Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Torture sticks!


Have you seen these things before? They are called circular knitting needles but I am convinced they are torture sticks! I thought it was the coolest thing to use to knit a bag and most of the patterns I downloaded calls for it. It is not.


Every pattern mentions "be careful so the stitches don't twist...". How on earth can you see if the stitches are twisted if the thing won't stop twisting?! I had knitted for about an hour when I decided to check if the stitches are OK, and guess what? The stitches were twisted! This is after an hour of wrestling with these needles, stretching the knitting and lots of swearing. A whole 10 rows knitted. So, I am back to conventional knitting needles. So what if the bag has a few seams?

I prefer crochet anyway. It is so much quicker and easier. Yesterday was Youth Day in South Africa and I went shopping for books. Again. This is what I found.

This book has 20 fabulous crocheted, felted bag patterns inside! I will post some pics of some of my favorites as soon as I have taken them. I am already busy making one as you can see in the picture in a lovely mustard yellow and rusty brown colour. This is local felting wool from Elle that I found on sale at my local Bernina store on Monday.
Lots of sewing on my to-do list as well, but sewing is mostly restricted to weekends nowadays. Knitting and crochet is quicker and easier to do on weeknights, so I hope to have my two bags finished in time to felt them on the weekend.

3 comments:

Jesse said...

I'm sure you'll return to circulars one day, but they can be very tricky at first. It doesn't help that most of the needles we get here are really not very good quality. My favourites are ones I ordered online...

FitzU said...

I love using the large circular needles for felted bags...can't go wrong just knitting mindlessly in a circle! But I will say I have had a twist a time or two getting started. Don't you love the Pursenalities Books...I have a couple and they are inspirational!

Deniz said...

the bags look cool. I love using round knitting needles, even though it is a bit of a drag the first couple of rows. And agree with Jessse, the quality of the needles arent exactly great around here. I am planning to stock up on some when I go overseas