You can add color and texture to your knitting by adding heavy thread or embroidery floss to your yarn and then just knitting regularly. It also helps keep lacy projects made on large needles keep their shape, as it won't stretch as much.
When I saw ecru embroidery floss for several skeins at $1, I snapped it up to use with my knitting. I have also found (in thrift shops) industrial spools of tweedy thread with blobs of color which adds a tweedy effect to plain colored yarn.
By pam munro from L.A., CA
Last summer a group of women recycled wool and other materials to knit covers for poles which had been used in the past for drying fishing nets.
A while back, a woman asked about how to knit or crochet. Here is what you do. You make a loop with your yarn and place it on your knitting needle, that will be your lead needle.
I made what I thought was the "back" of a long vest and it turned out entirely too "wide", a big rectangle, in fact. So I re-purposed it, sewed around the top for a neck hole and made a poncho out of it!
What is the best "glue" to use to secure yarn ends when crocheting and/or knitting? Thanks for your response.
By applesauce from Alexandria, VA
You don't "glue the ends - just use a tapestry needly and "weave in" the ends. A google search will get you more specific info.
dj_pinkey was correct that you don't glue the yarn ends when crocheting or knitting.
However, if you are having problems with the ends unraveling while you are working on your project, the end of the yarn can be seared with a match or cigarette lighter. Most yarns are man-made fibers and they will melt. Be very careful the first time you try a yarn in case it is flammable.
Okay, I never have glued the end of yarn, even though I weave in the ends of the yarn, sometimes it still needs an extra 'something', but thanks anyway for your hints and advice.
Have a look here:
How to crochet lesson 5 Taking care of the tails
www.youtube.com/
Are you talking about the ends you have when you have to add or switch yarn? I never liked having the loose ends just woven in, taking the chance of it coming unravelled & ruining my hard work.
Hey everyone thanks for all the hints. After watching the video on "ends" I guess I've been doing them almost correctly all the time.
I've done that for years
I use a drop of clear nail polish on ends and then squeeze the end together with the part of the yarn where you want it placed. Used it for years on cross stitch, Swedish embroidery, knitting and crocheting. Give it a try and see how you like it.
I got psyched by the suggestion of using chop sticks as knitting needles and used the round Korean ones with the pointed tips, but the resulting gauge was really too small to make a narrow scarf out of the ball of bargain fun fur I had picked up.
It's spring and scarf season is over - so if you are a knitter - switch over to rectangular shawls. It's the same only a bit longer and wider!
Take an old fashioned writing pen, remove the tip, ink cartridge, and end cap. Thread yarn through the now empty tube. Use this to keep the yarn together when loom knitting and as a handle to wrap the yarn onto your loom.
One way to vary the knitting on all of your shawl projects is to practice using different knitting combinations of purl and knit to make patterns. (A knitting book will show you how).
There is a web site that is for knitters' questions/solutions. Would anyone know it?
Ravelry.com is a great site. It has what you are looking for plus patterns.
I was working on a knitting project recently, and the pattern called for stitch markers. I could not locate mine, but my husband came to my rescue.
When knitting or crocheting a pattern that has different instructions for each row I copied the pattern and cut out each row and put 1 row on a 3X5 blank index card and put it into the binder that comes with index cards. (I bought mine at Wal-Mart)...
