The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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This evening we went to our local pub to see the comedian Gary Delaney, brilliant as always :roflmao:
 
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Why is it that whenever my husband goes away it either gets really really hot, or it gets really cold? At 18:30 today it was only 1.6°C and today never got above 6°C all day. I think the first cold snap has arrived.

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rascal said:
Frost here as well. High of 11 deg c

Russ
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Today the high was a stunning 7°C but despite this the washing was put on the line at 1°C at 9am and removed at 3pm with all but 1 item totally dry if cold!

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(Taken through a dirty window, sorry)
Totally white this morning right up until gone 10am
 
Another cold start to the day and the next 3 mornings area all forecast to be -5°C as well.
I can't currently get even tbe sitting room warmer than 17°C. It was 14°C this morning in there with tbe rest of the house at 10°C. Glad I've just finished my new cardigan even if it is a touch too big. I've still got the waist band th knit but I can at least wear it without and still be warm. The original pattern didn't have pockets or a waistband but I wanted pockets and don't like the wooden pin used to close the cardigan so made a few changes. Plus I used 8ply wool on 4mm needles rather than 10ply on 5mm needles so had to take a guess at the sizing. I got it slightly wrong but nothing desperately problematic. I'm now working on the waistband which I'll secure under the arm seam following that line down to the waist that way I keep the nice clean line of the back of tbe cardigan and by adding seam tape across the waist at the back I'll stop the pattern at the back from being distorted. That's the theory anyhow. Practice could be different as it happens...

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rascal said:
My mum was always knitting,lol.

Russ
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A surprising number of people think hand knitted items are inferior to shop bought machine made mass marketed "stuff". It never fails to amaze me.
But then I have taken to knitting my own socks now. They fit so much better and are much more comfortable than shop bought except for my expensive merino wool hiking and mountaineering socks which are now wearing out after decades of almost daily use through autumn winter and spring plus summer hiking and biking in the UK and our attempted world tour. Some are now threadbare and really need replacing as soon as I have knitted enough spare that is!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
A surprising number of people think hand knitted items are inferior to shop bought machine made mass marketed "stuff". It never fails to amaze me.
But then I have taken to knitting my own socks now. They fit so much better and are much more comfortable than shop bought except for my expensive merino wool hiking and mountaineering socks which are now wearing out after decades of almost daily use through autumn winter and spring plus summer hiking and biking in the UK and our attempted world tour. Some are now threadbare and really need replacing as soon as I have knitted enough spare that is!
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My sister's mother-in-law used to knit sweaters and cardigans (and sew) for some of the big London fashion stores in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the sweaters that I really liked sold for £72 in 1968 - the equivalent of around £1250 now! She used to make clothes for my sister's children out of left-over wool and left-over fabric, and these clothes were eventually handed down to my daughter in the 1970s, they were of such good quality. I can't imagine someone paying that much for a sweater now. I still have some clothes from around that time and only recently got rid of a couple of cardigans that got damaged beyond repair when my immersion heater leaked.
 
A decent quality cabled cardigan or sweater handmade typically sells for AUD $500-600 around here. When you work out the hours of knitting that goes into them, take off the cost of the wool, (my latest one tbe yarn alone has cost me $240) you can't even get $1 an hour for the labour costs. This cardigan will only have taken me 6-7 weeks to do but I'll accept that there have been days I haven't knitted it but gone for a simpler project because I was too tired to think. So if we say 3hrs a day (my bad back dictates that I rest as much as I work) 6 days a week that's only 18 hrs a week for 6 weeks. Let's call it 20hrs a week for ease of maths, 120hrs work on it. That's a simple cardigan that's pretty easy and quick to knit. $2 per hour labour costs doubles the hasten cost making it cost $480... if I were to actually charge that... my previous project was much more complicated and took much longer. People just don't pay that often for anything nowadays and don't sadly value the quality of things. No-one in the younger generations who doesn't have a knitter in the family appreciates clothing lasts more than 1 season!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
A surprising number of people think hand knitted items are inferior to shop bought machine made mass marketed "stuff". It never fails to amaze me.
But then I have taken to knitting my own socks now. They fit so much better and are much more comfortable than shop bought except for my expensive merino wool hiking and mountaineering socks which are now wearing out after decades of almost daily use through autumn winter and spring plus summer hiking and biking in the UK and our attempted world tour. Some are now threadbare and really need replacing as soon as I have knitted enough spare that is!
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My wife knits kids stuff when they were young, she's currently knitting baby stuff for the prem babies at local hospital. They are screaming out for old fashioned knitted clothes and bonnets. My wife took our grandaughter in the holidays with her friends granddaughters as well to a knitting workshop. And coffee shop,lol. I got home that night to see miss nearly 10 knitting a scarf on the couch. She is enjoying knitting.

Russ
 
These were my previous projects.
They took much longer.
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They'll last decades.
Next up will be an Arran cardigan for myself if no one else asks for anything. I'm aiming tho spin all of the yarn myself for that. I'm currently doing a wheelchair/lap blanket for myself that's completely handspun shetland wool. I'm hoping to make the cardigan from alpaca fleece that I've done everything for. Tbe blanket whilst it is handspun and well be hand dyed from natural dyes, had been spun from combed tops (so basically the hard work of combing and cleaning the fleece had already been done for you). Handspun alpaca is roughly $20-30 for 100g. That cardigan I've just finished took 1.4kg of yarn. The jumper only took 700g though.
 
rascal said:
My wife knits kids stuff when they were young, she's currently knitting baby stuff for the prem babies at local hospital. They are screaming out for old fashioned knitted clothes and bonnets. My wife took our grandaughter in the holidays with her friends granddaughters as well to a knitting workshop. And coffee shop,lol. I got home that night to see miss nearly 10 knitting a scarf on the couch. She is enjoying knitting.

Russ
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It's great that she is doing that. I wad taught by my Grannie when I lived with her when I was 7 or 8 years old. My mother didn't even know I could knit until my sister's wedding was announced 4 years ago.

Knitting has also meant that I needed only limited upset limb physiotherapy in hospital after my last operation (I'd lost the complete use of my arms prior to the operation).
Sadly taking my spinning wheels into hospital to help with the legs wasn't an option!
 
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