Some links for Marion from Pascoe Vale
G'day all!
A lovely lady called Marion left a comment on my blog. Alas blogger does not put a reply address in unless you specify it in your home page on blogger, so I cannot reply directly (all I have is "noreply-comment@blogger.com"). She wanted to know about yarn comparisons between the US and Oz, along with crochet hook sizes.
Now I am not exactly a crash hot crocheter. I prefer knitting cos I have been knitting for quite some years now. I can crochet simple things (but not squares if you want them to stay exactly square, lol). I'm not too good on crochet hook sizes here in the US cos they tend to say "use size G hook." I'm a metric kinda person.
So here's a handy dandy page comparing hook size between different standards.
Also yarn standards vary from country to country (and often within countries too). The US is trying to get standard yarn sizes going but even that doesn't work well for me at least because there is still quite some variation within those categories (eg light weight yarn is by Australian standards anything from 5 ply to 8 ply and that means I would be usually knitting with a 3.25mm needle for the 5 ply or a 4mm needle for the 8 ply. That makes a big difference to how much yarn is needed and the gauge).
There's lots of pages that discuss difference in yarn size (from the bible of yarn standards) but here's another one that relates to crocheting, which is what Marion is interested in. This same site has a whole page of interesting info.
Oh and of course US crochet terminology is different to UK/Oz/NZ terminology (that last linked page has info on that too).
Now in current news, I still have not found my little project bag with the knitting in it, or even any part with or without bag or project. Sniffle. I've been doing heaps of spinning, though you would not know it to see the size of the plied balls of yarn. Laceweight packs down into small balls even after I rewind it so nothing is being stretched.
(That's some singles from Saturday night, finn top dyed with weld and a couple of other things - indigo for blue and quebrecha? red)
I spent yesterday tracking down material (on my bike! I could buy it online but were is the fun in that? Plus I have to pay buckets for shipping cos material weighs a surprising amount!). I am supposed to have 12 different coordinating materials (preferably from the one range!) for the quiltalong but I had to substitute 3 fabrics cos I just could not get enough of the right stuff. Can you believe that the quilt shops are only getting in say three bolts of the range, like three individual fabrics, and not even in ones that coordinate colourwise with each other?
I ended up with these:
Today they are washed (I had a big argument with myself - wash or not? Material is covered with stuff to make it run through the weaving and printing machines easily. I tend to have sensitive skin and people online who have sensitive skin said that they wash the material first or suffer the rashy icky consequences. Hence I washed the material in lingerie bags on the gentle cycle). I've started cutting them into 2.5" strips. So far so good (crosses fingers!)
My PSC sock is really saying it wants to be a shawlette. See how pretty peacock the colours are?
Ooops, I have to weave in the ends and take shots of a new hat I made for my chemo friend. That will be blog fodder! And I should write up my scrappy notes properly. Gosh I wish I had a bit more confidence with pattern writing! I should just DO IT and if there is a problem in the pattern or something is not clear, people can grump at me, though I'd prefer they were nice to me :-)
Enough blather, time to go cut some more strips. I have to sit on the floor on our one-day-will-be-a-tabletop laminated pine strips with the self-healing mat and rotary cutter and after half an hour or so of hunching over, my back starts complaining. We don't have a large enough hard flat surface anywhere in the flat that doesn't already have say a sewing machine and various things on it. Guess I should tidy that up!
anon!
A lovely lady called Marion left a comment on my blog. Alas blogger does not put a reply address in unless you specify it in your home page on blogger, so I cannot reply directly (all I have is "noreply-comment@blogger.com"). She wanted to know about yarn comparisons between the US and Oz, along with crochet hook sizes.
Now I am not exactly a crash hot crocheter. I prefer knitting cos I have been knitting for quite some years now. I can crochet simple things (but not squares if you want them to stay exactly square, lol). I'm not too good on crochet hook sizes here in the US cos they tend to say "use size G hook." I'm a metric kinda person.
So here's a handy dandy page comparing hook size between different standards.
Also yarn standards vary from country to country (and often within countries too). The US is trying to get standard yarn sizes going but even that doesn't work well for me at least because there is still quite some variation within those categories (eg light weight yarn is by Australian standards anything from 5 ply to 8 ply and that means I would be usually knitting with a 3.25mm needle for the 5 ply or a 4mm needle for the 8 ply. That makes a big difference to how much yarn is needed and the gauge).
There's lots of pages that discuss difference in yarn size (from the bible of yarn standards) but here's another one that relates to crocheting, which is what Marion is interested in. This same site has a whole page of interesting info.
Oh and of course US crochet terminology is different to UK/Oz/NZ terminology (that last linked page has info on that too).
Now in current news, I still have not found my little project bag with the knitting in it, or even any part with or without bag or project. Sniffle. I've been doing heaps of spinning, though you would not know it to see the size of the plied balls of yarn. Laceweight packs down into small balls even after I rewind it so nothing is being stretched.
(That's some singles from Saturday night, finn top dyed with weld and a couple of other things - indigo for blue and quebrecha? red)
I spent yesterday tracking down material (on my bike! I could buy it online but were is the fun in that? Plus I have to pay buckets for shipping cos material weighs a surprising amount!). I am supposed to have 12 different coordinating materials (preferably from the one range!) for the quiltalong but I had to substitute 3 fabrics cos I just could not get enough of the right stuff. Can you believe that the quilt shops are only getting in say three bolts of the range, like three individual fabrics, and not even in ones that coordinate colourwise with each other?
I ended up with these:
Today they are washed (I had a big argument with myself - wash or not? Material is covered with stuff to make it run through the weaving and printing machines easily. I tend to have sensitive skin and people online who have sensitive skin said that they wash the material first or suffer the rashy icky consequences. Hence I washed the material in lingerie bags on the gentle cycle). I've started cutting them into 2.5" strips. So far so good (crosses fingers!)
My PSC sock is really saying it wants to be a shawlette. See how pretty peacock the colours are?
Ooops, I have to weave in the ends and take shots of a new hat I made for my chemo friend. That will be blog fodder! And I should write up my scrappy notes properly. Gosh I wish I had a bit more confidence with pattern writing! I should just DO IT and if there is a problem in the pattern or something is not clear, people can grump at me, though I'd prefer they were nice to me :-)
Enough blather, time to go cut some more strips. I have to sit on the floor on our one-day-will-be-a-tabletop laminated pine strips with the self-healing mat and rotary cutter and after half an hour or so of hunching over, my back starts complaining. We don't have a large enough hard flat surface anywhere in the flat that doesn't already have say a sewing machine and various things on it. Guess I should tidy that up!
anon!
I'd be happy to look over your patterns for you. I've been paying Abigail from BobaKnit (not sure if you know each other) to do tech editing for the patterns that are going up in my Ravelry store. I'm sure plenty of people you know would be willing to test knit that robot bag pattern if you want. It is so cute!
ReplyDeleteLovely fabrics! Definitely wash first - you need to remove the sizing so the fabrics won't shrink all weird after they're sewn into the quilt.
ReplyDeleteI do hope your bag shows up ok! I think I'd better put my address in mine!
ReplyDeleteI am sad to hear your project bag is still mssing.
ReplyDeleteOh lovely fabric. I always wash mine because once I didn't and there was huge shrinkage!!!
Oh yes, I can see that lovely sock wool as a shawlette!!