Big Box of Knitting Fails – Bad Yarn Substitution!
For those of you that have taken classes with me, you know all about “Patty’s Big Box of Knitting Fails”. I seem to have an example of something tragic I’ve done in my knitting for nearly everything I’m teaching. So, I’m launching a new blog series to dig into my knitting boo boos. Today’s episode . . .
Bad Yarn Substitution = to felt or not to felt
About 12 years ago, I thought I’d make a fast, fun, felted scarf. The pattern was all in stockinette, and then felted to make a cozy scarf. It featured stripes of white and black yarn held together with stripes of the solid white. The felting made the black and white flecks appear in a random fashion, and it kind of widened out at the doubled yarn sections and narrowed a bit for the white sections.
No brainer right . . . unless you grab a black 100% wool from your stash and a white 100% acrylic from your stash. That’s right folks, acrylic doesn’t felt. (BTW: forgive the low res pic. This was a long time ago, so it was not taken on a fancy camera, might have even been – gasp – film)
What resulted was a kind of bizarre little item that rolled at the sides for every acrylic stripe and then kind of morphed into 1/2 felted, 1/2 not stripes.
Sigh.
Don’t make my mistake. Learn about the Secrets of Yarn Substitution.
Patty, I am a knitting learning junkie and scour the internet for the best teachers and classes and so far I would say YOU’RE the BEST!! Mainly because you don’t just “show” you “explain”. When it is explained it stays in my memory bank (what is left in the bank at my age). I am know trying to crack the code for short row heels. Did you ever consider doing a sock video?
I haven’t done one yet, but . . . I’ve just tested yesterday, a new online platform for giving lessons live streaming on the web.
Make sure you sign up for my newsletter for announcements: http://eepurl.com/H8E_X
Also just started a Facebook page where I’ll be posting video how tos, head on over and give me a like: https://www.facebook.com/pattylyonsknitting/
and last but not least . . . are you doing the KAL that starts on June 20th? There are 15 video tutorials (nearly 2 hours of free teaching) Check it out here: https://pattylyons.com/2016/05/spring-summer-kal/