Stitch 'N Bitch: Menewsha


Welcome one and all!
Grab your knitting needles and let's get cracking.

FAQ


What is a Stitch 'N Bitch?
Based on the popular DIY knitting handbook, it is a group of people who meet together regularly in order to knit, crochet, sew and craft. They share patterns, designs and projects while at the same time gossiping and helping each other out. This is basically a support group for crafters.

Stitch 'N Bitch: Menewsha is a place for all of us to gather together and share our experiences with the craft. It doesn't matter if you've been making beautiful afghans for 30 years or if you just picked up your first set of knitting needles yesterday - We welcome one and all. Use this hang-out as a chance to meet other people interested in the same crafts as you, and use those contacts to your advantage. We can all help each other out here.


What can I post here?
- Pictures of your latest projects
- Patterns you've found online
- Patterns you've created and would like to share
- Questions about crafting
- Tips and tricks of the trade

What can't I post here?
- Advertisements for crafting websites or stores
- Advertisements for items you are selling
- Copy-righted material (patterns and instruction booklets)
- Negative criticisms of one another's work. We're all equals here: Just because someone made a lumpy scarf full of holes does not give you the right to flame them. Give constructive criticism and help them learn to get better.

Links & Resources


Websites

Craftster
Ravelry
Martha Stewart
One Pretty Thing
Love Maegan
Craftzine
Makezine
Mod Podge Rocks!



Cool Projects!
Click for the Link

Latest User Projects



by Sora

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About the Knitting Knerd

I've been knitting for about 5 years now, crocheting for 2, and am currently learning to quilt!

I tend to bounce back and forth between mediums -I'll knit a project or two, crochet a few granny squares, resize a couple t-shirts, then start all over again. I tend to learn new techniques as I go along and experiment. And even though I wouldn't consider myself a master by any means, little by little I'm developing the ability to tackle bigger and harder projects.

And we're open!

First post!

I LOVE crafts!! And I recently started knitting. I'm more of a jewelry making gal though. But that's ok ^^

I'm more of a jewelry maker as well [mostly hemp and beads].
I like to sew at times though, mostly throw pillows, and I enjoy embroidering as well.

Originally Posted by Pickles

I'm more of a jewelry maker as well [mostly hemp and beads].
I like to sew at times though, mostly throw pillows, and I enjoy embroidering as well.

:o I like to use beads, wire, and I make my own links ^^

(I forget the name, I haven't had my coffee yet)

I've crocheted some jewelry before, but it's not my favorite medium. Wiring is pretty hard to work with if you aren't used to it.

But I used to do a lot of beading when I was younger. I had one of those looms that would let you make 'Indian' bracelets and such.

Originally Posted by Knerd

I've crocheted some jewelry before, but it's not my favorite medium. Wiring is pretty hard to work with if you aren't used to it.

But I used to do a lot of beading when I was younger. I had one of those looms that would let you make 'Indian' bracelets and such.

I have one of those! :o I've made purses with it :)

I keep on trying to knit... and keep forgetting how to. xD; My Grandma tried to teach me purl, but when I pick up the needles again, I go blank.

cx I do have some photos of the jacket I made in textiles. As far as bitching goes, DON'T get me started on my teacher...

I love fabric stores. *__* There's a really cute one in my town which I never new existed I'm going to have to go back to once I have some money... it's a quilting shop. It's a sort of life-target of mine to make a quilt. xD

Thassaboutit. :3

We have a Jo-Ann fabrics in town, but I usually end up buying all my supplies from Walmart. Jo-Ann's is just very...elitist. They don't seem all too friendly to newcomers. I think that they have their regular customers, and then just shun anyone who doesn't specifically know what they're doing.

Oh what a great thread, I've been looking for something like this. I make stuffed toys for a living! I have been wanting to learn to crochet lately too.

That's not very nice of them. D:

Actually, I do notice the same in some of the places near me - I'm not sure what the people are like in this cute little one, but I do have a habit of chatting chirpily to owners of small shops. The other one in my town... the two women who run it on a day-to-day basis whinge about the owner to the customers a lot, and even then he's usually around. They're quite friendly - and they know my face. :3

The big store - C&H fabrics - in Brighton is really impersonal, and I don't like it much. @[email protected] But it's easiest to by patterns from. There's a lovely one owned by an Indian couple with fabric and braid and beads toppling everywhere. It's kind of daunting, like looking round a cave and never knowing what treasure you'll discover. They have some really unusual stuff. My favourite in Brighton though, that I've usually brought my stuff from, is one called Ditto. The lady there's a bit snotty at times, but she knows students, and she knows how to do you a good deal when your teacher's told you to get more than you need. Saves us money. ;3 Plus she has bridal fabrics upstairs. And the funkiest button collection.

They all helped me make up a big box of swatches for my sketchbook.

I always feel naughty - I'm so tactile, I want to stroke all the different fabrics. Shouldn'tgetstickfingersonthem.

We have a place like that here Chaitealatte, you go in and it's this ratty little place but it's stacked to the rafters with everything you can imagine.

The very best place for notions I ever went was in Tokyo in the Ginza. They had ribbon from every corner of the world, and beads and buttons stacked in uniform jars from floor to ceiling. It was heaven!

It sounds like it. *__*

The materials people make are fantastic even before they're made into anything larger. xD

For the jars, I have an image of a necklace-and-bracelet making chain in New Zealand called The Bead Factory, or something like that. They had shelves and shelves of plastic jars with beads. And the idea is, you go around and pick the ones you like, order them of a board with various lengths of necklace, and then you put them together and pay for them. I wore the one I made for ages... it had a Koru swirl in bone, fish vertebrae I broke a couple of times and had to superglue back together (I'm clumsy at times), obsidian, rainbow moonstone, glass, and little bits of wood. xD Such a fun place...

And my Nanna makes a lot of things - and sewing skills I have come from her. I loved going to her house when she lived in the UK, because she let us play with her ancient broken old-fashioned sewing machine, as well as saving milk-bottle tops, toilet tubes, and fruit tea boxes and lots of stuff for us to make things with. She's moved to the Caribbean - and the fabric shops there are good too. :3 She sews things and sells them over there and here.

Wow your grandmother moved to the Carribean? I think my sewing skills came from my Grandmother too. She didn't have a machine though, she did everything by hand.

To Tobago. :3 My step-granddad comes from Trinadad. We've been out there once to visit them. It's amazing. *__* I think it was going in from the lazy hot to an air-conditioned, large shop, with everything slung out. I brought some green fabric with hibiscus patterns, and she sent me some with blue-and-red flowers on for my birthday once year. It's sort of... '60s. xD I love it.

It always amazes me that people have the patience to make such elaborate garments. I don't know how technical the best machines are on the market, but thinking about it again, it's not actually that surprising once determination sets in... (I'm thinking Elizabethan-style things here xD) Human fingers are so much better at getting into little places.

My mother used to do a low of sewing. I remember wearing hand-made Halloween costumes for years. But after a while, I suppose that the stress of working and running a household just didn't leave her enough time to sew much anymore. And I don't think it's quite as much fun to sew for teenagers as it is for cute little kids. So her machine sits in the closet for most of the year. I try to use it, in order to save myself the time of handsewing, but it's much more work than it's worth. The threading has never worked perfectly, and she's the only one who can keep it from bunching up underneath. If I touch the thing, it pretty much tangles instantly. So I need her to be in the house while I'm working on my projects, but it's none too easy to fit both of our schedules together.

I'm thinking of buying my own machine sometime soon. I'll probably wait until after I'm out of college (so that I can afford a good, high quality one), but I've been looking into the different brands lately just for the fun of it.


Whenever I want fabric, I just run to the nearest thrift shop. You always find the most interesting items there.

Blegh, I hate it when thread bunches up. I'm still not sure what causes it. Teacher never gave me a satisfactory answer - just told me off for it.

"You should know better!"

"...*bashes head into desk and sticks tongue out at her back*"

...Only teacher I've ever been tempted to be rude to. She's screwed-up the stitching on so many people's work. ARGH. And has no creativity - or tries to control her student's - and doesn't like anyone who asks questions.

>__< *grumbles away to herself*

Yay knitting~!

This is such a good thread idea. I haven't finished any knitting projects in a looong time though. I managed to complete a Ravenclaw scarf for my little sister, but the scarf I promised to my dad never got started. I'm trying to make a surprise blanket for my boyfriend too, but so far it's just a pile of squares. I keep telling him I'm making a mountain of potholders for him. xD

I do a lot more sewing actually, for cosplay. But all by hand, I can't afford a machine at the moment.

>.> I'm rambling. *retreats to corner*

I've always had the idea of Harry Potter scarves in the back of my mind, but I've never actually done it. I just don't love the series enough to really spend that kind of time on a project.

But I know of a website that has the actual patterns:
Hogwarts House Scarves
A friend recommended it to me.