<p>Any other knitting or crocheting CCers? What are you working on right now? What are your favorite yarns? Needles? Any tips for a relative newbie? (I can knit in the round, and I’ve made a pair of mittens and a pair of fingerless gloves, but no sweaters or anything really complicated yet.)</p>
<p>My W crochets a lot of blankets and makes a lot of quilts all of which she donates to the local kid’s shelter. The kids get to keep the blanket/quilt once they leave the shelter or get placed in foster homes. If you’re more interested in making the item than keeping it, donating them to a kid’s shelter is a good way to keep your hands busy.</p>
<p>I love to knit as well but have been on a bit of a hiatus. I mostly knit in the round but have not been knitting lately. I need to pick up my needles. </p>
<p>I am finishing a fitted chunky sweater for my daughter. Then I will go back to an afghan I had already started but had gotten bored with. My daughter likes to make winter hats for her friends.</p>
<p>I have been in a knitting group for 14 years. We meet one day in the first week of every month. I often have to rip out what I have worked on during the meeting - I don’t knit and talk very well.</p>
<p>I have not done any knitting in ages, but I do know the skill. My mom taught me the basics when I was 8 years old, and the hobby took off. I learned crocheting on my own when I needed a “fake fur” piece for one of my sweater projects. Knitting is really, really fun, and it is very therapeutic for the mind. Go for it. If you know how to knit socks and mittens, a sweater is going to be a piece of cake.</p>
<p>Please pardon my curiosity - why is your lab’s microscope room so cold?</p>
<p>I would not know how to knit mittens or socks, but I used to knit sweaters. Very easy as all I did was knitting some rectangles (1 for the back, 2 each for front and sleeves). I still have a sweater that I knit about 20 years ago, using ombre mohair yarn and large needles and a simple stitch.</p>
<p>Labs can be freezing. I used to read in the conference room of my now husband’s lab when he went to work in the evenings at Caltech. It was so cold in there I wore a down jacket.</p>
<p>I like that calorimetry. I’d love to take up knitting again, the last thing I knit was a sweater for my then 4 year old. He’s 20 now! It was adorable, a lovely slate blue wool with off white trim and an angora bunny on the chest. </p>
<p>Learned to knit three winters ago and got addicted almost immediately - weird, for a person who always avoided like the plague anything remotely ‘crafty.’ I’ve made several scarves & a couple of easy hats, but this winter I took a class at a nearby knitting shop where I knit an afghan made of dozens of patchwork-like rectangles, each with a different cable pattern. </p>
<p>My recommendation is to find a good shop where you can join other knitters & get advice/classes. There is also a wealth of knitting websites in case you don’t spend enough time on CC [Spring</a> 2009 - Knitty](<a href=“http://www.knitty.com%5DSpring”>http://www.knitty.com) is a popular one. </p>
<p>As with any hobby, it can get pricey, so look for sales and online deals. And don’t forget, if you make something you don’t like, you can always rip it up, and reuse the wool for something else. That’s the fate awaiting my first ‘big’ (and upon completion somewhat pathetic) project - a woeful cardigan just waiting to be put out of its misery.</p>
<p>My mother in law knits those beautiful children’s sweaters with the pictures knitted right in on the front. She’s pretty dang hard to compete with. I occasionally knit scarves. Really foofie yarn, really big needles. (I am impatient.)</p>
<p>Midwest Daughter tried knitting a scarf few years ago. It was hysterical. Somehow she was constantly adding stitches and the scarf would get too wide and she’d pass it over to me to try to get it back to the size it started again… The scarf ended up no where near rectangular but it was a fun project for her anyway. I wonder where that scarf went?</p>
Oh, it’s a really expensive microscope with lasers, and the lasers have to be kept from overheating. The buildings and grounds people came a few weeks ago, because apparently the room was so cold it had triggered an alarm. :rolleyes: We had to reluctantly tell them the room needed to be that cold.</p>
<p>Knitting is great therapy. I started again after about a 20-year hiatus. Ravelry (<a href=“http://www.ravelry.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ravelry.com</a>) is an amazing resource.</p>
<p>I use to crochet quite a bit when the kids were little. Made little toddler sweaters and baby blankets. Made a full-size afghan for my D which she still uses each winter. Have two “orders” from a dear friend for afghans for her two children. Have also made several afghans for Christmas presents (very, very well received!) Haven’t crocheted in years, though. Hmmm . . . maybe it’s time to take it up again.</p>
<p>I also quilt. Have a full-size Storm-at-Sea quilt nearly finished for S. Am afraid to give it to him to take to college b/c 1) it is too big for college bed and 2) not sure he will take care of it properly at college. Think I’ll wait and give it to him as a housewarming gift after he graduates from college and gets his own place. (You may be wondering why I am making such a large quilt for S who is going off to college in the fall. Long story short - he picked out the pattern when he was 4, and I’ve been puttering with it ever since. I’ve actually finished about a dozen quilts since I started his. They were all easier patterns. I hand piece and hand quilt, so complicated patterns take me a long time to finish. I admit that 14 years is a LONG time to complete a quilt!)</p>
<p>Anyway . . . enjoy your new hobby. It is so relaxing and satisfying to work with textiles. Make sure you make yourself a beautiful sweater to wear in the lab (and out in the cold Cambridge weather!)</p>
<p>grew out of my Book Club. We have been on several knitting weekend getaways where we knit, shmooze, and visit local knitting stores. I have a few projects going at the same time – an easy one I can do while talking and a more complicated one where I need to concentrate and do on my own. Go to <a href=“http://www.ravelry.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ravelry.com</a> – you need an invite to join but it takes only a few days. Knitters talk about their projects and stashes – a little too intense for me but interesting.</p>
<p>Katliamom: thanks for the link to the Spring Knitty. I love the ripple scarf and it will go in my ravelry queu. Right now I am working on a mobius shawl, about a quarter of the way through.</p>
<p>I don’t knit (I cross stitch) but I have to report a project that a knitting group I know is doing. They are knitting helmet liners for our troops in Afghanistan. It can bet pretty cold in those mountains. The yarn has to be all wool and of course it has to be a particular drab color, so the wool is expensive. </p>
<p>If I knitted, I’d be doing this project. It’s a great thing to do while watching Law and ORder reruns.</p>
<p>Love to crochet, but I don’t have the patience (or apparently talent) for knitting. I have done lots of afghans and quite a few doilies. I have an ivory crocheted tablecloth (pineapple design) that I’ve been working on for more than 25 years. I used to take it with me on vacations, especially when the kids were little and before laptops. It’s almost done but the border, and I put it away and forgot about it for about 4 years, until recently. Have just begun working on it again. I’ll have to dye it because now I can’t find ivory colored thread to match. I figure I’ll do a little tea dipping.</p>
<p>I also have a knitting machine that I haven’t used for years. Got it when I was working part-time. I’ve made sweaters, skirts, a dress and baby blankets with it. I like that it goes much faster.</p>
<p>I also enjoy patchwork quilting. I have several projects in various stages of completion. Both my kids made tied quilts for school projects in 8th grade. I made S1 a constellation quilt when he was in hs and a space adict. I need to do one for S2 but need to find an appropriate selection of musical fabrics. I’ve made specials quilts for nieces and nephews’ weddings. My favorite one is made using my dad’s neckties. He always hated neckties but had amassed quite a collection over the years. When he died, I took them and made a starburst quilt using them. I have in mind when/if I become a grandma to make a quilt using their old baby clothes.</p>
<p>ellenmope, don’t ask me about all the (already cut) pattern pieces I have in a dresser drawer from the year when S2 was in kindergarten (college freshman now)!</p>
[Spring</a> 2009 - Knitty](<a href=“![http://farm3.static.■■■■■■■■■■/2044/1748746881_1979b9cd5a.jpg?v=0[/url]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2044/1748746881_1979b9cd5a.jpg?v=0%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
