Marzipanknits

Machine Knit Baby Sweater Using Sock Yarn

2012-01-26T12:14:00.006-06:00

If you've followed my blog for a long time, you may remember this pattern. Sideways knit with sock yarn. I think it's part cotton, part acrylic, fairly standard sock yarn.
It almost fits Luca. It appears there's some growing room in the sleeves and length. I'm glad to see the proportions are fairly good, so can recommend it to you to make. I remember being amazed that the two fronts seem to match---a happy accident. I'm sure if I tried I wouldn't have gotten it right. It's a free pattern if you follow the link. http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2011/05/machine-knit-baby-sweater-using-sock.html OR, scroll way down on the right side until you see the sweater, then click on it to be transported to the post. In order to see the schematic better, you may need to click on it to enlarge it, then print out.

Too bad the temp is in the 80's in LA. But Jeans!!! How cute is that!

Clever Laundry Instructions

2012-01-25T14:22:00.008-06:00

From http://stream.pleated-jeans.com/post/4004715964/guide-to-laundry-symbols

Still no knitting content, but worth a chuckle. If you can't read some of the small print, click on the image and the focus should become a little more clear.

The wonders of technology...maybe

2012-01-22T10:27:00.001-06:00

Have never embedded a video before....so this is an experiment!

Kari and Luca from Luca on Vimeo.

Machine Knit Baby Bee Hat

2012-01-19T11:12:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures of my cutie in the Baby Bee hat. (Free pattern in a previous post.) You can't see the antennae so well in pictures, but they would show up in person. (fisheye lens distorts things a little...) How about those chubby cheeks for a babe born a month early????
I made two sizes hoping one would fit. Cute project if I do say so myself.

No knitting in the new year to report yet...

Back to regular programming

2012-01-09T11:39:00.005-06:00

Had a wonderful Christmas vacation. Santa Cruz is beautiful, especially the ocean and coastline. They had unseasonably warm weather plus sunshine, so that was a bonus. My little Santa became exhausted after completing all his rounds. Thought you might like to see that hat on a real baby. (See previous post if you'd like the pattern.)

I think I'll make it an annual affair---knitting a Santa hat for him. He's 3 months old now.

We are having very unusual weather in Minnesota too. Today is supposed to reach 47 degrees F. Normally this time of year we are 20 degrees BELOW zero. A recent poll on a local tv station indicated that 75% of Minnesotans loved this warmth and 25% hated it. Probably the 25% are avid skiers and snowmobilers and we have no snow other than the stuff the ski resorts are making.

Yesterday I installed DAK 8 on a new laptop. I left DAK 7 on my old desktop with Windows XP and am hoping it doesn't die any time soon. This new version looks easy to use. I like the thumbnails---easier to search. Some things are exactly the same, so I don't think it will be difficult to learn. I'm supposed to teach some classes on DAK 8 at the Purls of Joy seminar in April, SO, I better get crackin'.

On the knitting front, I'm working on some prayer shawls to donate. Will post photos soon, I hope.

Also hoping you have a wonderful new year!

Free machine knit pattern for a baby Santa hat

2011-12-20T11:30:00.006-06:00

Pretty much done with gifts, done knitting the annual order for Minnetonka Ski Team hats, finished with other holiday preparations, so I thought I'd knit a baby Santa hat for my grandson. The fish hat I thought about doing will have to wait. This hat is really soft---although it doesn't look like it in the picture.

Here's the pattern if you are interested.

Machine: Standard gauge (no ribber required)
Gauge of stockinette part: 7 st x 10 r = 1” at T 7
Yarn: Tamm Sky or yarn that will knit to gauge (a couple of ounces) white for brim and red for hat, and white Lion Brand Fun Fur (1/4 skein)for brim
Finished sizes: 0-3 months (6-9 months in parenthesis)—about 13.5” (15”) circumference unstretched at brim.

DIRECTIONS
Cast on with waste yarn over 101 (109) needles, every other needle. (I did every other needle to accommodate the doubled yarn of the brim then changed to single strand for the body of the hat.) Knit about an inch of waste yarn. Change to the strand of white and fun fur run separately through the mast and joined at the carriage. Yank the knitting down after every row to make sure the fur doesn’t get hung up on the gate pegs. Knit 20 rows at T 9, or twice the depth you want the brim. Hang a hem and knit one row to seal. Cut the two yarns leaving ends long enough to weave in later. Change to red, single strand, put the in- between needles into work and changing to T 7, RC 000, knit 44 (54) rows. Remove on waste yarn or garter bar and decrease every 8 stitches across. Knit 6 rows. Remove on waste yarn or garter bar and decrease every 7 stitches across, Knit 6 rows. Continue in this manner until you are decreasing every 4 stitches across, then knit 10 rows. After decreasing every 3 stitches across, knit 20 rows. Decrease every 2 stitches across and knit 10 rows. Continue decreasing evenly across until you have 4 or 5 stitches left. Change to I cord setting---consult your manual, but for Brother, push in one part button. Knit I cord for 20 rows and bind off.

TIE- knit a 4 stitch I cord 270 rows at T 7 and bind off.

FINISHING: Remove the waste yarn from the start of the hem. Seam the side of the hat leaving about 1 ½ inches open at the bottom. That is, leave the white part and a little of the red open. I did this because the doubled yarn of the brim wasn’t as stretchy as normal, and I thought I needed to allow for a larger head size. The tie can make the adjustment if necessary. (Baby not available right now for a fitting!) Run the I cord through the hem and make pom poms with the red yarn for the ends of the tie. Make one larger pom pom of the fun fur and white yarn for the tip of the hat. Hide all yarn ends. Brush the fun fur a little to make it move to the right side. Ho ho ho, really cute, don’t you think?

Side opening to adjust for size:

Note: On Ravelry I've seen some darling ones that have a much longer tip--- some that drape all the way to the ground. I opted to make a shorter one to avoid all thoughts of the possibility of the end being wrapped around the baby's neck. If you were using the hat just for a picture and wanted the longer end, just increase the number of plain rows between decreases to get the desired length.

And...... here's my cutie. I took some stills from a little video, hence the numbers at the bottom. I just thought his expressions were so sweet.

Yes, I'm besotted.

Beautiful Machine Knit Fingerless Gloves

2011-12-13T17:15:00.005-06:00

Some people are "naturals" I think. I received this email from Mattie who needed just a tiny bit of clarification about the fingerless mitts pattern on my blog here and off she went. Aren't they handsome? She used Red Heart Gemstone yarn. I love the colors in it. She said:

Thank you for the instructions. I finally finished making a pair. It turned out really nice. Now to make a few more. These gloves were a great start for me, as I just bought the Silver Reed 860 mid gauge a couple of weeks ago and finally had the courage to use it, instead of just admiring it.
Thanks again,
Mattie

If you're interested in making this pattern, scroll down on the right side to the picture, click on it and you'll be taken to the free pattern.

I'm gratified that someone else could make the mitts from my pattern! Mattie is to be congratulated on a job well done!!!

And, here's another job well done... the new grandson. He's 2 1/2 months old. You sure can't tell he was early. He's growing like a weed. Every now and then I stop and marvel at how lucky we are to have him.

Free Machine Knit Pattern for a Baby Bee Hat

2011-11-29T10:20:00.007-06:00

I've been trying to get back into the swing of knitting. I always seem to be able to muster up the energy to make something for the new grandson, even when there are other things I should be finishing.

This pattern actually wasn't my original idea. A hand knit version of the hat was shown at one of the knit clubs I go to and I thought it was adorable. So, since it wasn't my own design, I thought I should share it with you rather than selling the pattern. If you want to save the pattern, highlight what you want and copy it, then paste into a word processing program.

Machine knit Baby Bee Hat by Mar Heck
Machine standard gauge (no ribber required)
Gauge 7 st x 10 r = 4" (10 cm) T 7
Yarn Small amounts that will knit to gauge. Black and gold. I used Mary Lou Solo.
Finished sizes 0-3 months (6-9 months in parenthesis); About 13 1/2" (15") circumference unstretched.
Directions
Cast on with waste yarn over 95 (105) needles. Knit a few rows. Knit one row ravel cord left to right. Change to black. T 5, knit 9 rows. Knit one row T 8. T6, knit 9 rows. Hang a hem from the ravel cord. Change to T 7 and knit one row.
RC 000.From here on out, knit 4 rows gold, 4 rows black. Carry unused yarn up the side. Don't snip the yarn when you change colors. Knit 44 (54 rows). Begin decreases. Remove on waste yarn or garter bar if you have one. Decrease every 8 stitches across. (Double up stitches 7 and 8 with no empty needles.) Knit 2 rows, remembering to keep to the color sequence. Decrease every 7 stitches across (double up stitches 6 and 7 across). Knit 2 rows. Continue in this manner until you have decreased every 5 stitches across (doubling up stitch 4 and 5). Decrease the tension to T 5, Knit 2 rows. Take off on 12" piece of yarn and cinch up tightly. Remove the ravel cord and waste yarn. Mattress stitch the seam, being careful to keep the stripes going nicely across the seam.

I cord Antennae: Make 2. With black yarn, bring out 5 needles. (Yup, 5 to make a fatter antenna.) Set machine to slip one way, knit the other. Ewrap onto the 5 needles. RC 000. T 3, Knit 30 rows and bind off, leaving a 3" end to secure the antennae to the inside of the hat. Make tiny pom pom for the end of each antenna and fasten on securely. Put both antennae (the un-pom pommed ends) into the hole at the top of the hat, making them even in length. Turn the hat inside out and tack the ends of the antennae securely with the 3" end you left on. Hide the ends. DONE!

I have the hem turned up, but it could go either way--folded up or not. If you wanted to make a larger hat, just use one of your tried and true patterns to get the dimensions right and follow the bee-themed idea. Would work on any other machine too once you get the dimensions you want. I'm selling the finished hat in my Etsy shop too if you are interested in just buying the hat!

Now I'm thinking of knitting a baby fish hat.
The hand knit pattern is on Knitty. http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php The description: Do you smell something fishy? No, of course you don’t! Don’t worry that bad smells will scare people away when you wear this hat. This 100% odorless fish will attract people to you instead.

I think it would be easy to convert to mk. Oh, the patterning possibilities. I'm thinking red lips, scales, snowflakes??? Stay tuned.

Etsy-ized

2011-11-26T10:50:00.003-06:00

Call me crazy, but I've opened an Etsy shop. There are thousands and thousands of items available in every category imaginable. SO, I'm thinking that if anyone finds me or my products, it will be a miracle. I need to study Etsy some more to understand just how it works.

I entered a craft fair earlier this month and have some items left over. So that was the main impetus for looking for a shop to sell them. I was hoping I could quit my day job and just sell on Etsy. OH! WAIT A MINUTE! I have NO day job, so this ought to be easy.

If you feel like buying something rather than making it... here's my shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Marzipanknits

You can have a look anyway.

Still among the living...

2011-11-22T09:59:00.017-06:00

I'm baaaaaaack! (Loved that movie, Independence Day.) Hard to believe I've neglected my blog for months. I do have excuses, though. The main one is that over the period of time of my absence, I knit too much. I did complete the 65 charity items goal I set for myself in 2011. Hats, headbands, scarves, slippers, baby stuff. Doesn't look like much in the photo, but trust me, it was A LOT of knitting. Then there was a craft fair I entered. 128 items... besides stuff for my new grandson. My estimate is that I knit 74,000 yards, probably 20+ cones got used up. I needed a break.

The beautiful baby Luca arrived a month early, so was quite tiny (6 lbs.) but in perfect shape. He didn't require any intervention from the neonatal unit. I stayed with my daughter for a month to help out. She got an infected c-section incision so it was a bit of a struggle for a while. All is well now, though, and what a gem he is. I've joined the ranks of the crazed grandmas. Isn't he beautiful?
Seven weeks old tomorrow. Most of the stuff I sewed and knit for him doesn't fit yet, but that's ok. He's growing. I get to see him again at Christmas and I'm soooooooo excited about that.

I received an email yesterday from Angela who has knit 12 pairs of my Fuzzy Feet slipper pattern.
She gave away 2 pairs before this photo was taken, but isn't this cute?
They range in size from 5-6 child to 12 adult. She felt she should have taken out stock in Lion Brand Fun Fur before making these! The original pattern was in Knitwords Winter 2005, but if you don't have that issue, you can purchase the slipper pattern from me here. (Don't know if Mary Anne has any copies left of this issue.) I revised the pattern a little and added a few hints. They are really easy and fast to make on a basic bulky machine, a good project for a beginner. No shaping or patterning is required. Oh, and they are felted, made with one strand of wool and one of fun fur.

So, that's it for today. Probably will return to a better blogging schedule now. Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Baby No-Scratch Mittens

2011-07-18T14:41:00.005-05:00

Made three versions of a no-scratch mitten. I just eye-balled what I thought would be a newborn size. They might be a little large. One is out of T shirt cotton, not very warm. The second is out of fleece, a little warmer. And, warmest yet is a lined one. Might be way too hot for California, but it does get cold at night in the winter. This little guy I've been making things for is an October baby.

Sewing kept me busy for a day so I could stay inside in the air conditioning. It's 97 degrees here with a heat index of 115 degrees because of the humidity. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to survive this heat without the air. After our beastly awful winter, it's hard to complain.

If you would like to make some of these you could print out my pattern. You'd want to adjust your printer so that the mitt piece is the dimensions on my diagram.

You can right click on the picture, select copy and then paste it into your paint program. Print from there.

Hmmm. What shall I make next? Any suggestions?

The Edudog Made it to Australia

2011-07-17T08:32:00.004-05:00

I received the nicest letter this morning. It's from Rosalie in Australia. She purchased my Edudog pattern.
Dear Mar,
Your Edudog blanket went to church this morning. We had a theme - "Bring Your Creativity to Church". Different people brought their creative efforts and they were displayed at the front of the church.There were patchwork quilts, preserves, knitting, crochet, embroidery, gardening, paintings, dolls, and so on. Two little boys brought their Lego models. The Edudog blanket created a lot of interest, and I told everyone that the original pattern was created by a clever lady in America.
Best wishes for lots of happy designing and knitting.
Rosalie

Gosh, now that I look at it again, it sure is cute. Maybe I should make it again now that I have a little one to knit for. If you'd like to purchase it, scroll down on the right side for the link. Can you find the puppy with chicken pox?

Baby Snuggle Bag

2011-06-29T12:54:00.005-05:00

Not sure what to call this. It's like a sleeping bag for newborns. Cuddle sack? Bunting? If you search on Ravelry, you'll find lots of them. The newborns have their arms inside, older babies have the sack pulled up to their armpits. Anyway, what could be easier to knit? It's just a long rectangle folded and seamed at the sides.

I used a midgauge machine (Silver Reed 860 with ribber), Tension 3 for the stockinette and tension 3/3 for the ribs. I didn't do the rib very tightly because I didn't want it to pull in. The gauge before washing was 5.25 st x 7.75 rows. After laundering 6 st x 8.25 rows. It's Conshohoken 100% cotton. Really soft. I have machine washed and dried it and so it shrank an inch both directions. The finished dimensions are 10.5" wide x 15 inches long with the ribbing folded over 5". No doubt you have different yarn than I have, so if you want to make it, figure out your gauge and calculate so that you have the finished dimensions of approximately 10.5" x 15", good for a newborn. Do about 5" of ribbing, 30" of stockinette and another 5" of ribbing.

For mine, I cast on 63 stitches, knit 36 rows in 1 x 1 rib, changed to stockinette. RC 000, knit to Row 240. Then transferred for rib and knit the 36 rows of ribbing. Seamed, ends worked in and laundered...done.

I think it's probably good for up to 4-5 months before the baby starts to roll around too much. The large ribbing gives some lee-way as far as length is concerned. Might embroider a little something on it to jazz it up a bit. Still have one in the works with sleeves. Need to finish that.

Knit a Baby Rib Warmer

2011-06-26T12:47:00.006-05:00

Here's an easy pattern for you to knit. I think I could have done a better job with the pocket, but oh well. Next time.

Machine: Standard Gauge 4.5 mm with ribber or garter carriage
Yarn: Tamm Bebe; three 3/8" buttons needed.
Gauge: at T 7 7 st x 10 r = 1”
Finished size: newborn
Cute boy or girl vest to be worn with a T shirt or onesie and jeans or pants. Super simple to make.

DIRECTIONS
Pocket: Cast on 26 st. At T 7 knit 20 rows. Transfer for 2 x 2 rib. Knit 8 rows. Knit one loose row right to left. Transfer rib stitches to main bed. Chain cast off. Set aside.
Body Back: Reserve a 24" piece of yarn to bind off center neck stitches. Ewrap cast on for 2 x 2 rib (or whatever cast on you like) over 71 stitches. Knit 14 rows T 8/8. Transfer rib stitches to main bed, change to main carriage. I used a large tension so the rib wouldn’t pull in so much. RC 000. Change to T 7, Knit stockinette to RC 42. Bind off 5 stitches. RC 43 bind off 5 stitches. Decrease one stitch full fashioned both sides every 2 rows 6 X. On row 58 with 51 stitches left, transfer for 2 x 2 rib. Knit to RC 77. Transfer 27 center rib stitches to main bed and bind off around the gate pegs with the reserved yarn. Carefully pull the stitches off the gate pegs. Put left side in hold (stitches are still in rib pattern). Knit right strap, still in rib, to RC 82 and bind off these 12 stitches. Return left 12 strap stitches to work. Knit to RC 87. Make two button holes evenly spaced by transferring a rib stitch to main bed. Leave needle in work. Knit 5 more rows. Transfer stitches to main bed and bind off.
Body Front: Reserve a 24" piece of yarn for binding off neck stitches. Knit the same as the back except begin 4 x 4 rib at RC 51. Knit in rib to RC 66. Transfer 27 center st to main bed and bind off as you did the back. Put one strap to hold and knit other strap to RC 82. Bind off. Return other strap to work and knit to RC 82. Bind off.
FINISHING
Sew two small buttons on the strap that matches the tabbed strap. Seam the other shoulder. Mattress stitch the side seams. Steam lightly. I needed to steam flat the front neck rib a little. Sew on the patch pocket. Add a matching button if desired. Run in all yarn ends, of course.

Did you know?

2011-06-24T08:58:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd put in a short post about navigating my blog. Someone wrote to me and asked how to find the free patterns on my blog. There are a few ways. One, you could read all the entries (long, but terribly exciting). Click on Older Posts at the bottom of your scren to get back in time. Two, you could scroll down on the right side of the blog and look at the pictures. When you click on one, you're taken to the post that contains the pattern. Three, you can click on the free patterns topic and all of them are put together in a long string. Four, you can do a search in the search box and whatever you are searching for comes up.

I guess that's enough ways, no?

On the baby front, I'm knitting a sleep sac with sleeves. The popular ones these days are just bags ---some fancier than others--made to "swaddle" the baby. I was thinking that all would stay in place better if the sac had arms. I think the old fashioned name for such a thing is "bunting". It's 100% cotton, so I need to wash and preshrink it. Right now it looks like it would fit a 6 month old. I 'spect it will shrink down to newborn size. Lovely soft Conshohocken yarn. Wish they were still in business. Sigh...

Four Star Norwegian Sweater for Baby

2011-06-17T13:06:00.004-05:00

Here's a Norwegian baby sweater I just designed. It could be for a baby boy or girl depending on the colors you use, perhaps, although most colors go for either. It's a really fast knit since the front and back are rectangles with no shaping. Made on the standard gauge machine with a ribber or garter carriage, sized to fit 6 months to 1 year. You could almost get it done the day before the shower! Designaknit file is included, although you could enter the design into your machine by other means. Graphs are included. I knit it with Tamm Bebe, and although I'm generally opposed to acrylic yarn, this one is nice and soft and looks good. Easy care, for sure.You can purchase the pattern for $4.50 through PayPal below. I wish I could show it to you on a real baby, but that will have to wait for the model to appear... another 4 months or so!

One Little, Two Little, Four Little Baby Hats

2011-06-11T14:21:00.004-05:00

Remember that commercial, "Wait 'til I get my Hanes on you!"???? Evidently some people objected to the play on words, clever though it was, so you don't hear it so much anymore. That's the song that kept going through my mind as I was making these baby hats. I found these men's Hanes 100% cotton undershirts, never been worn, still in the pkg in a dresser drawer. So, natchurally, I had to do something with them. I'm really into this repurposing and upcycling thing these days. Washed them to preshrink and went looking for a baby hat pattern on the internet. I found one at PrudentBaby.com and it printed out just the right size. I had a purchased hat to compare to for size and it seemed correct.

These are a size 3-6 months, so I probably will make more at a larger size...maybe. I seem to remember it was difficult keeping a hat on the baby after a while. My kids would always pull them off. I had some small embroidery designs that worked ok. I like this one the best. I don't have a serger, but I found a stretch stitch on my sewing machine that overlocked the edge and looks exactly like a serger stitch to me.
The hats are really soft, stretchy and awfully cute, if I do say so myself.

Now I really need to get out to the garden. The weather has been so unpredictable---103 F 4 days ago and now only 67. Hope I don't freeze.

Link for Cloth Baby Shoes

2011-06-01T14:52:00.003-05:00

I found the site where I got the cloth shoes pattern. In case you are interested, it's
http://www.newconceptions.com/patpdf/Footiespdf.pdf
I notice that they revised the pattern a tiny bit since I downloaded it. The newer version recommends 2 - 4" pieces of 1/8" elastic. I was close, so maybe they'll fit.

Cloth Shoes - Repurposed Stuff - Done!

2011-06-01T11:19:00.007-05:00

Well, I got three pairs out of the deal. They turned out pretty sweet. My only concern is whether the ankle is big enough. The pattern didn't say how long to cut the elastic, so I just guestimated by the picture in the pattern.

Ok, now I really do need to go clean, plant stuff, go grocery shopping!

Cloth Baby Shoes - Repurposed Stuff

2011-05-31T09:49:00.005-05:00

I should be cleaning house and/or planting stuff. Company is coming on Thursday and there really is a lot I should do to get the house in order. I've only been able to plant 13 of my 100 dahlias, and those I planted in the rain. What a crummy spring. it was 89 degrees F yesterday---a fluke. But I'm not doing either and am involved in baby shoes!

This is the pattern I'm using:

I downloaded it ages ago and can't find/can't remember whose pattern it is, regrettably, or I'd give credit where credit is due. Of course I couldn't just make them out of the material recommended by the pattern. Have to put my own spin on them.

I spent yesterday afternoon embroidering the instep pieces. I had reduced the size to fit the piece using my embroidery software. Supposedly if you hold the ctrl key while making the design smaller, the program is supposed to adjust the density accordingly. It did not, to my disappointment. Some of the tops turned out to be bulletproof. So I had to toss those. Here's an example.
Is cute, but is so dense it doesn't even bend. A lot of time wasted, but I learned a lesson that I have to use designs that are originally sized to be tiny. Or, I need to digitize my own designs.

These turned out ok. So I have enough for three pairs, size 6 months. Have cut out the linings (another shirt) and the other pieces (old jeans) so today I'm ready to put them together. If I can figure it out, that is. Will post tomorrow if they turn out.

Machine Knit Tuck Baby Blanket

2011-05-30T07:57:00.009-05:00

Knit a charity blanket yesterday using a kind of boring tuck pattern:

I'm not so happy with the side edges.
I guess I'll have to crochet around them so they look decent before donating it.
I had wanted to avoid the extra work. I think I know what I did wrong. In DAK, I put one plain row on the border on both sides rather than extending the pattern to the edges. Will have to change it and try a small swatch to see if it makes a difference. .

I made a pale green cotton tuck baby blanket last year for charity and the edges looked fine on that one.

My friend, Sandy, taught me a trick you might like to try with acrylic. When done, wash the blanket. Before you put it in the dryer, fold it twice and baste the edges together really close to the edge. When it comes out of the dryer, the edges lie pretty flat. I steamed all the borders just a tad being careful not to melt the yarn. So that part went ok, it's just the stitches that don't look very even.

Guess I'll have to get out my garter carriage and see if I like that better. Just goes to show, doesn't matter how long you've been knitting, not everything turns out to be wonderful.

Presto Chango!

2011-05-27T16:46:00.011-05:00

It always has bothered me that people put their babies on those Koala Bear changing stations with all the germs that must be lurking. So, I thought a changing pad would be nice to take along then wash when needed. As I usually do, I checked out on the internet what others had done to make such an item, then went ahead and did my own thing. Mainly, I wanted to see what size people usually made.

Another shirt repurposed! I cut out a rectangle 13" wide x 24" long out of the shirt back. Then used some polar fleece for the other side. Since the shirt material had lines on it I was able to quilt the two pieces together easily.
Then I put 3/4" bias tape around the edges. I made a pocket and sewed a closure with velcro. The pocket is sewn to the inside. It holds baby wipes, hand sanitizer, butt paste, whatever.
Then I got the bright idea to stick a teddy bear in the pocket for the baby to hang on to while being changed. I knit two 6 x 8" pieces of stockinette and sewed a teddy bear shape, stuffed him and turned him right side out.

I made a 42 inch tie out of the rest of the bias tape and sewed it onthe end of the thing on the outside. It's easy to roll up, tie and everything stays in place.
The "package" ends up to be 13" wide x 8" deep, depending on how much stuff you put in the pocket.
Am I proud of myself, or what?

Cutest so far

2011-05-26T08:58:00.008-05:00

Here's the latest project. It's supposed to look like a baseball jersey. The father is crazy about baseball, so I thought he might like this. I looked at some of the store-bought outfits I've purchased to get the proportions and drew up a pattern in DAK. I also checked out Glenda Overman's Baby Gift Catalog to get an idea of how she shaped the panties. I used two strands of some mystery cotton yarns a friend gave me. The white has a little bit of slubbiness and the blue is smooth.
Here are my notes about the dimensions prewash:

I think it went from about a size 6 months to 3 months--- But the baby sizes are so arbitrary and dependent on the baby as to when the outfit will be wearable. At least now it's all preshrunk and they can throw the stuff in the washer and dryer.
Here are some closeups:

I have no idea about the wasteband as to whether it will fit. DAK says a baby's waist measurement is 17" for this size, so that's what I went with. Diapers will take up some room, for sure.
Fun when something turns out exactly like you wanted it. That doesn't always happen!

Baby Fix for the Day

2011-05-23T19:14:00.009-05:00

Just for kicks, yesterday I made some bibs, newborn size. Cost: $0.00 for 5.
I used one of my husband's shirts. It is new-ish, but he got some kind of paint on one front shirt-tail, so it's not something that I'd want to donate. But the material is nice and boyish. For the backing I used old jeans. Two of the bibs have a pocket (the shirt's pockets), making kind of a decorative thing. Both the shirt and jeans have been washed many times, so they're done shrinking. I think they're pretty cute. So tiny! As of today, we're half way to the due date!

If you have need of some bibs, here's a pattern for you:

(Click to get a larger view.)
Cut a front and a back, two ties about 3/4" wide. Fold over the raw edges of the ties to the center and sew. Tuck the ties inside between the top and bottom pieces. Sew around the bib with a 1/2" seam, being careful to catch only the end of the ties in the seam. Leave a 3" opening either at the side or bottom. Clip the seams generously. Turn right side out. Press, fold in the 3" opening, top stitch all around. Done.

Machine Knit Baby Sweater Using Sock Yarn

2011-05-22T08:54:00.010-05:00

More baby things! I was inspired by this sideways knit sweater, a free pattern by Opal yarns, using a yarn called Opal Brazil Sock Yarn. I had saved it a couple of years ago and now when I search the internet, I can't find the pattern anymore. The yarn isn't available either, as far as I can tell. To make it on my standard gauge machine, I crafted it up in DesignaKnit, with my own gauge.
This is what I came up with. When I put the images here, they get a little blurry, so if you want the actual numbers, click on the image and it will enlarge with more legible numbers :

AND

Knitting a sideways sweater is a little confusing, so you'll need to think it through a little and make a cheat sheet for yourself as to when to put stitches on waste yarn, when to pick up the whole thing again, when to bind off a section. Maybe it wouldn't be as tricky for you as it was for me to visualize. I think once it's on the machine, it makes more sense. Sorry, I didn't actually write out the steps or I'd provide that here.
So, this is what the sweater looks like. I used some sock yarn (lost the label)that gave a 7st x 10 row gauge at T 10 on the standard gauge machine.

After I got the piece off the machine, I noticed that the fronts matched---were mirror images of each other. I didn't try to get it that way! And, I'm sure if I had tried, I would have screwed it up. Funny!!!
To do the collar, I left live stitches on the front neck on waste yarn and picked up stitches on the back neck. I knit a few rows stockinette and a few rows ribbing so the collar wouldn't roll. Picked up the front plackets and cuffs to do 1 x 1 rib on these as well.

I can't decide whether I love this sweater or not. For some odd reason, it reminds me of a 1970's leisure suit! And the colors are pretty shocking/strong for a baby. Fortunately, this baby will probably, most likely, undoubtedly have lots of things to choose from in his wardrobe!!!
PS It's supposed to be about a size 12 months.

Sewing a little baby quilt

2011-05-19T12:58:00.009-05:00

I thought I'd try my hand at a "raggy" baby quilt. I can't say it's the most favorite thing I've ever made, although it did only take me two days, maybe 6-7 hrs to make. I bought 3 different flannels that were 42 inches wide and 42 inches long. Then I cut them up to 7" squares, nothing wasted. I arranged them so that one print was the same on all the pieces (the back side) and the top would be a checkerboard of the other two fabrics. Sewed a squiggly X across each piece and sewed the patches together using a one inch seam allowance with all seams on the right side of the blanket.

I sat outside in the glorious spring sun and cut little snips every 3/4" across all seams. Took me about an hour and a half. I loved this fabric---very soft and very sweet prints.

Ok, now the part I'm not so happy about. I washed and dried the thing to get the raggy/chenille effect on the seams. Checked the washer, then the dryer often to clean out the threads. The final effect: to me, it looks used and old. The fabric is still soft, but sort of wrinkly. I am told this is how it is supposed to look, but I'm not that enthused about the look of it. O well, had to try it.

Here's a closeup of one of the prints:

And, here's what the backside looks like, a bunch of little cowboys and cowgirls:

Not my proudest day, but I think it will be a good blanket to use on the floor or in the car because it's a little heavy. On to the next baby project...

Debbie Bliss' Ribbed Baby Jacket Converted to Machine Knit

2011-05-11T09:37:00.014-05:00

This pattern has captured my attention 3 times now. The first two times I knit it on the midgauge.

This time I converted it to the standard gauge machine. (Yes, lazy. It's squished under the lid of my scanner.) I used cotton and made a size larger than I wanted the finished size to be. Then I threw it in the washer and dryer so that it would do all its shrinking before I give it away. The cotton turned out so soft, I'm really pleased with it. And the variegated blues look kind of like jeans. Boyish, anyway.
I'm not too sure about the buttons, though. What do you think? I can always change it. The "button holes" are just crocheted loops. I guess my thinking was that the big buttons would be kind of trendy/funky.
You can find the pattern here: http://www.allaboutyou.com/craft/Knitting-pattern-ribbed-baby-jacket/v1 The baby model is so adorable. But there are a couple of things I don't like about the pattern. The bottom curls like crazy with no edge treatment and the sleeves do as well. So, I added the 2 x 2 ribbings and I think it's a big improvement. Besides, when the baby grows, the sleeve cuffs can be shortened and then rolled down. If you knit this on a midgauge, you can pretty much just follow the pattern as is. I suspect the prototype was machine knitted anyway by the way the pattern is written. But, if you want to knit it on the standard gauge machine, you need to do a tiny bit of math.

A friend and I worked on this together, did a schematic and adapted it. Here's what the schematic looks like for 12 months. If you'd want a different size or different gauge, first download the pattern from the website and then use the measurements to come up with your own stitches and rows. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you'll be able to see the numbers more clearly.

Yes, she's getting obsessed with baby stuff....

Every moral has a story...

2011-05-07T10:59:00.006-05:00

What a crazy last two days!!! Long story coming....no, you can't buy DAK at a computer store, sadly.

My son's car needed an oil change. The car dealership said they'd have his car for several hours. So, he called and asked if I'd pick him up at a nearby computer store that he could walk to. If I could pick him up, he could be at home while the car was being worked on. Since I'm such a good mom, I said sure. Keep in mind, this store is about 11 miles from my house.

Trip 1, going to pick up the son from the computer store. The drama begins. I can't resist looking at stuff in a computer store and noticed they had some refurbished laptops with WINDOWS XP on them!!!! Since DAK works great with XP, I don't own a laptop and kind of think I need one, Windows XP is a rare dinosaur, it was a reasonable price, I thought this would be good insurance/backup for when I no longer have a computer that works with DAK. So went my fairly reasonable thought process. As a result, I happily took an IBM Thinkpad home with me. Took me a couple of hours to get connected to the internet, download and install Norton anti-virus, download updates for the anti-virus, upgrade the XP stuff from Microsoft, stuck in DAK to see if it liked its new home, etc. etc. etc. I was minding my own business, surfing, etc. and suddenly the blue screen of death came up and said "Hardware failure. Return computer to administrator/seller" or something like that. These laptops were used by businesses and then (supposedly) refurbished. So, even though I couldn't turn the d*** thing off, I could get the disk out. I put everything back together and returned the laptop to the store and got an exchange. Trip 2. No problem.

Did all the preparation as described above with the Thinkpad laptop replacement. Something niggled at me and I finally realized there was no sound on this computer. Went to every place on the computer that deals with sound and increased the volume to the max. Went to the website and downloaded a new driver. Nothing worked. Getting disgusted now! Too many hours invested. So I uninstalled DAK, packed everything up and returned to the store for a REFUND. Trip 3. Done with this nonsense!

They were really nice about it at the store and I was feeling pretty good about my decision to quit messing around with a refurbished computer. I'll take my chances with the two computers I have at home that work fine with DAK.

When I got home, I thought I would convert a Dale of Norway baby graph to a stitch pattern and start working on a sweater for the little guy. YIKES!!! no DAK disk. (I always run DAK from the disk.) Absolute panic when I realized I returned the disk to the store, still in the laptop's cd drive. I called the store and the employee (John the phone guy) sounded a bit irritated but said he'd look for the computer and see if the disk was still there, then call me back. This is a big computer store, a national chain, and I thought there was a possibility that the computer was already on a truck ready to be transported somewhere. Had already rationalized in my head the purchase of a replacement DAK disk. I was almost in tears when...........brinnnnnnnnng! The phone rang, he had it, I could come pick it up. Geeze Louise!!! I think if I hadn't wanted to work on DAK right away, the computer and disk would have been gone. Thanked my lucky stars. 4 round trips in two days. Don't even care about the wasted, expensive gas anymore.

Moral of the story: USE YOUR DAK EVERY DAY!

PS Car got its oil change. On one of those trips, the son got transported to his car. I was so focused on the DAK and the stubborn laptop, I can't even remember where in the sequence I took him to the car place. After all, first things first.

Doing DAK II

2011-05-06T10:13:00.005-05:00

I wrote a second DAK book (and cleverly named it Doing DAK II) in time for the 2011 Purls of Joy seminar held last weekend in Princeton, MN. I have some copies left and am offering them for sale here. What's on the CD, you ask?
Doing DAK II expands on skills learned in the first book. This series of lessons assumes you are more comfortable with the program, have integrated some basic skills, and you’re ready to move on to more complicated work.
Skills covered:
• How to save designs, graphics and shapes and how to organize your DAK folders
• Doing an “Alpha Pillow” project for a special kid to hone your Stitch Designer skills
• How to download and use free dingbat fonts to create designs
• Pattern drafting using Standard Garment Styling, then taking it into Original Pattern Drafting to fine tune. How to turn a sweater design to knit it sideways. Reduce your OPD (Original Pattern Drafting) anxiety.
• Learn shortcuts.
• Make use of more tricks in Original Pattern Drafting: cut up a sweater into sections that contain different stitch types or designs
• How to use the Graphics Studio to convert and save your fairisle graphs
• How to create custom sizes for yourself, family and friends rather than using DAK’s standard sizes
• Read a variety of topics that may make your DAK experience better
• Build your own Norwegian sweater like a pro
The cd also contains 60 stitch patterns for you to use on projects in the lessons or in your own designs. Here's just one example:

You can purchase through Paypal for $25.00 and I won't charge you for shipping (USA and Canada).

Who said baby boy things can't be cute?

2011-05-05T11:35:00.005-05:00

We have some exciting news in our family. It's a baby boy to be born in October. When I first heard it was going to be a boy, I had a teeny tiny twinge of disappointment. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it. This was only because I thought it would be so much fun to sew and knit girly things. But I'm over it now and coming up with lots of ideas.

Yesterday I did my tried and true Bow Wow Booties pattern. They knit up really fast, but there are some putsy aspects to the eyes, nose and hiding the yarn ends. So, I took advantage of our one day of sun this week to sit outside and finish them off. The pattern for them is for sale. Scroll down on the right side for details. (Just click on the picture.)

I also bought a pattern and fabric to sew a hoodie and pants. When presented with the total, I was a little surprised. I think purchasing ready-made is probably a cheaper alternative. But then I'd miss the fun of making something for my first grandchild. For the jacket I found a red polar fleece that has little black paw prints on it. The pants will be out of a black cotton knit that has some spandex in it. Shouldn't be too hard to sew.

Stay tuned for more adorable baby stuff to come!

Cute little relative

2011-04-17T21:45:00.002-05:00

Anna is 5 years old. Too cute for words? People have wanted to see what the headbands look like on a real person, hence the picture.

More Headbands

2011-04-17T18:28:00.009-05:00

I've been knitting more headbands, this time with a teddy bear motif. Added a little embroidered bow for interest. I'm trying to build up some stock to enter a craft fair in November. It seems like a long time away, but it takes a long time to get enough things made to be worth it. These will be for toddlers and young girls. I have a few other ideas for motif's, so it doesn't get totally boring knitting the same thing over and over. The motifs need to fit in a 36 (or so) row repeat, so lots of things work.

I purchased some "grab bag" yarn from Cindy (Cindy's Kitting Room) in Princeton. Was perfect for this project because I like to have a variety of colors, but I don't need a lot of any one color. I found some fuzzy yarn in my stash that works well for the teddy bears and wouldn't be much use for anything else. It was one of those cones that I couldn't bring myself to throw away so I'm glad I found a use for it. Fuzzy bears are good.

My pattern, Headband with Crown, is for sale if you're interested.

What has your knitting machine come up with now?

2011-04-08T17:50:00.006-05:00

This is probably a trick you learned long ago. If so, disregard this post. Maybe some readers haven't tried this time-saving technique, though, so I'll soldier on. To make a short story long, I had my kitchen redone. Looking at my old dishcloths, I decided they had to go. Needed some new ones to match the fresh new look of the kitchen. So, I had a nice cone of turquoise cotton that would do the trick. Rather than knit each one separately, I did the waste yarn method of knitting a continuous strip. You'll need a fairly fine crochet hook. If you don't have one, you may be able to get by with your latch hook, but I find it more difficult to use than a plain crochet hook when doing this.

Here's what you do: (Directions apply to a standard gauge Brother machine. You would adapt for other gauges and machines.)

1. Cast on any old way with waste yarn over 61 stitches. Knit about 12 rows to make sure things don't unravel. You're going to need quite a bit of weight to help the tuck stitches knit off. Move them up every few inches.
2. Pull off main yarn that is 4 times the width of the knitting and put the yarn in the yarn feeder at that point.
3. Use the 1 x 1 punch card or electronic pattern. (See below.) Row counter on. KC II with main yarn right to left. This sets up the tuck pattern.
4. Push in both tuck buttons and engage the weaving brushes to help the stitches knit off.
5. Knit to RC 30. Leaving the KC II on, turn off/release the tuck buttons and knit 4 rows. (RC 34) This makes a nice band.
6. Push in both tuck buttons again. Knit 146 rows to RC 180.
7. Leaving the KC II on, turn off the tuck buttons and knit 4 rows. (RC 184)
8. Push in both tuck buttons again. Knit 30 rows to RC 213.
9. Set change knob to normal, release tuck buttons. Knit one plain row left to right. (RC 214)
10. Pull off yarn that is 4 times the width of the knitting and cut, leaving the end hang.
11. Knit 12 rows of waste yarn, plain stockinette.
Repeat from #2-11 as many times as you have yarn for.

And the snake like tube is what you take to the couch. Cut the dish cloths apart, half way into each band of waste yarn. Then, you watch a good movie whilst crocheting the ends shut (single crochet stitch works fine) with the long end of yarn. Throw away the waste yarn and end up with a whole new bunch of dishcloths that look like this:

I got 10 dishcloths out of this cone. Your mileage will, of course, vary.

Beach Plastic

2011-04-01T08:27:00.002-05:00

Normally I restrict (pretty much) my blog to knitting. Specifically machine knitting. But I came across this video and was amazed, sickened, disheartened, fascinated and uplifted by this couple. So I had to share it.

One Plastic Beach from Tess Thackara on Vimeo.

Elvish Feet

2011-03-26T13:05:00.008-05:00

Since winter is hanging on through March it appears, I'm still in the mood to felt slippers. This is another version of Kris Basta's slipper pattern with a couple of twists. I knit 12 rows for the cuff instead of 6 and hung a hem. Makes a nice, sturdy edge. Then I did stripes, changing color every 4 rows. I just carried the yarn up the side without cutting it. Then I made the leaves. Here's how:

Using the same tension as the slippers, ewrap cast on 3 stitches. Knit 10 rows. Hang a hem with first stitches on top of the 3 in work. Knit 2 rows. You'll leave the very center stitch as is. Move one edge stitch out one needle both sides. Pick up the purl bump and hang it on the emptied needle. Knit 2 rows. Move two edge stitches out both sides one needle and fill in with the purl bump. Continue like this, moving one more stitch out than the previous time both sides of the center stitch, filling the emptied needle with purl bumps and knit 2 rows===until you have 15 stitches in work. Knit 4 rows. Take off each leaf and store it on a garter bar or hand knitting needle. Make 6 leaves for each slipper.

Now sew the slipper together. Sew 3 leaves on the front and 3 on the back cuff, spacing them evenly just under the lip of the cuff. You'll have a few more leaf stitches than there are cuff stitches. Every now and then, pick up two leaf stitches to gather them. This will make the leaf point down rather than straight out. I sewed the sides of the bottom of the leaf together so that once felted it looks like a tear drop, no hole evident.

Yes, I do know they're silly. But I like them. Anything to cheer up this endless winter!

Spring Knitting

2011-03-23T11:05:00.008-05:00

As I type, the snow is falling again fast and furiously. Hard to believe it's March 23. So hard not to complain. Can't remember when we saw the sun the last time. I know it all could be worse, but it could be better too!

I just revised my cute cute peplum baby sweater pattern. It's perfect for spring and summer. Here are the specs: MACHINE 4.5 mm standard gauge, no patterning needed. Ribber or garter carriage for ribbed edges. Beginner level.
FINISHED SIZES Sample is a size 2 T. Pattern gives size 6 months (1 T, 2 T)
YARN Mary Lou’s Symphony or yarn to achieve same gauge.
OTHER MATERIALS NEEDED Stabilizer for embroidery if done by machine. See note below. 4 buttons 2/5” size.
GAUGE At T7 ~ 7 st x 10 r = 1 inch
I really love this sweater and if you have an embroidery machine, you can make some cute additions to it. OR, if you're even medium skillful at hand embroidery, that works too.

You can purchase the pattern for $8 through PayPal (below). Just wish I had a little one to model it!

Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes

2011-03-21T16:37:00.009-05:00

Oh no. That's the kids' song. Today's post is about shortrowing heels and toes. I have a little trick for you to remember what to do.

A friend who is a little unfamiliar with short rowing wrote and said she wished there was more information on the slipper pattern as to how to do this. In case it helps someone else, here's how to short-row the heel and toe for Kris Basta's slipper pattern (mentioned in the previous post).

Set the carriage to hold. I use the COLORADO abbreviation to help myself remember what to do. (C standing for carriage side and O standing for opposite side of the carriage.) I had to come up with a mnemonic because I tend to daydream when I knit. Kinda lame, but it works for me. You do the shortrowing carriage side on the way in, making the heel or toe smaller and you do your shaping opposite the carriage on the way out. Remember to put a claw wt each side right where you are short rowing and keep moving them as more needles get put into hold so that the stitches stay firmly in the hooks.

So, you have 27 stitches and the carriage is on the right, you've finished your cuff. Put the end needle closest to carriage in hold, knit across. Put the next end needle closest to the carriage in hold, knit across. (Don't need to wrap anything.) Continue doing this until there are 11 stitches still in work in the center and you have knit across. Now do the Opposite side of the carriage into work, one needle opposite the carriage in the center. Knit across. Put the end needle in the center opposite the carriage into work, knit across. Continue in this manner until all needles are back into work and then do the next section of the slipper. (After the heel you 'll be doing the sole of the foot and after the toe you'll be doing the instep.)

To put needles into work, you can usually just push the needle in so that just the latch and hook of the needle show. But you don't want to drop these stitches because they're really hard to pick up. If you're unsure, just use the one-eyed tool to put the stitch back into work. (Takes a little longer, but less risk of losing it.) I can just push the needle in to make it knit on all my machines except for the little manual plastic Brother 350. The needles have to be all the way back to B position to be in work. No lee-way.

There are more elegant ways of shortrowing heels and toes for socks, but since your stitches get obliterated in the felting process in this slipper pattern, this is a fine way to do it. And easy. Check out how smooth my toes and heels look in the previous post.

Hope I helped someone. Will become automatic and fast if you do it enough times.

Felted Slippers on the Bulky Machine

2011-03-18T10:44:00.008-05:00

Once in a while you come upon a great pattern that is zippity quick, simple to make and turns out great. (Rhymes!) Yesterday I knit Kris Basta's Bulky Felted Slipper. You can find the pattern in the files of the Yahoo machine knitting group. Her website is http:KrisKrafter.com/
She sells newly designed garter bars too, if you're interested. It is a great pattern for my recently enhanced Schuss Plus wool "collection". Kris has also given permission for me to use the pattern in our guild's newsletter. We're knitting slippers for the troops and they have to be either acrylic or felted because of the way stuff is washed in the service. A local organization ships them for free for us!

Never ever being content to leave well enough alone, I did make a couple of mods to the pattern. I wanted the heel to ride up a little higher in the back so knit 2 rows before shaping the heel. (Probably didn't make a smidgeon of difference. Could have done more, but they look and feel fine as is.) I knit them at T 10+ on my bulky rather than the T 7 she used. Don't know why other than I always use the largest tension when I'm felting something. It meant that I had to run the washing machine load 3 x to get them to felt way down. I knit 36 rows rather than 40 for the foot. It just looked like it was getting toooooooooooo long, so I kind of panicked. Finally, I seamed them by hand using a stitch that abuts the edges to lie as flat as possible. I believe she seamed hers on the sewing machine. Not huge changes, I'll admit. Next time I might follow her suggestion to pad the foot. I bet they would last longer that way.

Confession---I know better---but I felted them the last time with a white terry towel among other things in the load. It left a lot of linty fibers on the slippers. Crap. I spent some time pulling these off and "shaving" them so they looked new again. Won't repeat that performance any time soon!

Anyway, I think they are super attractive. The style would suit a man or woman I'm thinking.

You can see in the second picture that we still have snow on the bottom deck even though the temps have been in the 50's the last few days. Picture was taken out my craft room window. ugh and aargh.

A scan of the bottom of the slipper:

Better to make it into a hotpad than eat it!

2011-03-17T08:03:00.007-05:00

Stash put to a useful purpose! I have a lot of cotton yarn. Like cones and cones of it. So I made some hotpads with it--like the Christmas ones I did a few months ago. To make sure they would really protect hands from burning, I cut a same sized square of "Insulbrite" and tacked it down in the center before seaming. They turn out fairly thick and substantial. The many long floats actually help with insulation and you don't really have to do anything with them since they're hidden on the inside. After seaming I give them a shot of steam---cotton can take a lot of heat---and this way the floats are set.

I've made several now and the size that seems to work best is 71 stitches x 170 rows on the standard gauge machine. Couldn't tell you the number for the yarn weight but it's a couple of strands of thinnish yarn for each color. I start and end with waste yarn. Remove from machine. Rehang with right side facing me and push to the back of the bed. I bring up the other end and hang in the hooks of the needles. With a straight edge, I push the front stitches through the back and then bind off with the latch tool around the gate pegs. Like in sewing, this puts right sides together and the bottom seam is hidden on the inside. I did a couple of them doing a kitchener stitch closing on the ends, but it took too long. The side seams are mattress stitched after the lining is tacked down.

The internet has some clever kitchen sayings if you care to make some. Just Google "funny sayings" or something like that and you'll get a ton. DAK makes it easy to design and download them. To make them quick to knit, use all capital letters so you don't have to wrap the sides of the words. This one isn't that funny, but belies the Norwegian-American heritage. I have read that this tradition of eating lutefisk and lefse at Christmas came over to this country with the poor (monetarily poor) immigrants and that most people in Norway wouldn't touch lutefisk. In our family, it became a traditional Christmas Eve dinner and you had to have just one bite to make it through the coming year. The lefse is awesome, though. Strangely enough, or maybe to prevent starvation, we also had Swedish meatballs for the Christmas Eve dinner! That lutefisk is awful stuff---like fish jelly---but the butter made up for it a little.

PS For those NOT in the know..."lefse" rhymes with "betcha", both being two syllable words doncha know.

Helix-- Seaweed --Ruffled Scarf

2011-03-14T12:19:00.005-05:00

Look what came in my email inbox TODAY from Knitting Daily (Interweave Knits). You can get the free hand knitting pattern by signing in to their website. The pattern has several beautiful examples of their Helix Scarf made from homespun yarn. Most of them are garter stitch, so no worries about the edges curling. They do use short-rows on both sides to make the ruffling effect. I do like the fact that a person wouldn't have to felt the scarf to get it to behave. The over-all effect of the scarf surelooks a lot like mine, though. (I'm not implying anyone copied anyone by any means. Just pointing out the similarities.) I think it looks a lot like sea weed.

But I guess my point is that I still prefer 1 1/2 hours to the days it would take to knit this thing. There are too many things in the world to try to be stuck on one project for that long. Kudos once again to machine knitting!

Ten Feet of Fabric Machine Knit

2011-03-10T10:06:00.009-06:00

How long would it take me to knit ten feet x 45 stitches by hand on size 10 needles? A month at least, I'd guess. By machine: 1 1/2 hours! YES! And that was with some yarn issues that kept getting caught in the mast. (Old stuff, probably a little moth issues on the outside of the cone, but can't be sure. Or it just was defective.) Anyway, back in the knitting mood once again.

I wanted to knit a felted wool ruffly scarf but not spend too much time short-rowing or doing any other kind of patterning. So, using my SR midgauge machine, in the mood for flying by the seat of my pants, I cast on with a closed edge over 45 needles, knit with the first color 330 rows (an arbitrary number, the length of which seemed about right) plain stockinette. Then I switched to the second color and knit another 330 rows and bound off. This entire piece was ten feet long! After the fact, the gauge calculation turned out to be at T 10+ 4.5 stitches to an inch producing about 10" in width and 5.5 rows per inch producing the 10 feet. The 10 feet are needed because the felting and the ruffling takes up about 4 feet of the length.

Then I felted it in the washing machine for about 10 minutes. Removed it even though it was still damp. I used a large-eyed needle and a long piece of the first color yarn doubled. Back-stitched up the center, doing a knot every few inches, gently ruffling and pleating it as I went. Knotted it at the end of the first color, the middle of the scarf. Then I did the same with the second color and put it back in the washing machine to finish felting. The hand stitching pretty much melted into the scarf.

The gently rolling ruffles stayed in place and I just had to snip off some yarn ends. Didn't like the ends of the scarf very much so when it was dry I cut off both ends with an ordinary scissors, just a free-hand curve. The sides looked really curled in before felting, but afterward had a nice edge---as though I planned it that way!

The only thing I don't like about the scarf is that it's really heavy. I used Schuss Plus, 100% wool, which is a light worsted weight. I think a finer wool yarn would make a nicer, dressier scarf, but it turned out ok considering the flying-by-the-seat-o-my pants method used. Certainly used up some yarn!!! And we still need the warmth around here.

I used the little Canon PowerShot my daughter gave me. Finally figured out how to turn off the flash. (I think Tracy told me how to do that a long time ago but I forgot.) But when you turn off the flash, the aperture gets bigger and the shutter stays open longer, you really need a tripod. So that's my story with the blurry pictures.

That was then...this is now

2011-03-09T09:20:00.007-06:00

I'm back! I was in sunny, warm Florida for a respite. Here's the spot.

And...this is what I came home to. I thought (foolishly) that some of the snow would have melted. Ha. A friend predicted it would be around until next winter. Ouch.Both of these pictures were taken from inside the house, through the screens even because you can't walk around the house. The snow is 3-4 feet deep.

Both places are picturesque in white----whitest beach you ever saw and white snow. Same planet. Hard to believe.

Apologies are in order

2011-02-28T09:38:00.004-06:00

I neglected to say that I won't have access to my own computer for a week. Hence orders that have come in during the last 3 days can't be filled until Sunday. I will send them out promptly, I promise.

Tiny shopping trip

2011-02-24T18:50:00.004-06:00

A friend called mid afternoon and wondered if I wanted to go to the huge JoAnn Fabrics in a suburb about 1/2 hour away. Not having much else to do, I said sure! It's a big store filled with stuff (to be polite). I always find things I didn't know I needed---especially with coupon in hand. Found these cute little buttons for kids' clothing. The butterflies were $.33 a piece there are actually 7 in the pkg) and the snow family .22 (10 in this one), Plus tax, minus 20%.

I also found another skein of the Deborah Norville yarn that I made my last cowl out of, a thread cutter pendant that I hope to be able to wear on the airplane and a yard of Insulbrite for hotpads.

The pendant was on clearance, so if I get it taken away, it won't be a huge loss. Really, you'd have to work very hard to cut anything with it other than thread..but we shall see.

Funny how these little purchases can make a body happy. Of course dinner afterward with a little complimentary wine sample helped round out the afternoon.

New Old Rayon Yarn

2011-02-20T21:20:00.007-06:00

Friend Sandy gave me some rayon yarn about a year ago (maybe longer?). I didn't know what to do with it, then remembered some other friends had made some attractive, slinky scarves with rayon. So I tried a couple of tuck stitches out of the Stitchworld book to see what they would look like. They all looked the same because of the variegated nature of the yarn! The color changes hide the stitches.

So, I just went with one of the patterns, cast on 45 stitches, knit at T 10 for 550 rows. Some of the needles are out of work, creating a lacey effect. Finished size is 7" wide x 7' long. What you can't see is the silky sheen of the yarn. I had to steam it pretty aggressively to uncurl it, but it did cooperate in the end. Very drapey, nice feel to it. I really like it---might have to get some more in different colors.

In case you were wondering, I like to fool around in Photoshop. Not that good at it, but it doesn't take much to entertain me while the blizzard rages outside.

Machine Knit Earflap Hat Success!

2011-02-19T08:48:00.005-06:00

How absolutely adorable is this?!!! Iryna (Iris68 on Ravelry) posted this project, which is the free pattern on my blog for an earflap hat. Isn't her daughter the cutest? She looks so sweet.

Here's what Iryna said about knitting the hat: (used with permission)
I made it on Brother 260 machine. Used T4, knitted the small child’s size. Followed the pattern strictly. Took me about 1 to 1 1/2 hr to complete. The button-heart I made before, using Fimo clay. Could make it 4 rows shorter, but my kid likes it the way it is. I like how the yarn behaves in this hat.

She used one skein of Lion Brand Woolease Solids and Heathers. One skein has 197 yards and the size she made is a 4T.

Iryna said she is a new knitter, just learning her machine. So it's gratifying to know that she was able to follow the pattern and get such a nice result. The bottom right picture shows her neat finishing on the inside of the hat. Good job!!!

If you need the pattern, scroll down on the right side here to the free patterns. When you click on the picture, you'll be transported to the post containing the pattern.

Thanks to Iryna for posting the pictures!

Cheer for scarves!

2011-02-18T13:07:00.007-06:00

As in, shake your pom poms! For a little change of pace....got this yarn on the cheap at Joanne Fabrics. One skein makes a hand-knit scarf. Size 9 US needles, cast on 7 stitches, knit every row, two stitches between pom-poms, until you run out of yarn. (Pattern is on the ball band for the yarn.)
It's a temptation to knit more than two stitches at times because this makes a really loose weave. But the pom poms cover up everything so all is good.

Reminds me of the chenille bedspreads from the 50's. So soft. Actually the pinks are even pukier, and wonderful than my scanner portrays. The yarn also comes in black/gray/white and blue/turquoise/blue combinations. I thought the pinks were the most outrageous/good.

And so the love affair with scarves continues...

Later: I found other yarn colors on Ravelry. They just didn't have them at my Joanne's. The pink/red combo is a more accurate representation of mine. The one with the arrow pointing to it would have been something I'd have been seriously interested in. Darn!

Circular knit scarf on the bulky machine

2011-02-17T11:41:00.007-06:00

Weird day here. You can only see about 20 feet because of the dense fog. I guess it's a result of warm air meeting cold. Just kind of eerie. The snow continues to melt at a pretty fast clip, but we still have a couple of feet of it. Now it looks like someone seasoned it with coarse black pepper. Not a pretty sight.

Still cold enough to wear scarves. This is one that I did with my circular technique mentioned in the previous post, but done on the bulky machine. If you're interested in purchasing the pattern, see the post below dated Sunday, February 13. I used 4 strands of thin yarn: one silk and 3 wool. The scarf is actually 4" wide x 6.5 feet long. I just stuck the ends in the scanner so you can't see the whole thing. The silk stank to high heaven when I washed it and the wool didn't smell much better. I think it was sitting around too long, but the slightly variegated look is nice. The silk is actually a burnt orange but it gets subdued with the blood red wool. I hand-washed the scarf in Oxyclean (being careful to not agitate too much to cause felting) and rinsed it with hair conditioner. Much better in all respects. This was just another attempt to use up some of the weird yarn around here. It's not like I NEED another scarf... but they're fun to make.

New Machine Knit Pattern : Watercolors Cowl

2011-02-13T12:48:00.007-06:00

Have been working on this technique for a while and just finished writing up the pattern. It's probably a technique you're not familiar with. I haven't seen it done elsewhere, but that doesn't mean someone else hasn't done it. It's knitting in the round on a single bed so that when done, there are no seams. It produces an interesting fabric.

The picture at top shows the purl side as the public side. The picture at bottom shows the knit side as public side, the same cowl. So far, I've made two cowls and a 6.5 foot scarf with the technique. I've used the standard gauge, midguage and bulky machines. Each gives a slightly different look to it.

The pattern is for the pictured cowl, but once you understand the technique, you can make other things. No ribber is required, it's a beginner pattern and any machine and yarn can be used. Make it with cotton as a fashion statement; out of wool for warmth. Hand dyed yarns are especially pretty!

The pattern is $5.00, purchased through PayPal, emailed to you.

The Stripster Revisited, a machine knit pattern

2011-02-11T12:32:00.003-06:00

I always get a kick out of it when someone knits my patterns. Saskia from the Netherlands posted this project on Ravelry and credited me with the pattern. (It's the Stripster, which you can find on the sidebar at the right, a free pattern.) I wrote to her and she gave permission for me to post her scarf picture on my blog. I love the result! I didn't recognize the yarn she used. I doubt it could be purchased in the US, but the nice thing about the pattern is that any yarn is suitable. As is any machine, for that matter.

Here's what she said about her modifications to the pattern:
• I started every strip with 4 st., knit 4 rows
• (incr. 2 st and knit 4 rows) until 10 st.
• knit 50 rows before connecting the next strip.
• knit desired length. -stop connecting, knit 50 rows and decrease the same way.

Tension on Brother 260 (chunky) too low: 4. Next time with this yarn it should be on about 7, I guess. Scarf feels a bit stiff and doesn’t have a nice drape. Added some beads for embellishment.

Yea for the internet and yea for Ravelry. They connect people and ideas so easily.

Done with college stuff for a while

2011-02-10T11:16:00.009-06:00

My Gustavus scarf didn't work out so well, because I was having such a time with static. Had to rip it out several times and got discouraged, so I decided to do hotpads instead.

By this time, I had done all my anti-static measures and they worked. If you've had static, try putting yourself and your yarn on anti-static mats. Northtipton also has some copper mesh that helps. I sprayed the yarn with Lori Lynn Yarn spray, put wax on the mast, ran a dryer sheet over the needle bed periodically, ran my humidifier and also slathered hand lotion on my hands every 15 minutes. The combination of all these measures evidently worked. No more mispatterning or dropped stitches. Man, hate that static.

The hotpads are 100% cotton and the floats are so numerous that they provide the insulation. Kind of dumb, but these were gag gifts anyway. I did them on the standard gauge machine with 3 strands of really thin cotton for each color. They're 70 stitches wide x 180 rows long, about 10" square. I started and ended with waste yarn, doubled them lengthwise and kitchener stitched the ends together. I mattress stitched the side seams and put a 3 stitch I cord in one corner (80 rows). Not so difficult!!!

This is the front of #1

This is the back of #1.

This is the front of #2

This is the back of #2.

Gustavus' roots are Swedish Lutheran, so I thought the snowflakes would be appropriate or at least ok. (Lots of good floats, anyway.)

Yea for DesignaKnit, but it's time to move on to something else.

Machine Knit charity stuff

2011-02-08T09:11:00.007-06:00

It's been so cold here, all I feel like doing is staying in and knitting. I suppose that's a good thing, although this winter is getting mighty long. It was -12 F when I got up this morning. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

I've been using up some yarn, as usual. The scarves are just 60 stitches of 1 x 1 rib, about 600 rows. This time I've been using 3 strands of fine yarn: one tan, one gray and one variegated. Makes kind of a nice color combo. I think it would work for a boy or girl. The headbands are probably for girls, tho.

The hat is doubled, English rib. It should be toasty!

So, that's five more items to add to my charity goal. One of these days I'll count how many I have and how far I still need to go. Funny how those cones with the fine yarn never seem to get smaller.....

Machine Knit Fight Song

2011-02-05T10:28:00.007-06:00

Here are some scans of the Wittenberg scarf. Their colors are red and white.
I think I got pretty close to the shape of the letters in the logo. You can see with the capital letters in the main part of the scarf, the wrapping of the design was minimized.

The artistic license, if I can call it that, was to have the words wrap around the scarf so you have to know the fight song to realize what is being said. Kind of silly, but I hope she'll find it amusing. It will be warm for sure. It turned out to be 7 feet long and 10" wide, doubled. We're only half way through winter---so there are some challenging days ahead. Kind of depressing.

I hope they are not fussy about their logo---I'm not selling anything with it, so hopefully it will go under the radar. It's just a gift for a friend who is an alum from that school.

Do you like my funky "fringe"? I have an aversion to the stringy kind, so this is my substitution. Everyone has their weird things, right? That's mine.

It Fits!

2011-02-03T21:41:00.006-06:00

My daughter sent me pictures of Oliver in his sweater today. It's tighter than I thought it would be, but the puppy has grown since I saw him at Christmas. She said he likes to lie on the couch in his cozy new sweater and listen to jazz. How cute is that? He's a funny little pooch.

Here's the sweater sans dog:

Now that I have an idea of his size...I might need to knit him something else. California is cold in the winter. Ha!

DesignaKnit Lettering

2011-02-02T11:52:00.006-06:00

Now, why didn't I think of this before?

I am making these scarves with words on them. The first one (black and white) I used lower case lettering and capitalized where appropriate. With two plain rows between lines of text, I had rows with just a few stitches in them and gargantuan floats. Think the bottom of a 'y' or a 'g' or the tops of 't' or 'h' for some examples. So, thinking I could get more stitches to appear across the row, I moved the text up so some things sort of overlapped. Still had gargantuan long floats, had to do a lot of wrapping with separate lengths of yarn, very very tedius. Looks ok on the front, but harder than machine knitting is meant to be. I didn't want to do dbj so felt I was stuck.

Then, while fooling around designing the second scarf, I did all the text in capital letters. There are two plain rows between each line of text. Voila' no trailers hanging down or sticking up!!! Such a simple thing and it will make knitting the scarf 10x faster!!! See the screen captures below:

Even if you don't use DesignaKnit but use some other method of inputting designs (text) into your knitting machine, I'm thinking this might help you.

Near Disaster with my 970 knitting machine

2011-02-01T18:13:00.004-06:00

Last night I was knitting away merrily on my 970, making a scarf for a friend. All of a sudden, the carriage froze to the needle bed---almost as if someone had soldered it to the bed. My heart practically sank to the ground. No kidding. No matter what combination of buttons I pushed, that carriage was not going to move. I had 407 rows knit out of 650, fairisle, lots of hand wrapping of long floats. Bah. I did manage to get the scarf off the bed by lifting stitches off the hooks that were frozen in time. Called a friend to see if she would go with me to St. Peter, to Knit and Sew World, to see if Shawn could repair it. She said she would and even called Amanda at her home (Amanda works there) to let her know we were coming in the morning.

It's about a 1 1/2 hour drive (on a clear summer's day) from my house to St. Peter. Miserably cold today with lots of arctic wind, below zero temps. I had some thoughts about maybe this was a foolish thing to do, to drive in this weather, but machine knitters are stubborn, doncha know. I met my friend a half hour from my house and we continued on together. The drive was slow, but not as bad as it could have been. A few cars were in the ditch on both sides of the road. We made it safely.

Shawn dropped what he was doing and worked on my machine for a good 3 1/2 hours. He replaced the timing belt (the cause of things not moving), did a general tune up, blew out mounds of fluff from the inner sanctum, replaced a few doohickys that weren't functioning optimally, cleaned and shined it up and gave it a new coat of oil. My CB1 had a stubborn #1 on its keyboard so I was either avoiding patterns with the number 1 or pressing that button long and hard. He fixed that too. He said my timing belt was getting close to cutting some wires for the electronics and it was good this happened when it did or the repair would have been much more extensive. For all he did, the bill was very reasonable. I would recommend him to anyone. He has tons of Brother and Silver Reed parts and knows both machine brands inside and out. They ship parts all over the world. He even repairs and advises Karen Allen with her mk business. (Karen -the actress in Indiana Jones series who also machine knits.)

Here's the address of Knit and Sew World's website:
http://knitsewworld.com/
When you click on the Knitting Machine tab, you'll find an informative article about a recommended routine for oiling your machine.

Anyway, I'm a very happy camper. Now I just need to unravel some rows and get that scarf rehung on the machine. I have a deadline to meet. Doesn't every machine knitter do gifts at the last minute???

Two Machine Knit Ski Headbands Done!

2011-01-21T09:21:00.010-06:00

I still have my charity birthday hat resolution going. Knitting the hats every now and then, hoping I'll reach my goal by next December. This is the latest addition to the collection---a really quick knit for a ski or cold weather headband. It's 17 degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero as I type, so anything warm is appealing. Winter hasn't shown any signs of relenting yet.

This was a 15 minute headband! Seriously! I have knit two sizes, but since it goes so quickly, you could adjust for the recipient. Knit rows of 1 x 1 rib, change to Fisherman's rib, then knit more 1 x 1 rib. Machine: Brother Standard gauge with ribber. I used Mary Lou's Symphony yarn, which is no longer manufactured.
Finished sizes: Child 16", Adult 17" unstretched. Knitting is very stretchy but you'd want it snug to stay on!

The basic idea for this headband came from an old (1998) Purls of Joy seminar book, the pattern was written by Karen Hoovestol. I adapted the pattern for my own use, changing the way it is cast on and bound off, also the number of needles used, rows knit and adding a child's size. I'm thinking that even though the pattern is at least 13 years old and a pattern given out for a seminar that I probably should not have given specifics. (Sorry about that. I removed the pattern.) I don't know how to get ahold of Karen to ask permission to use it, so I'm feeling more comfortable just describing it a little. I think you could figure out how to make it and it would be nice if you could make some for charity too.

An aside...Because it's too cold for man or beast, I've been walking inside the house. I do a round trip through living room and kitchen. It's about 40 steps. Am aiming for 20 rounds each day. Not so much, but better than nothing and it warms a body up for a while. How I love winter!

Educat and Edudog Machine Knit Patterns

2011-01-20T11:01:00.004-06:00

A few years ago I designed two baby blanket/afghans for Knitwords and titled them Educat and Edudog. The idea was to have something (educational) to talk about when snuggling up with a blanket and a little one. Each square has a little different take so you could ask the child to "find the cat with chicken pox" or "find the shy dog". You could come up with lots of vocabulary lessons, even math lessons. It was a DesignaKnit pattern, so some people weren't able to knit it if they didn't have the program. Yesterday I received an email from Angela with pictures of the blankets. I was thrilled to see they had turned out so well. Evidently she has made several. Usually I'm not so crazy about knitting the same thing too many times (a little quirk of mine) but after seeing hers, I am tempted to learn how to do dbj and translate the pattern from fairisle like she did.

Here's her letter with specifics:

Hello Mar,
A few years ago you kindly sent me a 3.5" floppy disc with
the EduCat & EduDog patterns since I did not have DAK. I
finally got time to do them both (actually have done several
of each by now) and decided to try DBJ instead of fairisle
with lining. While I still don't have DAK, I do have the FB100 Emulator which allows me to read a .PAT file. I absolutely LOVE them and have attached a
couple photos for you to see. I added 2 more sections (on my PPD) to the one for Lilyanne as she is a taller child. The yarn I used for all of them was 2/17 Team from Stephanie, Tension 4.2/4.2.

Many thanks Mar!! Angela in Arizona

The patterns are still for sale. The originals have you knit in fairisle with a lining that is attached as it is knit and covers up all the fairisle floats. Scroll down on the right side to see purchasing info.

When Your Knitting Machine Gives You Lemons...

2011-01-16T11:38:00.009-06:00

Make a pillow. How lucky was this? I had enough rows to make something out of this ex-scarf, rows that had the correct patterning. First I counted rows and marked off the same number for "front" and "back" with strands of red yarn. If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you will be able to see better where the red yarn markers were stranded through.

Then I stitched across where the red yarn markers were---twice---and surgically removed the messed up snowflakes. Pinned front to back...

With the sewing machine, right sides together, I sewed three sides shut. Turned it right side out, stuffed a pillow in and hand sewed the final seam shut with the main color yarn. Here's the front:And the back...Not perfect, but at least it didn't end up in the landfill, nor did an old pillow no longer in service.

My good friend Candace came to my rescue with suggestions as to how to get along better with my SR 860, Silver Link 4 and DAK.
* My pattern of 140 stitches and 578 rows (80,920 stitches) was too large for the system to handle. (My Brother 970 wouldn't have blinked an eye, but o well.) Solution: download and knit a pattern this size in several sections, like 4 or 5.
* Knit really slowly so that the signals have a chance to get through. She said she can actually hear the row changing. Not the click that you hear when you've gone far enough with the carriage, but a different sound. Will have to try to listen for that.
* Turn off any screen saver or virus program that is likely to come on and interrupt.
* Get a laptop with Windows 98, 2000 or XP and use it exclusively with DAK. No internet. (Probably won't happen soon since we have too many computers around the house as it is. Unless I find a really good deal....) 98 is supposed to work the best.
* DAK was designed originally to work with Brothers, so the adaptations for Silver Reeds are not perfect. (Ha.)
* Check out Knitwords 30 and 31 for articles titled "Messing With Matthew" where Mary Anne Oger talks about the Silver Reed systems and DAK. (Matthew would be Matthew Bragg, creator of DAK.)

Thank you, Candace. I really appreciate your help and maybe these suggestions will help someone else.

I think I might need to move on from the 860 for a while. Not fun to have to work so hard on a project, but I guess it was worth something because I learned a bunch.

Compulsive, Obsessed, Determined, Crazy, Disappointed and Frustrated

2011-01-15T11:27:00.008-06:00

That is an accurate description of my state of mind for the last 24 hours or so. Having knit the little swatch, and having successfully installed all the stuff for the Silver Link and Silver Reed, I thought I was good to go on my Peace scarf. The first couple of hundred rows out of the 586 were good! The chenille even behaved! Pretty, eh?

Then, for NO GOOD (or discernable) reason, DAK told me I was going the wrong way with the carriage! So, I pain-stakingly unraveled, did the GO TO RC thing and got going again. But then, it mispatterned all by itself, again for NO GOOD (or discernable) reason and I didn't discover it. Here's the bad: With a detailed pattern, it's hard to see from the backside if things are going ok or not. Well, they weren't going ok, as you can see.

Later, the demonic machine/link decided to shift the pattern over a few stitches, making this mess:

The steam coming out of my ears practically kept the house warm all night. I wrote to my Silver Reed guru friend for help. She said you have to wait for the click at the end of a row so that the next row can be made. (DID that.) Also, you have to knit slowly so that the signals get to the needle bed. (DID that because I also hung the contrast color over the end needle to prevent a hole and that took a couple seconds each row. I guess you have to program in the contrast color in the DAK pattern. If I'm wrong about that, would like some feedback.)

Like I said, I'm stubborn. So I went looking on the Yahoo DAK site for answers. Saw that people were having the same problem with my same setup, but no answers. So then I went to the Softbyte site. The latest update is 7.19.04. I had the previous one. SO, I updated. There were several things that pertained to better functioning of the Silver Reed setup, so I have my fingers crossed that this will be the answer to my problems.

If you are reading this and have the Silver Reed 860 and the Silver Link 4 and have any suggestions, I'd welcome the input with open arms.

I don't know if I have the umph today to try again. So many rows, so much frustration. Maybe I'll cut out the good parts---there seems to be enough length that I can get two pieces from---and make a pillow cover.

Fairisle with the Humungus Cone of Chenille Yarn

2011-01-14T16:21:00.006-06:00

What an afternoon! I decided I would try knitting a scarf with this chenille I'm trying to use up, but do some fairisle. I have the Silver Reed 860 and the Silver Link 4. Still trying to develop a (good) relationship with this machine. Well, I had my pattern done in DAK, a modification of the Dale of Norway Peace design. Thought I'd knit it flat and seam it while watching a movie tonight. Ha! Got my yarns set up in the 860. Turned on DAK, hit the interactive knitting button. Nada. Nothing. Of course I've only knit a few fairisle things with this machine, last time about a year ago, so I could not remember for the life of me how to do this. I've downloaded to my Brother 970 millions of times and it has always worked so slick for me. After 30 minutes of frustration, I remembered this was not the computer I used when I did get it to knit interactively. That machine died and I had to switch to an extra XP computer we had sitting around here.

For some reason, it popped into my head that there was a driver involved. And it wouldn't have gotten installed on this new/ old computer. So I went hunting in my closet where I keep knitting supplies (the equipment kind) and found the DAK USB Driver. Another 30 minutes have passed. It's on a floppy disk, so I had to also hunt for the removable floppy disk drive. Found that, plugged everything in. For the longest time, nothing happened. Windows tried to install the driver and it said it was unsuccessful. Said the device might not work. Then the driver suddenly installed itself and all was hunky dory. Another 30 minutes have passed. Then the DAK disk said it had to upgrade my hardware. HUH?? I was sure some virus had taken over. But I didn't dare turn things off since it might be legit. It was.

Back in the DAK program, I went to set up for the Silver Reed 860 because it's set for a Brother 970. Believe it or not, the program found an available "virtual" com port all on its own. I guess the USB cables use a "virtual" com port. And I don't even know what I'm talking about. Then it was on to reading the help file. 30 more minutes down the drain. Got enough out of it to go ahead and knit a swatch.

Here it is after hours of fiddling. My 8" wide x 5" tall swatch. Could have knit that by hand 5 times over in the time this all took. But now I think I have it and next time will go more smoothly.

Not being familiar with the knit from screen process and not being comfortable with this machine, I decided I needed to eliminate the plain rows in the pattern so I don't have to switch out the yarns. The design suffers some, but I'm going with it so that I can get it done tonight.

I bet that next time I want to knit with the 970, I'll have to hunt for a new com port to work with that cable.

My, this is a boring post and you're probably thinking I'm one stubborn woman. A lesser woman would have given up by now, yes? My ulterior motive is to have a record of what I did so that next time I have to install this monster, I'll know what I did. If I have success with the scarf, I'll post a picture. So far it isn't biasing or worming. So that's amazingly good.

Look Ma! No worms! (A machine knit chenille success)

2011-01-13T16:47:00.006-06:00

Thought I would try to make a fru fru scarf with my giganticus cone of chenille. It (the little swatch) turned out quite awful. All the loops wormed. Now, that wouldn't have been so bad if all the loops wormed the same way, but they didn't and the result was that it just looked like a wet mop. A well-used wet mop at that.

So, I decided to try knitting a scarf in rib, the only thing I've had success with using this yarn. In case you also have a 20 lb cone of the stuff and don't yet have the nerve to place it in a landfill, you might try my scarf. Here are the directions:
Machine: Silver Reed 860 with ribber
Yarn: Chenille approx. 16 ounces + serger thread (6,000 yard cone will make 3-4 scarves)
Tension: English rib ( kK1P1 rib or Double Rib by tucking the stitches on every other row on the ribber side) 4.6 st x 9 rows = 1” at T2/2
Finished size: 10.5 “ wide x 78” (6.5 feet) long
Notes:
• Odd as it may seem, the lower tension works better with the chenille. The carriage is easier to push and it helps prevent “worming”.
• The serger thread also helps prevent the “worming” but you can’t really see it, which is a good thing.
• Even though I used a lot of weight I yanked the knitting down every couple of rows for the first 50 rows. But after that, it knit smoothly.
• I’m not laundering this--- don’t want to take the chance that it will fall apart!
• You may need to weave in the two ends with a crochet hook. When I tried an embroidery, large-eyed needle, the yarn shredded.

DIRECTIONS
Thread serger thread through one eyelet on the mast and the chenille through the other. Circular cast on as per manual – Racking handle on P 4. R/R for circular cast on. Change to T 2/2 for scarf . Hang lots of weight and move the weights up every 50 rows. (I used 5 of the larger ribber weights!) Knit to RC 700. Change to tension 10/10, change settings to regular rib and knit one row to the left. Transfer ribber stitches to the main bed. Chain cast off including the serger thread. Weave in ends.

These same directions would work with other yarn---it was just a relief to have something turn out with this wily chenille. It's been a couple of hours now, and NO WORMING!! I might even be able to wear this thing. Such a pretty color! Such a weird "hand".

Fru Frueyness Scarf - a free machine knit pattern

2011-01-11T09:20:00.010-06:00

Had a request to post the directions for a loopy fru fru scarf. It was on my blog at one time, but I must have deleted it. Be forewarned, it's not a fast knit, but it's kind of fun - if you like doing odd things on the machine like I do. You need some interesting yarn. This is made of one or two balls of ribbon yarn. It has some nice colors. Can't remember where I bought it, but most yarn shops have such a yarn. Most people have that one odd (expensive so you could only buy one, but it was irresistable) skein of yarn that was an impulse purchase and it sits in the closet not knowing what to do with itself. This project is ideal for such an orphan.

Some yarns will make a more decorative accessory; some will make a serviceable and warm scarf. It just occurred to me that I might use yarn from that giant cone of chenille to make the loops. Hmmmm......... as long as it never gets laundered, might work. Anyway, on to the instructions as to how to make this wonder of the knitting world.

DIRECTIONS
This fru fru-ness can be made on any machine. You need one hand knitting needle, a large one is preferable because it's easy to hang onto, but any will do. My first attempt was using the gate pegs of the ribber to do the loops, but I didn't like it as much as using a knitting needle because some splitting occurred on the sharp gate pegs and unless I wrapped the yarn really loosely, it was hard to pull the loops off the gate pegs. Also, the loops didn't get very long because even at the lowest position the distance from the main bed wasn't so great. For the main yarn choose a matching or coordinating color, a fairly thin yarn, any type, as many ounces as you want the scarf to be wide and whatever length will accommodate the novelty yarn length. How's that for helpful, precise information? (It’s best to have the main yarn be thin so that the scarf doesn’t get too heavy.) The tension you use on your machine needs to be loose enough to knit both the main and novelty yarns together. I used the largest T on the standard machine for the one pictured.

Here's the basic moves:
This is one of those things that is harder to describe than to do. Ewrap with main yarn over 7 or more needles. Knit 2 rows and hang a weight. Basically you are making use of the hand knitting needle to create loops that are of equal size and they are woven into a strip by wrapping the novelty yarn over the main bed needles. Position the hand knitting needle the same distance from the main bed each time it is used. The distance below the main bed that you position the needle horizontally will determine the length of the loops. Hang onto the knitting needle with your left hand, wrap the yarn and do the carriage with your right hand. Put the weaving brushes into work if your machine has them. You will wind over every other top N and down under the knitting needle, repeating across every other main bed needle.

Each row push out to E position the N that you are going to hang novelty yarn over to make it easier to wrap. You don’t have to e-wrap the main bed needles, just loop the yarn around. After winding across the needle bed, hang on to the end of the novelty yarn with one hand and push the carriage across with the other. Then remove the knitting needle and repeat but use the opposite main bed needles, every other one. You'll be knitting and wrapping in the opposite direction because the carriage will be on the other side, of course.

When the carriage is on the right, ready to knit, the hand knitting needle will have the empty point facing right. When the carriage is on the left, ready to knit, the hand knitting needle will have the point facing left. This way you can use the point to pick up the yarn more easily and pull it off the loops more easily. This will make more sense to you when you get going.

The drawing below shows you how to wind the yarn. You don’t need to use your row counter, unless you want a repeat performance in the future. You can just merrily knit until you run out of novelty yarn. Check occasionally to make sure the yarn isn’t caught up on the gate pegs.

Here's a closeup of the stitches. I think I used 7 main bed stitches for this scarf.

Machine Knit Cowl: Sticky Fingers

2011-01-09T14:14:00.015-06:00

I've come up with an unusual cowl knit with Noro Kureyon yarn. It's done on the midgauge machine, but could also be easily done on the bulky machine. No ribber is required to make this cowl, but there are no seams. Beginner level skills are required. Doesn't take very long to knit and makes a unique statement while showing off the gorgeous colors of Noro. It will coordinate with lots of different outfits too. You can fold it over, as I have done in the picture, or you can wear it single thickness and let it "scrunch". Both the stockinette side and the purl sides are attractive.
With the winter we've been having, I find I can use all the warmth I can get. The title came to me because this yarn can be a little sticky when knitting on a machine and the fringe reminds me of fingers. Not so clever, but whatever. You can purchase the pattern through PayPal for $4.00 US.

Machine Knit California Footies- free pattern

2011-01-06T12:36:00.007-06:00

Who knew California could be so cold? I had some bulky boucle' yarn (acrylic) in my stash so decided to make my daughter some more footies to get her through the winter. The scans don't do them justice----they're really fluffy in person. Sorry, I lost the labels, but I'm pretty sure they were either Lion or Bernat brand. Probably purchased at JoAnn's or Michaels. If you'd like to try them, here's what I did for a size 6 women's foot. You would need to add/subtract stitches and rows for different sizes. They are super simple, from start to finish took about an hour. I used the purl side as the right side because the top cuff rolls slightly to the outside and the texture of the yarn hides the side seam. A little hard to seam with this yarn but when you do seam, the stitches nicely disappear. If you find it impossible because it breaks, use a matching color of smooth acrylic yarn and pull the seams tighter than normal so it disappears. 100% acrylic should not shrink in washer or dryer.
Machine: Bulky
Gauge: 3 st and 4 rows to one inch, T6
Yarn: Bulky boucle', just a few ounces main and contrast colors. One skein of each color should make a couple of pairs of footies.
Directions: Cast on 32 stitches at T6, a few rows WY and 1 row ravel cord. Leave a 12” yarn tail for seaming. With Main yarn K6 R, transfer every other st to neighbor for a picot edge. Leave empty N in work. K 6 R , hang hem from first row. T10 K 1 R to seal hem.
Ankle: T6 K 5 R.
Heel: Set lever(s) on carriage to HOLD. Push all N left of zero all the way out. Short row down to 6 st and back out until all N are in work. (Pull out a needle closest to the carriage, knit across. No need to wrap. Repeat. Then knitting back in, put needle opposite the carriage back to work, knit to the other side. Repeat.) Pick up heel of adjacent stitch to prevent hole both sides.
Foot: K 20R.
Toe: Exactly like heel. Pick up heel of adjacent stitch to prevent hole both sides. Set carriage to N both sides.
Knit 1 Row over all. Take stitches off on waste yarn.
Finishing: Kitchener st the toe from the purl side and seam the side as flat as you can manage. Remove the ravel cord and waste yarn.
Knit the other footie holding stitches on the opposite side. To have the carriage at the other side, K 6 Rows for the ankle.TIE: Ewrap over 3 N. T6, Knit 150 Rows, BO.
Thread through the hem beginning and ending at front. Cinch if desired, tie bow. At first I thought I wanted an I cord for the tie, but it was a big bother knitting an I cord with this yarn. It kept getting stuck on gatepegs or dropping stitches. Doing 3 stitches in a plain stockinette was fine because it ends up looking like an I cord anyway. The tie is decorative, but also if the ankle of the footie is too loose, this will help them stay on.

Hope I've given you enough info to try a pair. Often it's a matter of knitting one and then adjusting stitches and rows to suit.

First Machine Knit of 2011

2011-01-03T09:29:00.008-06:00

I have some lovely Noro Kureyon in my stash and decided to make some of Midnattsol's slippers with it. You can see the pattern on her blog: http://hurpeknagg.blogspot.com/
Her pattern is for hand knitting, but since it's just a strip of rectangles, it's easily (and really quickly) done on the machine. I love the colors of Noro and they slide into one another even more deliciously when you felt the yarn. I used: Silver Reed midgauge, T10+, two skeins of Noro Kureyon, one for each slipper. Each rectangle was 24 stitches x 32 rows. These fit a women's size 9 American with socks on. Since I had to run the slippers through the wash four times to get it them to felt down small enough, if I were to make them again I'd do 22 stitches x 30 rows, or even a bit smaller.

Some hints if you want to make these slippers with this yarn: Noro is really "sticky" when used on a knitting machine so a lot of weight is required. Since each rectangle is not distinguishable from the next, run a strand of red yarn through the stitches after each rectangle is knit so you know where to sew the rectangles together. Unless you are a genius at origami, you should use 7 different colored yarn markers in the spots specified in the pattern to aid in sewing up. Finally, use a seaming technique that butts the rectangles together with a really flat seam. Doesn't even matter if it is beautiful. What matters is that it is flat so that when it felts, there isn't a bunched up seam. Pull out the red yarn at the very end of seaming. One thing I did which varies from the pattern is that I crocheted a single crochet row around the opening (after seaming is done) and then did a second row of backward crochet, also called a crab stitch. I thought it would add some stability to the cuff, but it wasn't really necessary.

This is the sole of the slipper. I kind of wish these colors were topmost, but it's almost impossible to predict.

I'm wearing them as I type. It's 11 degrees F outside and I'm toasty inside. I still have 4 skeins to use up. I think I'll knit a cowl but won't felt it. Stay tuned!

Machine Knit Puppy Sweater

2010-12-31T22:18:00.007-06:00

Well, I guess this is the last post of the year. I have knit a lot of stuff in 2010! I wonder if I'll match the amount in 2011. I suspect so---the addiction shows no signs of waning. Anyway, to my readers I wish you a Happy New Year!

We spent Christmas with our daughter in California. We were hoping to get some sun and warmth, but the weather was pretty awful. Her new puppy was shivering in the cold the whole time we were there, so I thought I'd knit him a sweater. The dimensions are hard to figure out even with measurements. She'll just have to try it and let me know what needs to be adjusted. The pattern is from the Caron website---called the Rainbow Pooch Sweater. You can find it at http://www.caron.com/projects/br/rainbow_pooch.html

It's a hand knitting pattern that I found easy to translate to machine knitting. I made the smallest size on my Silver Reed 860 midgauge with a single strand of Simply Soft. I followed the pattern fairly faithfully. Viewed from the side:
And, also viewed from tummy side
Oliver is a miniature dachshund. Cute as a button and full of personality. Never thought I'd knit a sweater for a dog, but there it is.

On to other things in 2011. That's going to be hard to get used to saying. Always seems to be the case...

Machine Knit UFO morphing to FO

2010-12-20T10:57:00.009-06:00

Those who know me are aware of the fact that UFO's (unfinished objects, not the alien types) don't sit well with me. Can't stand to have something in the closet that isn't finished. This one has to be a record for me having sat around for 2+ months. I started this at a machine knitting retreat in October, wasn't sure I liked it, then decided yesterday to finish it. All I had left to do was the wide shawl collar. Easy enough for a machine with a ribber.

The pattern is "Kyra", a free pattern obtainable on the Berroco website. It was easy to convert from hand knitting to machine knitting. I changed the cuffs and bottom hem to Mary Anne Oger's stockinette, no- roll hem, which I love. It's a little hard to see because of the variegation in the yarn. I also love the asymmetrical aspect of this sweater, the shaping at the sides and the huge shawl collar, which I had to knit in two sections in order to have enough stitches.

I knit it on my Silver Reed 860 midgauge with ribber (the ribber was needed only for the collar). The rib isn't exactly like the rib in the pattern. A person could knit the sweater on the machine and then knit the collar by hand, but I don't have that much patience. Actually, I have to say the 860 does make nice ribbing. The yarn is Conshohocken cotton (lovely soft stuff) that I hand dyed. I knit up 3 large blanks and painted them with Dylon in wide swaths so the color repeats would be long. I machine washed and dried the blanks so all the shrinking is done. Some people think this is a lot of work, but the fact that the garment won't shrink appreciably is worth it to me. I unwound the blanks into balls and knit from there. I didn't make any attempt to match up fronts with the back and didn't try to make the sleeves match either. Artistic license, I guess.

It's for my daughter. Don't know if she'll like it at all, whether it will fit her or how the closure should go. Guess I'll just have to wait a week or so.

Machine Knit Christmas Idea

2010-12-18T12:26:00.015-06:00

Wanting some little extra Christmas items, I decided to make some table protectors/ hotpads/ trivet kind of things. I have a boat load of cotton yarn, so there is plenty of pretty red and white to use up. I used DesignaKnit to borrow motifs from various patterns I've stored. Mostly Dale of Norway Norwegian sweater hand knitting patterns that I've purchased. Any 24 stitch punch card or other electronic pattern could be used. Mine ended up to be about 8" x 8" give or take. You'd have to experiment a little with your yarn, if you want to try making some. I'm just partial to all things Norwegian, hence the Nordic look. And, can you tell that red is my favorite color????

They all are made of 3 strands of 16/2 cotton each color and my Brother 970 standard gauge electronic to which the patterns are downloaded. They are all close to 73 st wide x 91 rows long (182 doubled) to make a square. Different yarn would need to be experimented with (swatched) to produce a more or less square hotpad.
I started and ended with waste yarn, then the main pattern. The pattern is repeated twice lengthwise, folded and (off the machine) kitchener stitched together from the purl side so that both ends look pretty much the same. Turn the thing right side out and then sides are mattress stitched closed. I added a 50 row I cord to one corner just in case a person would want to hang one on the handle of an oven.

They seem to be pretty heat-resistant, but for extra protection a good idea is to put a square of heat resistant fabric in the middle before seaming it shut. (I can't remember what that stuff is called, but it has some metal like fabric with mesh on both sides. Quilted ThermaFlec Heat Resistant Fabric??? Something like that. )

It has been the perfect mindless project for me after knitting 29 ski hats and headbands for a local high school ski team. Am I ever glad that's done. Here's the hat, guys' headband and girls' headband. The school's logo includes an anchor since Minnetonka is a huge local lake. The suburb is named Minnetonka, as is the high school. I think the lake came first then the town, but I'm not sure. Anyway, knitting for profit rather than fun takes the joy out of it....until next year. The team mom promised a picture of the kids. Hope she remembers.

By any chance, did you notice that I've knit almost 20 miles worth of yarn this year? It's probablly more, because I forgot to record some of the things I knit. Pretty impressed with myself!

Free machine knitting pattern for an easy scarf - "The Stripster"

2010-12-09T08:59:00.005-06:00

Here's an idea for an easy, last minute gift. It's a quick knit, can be done with any yarns and any machine. Could probably be easily knit by hand too -- but why spend days when you can get this one done in short order? My vote goes for machine knitting any day for sure.
Machine: Any
Yarn: Any- is a good pattern to use up yarn, but different yarns should be the same weight for smooth joins.
Gauge: I used largest tension on a midgauge with medium worsted wt yarn (4 colors of Caron Simply Soft) to get nice drape. Do a swatch or two to get the best gauge for your yarn. My gauge was 4 stitches and 4.6 rows to 1” on the midgauge.
Finished size: 11” wide (fully stretched, but it rolls in and scrunches up) x 5.4 ‘ long to wrap around the neck once and knot somewhat like an ascot. The end knots take up (shorten the scarf) about 2” each end.

The idea is to knit strips and attach strips as you knit. You can reverse the purl and knit side for each strip or keep the knit sides all the same and the purl sides all the same. You leave 40 rows unattached each end and knot for a “fringe”. Changing colors each strip, changing colors mid-strip or using hand dyed yarn would all give a nice effect. Knit time is about one hour!!! 4 skeins of Simply Soft will make 2, possibly 3 scarves. Normally I'm not too crazy about acrylic, but this brand is soft and I'm not sure whether the intended recipient likes wool or not.

DIRECTIONS for Midgauge (adapt for standard or bulky doing a little math to get the size you want):
Strip 1- Ewrap cast on over 10 needles. RC 000. T 10 knit one row, hang claw wt. Knit to RC 40, hang a marker. Knit to RC 260, hang a marker. Knit to RC 300, bind off. (Move wt up as you knit.)
Subsequent strips- Ewrap cast on over 10 needles. RC 000. T10 knit one row, hang wt. Knit to RC 40. With right or wrong side facing, begin hanging previous strip at the point of the first marker onto the leftmost needle of the new strip. *Hang a loop from the old, K 2 rows.* Continue from * to * until RC 260. Knit without attaching to RC 300, bind off. (Move wt up as you knit.)  Repeat from  to  for as many strips as you want the width.

For the midgauge I found that 4 strips made a nice width. For the standard I did 7 strips of I cords (the row count was also different. See Knitwords #53 for the pattern. Still available for purchase from the Knitwords website.) Pictured below, a little different effect but same principle of assembly.

Finishing: Run in the yarn ends, remove markers. Tie a knot at the very end of each strip. Voila’, you are done. Probably no need to steam. You don’t want to flatten out the knots.

Tip re hanging stitches: You want the loop not the knot on the edge of the previous strip. Once you get going, the previous loop will be stretched out. You don’t want that one again. Look above the stretched out one for the tiny knot and above that will be your next loop to hang. Keep unfolding the edge with the fingers of your left hand so you can see the loops and knots.

Winter has arrived!

2010-11-13T08:46:00.004-06:00

Our first snow of the season and it's a doozy. It's thick and heavy due to the relatively warm temps. We were supposed to have knit club this morning, but the roads are too treacherous.

There is one among us who is in 7th heaven, however. Hard to get her to come back into the house. She makes me laugh. She sticks her nose down into the snow and runs! Just like a mini snow plow.

It's a good day to snuggle in and knit.

William Morris is hanging around my neck...

2010-11-09T10:16:00.010-06:00

I am a cowl convert. It seems if your neck is warm, so goes the rest of you. There was a time when I couldn't stand the extra heat, but now am finding I need it.

I was inspired by this cowl from Berroco's free patterns. If you'd like to see the original pattern, you can find it here:
http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/winterfloral/winterfloral_1.html
I liked the concept but not the design. I found a William Morris wall paper I liked, converted it to knit stitches in DesignaKnit and knit the cowl on my Brother 970.
It's a rectangle 28" wide by 18" tall. I doubled it over so that the height is 9", and I positioned the seam at the bottom. Some of the images you convert to knit patterns have long floats between motifs and, although they might be lovely, are not very practical. The nice thing about this method of making the cowl is that all the long floats are enclosed when you seam it. Steaming takes care of smoothing it out. Just for added interest, I put a small red stripe on each end. Both ends have 2 x 2 ribbing; one side has 3 button holes. Found some vintage-looking buttons for it. The yarn is Forsell's Pure New Wool, T 7, 7 st x 9 rows=1". Very soft and warm. You could easily make it with your own design or one that is built into your machine subbing your own gauge. Really simple and fast.
Closeup of the back side:

Nice, eh?

Baby Wrap - A machine knitting pattern

2010-10-31T11:55:00.008-05:00

It's a sweet little wrap for a baby, in three sizes: 0-3, 6-9, 12-18 months. An unusual, one piece shape folds to make a short sweater that buttons in the back to create sleeve openings and helps it to stay on. A slightly ruffled edge adds a feminine touch. No ribber is required and DAK is helpful but not necessary to knit the pattern. The written pattern with illustrations and schematic are included as well as the DAK shape files for the different sizes. If you use DAK, you can use my gauge and yarn or substitute something different. When you put your own gauge into DAK, the program will re-calculate the pattern for you to obtain the same shape. I like using cotton for baby clothes, but you have the inevitable shrinkage. Suggestions are given to cope with this phenomenon.

Here's the back view:

Originally I sent this Baby Wrap pattern to Mary Anne Oger for Issue 54 of Knitwords. Sadly she quit publication (but happily she moved on to other good things) before this issue was put together and published. I guess you could say it was all wrapped up. (Sorry, MA for the silly pun.) The baby wrap is knit on any standard gauge machine. As stated, a different machine with a different gauge could easily be used to create the garment if you have DAK.

The pattern is being offered through Pay Pal for $6.00. Click on the BUY NOW button to purchase and it will be emailed to you pronto.

Free machine knitting patterns linked to posts

2010-10-28T14:57:00.004-05:00

Suddenly the file storage site I've been using, which has been happily free for a couple of years, is sending out something foul. My Norton's antivirus says it's an attack site. Who would know the reason why???? So I spent some time linking all my free patterns back to individual posts about them and included the patterns there rather than having you download pdf's. I sure don't want to be responsible for someone getting hi-jacked or infected with a virus.

So much for free stuff. I keep thinking there is no free lunch...

Men's Garter Carriage Scarf

2010-10-26T12:49:00.007-05:00

Katherine sent me a picture of her Men's Garter Carriage Scarf. (This pattern, with the errors fixed, was mentioned in my last post.) It's beautiful! And, her husband likes it. Not an easy accomplishment.

At our guild's "knit-in" last weekend, I concentrated on knitting hats toward my birthday goal. Only got 3 done. At this rate, it's going to take a while...
I did the pattern for the midgauge earflap hat and the one for the beanie that are available here on my blog. Scroll down on the right side. These were knit on my portable KX 350, so any midgauge machine should work fine. I used 2 strands of a thinner acrylic yarn. And you can't tell that either of those cones has gotten any smaller!

Looks like teal is the color of the day.

Correction to garter carriage scarf pattern

2010-10-24T20:13:00.004-05:00

Friend Katherine was kind enough to write me and tell me the free garter carriage men's scarf pattern had some errors in it. So, if you downloaded it previously, you may want to download the corrected version. Scroll down towareds the bottom right side and click on the drawing of the DAK file. Whew! What was I thinking? I actually did make it a couple of times and never noticed the errors. I think because the stitches are tiny, they are easy to miss. Excuses, excuses. Hopefully it's error-free now.

Name change

2010-10-20T10:46:00.001-05:00

Ok, changed the name on Ravelry to "Dangling Daisies" and will obliterate all references to you-know-what on the blog.

Correspondence regarding name of toddler hat...

2010-10-20T10:24:00.002-05:00

Hi Mar,
You might want to change the name of the toddler hat…
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dingleberry
din·gle·ber·ry (dnggl-br)
n. Vulgar Slang

A piece of dried feces caught in the hair around the anus.

An incompetent, foolish, or stupid person.

I didn’t have a clue what it meant as slang either until someone pointed it out to me.

BTW, it is really cute!
Justina

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yikes!
I guess I will change the name. I just thought it sounded cute. Maybe not. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Was blissfully unaware.
Mar

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Any suggestions? Dangling Dandylions? Downward Daisies? Swinging Snapdragons?

Free Machine Knitting Pattern for a Toddler Hat

2010-10-17T16:00:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time since I entered anything in my blog! Time to get back into machine knitting. A challenge has been put forth in my machine knitting circle to knit ourselves a birthday present this year. That is, we are to knit one charity hat for each of our years on Earth. For some of us, that's a real challenge! I'm plugging away at it and have 5 done so far this month. Suffice it to say, I have many to go...

Here's the hat I knit today. It's really easy and fast. Just to keep it interesting, each of my hats will be different. I'm not so good at production knitting, I guess. Here are the directions.
Dangling Daisies Hat for a Toddler
Machine: Standard Gauge 4.5 mm, with ribber or garter carriage
Yarn: Any that knits to gauge
Gauge: 8 stitches x 11 rows = 1”
Finished size: With brim folded up, 7. 5” tall x 8.5” wide to fit a 2-4 year old
Directions: Cast on for 1x1 rib over 141 stitches. T 0/0 knit selvage 3 rows. (Refer to your manual.) T 2/2 K 40 rows. Transfer stitches to main bed, T 6 knit 70 rows. Knit waste yarn for several rows. Remove from machine, fold so right sides are together. Hang 2 matching stitches (front and back) together across the needle bed, and bind off around gate pegs. Seam side seam. Pick up 4 stitches at one corner at the top. Set machine to slip one way, knit the other way for I cord. Weight knitting with your hand. Knit 42 rows for stem. For petals,* knit an additional 40 rows, count back 20 rows, pick up and hang whole stitch on one of the middle needles. * Repeat from * to * for 4 more petals. Bind off. Make stem and petals on other corner. For flower, omit stem, ewrap cast on over 4 needles. Knit 5 petals, attach securely to ribbing. Hide all yarn ends and neaten the petals if necessary.

Fast, easy, cute, and silly! More hat patterns to follow. Stay tuned!

DesignaKnit CD

2010-05-16T13:19:00.013-05:00

I'm very proud to announce that my DesignaKnit CD, DOING DAK, is ready for sale. I worked on it for several months. Basically it's a book, not a video, with seven projects, many (60+) stitch patterns to use with these and any other projects and a chapter with common questions answered. It's 89 pages of info, the book viewable with a Mac or PC. Through doing the projects you learn the ins and outs of DAK. I guess I realized how much work writing a book is, but did not really understand that it was THIS much work. It was fun, though, and I've gotten a lot of positive comments about its usefulness from those who already bought it. It's especially helpful for people new to the program and also for people who purchased the program and gave up on it along the way. The projects are nifty, if I do say so myself.

Whenever I've learned something new, I find that I learn best by doing, not just reading. Hence the approach in the CD is to have you do projects to learn DAK. The added benefit is that you'll have something to show for your efforts!

If you are interested, you can purchase through PayPal and I will mail the CD to you via US post. It's too large to email it to you. Email me if you'd rather make some arrangement other than Pay Pal. The cost is $25.00 which includes postage inside the USA. Email me for other postage.

Knitwords 53 is out!

2010-05-01T12:08:00.006-05:00

Now that the latest issue is in the mail, I thought I could post a picture of my contributions. Due to space restrictions, they ended up as black and white, not as appealing I'm thinking. I really had fun making these scarves and the shawl. Dying the yarn is half the fun. Now I also get to add these seven to my knit total. Miles and miles of yarn!

I really like a lot of the sweaters in this issue. Nancy Roberts' cover sweater and Alice Tang's shrug are my personal favorites, but there is a lot to choose from. Hope you are a subscriber---you won't be disappointed. Check out the issue at http://knitwords.com/

Purls of Joy, a bad mistake and a machine knit tuck blanket

2010-04-30T21:40:00.010-05:00

Wow, can't believe it's the last day of April. Time seems to fly ever faster and faster as a person gets older. Like how a roll of toilet paper disappears. Slow at first, then so fast that next time you look it's time to replace it. Elegant comparison, no?

The Purls of Joy seminar held a week ago in Minneapolis was great fun. It was the first time I had ever demonstrated so I didn't really know what to expect. I did 3 classes on DesignaKnit. One was an overview of the various parts of the software, one was on using text and one was on custom sizing. I sold a disk entitled "Doing DAK", a book I have written. It was well received. When I get additional copies made I'll offer it for sale here. There was a good variety of classes put on by the guest demonstrators and machine knitting dealers. The other guest demonstrators were April Mills, Teena Crawshaw, Pamela Pommerenke, and Carolyn Barnett. I got to meet two Ravelry friends in person: Elaine and Joey. Many of our guild membership were there. Got to talk with some people whose faces I recognized from years past. Too bad it's only once a year. I really enjoyed it.

However. I was exhausted when I got home and it took several days to recover. Feeling ok now. So, this afternoon I decided to knit a lap robe for donation. I was horrified to discover that I had left my CB1 on (the computer part of my 970). And it had to have been left on for 10 days. Grr. I was unbelievably mad at myself. Understatement. I think it will be ok, though. I do know one mker who left her machine on for a year when she was in the middle of a baby blanket. I think it was a garter carriage blanket. She was afraid if she turned it off she'd lose the pattern. Compared to that, 10 days isn't so bad. And I always (!) check to see if it's off when I leave the room. Chalk it up to old age, I guess.

Anyway, I did manage to knit a tuck stitch lap robe. I am still using up yarn so I decided to try "plying" two thin yarns together. Have never done that before. Here was my setup:
You can't see the two yarns at all coming out of the top (bad photo) but you can see the thicker white yarn in the cage with the second yarn on top. I threaded a needle with the white yarn, passed it up through the milk crate and dropped it through the gray cone on the top, then set the gray back right side up, threaded both yarns through the same eyelet on the yarn mast. It worked well. Wasn't as variegated as I thought it would be, but I didn't get the distinct stripes that you get when you just thread them up.

This is the pattern I used. Write to me if you have DAK and would like the complete blanket. The blanket including borders is 192 st x 460 rows. The stitch repeat, which would be suitable for a punchcard is 24 st x 60 rows. What surprised me was the texture the pattern produced. I expected the predominant thing would be the hearts. Instead these arrow head shapes are what you notice most. Never does a scan or photo do knits justice. Here's the border:

Feel free to copy the punch card. You'd need to figure out a border so it doesn't roll. And, like I said, if you want the .pat or .stp file, let me know.

Making your own variegated yarn

2010-04-16T21:12:00.004-05:00

What do you get when you combine a slubby multicolored thread- thin yarn with a cream color (boring) thread- thin yarn? Something a little more interesting. Both of these are additional monster cones I'm trying to use up. I think I'll be able to get a lot more scarves out of this combo. It really is a lot more fun than either yarn by itself and it will go with coats of different colors.

I did 60 stitches and 810 rows of Fisherman's rib, T 3/3. The scarf is 7" wide and 56" long. Might be about the right size for a grade school child. Hope I burned up a few calories anyway.

What a 10 lb cone of chenille looks like...

2010-04-15T17:45:00.004-05:00

I tried to take pictures of this humungus cone of yarn. But it's really impossible to show how big it is. Next to it is a 2 lb cone of woolray for comparison. Keep in mind also, from it already has come one shrug for a teenager, one shawl 3 ft x 7 ft (the disaster one) and one scarf 8 inches x 6 feet. The original cone was so heavy it caved in the thick cardboard inner cone.

I suppose this is what the cones look like in a knitting factory. Could an ordinary home knitter ever use up something like this? I wonder...

Chenille Success

2010-04-15T13:59:00.003-05:00

There was a discussion on Ravelry today about the difficulties knitting with chenille. So I remembered that I forgot to post (and count!) my chenille scarf. I inherited a huge cone of yarn from my friend Dee. It is not the sweetest thing in the world to machine knit with. I did manage to get this charity scarf knit last week. I used my bulky machine with ribber, 40 stitches, T6/6, 1 x 1 rib for 300 rows. It ended up being about 6 feet long and 8" wide. Running serger thread along with it helps keep it from biasing.

I had made a scarf last winter with this yarn and washed it with disastrous results. So, maybe it's not nice, but I'm NOT washing this one. It is soft and is such a pretty color!!! Hope some child can make use of it.

Single Bed Tuck Baby Blanket

2010-04-12T08:48:00.005-05:00

This is one of Charlene Schafer's Easy Tuck Baby Blankets. I used a pale green cotton, which is nice yarn, but am having a little trouble with curling edges. I haven't laundered it yet, so maybe the edges will behave better after washing and drying. Not going to spend the time crocheting around the edges. If it stays like this, it's not a disaster.

I like the tuck pattern--it looks like little bow ties inside of the diamonds. And in person, the texture is really nice. When the needles tuck more than 2 rows, the stitches really stand out, as in the lines for the diamonds.

After I downloaded the DAK pattern to my machine it took me 1 1/2 hours total knitting time. Love that! And another 1,000 yards to my total for the year.

Full Needle Rib Tuck Stitch scarf

2010-04-09T13:14:00.008-05:00

I took Diana Sullivan's advice and tried a full needle rib tuck. Isn't this pretty? I used her example from Stitchworld. Easy enough to enter into the machine. Didn't check to see if it was in my Stitchworld III book because it only took a minute to enter the 8 stitch 7 row pattern. Here it is on Diana's blog:
http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2010/04/tucked-ribbing-ideas.html

This is some thread-thin mill end stuff, probably acrylic. But it's really soft when knit up and thread-thin worked fine for this scarf. It has a dressy look to it and is as light as a feather. What I like is that both sides look really similar. You'd have to study hard to distinguish one side from the other. I also liked the borders on the sides that it automatically made. And they don't roll. This color wouldn't be the best on me but maybe would work for someone else. Unfortunately, I don't think I can dye it.

Here are directions in case you want to make a similar one. I cast on 40 stitches in full needle rib at T 0/0. Did the circular cast on, knit 10 rows at T 1/1. Then I transferred stitches according to Diana's pattern, putting every 4th needle out of work on the main bed. (Those are the stitches that were transferred to the ribber.) Then I did my KC row to select needles, turned on the electronics, pushed in my tuck buttons and knit 500 rows. At the end, I switched back to fnr (every needle in work both beds by borrowing purl bumps to fill in), T 1/1 knit 10 rows, one row T 7/7. Transferred rib stitches to main bed and chained off. It dawned on me after all was said and done that I didn't engage the tuck brushes. Didn't seem to matter since I weighted it well and moved the weights up every 80 rows or so.

I think I'll make some charity shawls with this pattern. I certainly have enough yarn for several and I think they'd make a nice cover-up in air conditioning in the summer. Thanks, Diana!

One cone gone!

2010-03-27T13:10:00.008-05:00

Finally, I used up one cone of gray mystery yarn. This is how much I had left. Not even enough to get across the row. It stretched unbelievably far. You can see how skinny the yarn is. Lots of swatches, four 6+ foot scarves, one ring in a circle scarf and two hats. The hats and scarves are for charity. The mottled items are the gray mixed with another mystery egg shell colored yarn. Another giant cone I got I know not where. I didn't twist them like a person probably should, just ran them up through separate yarn feeders. Kind of cool I think, the randomness. Good feeling to use up yarn, but there are so many cones to go! My goal is to have just enough yarn to fill one yarn tree and no more. Have a lot of plastic bins to attend to still. Stay tuned!

OOps! Almost forgot to update my yards knit. Let's see. 1 yard x 604 rows = 604 for the scarf. 1 yard x 136 rows x 2 hats = 272 yards. Together: 876 yards. Not bad.

Ah...the sweet mysteries of machine knitting

2010-03-22T10:09:00.009-05:00

I really hate to admit it when something (knitting-wise) seems to be defeating me. I'm referring to Diana's Zig Zag Scarf.

http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-video-today-zigzag-racked-ribber.html

I was determined to make it. Wrote down the instructions while watching her video, made my own spread sheet---just like hers. The pattern, or something, didn't like my machine and my machine didn't like the pattern. At first I thought it was static, then I zigged when I was supposed to zag (see picture), then I thought my machine needed oiling and I tried about 12 different yarns and tensions. The picture below is actually the best of my disasters. The question mark indicates "What was I thinking?" The result is interesting, but not interesting enough to keep, if you know what I mean. Hmmm...maybe in the future I could go twice as many rows in one direction. But a person really should get the original pattern correct before going off on a tangent. Had a friend check out my directions to see if I was doing it right. I thought that this shouldn't be so hard. I felt like I was having a heart attack trying to move the carriage back and forth. I knew there would be no way I could do 600+ rows. And, Diana didn't seem to be having any trouble pushing the carriage in her demo. Not having any joy with anything I tried, I knit a few other things in the interim to check to make sure my machine really was ok.

Finally, I broke down and wrote to Diana and asked if she had any suggestions. I was kind of embarrassed because it's not exactly like I'm a novice knitter. She was most gracious and even said she loved a puzzle! She confirmed that I was racking in the correct sequence, so that was the main thing. I was apologetic about wasting her time, but she was non-plussed about it. What a sweet person!!! She's as nice as she sounds in her videos.

Yesterday then, after getting confirmation from the expert that it should be working, I thought I would try ONE MORE YARN. Finally, it worked. It's a beautiful pattern. Then the phone rang, I ran to answer it, came back, checked my cheat sheet and off I went again only to find out A FOOT LATER that I zagged when I was supposed to zig. O well, I found a yarn and a tension that my machine would cooperate with. This is my "good" swatch. (Not showing you my wrong turn...) For now, this was enough.

Don't let my experience discourage you. You probably will fly right through it.

The question for me remains, will I have the concentration to stick with it again and not make any mistakes for 6 long feet? There really is NO room for error. It's frustrating to not be able to see what you're doing until way past the point where an error may have occurred. And, there's no way I could rip back and find the right spot in the pattern. I have a knitting friend who probably could, (hi Ellen), but not me. This is one of those all or nothing deals. Do I get to count on my knit meter the 1,000 yards of yarn I used trying to get this right???? (I guess not.) And, finally, what the heck was I doing wrong on the previous 12 or so swatches? I'm suspecting tension, but don't know for absolute sure. I guess it will have to remain a mystery.

Sometimes I get the urge...

2010-03-20T21:11:00.005-05:00

to use my embroidery machine and make something. I suppose this title will put me at risk for search engines looking for porn. Won't they be disappointed! I have a tote bag that needs embellishing. Got this gorgeous pattern from the Embroidery Library. It's called, simply, "Garden Alphabet". There are two designs, one for the front of the bag and one for the back. Because the fabric is black, it's hard to see that it is indeed two pieces of fabric. The M is 5" tall and the single bud is about 3". I'll top stitch the squares on while the bag is opened at the seams. And then I'll add a lining with some handy pockets. That will be tomorrow's project.

I'm amazed at the artistic talent that goes into creating these embroidery designs. I think they are really yummy, even more beautiful in person.

Repurposing an old Norwegian Sweater

2010-03-19T11:25:00.008-05:00

I knit this sweater a couple of years ago. I think the pattern is from Poetry in Stitches, by Solveig Hisdal. OR, it's a Dale of Norway sweater. I can't remember. I chose colors that were kind of "in your face" and didn't like them after all was said and done. The yarn was really expensive, though, so it has been one of those guilty little things sitting in my closet. So, yesterday I decided to chop it up and make some useful things out of it.

First, I used one cuff to make a hat for the American Girl doll. I just cut it off, unraveled a few rows to get the stitches all in a line, used the unraveled thread to sew up and gather, seam the side. Voila' it fits her perfectly.

Then I threw the sweater into the washing machine with some jeans to felt/full it. There were some long floats on the back side that I had hung up on the needles to make them shorter. During the felting process, the floats shrank and the fabric puckered a little. So, I just snipped them on the back side and was able to press out the knitting fairly smoothly. Hub and I have gotten into drinking tea again, so I thought it would be nice to have a tea cozy. This is the result. The handle of our hand thrown tea pot doesn't fold down, so it looks kind of crazy tall, but it works fine.

Finally, I made some pretty mitts for myself for next winter. I just traced my hand on a piece of paper and made a pattern that way. I was able to use the hem of the sweater as the cuff of the mitt. The insides were kind of messy, so I lined them with some cute fabric.

You might ask why I didn't center the flower on the back of the mitt. It was simply because I couldn't get two pieces of fabric wide enough if I centered. So, whatever. The embroidered flowers offset it a bit.

Guilt assuaged a little bit. I still have some sweater left. Will try to think of more things before the last of it gets tossed. The pewter buttons will be saved and used again, of course.

Fisherman's Rib Charity Scarf

2010-03-16T20:57:00.004-05:00

The fisherman's rib stitch pattern is created by tucking on both beds on alternate rows. Both sides of the fabric look the same. Two strands of very thin yarn, lace weight(?- mystery yarn), threaded separately and joined at the carriage. They are two different shades of gray so makes a heathered look. Lots of weights used plus “7 wires” at both sides moved up every 30 rows. Circ cast on 70 stitches, T 0/0. Set to FishR: Left tuck on main carriage, right two levers up on rib carriage. T4/4, 700 rows. One row loosest T, transfer to mb, chain off. Finished size is 8” wide x 50” long. Soft and squishy, edges behave themselves. Nice and plain for a guy, I'm thinking.
That makes 4 long scarves with this cone of gray and probably can get 5 more out of it!!!

Going around in circles with a knitting machine

2010-03-15T10:59:00.006-05:00

Another attempt at using up the yarn stash. Another gal (Vonkad on Ravelry) and I got inspired by seeing pictures of circle scarves at the same time. She is in the process of writing up her version. I think she is being a lot more precise than I was. I jumped in without a lot of thought and just went for it. Not sure yet how she joins her circles, but I just attached the previous circle every other row 5 times as I was knitting the next. Looking back, I'm thinking it isn't necessary to join them at all. The join is at the back of the neck and doesn't show anyway. Plus---a person could knit a variety of yarns and colors and mix and match circles to work with an outfit.

The scarves are squished under the lid of my scanner, so the pictures are not so elegant. You can see, though, that the strips just roll inward with the stockinette side turning out to be the public side. Advantages over knitting I cords are that it goes much more quickly and you can make the widths of your circles much wider.

This was seriously fun, mindless knitting! I cast on with waste yarn anywhere from 10 to 20 stitches, depending on the yarn and machine, and knit anywhere from 200 to 400 rows. Knit a few rows of waste yarn to start so it wouldn't unravel. Then changed to main yarn and knit the length I wanted it. Yup, against all the holy principles of machine knitting, I measured whilst on the machine. When I thought it was long enough I took it off on several rows of waste yarn. I kitchener stitched the ends together while it was in my lap and removed the waste yarn. Some of the circles were long enough to wrap twice around my neck. I tried to stagger the lengths. Random is good sometimes.

The red one has seven different yarns: cotton, wool, silk, slubby. Most of the strands were knit on the standard gauge. The colorful novelty yarn would only knit every other needle on the bulky. (Big and fat.) It resisted, but complied in the end. The gray/black/white/tan one has six circles with a variety of fiber contents also. It is fun to try to find a variety of coordinating yarns in the stash and use them up!!! Can't imagine knitting one of these by hand, but it's a perfect project for the machine. And, there aren't a lot of projects where you can mix and match machines, giving each their due.

Tuck Stitch Cowl

2010-03-09T20:32:00.004-06:00

Made a cowl using a built-in tuck stitch on my Brother 970 standard gauge machine. It could be made on other machines too, nothing special about that. It's knit flat then seamed. You can see the seam down the middle of the picture. It measures 29" wide x 10" long. Of that 10" there is an inch of 1 x 1 rib on both ends. This was a mill end wool yarn, probably lace weight. Thinner than sport or dk for sure. Then I ran a strand of variegated yarn along with it. The texture is interesting on one side because you can see the zig zags. And on the back side, the variegated yarn showed up much more, as though it were plaited, which it isn't. So, a person could wear either side out.

I'd take a picture of it on my person, but whenever I try to take one in the bathroom mirror, all I get is the flash. Don't know how to turn off the flash on this little Canon Powershot I have in my knitting room. But, it fits and looks nice kind of slouching around my neck. It's surprising how warm a person feels when a person's neck is toasty.

It wouldn't do much good to tell you my stitches and rows, since this is mystery yarn. But you could do a swatch and come up with the 29" x 10". The cast on and bind off look pretty similar. I used the circular cast on in the ribber manual. For the bind off, while still doing 1 x 1 rib, I knit one loose row, as loose as the dial would go. Then I transferred the ribber stitches to the main bed and chained off from right to left. Maybe because the pattern is so busy it helps Camouflage the stitches. Really easy to make, that's for sure.

Haven't made a dent

2010-03-05T20:29:00.005-06:00

...in this gray cone of yarn. Two six foot long scarves, triple stranded, hasn't done it. I got the double bed tuck pattern from Diana Sullivan's blog: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/
wishing I had prettier yarn to show it off. I used a tight tension on the standard gauge machine so it didn't come out as lacy as hers. The left side would probably be considered the public side and the right side the back. Doesn't really matter. It's nice and squishy. If you stretch it out a bit, you can see the tuck pattern better.
After a gazillion rows, nice smooth non-rolling edges, no dropped stitches and no mispatterning. That's a very good thing. It will keep someone warm next winter.

More Ribber Love

2010-03-04T10:53:00.006-06:00

By sheer force of will, I have made myself use my ribbers over the last several months. And now, I have to say I do love them. Everyone said it would happen and it did. I'm trying to get rid of excess yarn, so cone by cone it is disappearing with charity scarves. They're great projects---like long swatches to practice different techniques, stitches and patterns---that become useful items.
Here's the latest, a racked scarf:
The yarn is 3 strands of some thin, unknown fiber content. One of those impulse mill end purchases. Nice color and softness, though. On my standard machine, I did a full needle rib cast on (check your manual) then transferred stitches so that I had every other needle on the ribber. (Every other ribber stitch got transferred to the main bed which still has all needles in work.) I did 59 stitches because I have a nifty 60 stitch ribber comb. End needles on the main bed. After the cast on, I set the row counter to 000, T 3/3. Starting with H5 knit 5 rows, racked to H3 and knit 5 rows. Repeated these 10 rows to RC 550 (or so). Knit one row at the loosest tension. Cut main yarn. Then I set the carriages for circular knitting and knit 20 rows with waste yarn. To cast off, I folded back the waste yarn, found the very end stitch on the side opposite the yarn tail. With the latch tool, chained off going back and forth from front to back to front to back. Pulled the yarn tail through the last stitch. When you run in the two yarn tails, you are DONE! No blocking necessary. Lies perfectly flat. Has body, is nice and squishy. I like it.
I've tried racking before and found that it required tons of concentration or I'd get lost as to which direction to go with the racking handle after a while or when interrupted. This was easier in that when the row was 1-5 I was going with H 5 and when the row was 6-10 I was using H3. (Or the other way around, doesn't matter, as long as you are consistent from the get go.)
The scarf ended up to be 9" wide and 60" long. Kind of neutral in that it could be masculine or feminine, methinks. 550 yards x 3 strands....1650 yards? or is it really 550. I think I'll go with 550 since it's "yards knit".

Tuck Baby Blanket on the Brother KX 350 Midgauge Machine

2010-03-01T21:25:00.005-06:00

Boy, have I been a lousy blogger. I've been knitting, but not good about getting pictures up here and describing things. So, I thought it was time to breathe a little life back into the ol' blog. This is a baby blanket I've done for charity. A friend gave me this hot pink cotton yarn and it goes nicely as a baby blanket. Our guild gives blankets to Project Linus so I chose to knit it at our guild's knit-in last Saturday. People usually bring their plastic bed machines because they are easy to transport. I used my Brother KX 350, a 7 mm midgauge, which is totally manual.

Here's how I made it if you care to do one yourself. It could be made on any machine using your own measurements and yarn. If you also have a midgauge you could use this needle arrangement. Otherwise, do a little math to make the repeat come out right for your needle bed.
Ewrap 129 stitches and knit 6 rows to make the end plain. Use a lot of weight on your work. Mark the needle bed with a pencil using X's for the red and o's for the orange. (See the diagram below.) What you do is mark O's on the 5th needle slot then every 8th across the bed ending with 4 needle slots on the right side. Now mark X's starting with the 9th needle slot, then every 8th across the bed, ending with 9 slots on the right side.
*Set your machine to hold going both directions. Pull the needles marked with O's all the way out toward you. Those are the stitches that will tuck. Knit 5 rows. Take the carriage setting off hold so that the next row all stitches will knit off. Knit 1 row. Now pull out the needles marked with X's. Change your carriage to hold both directions again. Knit 5 rows. Take the carriage setting off hold so that the next row all stitches will knit off. Knit one row.* Repeat this 12 row repeat, from * to * for the desired length. You kind of get into a rhythm. Tuck spreads out wider than stockinette, but it also takes more rows to get the length. I wanted a square baby blanket, so when I thought it was about the right length, I measured by bringing up the lower right corner to the upper left. Once it made a triangle, I pretty much had a square. (Trick learned from a guild friend.) Then knit 6 rows plain and bind off.

Your repeat would look like this with the sides plain. (Hope that makes sense.)
It makes a honey comb kind of pattern when the tucks are alternating.

The edges decided they wanted to curl, so I found it necessary to do some crocheting around it. I did two rows of single crochet and to make the ruffle did 3 double crochets in each stitch around. Whew! That took longer than it did to make the blanket. I have a new found respect and appreciation for my other machines after doing all that hand pulling of stitches. Turned out nice, though.

Jester Feet!

2010-01-22T21:37:00.006-06:00

I made some toasty felted slippers for myself. They turned out well, I thought.
This is where I found the pattern.
http://hurpeknagg.blogspot.com/2008/01/felted-slippers.html
Thank heavens she did a color coded chart or I would never have been able to put them together---must have a spacial orientation problem. The pattern is for hand knitting, but I did them in a flash on the machine. Sewing them up took a little longer. In order to sew the right square to the correct match, I hand sewed yarn markers where the colored dots were and butted up the matching pieces. It was a leap of faith for a while there. I'm amazed when people come up with clever things like this.

I used Lion Brand Wool, two skeins. One black and one purple. It's considered medium worsted, three ounces is 158 yards. I used my midgauge machine and at T 10. was able to get squares with 22 stitches x 30 rows to fit my size 9 feet. If you wanted smaller or larger slippers, since felting is so unpredictable, you'd have to make some guesses. In case you are wondering, I did a random pattern with the two colors and didn't care if the two feet matched.

Since we are still in the throes of winter, these are coming in handy!

Heart Skirt and Shrug for American Girl Doll

2010-01-20T20:15:00.005-06:00

On a roll! Now have 3 outfits done. Probably have said this before, but it sure is fun to make these little outfits because they go so fast. And, have I said how much I love red??? I'm guessing these two pieces add 200 yards to my running total. It's really hard to calculate, but I think/ hope I'm underestimating rather than overestimating.

I think she needs a Norwegian sweater next...

And Capri Pants to Match

2010-01-18T12:36:00.005-06:00

I tried the Knitware pattern for 18" dolls, but somehow it didn't work. So, I borrowed what I could and came up with these this morning. Too lazy to fire up the camera so just stuck it on the scanner. But you can see in the pic that follows that they fit. Here's how I made them:
MACHINE midgauge 6.5mm
YARN worsted (I think more medium than heavy)
GAUGE 4 st x 6 rows = 1" at T 10
FINISHED SIZE Length 8.5", width 6.5" at hips (x 2=13" around after seaming)
KWK means knit, wrap the end stitch, knit back
Increases - move 3 stitches out one needle and pick up the heel of the inside stitch and hang on to the empty needle.
Decreases - move the end stitch in one needle.
Start at the cuff and knit to waistband.
Knit 2:
Cast on over 26 stitches with main yarn. At T 3 knit 4 rows. Change to T 10, knit 4 rows. Hang a hem. RC 000. Increase one stitch both sides, knit one row. Increase one stitch both sides every 3 rows to 40 stitches. Knit to RC 28. Shape crotch. Bind off 4 stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Decrease 1 stitch both sides, knit two rows 2 x. (26 stitches) First leg, CAL. Second leg, CAR. Short row for the rear end. Set machine to hold. Put 13 needles on the right (left for other leg) on hold. KWK. Put 4 stitches to hold, KWK 2 times. Take machine off hold. Knit to RC 44. On RC 44 run a length of contrasting thread so you can see which stitch to hang later for the hem. Change to T 4 and knit 11 rows. CAL. Hang hem. Knit one row left to right and bind off around the gate pegs with the latch tool. Seam the back from top to crotch. Seam the front top to crotch leaving openings both sides on the front of the waist band for the I cord to slip through. (Make sure the short rowed butt is the back side.) Seam the legs both sides. Remove the marker thread.
Make a 3 stitch I cord at T 3, long enough to go around the waist, tie knots on the ends and tie a bow. (Sorry, I forgot to record how many rows, but you can measure while on the machine.) Hide the ends of the Icord inside the cord. Run the I cord through the waste band. Steam the pants a little if desired.

There always seems to be a "if I were to do these again" sentence.... I'd make them a little shorter (-6rows) and a little tighter (T 9 instead of T10). They're a little loose, but they look ok. One more outfit done for the sil.