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".
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