machine knitting midgauge standard bulky machknit knit machine-knit patterns

Monday, April 6, 2009

Free and Easy Dishcloth... pattern for the midgauge machine


Thinking of my sister, who is just starting to machine knit, I came up with this easy pattern to try. You could knit the whole dishcloth in stockinette, but why not add a little texture? If you are wondering why I'm starting out with the waste yarn, I like to do this with this particular machine because the weight bar is so darn heavy---intrusive---hole making. If you have a better way, certainly do it.

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Midgauge machine (Brother KX 350)
Yarn: cotton - any that will knit easily on your machine
Tension: 10 (The dishcloth will most likely shrink in the washer and dryer.)
Directions:
Cast on with waste yarn over 42 stitches. Hang ½ weight bar on the waste yarn. Knit a few rows, one row ravel cord.
Ewrap on top of these stitches with main yarn. RC 000. Knit 2 rows.
*With every other needle pusher, push the needles all the way out to E position, starting with the first N on the left and continue across. Set carriage to H position both sides. Knit 2 rows. Set carriage to normal knitting, Knit 2 rows. With every other needle pusher, push the needles all the way out to E position, starting with the second N on the left and continue across. Set carriage to H position both sides. Knit 2 rows. Set carriage to normal knitting, Knit 2 rows. * Repeat this sequence to RC 82 or however long you want it, remembering the shrinkage, and bind off. Pull on ravel cord to remove waste yarn.

Fancy it up a little by knitting 2 rows, doing the * to * pattern until RC 18. Knit 4 rows plain to make a little border. Resume pattern and knit 40 rows. Knit 4 rows plain, 16 rows pattern, 2 rows plain. Bind off. Pull on ravel cord to remove waste yarn.(84 rows total.)


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I made a little swatch just to show the stitch definition.


The other day I threw away all of my machine knit cotton dishcloths and made 10 new ones on my standard gauge machine. I use a tuck stitch, so it looks a little different than this pattern. But it's really nice to have new, non-stained ones. Yes, I'm easily entertained and amused.

As an aside...this post has been sitting as a draft for a few days because I couldn't upload my little pictures. I tried a bunch of stuff, as suggested by Blogger, and nothing worked. Until...I changed browsers. Whatever! In case you are also a Blogger user and suddenly start to have problems, I thought maybe this would help. The problem probably lies with some plug-in where something is interfering, but I don't have the patience to disable the plug-ins one by one and check.