machine knitting midgauge standard bulky machknit knit machine-knit patterns

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ribbed Baby Jacket


This is Debbie Bliss' hand knit pattern that I converted to machine knitting on the manual midgauge machine. You can find the pattern here: http://www.allaboutyou.com/craft/Knitting-pattern-ribbed-baby-jacket/v1
Some hand knitting patterns are easier to convert to machine knitting than others. This one was very easy. She even tells you how many rows to knit, which is unusual in a hand knitting pattern. So, I didn't have to use any math to convert length to number of rows. Makes one wonder if it really was a machine knit pattern to begin with!

If I were to knit it again, I would do a couple of things differently. For one, hand latching all that ribbing on my Brother KX 350 extended a 40 minute knit to a 5 hour one. I'll do it on one of my machines that has a ribber next time. Also, I should have picked up the neck and front stitches from the wrong side rather than the right side to make a nicer join between pieces. Is ok, but nothing you'd take to the state fair. Navy doesn't photograph well, but in person you can see that the place where stitches were picked up could have been smoother.

I'd say this is about a 3-6 month size. (I used the smallest size in her pattern.) The yarn is Caron Simply Soft, less than one skein. I used T6 and got pretty close to the pattern's gauge of 18 st x 24 r to 10 cm (4 inches). I temporarily pinned on a mini flower corsage. I think the sweater really is suitable for a boy or girl.

We had a guild "knit-in" yesterday so this is what I got done plus a charity baby hat. Machine knitters know the satisfaction of producing a lot of knitting in a short amount of time!