So, I just finished my ZigZag lace pattern cowl and it is lovely. It took a couple weeks and it was a great learning experiene. Life lines, dropped stitches, frogging, I learned a lot about the nature of the yarn and the needles.
So, finished with that but having a ton of matching yarn leftover, I wanted to just start something else. I thought maybe a hat or some fingerless gloves to match - however, after browsing on Ravelry, I feel completely lost.
The pattern for my cowl used multiple techniques but it listed everything that needed to be done row by row. Most of the other patterns I am finding just say “work from chart” and I don’t know how to read the charts.
I can’t seem to find a pattern that uses just circular needles with no DPNs and cable hooks and crochet hooks and etc. There just seems to be so many materials involved, I can’t just pick up some needles and start something new. I could knit another scarf or cowl, I suppose, but I wanted to try something new.
I guess I will stick to scarves and washcloths for now.
Does anyone else have this problem?
You could do an advanced search on Rav. You can specify your yarn weight and the fact that you want the hat or mitts knit back and forth (knit flat) and then seamed. Here’s a straight seach on a seamed hat.
Look for ones without a chart for now if that’s what you’d like. Charts aren’t difficult to learn but many people prefer written directions
. As far as using just circs for hats, eventually most patterns decrease the stitch number at the crown which requires dpns or another technique like 2 circulars or magic loop on a long circular.
(see small diameter circular knitting here)
When you’re starting out, everything is new and that’s part of the fun of it. You’ve learned so much already with the zig zag. Why not go on to something you’d really like to do.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Which one? You’ve listed a lot…
- Having leftover yarn - sometimes, plus all the new non-leftover stuff
- Not able to read charts - nope
- Not havng the required tools - sometimes, though less and less often
- Not finding the perfect pattern - yep
- Wanting to just knit - yep
Some of these problems will always be there - 1, 4, 5
Others will get better over time - 2, 3
Others you will have to make an effort to learn a new method/technique - 2, 4
So, as they say in the UK, ‘Stay Calm and Knit On.’
Hi! The first thing I wanted to make (after the scarf that seems to be everybody’s first knitting project) was a hat. I was still knitting flat, and I made several, but when I seamed them up, it looked messy, and I didn’t like it. So, I took the leap to knitting in the round, which took a bit of fiddling, and got some DPNs to finish the top of the hat. It was weird at first, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t really that hard to use the DPNs. The hat turned out great! Now I use DPNs all the time and it’s a breeze.
Some people like Magic loop, too…I think if you venture out of your comfort zone just a little, you’ll be amazed at how you can pick up new things and then it will be like second nature to you.
P.S. I also don’t like charts; I like instructions written row by row.