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Fiber crafters of Tildes?
I'm a knitter, cross stitcher, and general nerd. I can't actually create at the moment due to probable carpal tunnel, but I would love to see my fellow fiber artists of any and all genders speak up.
As for me, it's more about the process than the product! I love Grandmother's Favorite dishcloths as a mindless knitting stim, or cross stitching on a project until my hands hurt.
ETA: I'm not trying to ignore everyone. I'm really excited with the responses I'm getting. I'm just fighting some serious pain this morning. I'll try to reply to folks as soon as I can think!
ETA2: This got bigger than I had hoped! I don't think I can catch up and reply to everyone, but I do appreciate reading everyone's experiences! Thanks for humoring me today.
I'm a knitter and crocheter!
My latest finished project was my first corner-to-corner (c2c) blanket. I have two friends who recently moved in to their first house, so made them a giant pride flag blanket. It turned out so gorgeous and snuggly and I was super pleased with it (and so were they!).
Now I am working on a crochet coral reef. I've always kind of wanted to do one since I've seen how cool others' projects look. A friend group wanted to do a reef-related art piece for an upcoming festival, so I jumped on the chance to finally do some coral and sea life. And I found the brightest collection of UV-reactive yarn. It's going to look awesome š
The really cool thing about the reef is that sea life is so weird, whatever weird stuff I freehand looks like it belongs! Bright colors and odd shapes are so fun.
I'm mostly a cross stitcher these days!! I've been doing it for years, but I only discovered places like Heaven and Earth designs earlier this year, along with flosstube, and the entire social media circle around cross stitching. It's been awesome! I have YEARS worth of projects I want to work on now. Currently working on Epic Pokemon Gen 1, and a Kelpie from UnconventionalXStitch. I can spend hours on them every day!
I used to knit a lot more, and I really love the feel of knitting. Each stitch feels so satisfying. But there's a lot less end products that I want to end up with. I don't love the look/feel of hand knitted sweaters, and things like scarves and toques knit up so fast, you'll end up with way more than you can ever use or give as gifts!
I want to apologize at the start for not being the audience you're looking for, but I'm glad to see a thread for this for selfish reasons.
Knitting always fascinated me as I grow up watching my mother making all sorts of stuff. It honestly felt like magic, the way she knitted so methodically and fast that I was scared of trying out myself. There was also psychological barriers I set up for myself because of the rigid gender roles in the society I live in.
A few months ago I came across cross stitching which I had no idea about and I found it very intriguing. I wanted to get into it but it was daunting. Information was aplenty but I had no idea how to parse it all. I turned to my mother for some help, her being the expert knitter and all, but she barely knew what cross stitching was because it's not a common practice in my country.
I don't even know if I'd like it, but I certainly want to try it out one day. Maybe it will be the thing that will help me escape my mind when I need to.
If I may, I'd like to ask. How difficult is it to get into it? As a complete novice, should I try it, or would I be better off just buying a 2000 piece puzzle and occupy myself with that?
I started it as a child and loved it! The basics 'how to make a cross in a piece of fabric' is really easy to get the hang of. It's less about difficulty and more about patience - for every colour you have to switch threads and start again. So cross stitch art takes forever to make, and getting it to look just perfect takes practice too! But, you can start with cute simple patterns and make a nice card or a little wall hanging. Etsy has lots of cute cross stitch patterns to buy, some just for beginners.
I see! I can't say I'm a patient person, but that's something I'm trying to get better at so maybe this would help.
I assume patterns aren't necessary, right? Because I'd rather just do my own thing. (At least that's what I assume at this point.)
Making your own cross stitch design is pretty hard, that's why nigh everyone on places like /r/crossstitch adhere to patterns, even those who are very experienced.
But there are no rules! So if you want to do your own thing, definitely don't hold back.
Oh, honestly, what I have in mind is not a design per se, but having a bunch of colored fabric ready at hand and stitching them wherever I feel like. Sounds like I can do just that, which is great.
As smoontjes said, no rules. I will say if you are working on something more intricate or something with a lot of colour, having a pattern helps. But, you can make your own if you prefer. It's basically like making pixel art, just with slightly less colours. If you have a grid with squares on what color goes where, you are good to go.
I think if I were to start on this journey, I'd do what I said in my reply to @smoontjes, which sounds feasible. I'll do some research on where best to get the tools and hopefully start working on it! If this isn't just a whim and I actually get around to it, I can share what I make in the next thread. :)
Yes please share, will be fun to see how far you go! Even if it's just random for the fun of it that's still fun and good practice! Hobbies are about entertaining yourself, not just about the end result.
Will do, thank you for the encouragement! You should share your work too, maybe it'd give me some inspiration! š
Currently I am focused more on knitting and less on cross stitch, but I asked for this kit: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/739852248/cross-stitch-kit-tits-subversive-cheeky for my July birthday! So maybe after that I can start with it
And yes I am a potty mouth so I'd loooove to have this on my wall, I think it's so cute!
It is cute and hilarious! It immediately reminded me of this beloved series I watch called Somebody Somewhere, where in its second season one of the characters gets into the business of selling pillows with some very naughty words on it.
I hope you get your wish for your birthday!
Omg I would kill to have those pillows!
And that is sweet! Thank you! I hope so too, also because there's several kits and they're all totally rude. And cute!
It sounds like you are interested in embroidery, which is more freehand than cross stitch, which requires planning as it is pixel by pixel.
I don't think so? Your comment made me look up the differences between both embroidery and cross stitching, and I definitely don't want to do embroidery, that looks more advanced.
What I meant by doing my own thing, meaning freehand, was to do something like this, albeit a lot less patterny. So, say, I like the tone of the green cloth that I have, so I stitch that 10x10 on wherever I want on the canvas and I didn't particularly care for the red one I have so I only stitch that 5x5 somewhere far away from the green that I like. The pattern doesn't have to be square. Does that make any sense?
Ah, ok. You are right that is cross stitch. Iāll let people who are more experienced with it give you the info, but I bet improvisation skill will come with experience.
For sure. I don't even know if I'm going to like the practice of it but if I do, I'll inevitably try more complex things. I was actually thinking of doing the Tildes logo at the start. It seems easy enough! (Famous last words.)
No, patterns arenāt necessary. Itās just pixel art. I did my own (very simple) cross stitch patterns even as a child, although I donāt cross stitch these days (Iām more of a knitter).
I am not able to answer you at this time, but @darthvadercake gave you a good reply! Be warned though, at least in my part of the USA, pretty much anything in the fiber arts world can be seen as "traditionally feminine". I'm not trying to discourage you! But I point it out because of the gender roles thing you mentioned. Do your research, as always!
Take care and good luck!
I've stopped caring about gender roles a long time ago, but I appreciate the warning š
And no worries, you've done enough by creating the thread (thank you!) and @Darthvadercake was indeed helpful!
I cross stitch occasionally. I can relate to not having any idea where to start as I didn't before, I ended up asking the staff in a shop that sold supplies (who were very friendly). I think the easiest way is to buy a kit, and a set of embroidery needles (kits normally have a needle but it's a horrible plastic one, much nicer to use a normal one, though check or the kit as maybe better quality kits have metal needles). You may also need a hoop (some kits have them, some don't).
Without a kit you need a few basic things - needles, a hoop, some embroidery thread, some fabric (aida is easiest) and a pattern. All of this (except perhaps a hoop) is in a kit.
Embroidery thread is sold in skiens with 6 strands, you usually only need 2 so separate two strands from the 6 at a useable length to start (if this doesn't make sense now, it will when you look at some embroidery thread).
Patterns are just grids and use either just symbols or a mix of colour and symbol to show which colour to use on each square. Basically a pixel map but you'll stitch a cross for each pixel. There will be a key somewhere telling you which symbol relates to which number (shade) of thread. I usually start in the middle (of both pattern and fabric) to make sure my design is centred - then you just count.
It sounds a lot writing this out but it's honestly quite easy to get the hang of. I'd recommend starting with a couple of small kit projects to get the hang of it, then branching out into choosing you own patterns and buying the thread and fabric to suit (small because it takes a while and kit patterns tend to be very dated designs, there are much better ones on etsy, or you can use pretty much any pixel art).
Thank you for your thorough answer! I think I'll dip my toes into it. I hope I can find a local retailer online that sells the necessary tools. I did a cursory research and there seems to be a few but I'll try to be more thorough and get the best tools possible. I'm sure your suggestion with the needle will be helpful, I can't imagine a plastic one feeling great in your hand.
My people! I enjoy knitting, crocheting, and I'm trying to get into embroidering (I also sew occasionally). I first learned how to knit when I was a child, maybe 8 or 9? My grandmother taught me and one of my brothers, and we got to make little sweaters for our stuffed teddies. I still have that lil' thing somewhere around here, but after that I didn't really keep at it. I actually got back into knitting in college, in part because of a class on multimedia composition. It was pretty easy to get back into it, to be honest. I love the look of knitting and all the stitches.
I taught myself how to crochet at the same time I re-learned how to knit! I was looking through Ravelry patterns and there were (still are) sooooooo many absolutely adorable amigurumi/stuffed animal patterns that I didn't even realize were crochet at first! I was so enamored by these cuties, that was the deciding factor in learning crochet. It was hard at first, especially trying to figure out rounds when making stuffed animals, but overall it's a much more forgiving craft than knitting!
I find knitting relaxing more than crochet, but I crochet now much more than I knit because it's easier and quicker to get a finished project for me. The first time a dropped a stitch knitting, I wanted to cry. There were several rows I had to ladder that one stitch back up! But for crochet, I can toss the work around, be an absolute fool, and even completely fuck up the pattern and still have a good semblance of an object. It is nice to know crochet to help fix my knitting, though.
For embroidery, I have a kit I got from a local store that I need to start on. It can be hard for me to get back into projects, and I don't craft nearly as much as I probably should, but I also have too many hobbies anyway. Maybe when I retire in 30+ years it'll balance out lol.
I dabble! I can knit badly and have failed twice to learn how to crochet. As a kid I cross-stitched quite a lot and still do it occasionally as an adult, with my most recent project being a gift for my partner. For this one I dyed the fabric by hand and made the pattern myself... a lot of work for a silly joke. :)
I also used to make tufted rugs in my teens with a punch needle, which is something my mom taught me to do. I've been looking about getting back into rug-making, and I'm interested in needle felting as well!
I think I admire quilters most of all. Either that or lace makers. Both seem like witchcraft to me.
Do my eyes deceive me, or is that a reference to Dangeresque? I haven't thought about Homestar Runner for the last decade, but the memories do come rushing back...
Your partner had to have loved that present!
It is! She and I were both fans of Homestar Runner as kids, and many phrases have become permanent parts of our vocabularies. She and I decided to exchange cross-stitches last Christmas because I was unemployed at the time, although with the money I spent on the dye... I need to find some more stuff to dye orange or pink maybe...
I'm still really pleased with how it turned out. I highly suggest any cross-stitcher or embroiderer try dyeing their own fabric! It's easy and fun and can make a piece more interesting, and buying pre-dyed fabric can be so expensive. For the piece I posted in particular I did it watercolour style: I laid the fabric on plastic, soaked it in water, and then applied the diluted dye with broad brushes. The hardest part was hiding it from her while it dried and set.
Hi! I am afraid I am nowhere near the level of talent I have seen on the knitting and crossstitch subreddits. I have only just started on knitting, but I love it a lot! After finishing one very ugly knit stitch only grey scarf I have started on one with a slight pattern. It's like 2 rows purl, 2 rows knit, 2 rows purl and so on. A horizontal stripe pattern. It's all white but a beautiful fluffy white that is partially real wool, not polyester, so it's a lot better than my first one.
I don't know if we can post links in comments, but one of our friends made a pillow for our wedding that had a cross stitched image of our dog. It took them ages and it's so cute I wanted to cry! That friend has the most amazing cross stitch skills.
Big fan of the fiber arts. My grandma taught me crochet as a kid so I could make hats for our cat. I'm not terribly prolific, but I enjoy knitting and crochet and would love to try my hand at embroidery one day. Also do some sewing from time to time. I find it's a very satisfying way to both feel accomplished in working with your hands/making something and pursuing a kind of slower fashion/consumption mindset. Helps me cut down on excessive clothing purchases by focusing on one or two things at a time for as long as it takes to finish them (which is usually many months, 'cause I'm a slowpoke). Same kind of giddy anticipation about getting something awesome and new, just stretched way out.
I just finished knitting a wrap top a few weeks ago, so I'm on the hunt for what's next, but I do have an ongoing project on the backburner to use up the enormous collection of plastic grocery bags I amassed from deliveries during the pandemic. I've been slowly making my way through cutting each one up to make a kind of plastic "yarn" and crocheting it into one giant reusable grocery bag. I call it the metabag. Fingers crossed it will finally be done some time this year.
Knitting and crochet for me. I have thought about macrame but haven't delved in yet.
I also sew but haven't done more than a basic hem since I made a dress in Feb of 2022. Fabric is so expensive.
I have done some beadwork on a dress but that was over 20 years ago.
I am a crocheter, been doing it on and off since I was a kid. My mom taught me how to chain and do a double crochet, the rest I taught myself.
Now crochet is my go-to stress reliever and offline hobby. It's almost meditative for me. I love how mindful you have to be of each stitch and how everything about doing the stitch matters. The direction you loop the yarn over the hook, where to insert the hook, it all matters.
I used to spend a lot of time on the crochet subreddit helping new crocheters because I wanted them to love the craft as much as I do.
My current project is a mini dress made by starting with the "Hawthorne Tee" pattern by Hannah Cross (free on her blog) and just extending the bottom while flaring it out. It's taking me a while since I'm making it with thinner yarn than I normally work with, but I'm starting to fall in love with the fabric and drape you get from the thinner yarns.
I hope someday Tildes has more specific categories so that the helpful nature of the crochet subreddit has somewhere to go.
knitting, crochet, and general sewing (especially repairs) are all things I do.
I have a strong interest in the broader category including things like
Does basketry count here, as well?
Heck yeah baskets!
It's the season, right now! for harvesting bark. I've never done it, but I have a bunch of coppiced maple poles and the bark seems like it could make a nice basket. The inner bark pretty readily splits from the outer. And, it seems to have pretty good tensile strength. We'll see what happens.
I actually did a very basic experiment on the tensile strength of various fibers for school (it was terrible , n=1 and not all the cords were the same thickness) and if I recall correctly the cord made from maple came out pretty good!
My favorite fiber that was really available on my parentās property was the inner bark of blackberry shoots. It was quite thick and very strong after being processed (I would scrape it and let it sit outside for several months, I didnāt really know how to ret things).
Oh, that's cool! It's surprisingly hard to find anything about using maple for basketry, but I'm encouraged to try.
Do you want some more blackberry? I have an unlimited supply of free range, organic, grain-free blackberry shoots!
Hahahaha my parents have about 10 acres where it is constant battle against the himalayan blackberry, I think I'm good!
Oh dang. I was gonna try to dispose of my 6 acres of himalayan blackberry!
Hey at least it tastes good! Looks like it will be a good year for berries this year too.
Yeah, same! Bumper crop coming up. This might be a good year to clear some, after they've invested heavily in a big fruit set.
Have you done any experiments with harvesting and processing fibers?
I am interested in producing linen in particular because it was historically a widespread cottage industry, and lots and lots of small family farms produced it (or at least produced the thread). Linen is expensive by modern standards, but historically, even poor people wore it; it was inexpensive by historical standards because its production was so low-tech (and still is, which is why it's now expensive by modern standards). Although I don't expect to ever produce a meaningful amount of it, I just really want to see the process through, I guess as a way to challenge myself and to personally connect with the past (I have a keen interest in historical agriculture and cottage industry).
I have played around a little with growing flax, but I only have access to culinary-type flaxseed, and biosecurity laws in Australia prevent me from importing textile-type flax (which is readily available in Europe). Linen production used to be a pretty big industry here (I think in the 1950s?), which makes me think textile-type flax might exist somewhere in the country, but I have contacted several agricultural companies and organizations to see if they know of anyone still growing it, and they've all been at a loss.
In the meantime, I've been growing the culinary type, which is far from ideal (it is very short and heavily branched). My hope is that if I grow several different varieties together, they will crossbreed and generate some phenotypic variation, which will hopefully give me an opportunity to selectively breed for longer stems and less branching. I don't expect it will ever be very good, but hopefully it can at least be less bad. I'd like to end up with something that at least vaguely resembles the original wild plant; if it was good enough for paleolithic people, it should be good enough for me.
I've done nothing more than play with making cordage from nettle or blackberry fiber. I have nettle as a native growing wild all around. It makes a nice fiber, and is a perennial plant, woo!
There's a film, The Nettle Dress, which I've not yet seen. I find Sally Pointer a particularly pleasant source of information. She does all kinds of prehistoric fiber craft.
I like your thoughts of breeding for a longer staple. What inputs are required to grow flax in your region? Are there any pests?
Oh, that is very cool! Whereabouts are you located?
Thank you for the YouTube link; I've just subscribed. This is definitely up my alley.
So far, I have found flax to be quite easy to grow. I am in a cool, wet climate (well, by Australian standards), and a lot of native European plants seem to do very well here, so long as they get watered during our dry summers. I have not noticed any pests on the flax; however, I have noticed a whole lot of pollinators. One thing I particularly love about it is the blue flowers, which are attractive to our native blue-banded bee ā which, apart from being a very pretty insect, is the only pollinator we have here that does buzz pollination (in the northern hemisphere, bumblebees do this role). So even if I don't get anywhere with my breeding project, I still like using flax as a cover crop.
Ah, cool. Glad to hear it's easy to grow for you. My suggestion was going to be just aim for a locally adapted landrace, first. Then once you've got it growing reliably in your conditions with no inputs, you can start selecting for length.
I'm located in the Oregon Coast Range.
Why I have just done exactly this š
Trying to do some arm stretches but it seems intent on remaining sore. It feels worth it though!
I used to cross stitch quite a bit but now that we have 4 cats that like to help with everything, I havenāt done it in a while. I kind of miss it though so maybe Iāll carve some time out in a closed room soon
I, too, am I fiber crafter and nerd, so it seems like Iām in the right place. I knit, cross stitch, some machine embroidery, and a tiny bit of quilting. I have way too many WIPs atm, but my main three are a Thor cross-stitch Iām doing for my brother, a āpractice quiltā thatās about the size of a lap quilt thatās ready for actual quilting, and a knit lace circular shawl that I plan to turn into a parasol.
This is an area that I'm extremely interested in, but I haven't had a ton of time to get into it. I've dabbled in crochet, embroidery, and spinning (I was really lucky and found a broken Ashford spinning wheel at a thrift that turned out to be pretty easy to fix) and want to do more with them. I am also keen to try weaving.
The fiber art I've sunk the most time into is needle felting, which I really love (even though I usually end up inadvertently incorporating my blood into the project). It's been a while, but the last thing I made was this hellbender salamander for my herpetology-loving sister.
I started embroidery to give me something to do with my hands to help my focus when watching videos or listening to podcasts (I have ADHD and it helps me a lot with that). Currently working on a big project to celebrate my recently-married baby sister. I tried to get into knitting but I found it didn't scratch the same itch for me. Might look into crocheting in the future though, I think I tend to gravitate toward crocheted patterns when I see stuff.
I learned to crochet a few years ago so I could make cool gifts for my nephews/niece. It's been a huge confidence booster through a pretty trying time in my life and helped me prove to myself that I can still learn new skills and create things for myself and others that bring people joy. It also inspired me to get into raising alpacas, combining my lifelong love of animals with my newfound hobby.
I crochet, cross stitch, embroider and sew! I was actually in a similar position to you. I got a repetitive strain injury in my dominant hand and now about a year and a half later I'm finally getting back into my hobbies that require my hand (so... All of them lol). If I could go back in time to tell myself to be more careful and mind my health I would! All that being said, I hope the best for your recovery and hope you can get back to what you enjoy doing as soon as possible :)
I knit! Iām fascinated by crochet, the things you can make are amazing. Itās like sculpting with yarn. But for some reason I canāt get into it.
Iād say Iām a pretty advanced knitter, though Iām always learning new little tricks that reveal how much I still donāt know (like color dominance on fair isle colorwork). I love knitting shawls, hats, bags, and struggle with things like socks and mittens. I can never start the second one.
I started knitting in high school but only learned the knit stitch. For years I knitted garter scarves. In college, my boyfriendās mom taught me to purl and that unlocked all the mysteries of knitting for me. For my first child, I knit a lace crib blanket with sock-weight yarn and that burned me out so bad I didnāt take out my needles for 2 years after.
It helps me to be knitting while I talk to people, it relaxes me and helps me focus. Unfortunately my friends and husband think it is rude, though they are starting to understand me better and we are coming up with compromises. Like no lace or fixing mistakes, those take too much brain space!
The fiber organizing arts are mystifying to me. When I was younger I tried to teach myself to knit and to crochet but couldn't get anywhere. The closest thing I got was when I bought a circular knitting thingy that could be used to make beanie-style hats by repeating a single stitch.
My brain just can't make sense of it, unfortunately. I've seen ladies take bobbins of thread and hand-tie them to make lace, and their speed and ability is so mind-boggling that they are god-like figures to me. They made me realize why old people are so impressed when you fix computer issues for them.
Macrame. I do plant hangers mostly, but Iāve done a few other things too, like a projector screen handle
Iāve learned, at a very beginner level, sheep raising (not spinning though), cordage, weaving, embroidery, cross stitch, and knitting, and Iām interested in all kinds of fiber arts.
These days I mostly just knit, and Iām pretty good at it! I make all kinds of things, shawls, socks, sweaters, scarves, hats, etc. Currently working on a pair of socks for my mom that Iām knitting inside out so it will have a softer sole!