty much works.

I've also noticed that dull TV becomes quite riveting when my hands are busy doing something, whether it's spinning or knitting up what I've spun.

Plus, at the end of a few hours, you've got something useful.

[kcass1954]

9. I don't knit - I'm a quilter - but I know exactly what you mean.

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting at my sewing machine and seeing something new begin to take shape.

I get so much PTO at my job that I have trouble using it all up, so it's been vacation week for me. Sunday, I pieced a child's quilt to be donated thru quiltsforkids.org. Monday and part of Tuesday, I pieced 40 blocks for a Wicked Easy quilt using civil war reproduction fabrics. Tuesday, I quilted a Sunbonnet Sue angel quilt to be raffled off at my guild. Yesterday, I made 80 blocks for the sample quilt of a class I'm teaching next month, and squared up 56 already-pieced blocks for an autumn throw. Today was lunch with one of my quilting buddies, and we did our part to pump some money into the local economy via a couple of our favorite quilt and fabric shops. Before I go go bed tonight, I plan to complete the quilting on that child's donation quilt. Tomorrow, I'll make an animal-themed quilt for a friend who just had a baby (picked that kit up today at the quilt shop for a song). And before I go back to work on Tuesday, I should have 6 more pillowcases finished for the 1-million pillowcase challenge.

I've been very, very busy. And I am the most relaxed I've been in a long time!

[Lars39]

10. I understand that you piece on your machine,

but how do you quilt on it? I'd love to be able to do that! I inquired about having someone machine quilt a top I'd made and was quoted a $100-250 range! Yikes!

[kcass1954]

11. I paid $50 to have a baby quilt done. It was for someone I'm close to, and

a friend who's a long-armer offered. It was just before Christmas, and her business was down, and I had the money to pay for it then.

My guild had a member with a long-arm machine do our raffle quilt last year. King-size quilt - custom, hand-guided quilting - $369. (She's not doing the next one. )

I've never made a quilt larger than twin-size, although I'm working on one now. Once I get that top complete, it'll probably sit until I can afford to have Pat do it. I usually do just straight-line quilting, and sometimes I tie them. Wall hangings and table runners are small enough that they're easy to deal with.

[Lars39]

12. What would we do without our friends.

I know a lady in my hometown who will do them for the bargain basement price of $25. Guess I better get busy before she retires, or learn the other techniques. :)

[xultar]

13. You still knitting? I just got deep into it myself. I love it. It is great for stress.

[Nite Owl]

14. It is such a stress reliever

I knit through Keith and Rachel. Sometimes in the afternoon but I usually don't have much time during the day. Working on an aran sweater, my first sweater besides a couple of baby sweaters which were pretty easy and small. I prefer the little things but a friend really wanted this sweater.

Have you joined Ravelry? Lots of patterns and some good boards there, even some liberal knitters boards.

Good luck and stress free knitting!

[Donnachaidh]

15. want some fun to burn off stress? Try entrelac knitting

There's counting involved, and corners are tricky, but it sure forces you to focus on what's directly in front of you. I'm hooked!

Google for patterns -- lots of them on the net.

[get the red out]

17. Looks wonderful!

I am starting to enter the world of lace knitting right now. I have had a hell of a stressful year with family illness and the death of my Dad and then having to put my Mom into assisted living; along with the good stress of getting a new puppy through her first year in our home. I only managed to knit one sweater all winter. I cast on for my first shawl this weekend though and I'm enjoying it so far. I have done two previous lace projects, but not a true shawl. This lace business also forces one to think about what's in front of them.

I was looking at a knitting magazine in line at the fabric store Sunday and started thinking that entrelac needs to be on my "knitting to do" list.

[shanti]

18. yes, i love entrelac too!

just finished my second lady eleanor wrap, this one in silk garden (like your photo?) noro is the perfect yarn for entrelac. it looks so difficult and complicated, but is quite simple, and such great results!

:hi:

[Arkansas Granny]

16. I've been crocheting for over 40 years and had learned a few basic knit

stitches years ago, but I have just picked up knitting again. I've finished a few simple projects, scarves and slippers, but I'm ready to get into something bigger. I like to knit or crochet while I watch tv. It not only relaxes me, but I love seeing something lovely emerge from a strand of yarn.

[EFerrari]

19. I learned how to crochet when I was like 5

and can't knit worth a darn. It always looks chewed by wild animals.

But I was remembering today that when the boys were little, I free formed a crocheted creche because I didn't want to be yelling at them not to touch ours and couldn't afford the $25 for the Woman's Day pattern. I did it on the commute and the boys loved it. Since the figures are small, if you go wrong, it's not a big deal to unravel and right yourself. I never did learn what the pattern called for in stuffing but I just stuffed the figures with the same yarn. The angel's wings can be supported with pipe cleaners inside and same for the animals' legs. It was fun, maybe more fun than following a pattern. And I figured out you can't smoke and crochet at the same time. lol