Also, Valia, make sure when you purl you bring the yarn to the front of the needles first, and remember to put it back behind them when you return to knit stitch. I kept making this mistake when trying to purl without realising, it drove me mad!

Regarding what's the front and back, it doesn't really matter when you're doing knit stitch but when you purl things can get mixed up. I find the best way to remember is 'knit your knits, and purl your purls'. Namely, when you can see a knit stitch facing you, you knit that. You can tell which is which stitch by looking at the top row of stitches on your needle, as shown in this photo -

As you can see, the knit stitch has the yarn wrapped around it like a scarf, and the purl has the yarn has it going straight in front.

Finally, if you follow the 'knit the knits, purl the purls' for entire rows you get the stockinette stitch, which is my favorite. Essentially you knit a row, then purl the next (making sure the side you are knitting is the right one, by looking at the stitches). This gives you fabric with a purl stitch on the back and the neat looking stockinette on the front.

Keep trying, I taught myself to knit and it was an infuriating experience as you have no one to go to for advice, but it was worth it in the end I advise looking up some instructional videos on youtube, while books were helpful sometimes videos helped something I was struggling with click into place.

Thanks for the info, Susan's_look_a_like! I may've been doing my knit stitch wrong, then. Also, part of what I was confused about was whether the front and back were counted parallel to the knitting needle or perpendicular to it, but I think I've got it figured out now.
I did look at your blog (actually read the whole thing, I think ) and found it very interesting! I loved hearing about all your different projects and what all went into them. It really made me want to sew some stuff. Now if only I had time and could fix the sewing machine tension...

Thank you, Shantih! What you posted was very helpful---I definitely was not bringing the yarn forward. And remembering that the yarn is wrapped around like a scarf was very useful when I was staring at my stitches, trying to figure out what on earth was what.
Cool. I'll have to try the stockinette stitch now. Actually, I'm kind of fired up to try all sorts of knitting projects now.

So...I think I've got the purl stitch pretty much down! And I picked up my first dropped stitch today. I hope I did it properly...I didn't have a crochet hook with me, so I used my mechanical pencil.

wild rose, the embroidery is really pretty. (It looks like what we'd call counted cross stitch here... is it done on aida cloth?) Was it a kit or did you decide where to put the beads yourself?

*is still hoping for pictures of the 14th century dress*

Susan's_look_a_like, I too really enjoyed browsing your blog. You do a fantastic job finding and showing reference pictures for your projects. I just wish there were a few more pictures of the finished outfits. (Or am I somehow missing them?)

.I didn't have a crochet hook with me, so I used my mechanical pencil.

I've done that.

I have been knitting a baby blanket for my pastor's baby boy for weeks now and I finally finished! I made it on size 11 needles and it was 67 stitches wide!

Glad that helped, Valia. I often use a pencil to pick up dropped stitches as I don't have any crochet hooks but that doesn't always work if I'm using small needles, luckily one of the friends I live with is a crocheter so more than once I've ran into her room in a panic demanding to borrow one

That sounds really nice, Liberty. I've never knitted anything that big, I've always wanted to try making a baby blanket but no one I know has had a baby recently

I'm an illustration student and over the past few months I've fallen in love with sewing. Before then I struggled to even sew up holes in clothes or that sort of thing , but I've gone from that to spending hour after hour stitching things and pouring over different kinds of fabric and threads. I feel it's opened up a whole new door in my artwork and I can't begin to thank God enough for giving me this new passion. At the moment everything is hand stitched but I'm hopefully getting a sewing machine for my birthday. Just a simple one, and I still want to keep a lot of what I do done by hand, but I look forward to trying out new techniques and maybe speeding up a bit.
Most recently I've been working on little birds. My aim was to think up a basic pattern for one that I can use as a base to play around with several different ideas.
Here's a robin (a friend dubbed him 'Walter' )-

And the newest is a wren, on this one I tried out embroidering the back pattern rather than just sewing it -

They're both made from felt, which I love. It's pretty cheap, feels really nice and is so easy to work with (no fraying!).

My embroidery skills are in very early stages, so if anyone has any advice it'd be really appreciated I got a great book recently with tons of different stitches and good instructions so I've been trying to teach myself some more decorative stitches when I get the chance.

I have just learned to crochet (I am very much a beginner). This thread is an inspiration! Learning crocheting really tried my patience (which I don't think I have much of! ), and I still have more to learn, like crocheting "rounds" at a time. I am also still struggling with knitting (I can knit but not purl ), but now that I've been figuring out crochet, I'm going to work on that for awhile.

I'd love to be able to crochet an afghan, but surely that is too big of a job for a beginner so I think I will have to start with something smaller and simpler like a scarf first.

Meltintalle wrote:
wild rose, the embroidery is really pretty. (It looks like what we'd call counted cross stitch here... is it done on aida cloth?) Was it a kit or did you decide where to put the beads yourself?

I'm not sure what aida cloth is I'm not even sure of the Russian name for the type of cloth I used, much less the English one , ignorant me
It was a kit, I'm not good enough to make my own designs, I hope to be able to someday

Meltintalle wrote:
*is still hoping for pictures of the 14th century dress*

Sorry I haven't posted the dress yet, it's just that I haven't been able to decorate it as I am out of thread and don't have the money to buy it. I could post just the dressed, I don't see much point in that as it's unfinished. My mother is a bit leery in giving me money but I told my father and he said he'll help me out. My father also does tabletweaving so he's more helpful than my mother
I'm learning how to knit with one needle, it's a bit tricky (actually my father and I are learning together, it's actually kinda funny, usually one would think that a girl does things like sewing and knitting with her mother, I do it with my father ) I understood the basic principle and was just about to move on when I lost my knitting needle . I'm not sure where to look for it and I guess I'll just have to get another one

Lady Galadriel it's so cool how you are learning to crochet, I tried to learn when I was young but was to blonde and couldn't get the point, (I am very slow at learning such things I have what we call in Russia 'crooked fingers') I hope to start learning again someday, maybe after I have mastered knitting with one needle

Ok, so here's the place to talk about your Lord of the Rings etc. costumes!

I have the dress part for Arwen's Blood Red (got it as a velvety prom dress for 25 cents at a yard sale!), I just need to buy some red velvet for the sleeves and top part of the dress, and I need the trim for the sleeves and neckline.

I also have fabric for Arwen's Chase Dress! Not made yet, though.

I have some fabric that 'm trying to decide whether to make into a regency dress or a take-off of Lucy's Farewell Dress from PC. *shuts mouth about that in this thread *

So, what about you?

Lu

*puts hands in air and cheers*

I finished my very first costume, and it looks GREAT! I am so pleased with the way it turned out. It looks pretty authentic.

do you have a picture of it?

My aunt and I crochet a ton when I'm at her house. We made a frog, a wanna be dragon, and a caterpillar that looks like a sock! The dragon kinda looks like a pig! I love embroidery too. I have hand embroidered a frog prince and i showed it to my art teacher and she gave me 80 extra credit points. I also cross stitch too!

I'm not sure what aida cloth is I'm not even sure of the Russian name for the type of cloth I used, much less the English one , ignorant me
It was a kit, I'm not good enough to make my own designs, I hope to be able to someday

Aida cloth is a stiff fabric with holes in, like this -

I did my first cross stitch recently -

It's a Bruce Springsteen lyric I've got to admit that while I like the outcome and enjoyed designing it, I found the actual cross stitch process really boring so I don't think I'll be doing any more. And the aida cloth really irritated me, I think it was the stiffness.

Did you wash the cloth Shantih? It starts off full of starch or something. When I work on a big project, it ends up a whole lot limper at the end. It'll still be a little stiff, but that might make a difference for you.

I hand washed it in warm water before and after and didn't notice much of a difference. I did get the feeling that if I carried on handling it it'd eventually soften though (the excess seemed softer after the constant re-arranging throughout the stitching).

After you handle it more and more it will get softer until it feels right. This is strange but when I cross-stitch my hands sweet and it softens it. gross I Know but I wash it later. Is this the first time you have done this? Because when I started I hated the fabric too until I got used to it. Oh and if you iron it and you don't like the starchy feeling just don't spray starch on it. I would recommend it if you put it in a frame though. It kinda keeps it fresh and wrinkle free. You can Cross- stitch on other fabric too not just the fabric that most people do it on. Oh the last time I cross-stitched I remember listening to The horse and his boy on audio! HaHa Random