It's for the Birds

As I write this, the wind chill in Minneapolis is -66 degrees F.  Tomorrow is supposed to be lots better, but in the meantime, this old girl is staying inside.

My MK guild has a challenge this year to knit 2 charity hats per week from November to November.  That's all I have been doing---and now I have 53 done out of the 102 we're supposed to do.  UGH.  This isn't that much fun, but somehow I'm hooked.  I gotta do it!  One nice thing is that I'm using up some of my stashed cones.  I'm doing them all on the midgauge so there's a lot of doubling up yarn with my Silver Needles cone winder.  By the way, LOVE that thing and highly recommend it.

I have lots of yarn ends as a result of all this knitting.  So, I'm thinking about all these little birdies outside and wondering how in the world they survive in this below zero weather.  I have chopped up some of these yarn ends into 1" pieces and will set this paper plate full outside to see if there are any takers.  (This is just the ends from yesterday's knitting.) I am envisioning colorful nests all over the woods.  If no takers, o well, I tried.  Good intentions.

Will let you know if my good intentions have done any good.

Saddle Shoulder Sweater

Another gal and I are teaching saddle shoulder sweater construction to our guild.  Since I had never knit one with this shape, I thought I better practice.  I used DAK and came up with approximately size 8 for my grandson.  You can barely see where the saddle shoulder is in the picture,  but it's there.   I faithfully did my swatch out of Piropo yarn because I had both the red and white in that brand. And red and white is my favorite color combination for a Norwegian sweater. It turned out kind of scratchy, though, and I thought a little kid wouldn't like that at all.  So I found some Tamm Sport in my stash with both blue and white, so I went with that.  Much softer.

The pattern is Dale of Norway's Nagano design.  My grandson likes dinosaurs, so I thought this was kind of close.  I just used the yoke section of the design, not the trim at the bottom and sleeves in their pattern.

However, I liked my swatch so much that I made a doggie sweater out of it. (Note the insert in the picture.)  It was really simple to do:  did mock ribs for the neck and bottom, then added a gusset for the belly. The armholes for the front legs are just holes that are not seamed to the gusset. You can add ribbing for the sleeves, but I didn't think it was necessary. My grandson's dog is little, so it was possible to make it work.  I think it will be really cute to see them walking down the street with matching "sweaters".

If you have a smallish dog, you too can use a favorite swatch for the top of the sweater.  I found a free dog sweater pattern and made the gusset to match his size in width and length.  I tried to also match the distance from neck to leg openings.  So hopefully this one will fit him ok.  Strangely enough, he likes to be warm and doesn't mind wearing sweaters.

I think autumn is really serious about showing up.  Time to think about warmer clothes.  And more knitting.

Lots Accomplished

  Our machine knitting guild had an "in-town knit camp" this past weekend.  There were 11 of us in a nice room usually used by quilters at a quilt shop.  We all like to go home to our own beds, hence the "in-town" aspect.  My personal goal was to use up some yarn.  I did manage to get 13 hats done.  Not as much yarn used up as you might think. Eating the fantastic potlucks took up some time, don't you know.  Lots of laughs too.   I used the LK 150 for all. (Click picture on right side here for pattern .)
  Here's a good tip.  A guild member's technique for hanging the hem made quick work of it.  He pulls out to d position every other needle, knits one row with main yarn, hangs the metal cast on comb that has the wicked teeth, backwards. (no waste yarn or ravel cord.)   Then he brings the alternate needles to work and knits twice the length of the hem.  Then he brings out every other needle again, puts a weighted metal dowel onto (on top of, across) the knitting and brings up the beginning stitches and hangs all stitches in one fell swoop.  When you tip the cast on bar, the stitches slip onto the needles you have pulled out.  Remove cast on comb.  It requires a little practice, but I love how much time it saves.  It is NOT as pretty as a regular hung hem, but I doubt kids are going to check out the inside of the hat.  Another advantage is that the dowel weights the knitting evenly for the duration.  Try it.  You may agree. You can purchase a metal rod at the hardware store for cheap.  It is nearly impossible to do this if a ribber is attached because you can't get to the bottom of the knitting to grab the cast on comb without dumping the stitches prematurely.  Just a warning.
 

I also knit a Gryffindor scarf for my grandson.  He's currently a fan of Harry Potter.  It's 7 inches across doubled and seamed up the back, about 5 1/2 feet long.  Gauge was about 5 st and 6 r to the inch.  I didn't write it down, but I think it was 70 st by 280 rows, each stripe was 20 rows.  T 9.  Usually I'm religious about writing these things down, but I guess I thought I'd never knit another one.  I used less than 2 skeins of sport weight hand knitting yarn, 100 gr each and I bought 4.  O dear, more charity hats with U of M colors.
  I found a free machine embroidery patch that is the Gryffindor shield and did that at home ahead of time, glued it on with a hot glue gun.  Only problem was that the guy who designed it spelled Griffindor wrong.  So I had to use some emb software to change it to a "Y".  Hard to work on someone else's design but I managed ok. Not perfect, but ok.  Since grandson lives in CA, it's just going to be part of his Harry costume, not really utilitarian.  Too hot.  I think he'll like it, though.
  When he was here a few weeks ago I gave him the robe, glasses and the rep tie.  Pretty cute.  So now he should be all set.

Prayer Shawl

A very generous friend, Bonnie in Vermont, sent our guild (the Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota) some luscious yarn.  Lots of luscious yarn.   She's downsizing and we are upsizing!  I wanted to show guild members what one single cone  would produce.  This one was from Webs. called Crystal and is made of acrylic and nylon. 2000 yards. There were many cones of this kind of yarn and sometimes people can't think of what to do with it since it is quite thin. 

 I knit a tuck stitch prayer shawl with a built in tuck pattern, 144 stitches x 900 rows.  (Yup, not a typo.)  Then I did a kind of twirly edging and ended up with about 2 yards of yarn left!!!

It's about 7 feet long by 24" wide.  Enough, I think, to wrap around shoulders.  If you want a little more specific directions, here goes. And, just about any yarn goes.

This one done on a Standard gauge machine but the idea could be adapted for any gauge machine.

Tension 7 (or whatever works with your yarn)  Start with waste yarn and knit a few rows to get going over 144 needles.

Ewrap cast on over these 144 needles with main yarn.  RC 000.  Knit 10 plain rows.  Set up machine for tuck using any tuck pattern built in or a punch card or hand manipulate if you are patient and persistent.  Nah, that's just crazy.  Knit to RC 890, turn off tuck, knit 10 rows plain and bind off using your favorite bind off.

EDGING:   Try it on a swatch of the same type of yarn to see if you need to skip some shawl stitches as you go around, especially on the long sides.  Skipping some prevents a ruffle.  Unless you want a ruffle, that is.

Begin at the far right of your needle bed.  With the wrong side facing you=== for tuck this would be the knit side==== starting in the middle of one side of the shawl, pick up and hang 3 edge stitches of the shawl with your 3 prong tool.  Don't just pick up a loop, but a little more to make it substantial.  Knit 6 rows.  No need for weights because the shawl weighs it down.  Pick up and hang 3 stitches to the left of those in work,  K6 rows.  *Pick up and hang  3 more stitches to the left of those in work, hang the far right 3 stitches onto the 3 stitches to the left of them.  (There will be 2 stitches on each of those 3 right needles.) 6 stitches in work now. Push emptied needles out of work each time.  Knit 6 rows.*   Repeat from * to *.  When you get to a corner, knit 8 rows rather than the 6  to get around the corner without a pucker.  At the end, bind off and join to the beginning stitches, leaving a 12" yarn tail.  Tidy up by sewing by hand with the tail of the main yarn.

Note that you'll be traveling down the bed, so you will most likely have to take off stitches and move them back to the right a few times.  ok, quite a few times.  I just use a double eyed needle to put the stitches on and move them.

This edging has lots of uses, baby blankets for one,  and looks ok from both sides.  It tames the edges so they don't curl.  Don't know where I got it or what it's called.

I steamed the shawl quite aggressively and it turned out pretty nice.  I'll be donating it to a local nursing home.  Red is cheerful, don't you think?

Thank you yarn angel Bonnie---your yarn will be put to good use!

Norwegian Sweaters

Here's a picture of some of the guild members who took my Norwegian sweater class.  Actually, another gal and I taught it together over a period of 3 months.  We systematically took one step at a time.   None of the class participants had knit fairisle before, much less a whole sweater.  I'm proud of them!!! They all did the same basic pattern with slight modifications.  All were done on the standard gauge machine.   Plans to knit more are in the works.

Machine Knit Norwegian Mitten Quest

Pretty as they are, I guess these have to be considered a test sample.  For my average women's hand, there are some adjustments that need to be made.  The cuff isn't long enough for my liking.  Should be 2-3 inches longer so they're more like a gauntlet.  The thumb is a couple stitches too wide and long.  And, the whole mitt is 1/2 inch too wide.  At least I got the techniques down pat that I want to use.  They actually aren't very easy to knit-- getting things back in pattern, for example, after the thumb is knit.  And, if you don't like seaming, these aren't for you.  I designed them in DAK, so making the changes is super simple.  Gotta give 'em a rest for a while, though, and try again some other time.  After knitting  6 or 7 (I lost track) thumbs before one turned out ok, my patience is worn thin.

Last night at the guild meeting there was a huge participation in the mitten/hat/scarf challenge.  There were some good ones and some interesting ones and some freakishly odd ones.  Getting a good looking mitten isn't so easy.  The freakishly odd ones gave us a good laugh.  Something we evidently needed while the wind howled outside and the temps were way below zero fahrenheit.  The guild members rose to the challenge and knit mittens for the Hennepin County Burn Center this month.  I think there were about 30 pairs to donate.  (They go on top of bandages so need to be extra roomy.)  Mary Ann, our charity chairperson, had a final total for 2013.  There were 1100+ items donated to local charities.  I believe that's a record for us and given this winter's personality, they'll be used.

It's actually above zero today AND the sun is shining, an unusual combination for us.  Woo Hoo.  Tomorrow it's back to the deep freeze.  More knitting on the way.

Have nearly reached my charity goal

I have less than 10 to go to reach my guild challenge. (Machine Knitting Guild of Minnesota)  That is, we're knitting the number of items that we are years old.  I have about 57 items---booties, baby sweaters, scarves and hats.  It tends to get a bit repetative, especially the hats.  Here are two variations of toppers I did yesterday.  Trying something new, be it ever so small and simple, helps keep the mojo going.  When I finish, I'll estimate yardage and update my "Yards knit this year".

The first is a pom pom that was demo'd on the knititnow site, a free video.  Thought I'd try it.

You use a hand knitting ball winder and wind about 1/2 inch onto it.  Slip the wound circle off and immediately tie one side of the circle together with more than one strand for strength. ( Leave a long end which you will use to attach the pom pom to the hat, bringing the ends in and tacking to the seam on the inside.) Cinch as tight as you can. Then cut the opposite side.   Fluff it up.   They used lambs wool and felted it a little.  Mine is plain old acrylic.  I thought it was a clever use of the ball winder, but mine came out really huge.   And uneven.  I did a considerable amount of trimming and double tying to make sure it was stable.  I'll probably go back to my old, low-tech, reliable method of using two cardboard circles with a hole in the middle.  This one reminds me of the huge pom poms that were popular back in the 60s and 70's.  Kinda cute.

The other top uses three tassels.  They cover up the top hole nicely if you are having difficulty getting it to close enough.  I was using thin yarn, so doubled it, ewrapped 6 needles, knit 50 rows at T 7.  Bound off.  Made 3.  Have been using this method lately because it looks as nice as an I cord but knits up twice as fast.  Whatever tension you use, it rolls onto itself nicely.  Then I made tassels for the ends, tied the three tassel ends together at the other end and inserted it into the hole at the top of the hat.  I made sure it was tacked down securely in the inside.  If you don't like or want tassels, another cute thing is to hide your yarn end up into the curl and tie a knot at the end.

I'm using two strands of thin yarn, one teal and one light green.  Looks like I planned the stripes, but they just did what they wanted to do as far as one or the other being on the public side.  What an easy way to get some patterning in it.

The pattern, if you are interested is this:  standard machine, T6 for cuff, T7 for rest of the hat. Two strands of thin yarn, one run through each eyelet of the yarn mast.  130, 140, or 150 stitches for baby, child, or adult.  Do a quick cast on with waste yarn and ravel cord.  With main yarn,  don't cast on but knit right over the ravel cord.  Knit twice the length you want for the cuff.  I did 60 rows.  Hang a hem and change the tension to the larger number.  Knit about 70-80 more rows. (I usually do 7 inches for baby, 8 for child and 9 for older child or adult.) CAR. Transfer two stitches over two spaces with a two prong transfer tool.  Put emptied needles out of work.  Knit two rows, take off on double eyed transfer tool with enough length to also sew the side seam. Once removed from the machine,  cinch the hole up as tight as you can.  Remove waste yarn. Seam up the side and add the topping.  I've done a lot of hats but this is the easiest, fastest and best looking of the bunch.  If the hat seems too long or slouchy, the cuff can be turned up for extra warmth around the ears.  Fortunately I don't have to fiddle with size too much because the charity matches sizes with the coats they give out. 

I like to knit up a few and then sit and watch FRINGE on Netflix to seam and finish them up.  It's my current addiction.  Weird and sci fy-ish.  Hope you can make some stuff for charity too.  Winter is inevitable and the need seems endless.

Free Machine Knit Charity Bear

Darn.  I was going to be a better blogger this year and a whole 5 weeks have gone by.  I knit a shawl for my sister-in-law for Christmas and of course forgot to photo it.  I did a simple triangle and used one of Diana Sullivan's Enchanted Edges.  Really pretty.  Lots and lots of rows, though.  And I made some of Kris Basta's doubled wool felted slippers on my bulky machine for my brother-in-law because he's always cold due to Parkinson's.  And, let's see...a 1 x 1 rib scarf for my son.  That's about it for home-made knitted presents.  I had too much to do to prepare for Christmas company.  Seems like ages ago now, but it was a wonderful time.  Keeping up with the little one was an adventure.

Our machine knitting guild knits for many different charities.  My favorite one is the MN Visiting Nurses.  They help new mothers who don't otherwise have a lot of resources.  I thought it would be nice for them to give each new mother a tiny teddy bear.  I was inspired by this one I saw on Ravelry.  Hand knit, easily converted to machine knit.  If you want to make some, directions follow.

I got my idea here: Simple Knit Bear The Knitting Way: A Guide to Spiritual Self-Discovery           

by Linda Skolnik and Janice MacDaniels

www.theknittingway.com

www.facebook.com/theknittingway

© 2012 Janice MacDaniels www.theknittingway.com/simpleknitbear.pdf (hand knitting version)

because everyone needs a little someone to love.

Machine: Any; Gauge: Any; Yarn: Any; Other materials: Fiber fill. How accommodating is that?! (I'll give my info as one example at the end.)

Directions: Body---Figure out with the yarn and machine you are using what stitches and rows would be needed to produce a rectangle that is about 6” wide and 8” long. Ewrap on and knit this rectangle. Transfer every other stitch to its neighbor and leave an 18” yarn tail. Take the stitches off on this piece of yarn. Cinch up the stitches---this will be the top of his head. If you can't get the stitches tight enough, sew back and forth to cover up the hole. Now with the same yarn, do a mattress stitch a little more than 1/3 down the length for the head. Generously stuff with fiber fill so the head is firm. Now take this same yarn and wind around twice to make a neck. (See picture on the left above.) Cinch it in and knot off. Don't cut yarn. Now finish mattress stitching the rest of the seam but don't close the bottom yet. Let the yarn dangle for later use. Ears: Hang stitches on the machine where one ear would be, knit a few rows and bind off. Leave a yarn tail of about 8”. Sew around the ear with a whip stitch and pull a little on the last stitch. The ear will curl to the front a little. Secure the end and run it down through the head to hide.  Hide the other yarn end in the interior. Repeat for other ear. Now stuff the body firmly with the fiberfill. Fold in the bottom about 3/8” and stitch closed with the rest of the yarn tail you abandoned using an invisible kind of seam. Make a belly button: Thread about 8” of yarn doubled onto your needle. Come up through the stuffing and make a French knot. When you go back through the knot, hide the yarn end in the stuffing and snip. Arms and legs: Use a separate piece of yarn to define the arms and legs. Use a back stitch and sew all the way through front to back. Hide yarn ends in the interior. Scarf: CO about 8-10 stitches, knit enough rows to go around the neck and tie a bow. The knitting will fold in on itself and be quicker to knit than an I cord. You can, of course, knit a fancier scarf or tie a pretty ribbon around his neck.

MY specifics: Standard Gauge machine, mystery cotton yarn I've used for dishcloths, T 3, Cast on 50 stitches, knit 100 rows. Ears, 6 stitches, 6 rows. Scarf, 8 stitches 150 rows. Recommend that you knit at a tighter tension than you might usually use for the yarn so that the fiber fill doesn't show through. You could decrease at the end of the ears and make it look like a cat rather than a bear. Optional: embroider face details. I think he's cute enough plain. You could use the purl side as the right side if you like it better. Mine's a little fatter than the example. I might need to work on the ears a little....  This was just bear #1. Many more to come.