Easy Machine Knit Pillow Project

 Too much time on the computer, too many movies, and too much political stuff makes for an odd existence these days.  Can't seem to concentrate on anything too complicated, so I decided to use up some of my nice Brown Sheep wool and make some pillows for one of my couches.  I hadn't used too many of the built-in patterns on my 970, usually preferring to do my own thing. Can't erase them from the CB1 so why not give some of them a try?  So here goes my easy project:

The picture makes them look like they are different sizes.  They really are all the same.  It's the angle I took the picture from, I guess.  The 3 in the middle are from the 970 (maybe also other Brother models ?) and the 2 end ones were downloaded from an old DAK file I had.  I wanted to make them approximately 17" x 17" so at T 10 I cast on 120 stitches and knit 300 rows.  My gauge was 7 stitches and 9 rows to the inch. If you want to make some to your specifications, you'll want to figure out your gauge with the yarn you plan to use.  Close is probably good enough for this project.

 I also sewed a cotton fabric lining for each and used the lining to stuff  with the poly fiber fill.  Didn't want the filling to work its way out of the knitting.  After sewing the lining shut I folded the knitting over it and seamed the sides and bottom.  Couldn't be much easier.  Hope they won't ever need to be laundered in my lifetime...

Beautiful rib cast on

 

I’ve been using Susan Guagliumi’s nifty cast on for rib for my projects.  I love this cast on because it lies perfectly flat, no flare, but is still stretchy. Can’t believe I didn’t know or use this before. This would work with any machine that uses a ribber, but you will need to also consult your manual.

How to:   

*Use the manual’s cast on with waste yarn, insert rib comb, add barrel weights as needed for your project. Knit about 1”.  (Tension doesn’t matter so much here but I used a tighter tension because my waste yarn was thinner than my main yarn. )

*Change to circular and k the last 2 rows with ravel cord. 

*Snip waste yarn and ravel cord. (It’s ok if you forget to switch to ravel cord, but it’s harder to remove the waste yarn at the end if you don’t use ravel cord.)

* With main yarn, do the manual’s cast on again using the recommended tension and knit the number of rows you want for your rib.

*When you are ready, remove waste yarn and ravel cord.

Thanks to Susan for this easy – to – remember rib cast on.  So smart and beautiful.

 

 

Cute premie hat using dishcloth pattern

Just trying different things so I don't get totally bored.  This one turned out nice, I think.  I used the traditional dishcloth pattern, double high, on the main part of the hat.

After the hem (described below) I did two plain rows, the last to set up the tuck stitch.  It accidentally added a little decorative band.  Because tuck stitches are wider than tall I did 60 rows to get a decent height.  Can't judge the height while the piece is on the machine. 
This might look ok as an adult sized hat too.

That's the pattern in case you didn't know what I was talking about.

Fuzzy Feet Revisited

Wanted to make a specific size with different wool than I had used in the past on my LK 150 midgauge.  This exercise just reinforced the fact that felting/fulling is really unpredictable.  These are intended for my 8 year old grandson as a stocking stuffer.  Guessing the stitches and rows,  I did 50 stitches x 60 rows, every other needle. (I am counting the actual stitches, not total needles on the machine.)  On my bulky machine I could use every needle.  No go on the midgauge.  Since the midgauge didn't especially like this yarn or the fact that there were two strands (one wool and one fun fur) I kept the fun fur on the floor and hand fed it with the yarn in the mast, both going into the carriage together.  So far so good.  These take very little time to knit.  After aggressive felting in the washing machine, they turned out to be my size. Pretty large.

Back to the drawing board.  This time I used 25 stitches and 40 rows.  Wild guess.  8 rows each color: red, yellow, purple, green, royal blue.  Same method.  Yea! they turned out the right size for an 8 year old, about 9" long.  I bought some googly eyes and sewed them on, also adding a dot of permanent fabric glue to hold the eyes in place.  Don't know if the eyes themselves will withstand washing, but won't be a tragedy if they don't.  Non- threatening monster slippers!  The slippers are really soft and so cute!

Posting this so that you know--- if you make them--- the process might take a few tries.  Unfortunately once they are felted, you can't undo them.  But if they turn out a size you didn't intend, they should fit someone! Check out my previous post for more specific directions.

How to knit mk hats---- lightening fast

I posted this on Ravelry in the machine knitting group, but some people may not belong.  So I thought I'd repeat my post here hoping it will help someone. I should give credit to my friend, Bruce, who taught me this trick.
Some people have asked how I can make hats “in minutes” on my knitting machine. Here’s how.

1. For my charity hats, I used a midgauge which requires less stitches and rows than a standard. Sometimes I had to double the yarn. A bulky would even be faster.

1. The trick: Buy a metal rod that is the length of the width of your knitting machine. (Very cheap at hardware store.) Should be substantial in weight.

-Pull out every other needle for the width of the hat and knit one row main yarn. (no waste yarn)
- Hang your cast on comb BACKWARDS making sure each loop gets a tooth of the cast on comb.
-Pull out the rest of the needles so they will knit.
-Knit 2 times the length of the hem.
-Bring out every other needle all the way.
- Hang onto the cast on comb with your left hand pulling down slightly
-place the metal rod mid way, horizontally.
-Pull up the cast on comb up over the rod, hang loops so that each needle that is all the way out gets a loop. Takes some practice at first. Remove cast comb by tilting it so that the stitches land properly. If you miss some, use a single transfer tool to hang them.
-The rod is still in the hem and acts as an even weight throughout. Set the cast on comb aside.
-Knit the height of the hat and transfer every other stitch to its neighbor. Push out of work needles to out of work position so they do not knit but you don’t have to move the stitches inward.
-knit one row and take stitches off (I try to plan so the last row goes left to right because I am right handed) with a double eyed needle and enough of a yarn tail to sew the seam. Remove metal rod. It will start to fall down anyway. The stitches at the top cinch in just fine, especially if you are going to attach a pom pom which hides the opening. Seam the side.
The inside of the hem is not especially beautiful, but show me a kid who cares.
7 minutes knitting time! (Works with any machine) Sorry I don’t have pictures or a video. Hopefully my words are clear enough. Write to me if questions.  PS  I used the free pattern on my blog here and pictured below.

tools: watch, ignore...reply to thread

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.

COTTON CHILD'S HOODIE

  I just finished this cotton hoodie for my grandson's 7th birthday which is in October. I'm lucky enough to be able to fly to CA to help him celebrate.  Can't believe how fast these 7 years have flown by.  I almost wish he would not get any older, but I realize that's a bad wish.
  I've had some cones of Conshohocken cotton on hand for a long time.  It's nice yarn, but I knit a sweater for a nephew out of it  before and it shrank terribly.  So this time, I knit a giant rectangle, abused it as much as possible in the washer and dryer to pre-shrink it.  Because it's a cotton core with some other fiber wrapped around it, not plied, a lot of the cotton came off in the dryer. Was still nice though, soft and fluffy. No problems rewinding it.
  I used DAK to come up with a pattern for the midgauge LK 150.  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time judging what the sizes for kids are in DAK.  Have to find measurements for the typical American kid and try to match it up with DAK.  Nothing really matches but I think I got close to a size 8.  It's a tad big and he's a skinny kid, but he'll grow into it. Did a dropped shoulder in standard garment styling then took it into pattern drafting to make adjustments.  Made a hood, a placket for the front and changed the armhole shaping a la Elizabeth Zimmerman.
  The placket turned out really nice, although the picture doesn't do it justice. 

 
  Some take-aways you might get out of this are as follows.  First, I made the armhole shapings of the front and back larger. Instead of binding off 5 stitches, I bound off 9.  That's the Elizabeth Zimmerman thing as in her Tomten jacket, if you are familiar with that pattern.  This helps reduce the bulk in the underarm and shoulder. This 1 1/2 inches were then added to the sleeve length. 
  For the cord that goes through the front of the hood, I cast on 5 stitches and just knit the length to go around the face and enough to hang down each side.  I used to always knit an I cord, but this goes twice as fast and looks just as nice as an I cord because the edges automatically curl in on themselves.
  My hems are different than I usually do.  I started all pieces with waste yarn and started right in with the main yarn.  To make the hems, I crochet cast on over the number of needles in the piece minus a few stitches.  Then I pushed these stitches back and hung the bottom of the piece into the hooks of the needles, wrong side facing and doubling up as needed.  Using a straight edge (the mean cast on comb) I pushed the hung stitches through the crocheted ones.  You know they are through ok when you hear a little popping noise.  Knit the first half of the hem at garment tension.  Then I tightened the tension one whole number for the second half of the hem minus one row, hung the first hem stitches, hand knit one really loose row and did a loop through loop bind off.  The hem lies wonderfully flat and the crochet cast on makes a nice decorative line on the front of the garment.

  The other thing I did was make  a little vent on each side of the body.  It was easy in that I just stopped hemming when I got to the doubled hem and hand stitched the sides of the vent closed.

  I thought this sweater took longer than usual, but it was because I had a gazillion yarn ends to work in. 
  The pictures don't show details very well because of the design of the yarn, but the design of the yarn also hides any irregularities that might be present.  Irregularities ?  Me? no way.
  You know how lots of times your knitting doesn't come out exactly as you would have liked?  This time, which is actually rare for me, I had no "regrets" and wouldn't have done anything differently. 
  I also knit a saddle shoulder sweater for him as practice for a class another woman and I are teaching to my guild.  I couldn't bear to part with the swatch, so I made a doggie sweater out of it to match.  Once I take some pictures, I'll do another blog post.
Happy 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.

Bitten by the Gimp Bug

It's hard these days to figure out a gift for little kids that isn't plastic or something 80 million other kids have.  So, for Christmas, I converted some relatives' images to knit stitches and made pillows.  (They are sisters.)

I used Gimp (free download) and Designaknit to create the images.  I paid attention to the number of pixels for the width but forgot to calculate length for the Ruby pillow.  Geesh.  It turned out Ok, but it's one of those little regrets when all is said and done. Her dad says she's in love with it----slept with it for a week in her little tent----so I guess that's all that matters.


For info on how to use Gimp, I followed the instructions here:  http://wiki.evilmadscientist.com/Producing_a_stippled_image_with_Gimp  an excellent tutorial.
Then I used DAK's Graphic Studio to convert the picture to a knit design.  It's not too difficult, but I think I did mess around a bit to get the amount of shading that looked good.  I did fairisle because it's so fast and the floats are hidden inside the pillow.  The back of the pillow is just plain stockinette in the darker color, then seamed on 3 sides.   Once steamed lightly the stitches stay in place.  I'm sure if you like double bed jacquard, that would work just as nicely. Also, there are other programs that work for this, not just DAK.  Ravelry and Facebook have a lot of examples.


Kind of fun, pretty easy.  You might want to give it a try.

The Dreaded Static

Recently I've had a couple of inquiries concerning what to do about the awful static that can attack our machines this time of year.  I know I've listed some remedies before, but it bears repeating. 


I usually do contract this dreaded static disease  right about now when my furnace is going full blast and the house is dry.  I have to employ most of the tactics listed below---- all at the same time---- to get it under control.  My craft room is carpeted so I think that makes the situation worse.


1.  Buy a humidifier and keep it running in your craft room.
2.  Put 2-3 small magnets (mine are disks about 1" in diameter) on the mast.  Keep them attached with a clothes pin if necessary.  I contacted Sean at Knit and Sew World to make sure this wouldn't negatively affect the electronics and he said it was a safe thing to do because the mast is far enough away from the electronic part of the machine,
3.  Oil the machine bed, needles, rail and underside of the carriage with a fine layer using a paint brush.  Not too much, tho.
4.  Put your yarn in the freezer overnight.  If you can plan ahead, that is.
5.  If you still have some Lori Lyn yarn spray, use that.  If not, Distinctive Knits has a new brand to purchase to help eliminate static and make the yarn slide through more smoothly.  I spray the cone several times during a project.
6.  There is a commercial anti static spray you can purchase.  I can't remember the name now.  Spray your yarn (if you don't have the stuff in #5)  and spray a cloth to wipe over the needle bed. Or use dryer sheets.
7.  Purchase an anti-static mat  (try an office supply place), cut it up so the yarn can sit on one piece and you can put your feet on the other.
9.  Lather up your hands with lotion every 15 minutes of knitting.
10.  Try  copper grounding wire.  I bought some, but I didn't notice it helping.  Could have had it attached wrong.  Maybe you or someone who understands what is happening could help.
11.  LIGHTLY mist the floor with a spray bottle mixture of one part fabric softener or hair conditioner to 20 parts water.  Shake well.
12.  Purchase and wear one of those anti static bracelets used by computer repair people.


This is all I can come up with right now.  Hopefully some of these tips will help you.  I know how frustrating it can be.  First you can't believe it's happening, could my machine be broken????,  then it gets worse, everything comes to a halt and then you search for answers.  If you have some suggestions that worked for you and I haven't mentioned, please let me know.

Machine Knit Flower Hats

My friend, Bonnie, sent me two pictures of hats she has made with the flower top technique (I guess you would call it that.)  The purple one follows the pattern.

  And here's what she has to say about the pink one:

I was going to make another one of your Flower hats the other day and ended up turning it into this hat. I knit up to where I make the eyelets for the cord, knitted the extra rows after the eyelets and started to make my curly things. Pulled all the needles into hold except for 4 of them and I was having an awful time. I was not using the best yarn and it kept getting caught on the needles in hold. Fooled around with it for a while and decided to give up but hated to give up on the hat as I had gotten that far with it. Guess I am cheap and hate to throw out yarn. So I just knitted several more rows (next time I think I would knit a few more) and then bound it off. Sewed up the side of my hat, ran a cord through the eyelets and just gathered it up. I think it is kind of cute so I thought I would share it with you. Cute hat that knits up fast.

I like the pink one too and it would be much faster than the petals.  One tip about the petals:  as you knit each one, hold it down with one finger while you run the carriage with the other hand.  That way it stays out of the way and won't get hung up on the gate pegs or get snagged.

We are experiencing an early winter here in Minnesota.  A lot of groaning going on about it.  Only 6 months to go before we have warmth again....  I guess it's great for knitting anyway.  Oh, and if you missed the instructions on how to knit the flower top, they are here:  http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2014/11/machine-knit-flower-hats.html

Using DAK placing a single motif on the front of a sweater

I'm designing a sweater for my grandson with his favorite (English) cartoon character on the front.  (Peppa Pig)  It's been a while since I've worked with single motifs, so I had to review the process.  It's not very intuitive, so I'm keeping the steps in a DAK Tips and Techniques file on my computer for next time.

1.  Design your motif and your sweater first.  On your motif, make sure your background color (right mouse button) is the color you'll use on the sweater background. Also, make sure your motif includes only the height and width of the motif and check that it is the right number of stitches and rows to fit comfortably onto the front of the sweater.  Baby and children's sweaters can be small so the right motif is important.  Go Options...tensions to put in your swatch information.

2.  In Stitch Designer, go File...new pattern set-up.  Choose the pattern and choose either back or front.  It's probably just my program, but if I chose front first then the pattern, it would flip to back.  IF I chose the pattern first then the side of the sweater, it stayed where I wanted it. 

3.  On the next screen, Tensions and notes, fill in what you want. 

4.  A blank screen appears with the background color you specified and the number of stitches and rows needed.  Go Edit...Import a single motif.   Choose the motif.

5.  If you click the 4th icon from the right on the top bar, you will get a cut out and it's easier to see what your piece will look like.  Left click, hold and drag the motif to the location you want.  Save.

6.  You can either knit the piece interactively with the motif integrated OR you can print the garment notation pattern out to follow.  Then download the motif to your machine positioning it where you want it.  Set your machine for fairisle.  The machine will take care of the design and you will just need to follow the garment notation chart.

There will be long floats because I just want the outline, so I think I'll purchase some of that iron on stuff that stretches a little to enclose the floats.  Let's hope he doesn't change his mind about who's the best character before I get this knit.  If you're interested in Peppa, you can swipe a picture from this website    http://www.peppapig.com/  There are coloring book pages that convert nicely to DAK stitch patterns.  I think it's ok as long as you don't sell items made with those images but knit them as gifts.  Maybe  I'll do George instead:

Shortcuts to Machine Knit Charity Hats

I'm on a roll, trying to get as many charity hats done before the September 23 deadline when we have to turn them in for the Salvation Army. (IT'S SEPTEMBER ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!) I came up with a couple of time savers.  You might benefit by them too if you do a lot of charity knitting.  I don't think they compromise the looks, so they are working out great for me.  Here they are (nothing earth-shaking, just tiny tips):

Pardon the pictures........hat is squished under the lid of the scanner and the yarn is softer than it looks........................................

1.  I made some cast on rags a few years ago and never used them.  Now I am and although they don't save too much time, they save on waste yarn. Just don't forget to use one row of ravel cord or crochet thread before you knit the main yarn or it's curtains for the cast on rag.  You'd have to cut it out.  Add some claw weights.

2.  When you get to the top of the hat and are ready to decrease, with a one-prong tool, put 3 stitches on one needle across the work. Keep the out- of- work needles at the back of the bed so they don't knit and knit two rows.  Then take off with your seaming thread.  Cinch up tight and seam.  It closes up nicely and if it doesn't look perfect, add a little something to the top, like the gender neutral knotted cord.

 

3.  The gender neutral knotted cord doesn't have to be knit as an I cord.  Just pull 3-4 needles to work, ewrap on, at tension 2 knit abt 100 rows (for the midgauge), hanging on with one hand as you run the carriage with the other,  and bind off.  Sew the two yarn ends into the tube that naturally forms, knot both ends, knot the middle and tack on securely. This is twice as fast as the regular I cord because every row knits.

4.  Make the hat adjustable for size and age by knitting a large cuff that can either be folded up or down.  This adds extra warmth around the ears.  The cuff is stretchy enough to accommodate about a 2 inch increase in head circumference. The length of the hat also helps in adapting to different sized heads.  Slouchy at first, more fitted later.

If you don't want the cuff so thick, knit 15 rows T5,  15 rows T6, hang a hem and knit the rest of the hat at T 7. Compensate by adding a few inches to the main part of the hat.

 

Here's the pattern I've been using of late:

YARN  Pound of Love Baby Yarn -generously gifted to me by my good friend Sandy--so far 4 hats with enough for 2 or 3 more out of this one skein.

MACHINE: any midgauge, no ribber required

GAUGE: 4.5 st and 7 rows = 1 inch at Tension 7

FINISHED SIZE:  3-6 months 15  inches circumference/8 inches height (12 months 16 inches circumference/8 1/2 inches height, 18 months 17 inches circumference/9 inches height)

Directions

Start with waste yarn or cast on rag with one row of ravel cord over 78 (80, 82) needles.  With main yarn (no cast on, just knit)  Tension 5, knit 30 rows, Tension 6 knit 30 rows.  Hang a hem.  Change to Tension 7 and knit 40 (44, 46)  rows.  Decrease for the top.  Transfer using the 3 prong tool and move three stitches over two needles. Knit 2 rows, take off on long piece of yarn, cinch and seam with a mattress stitch. Remove waste yarn or cast on rag.    Hide yarn ends, add embellishment cord to the top.

These have been taking me about 15 minutes to knit, 15 minutes to assemble.  Try one and see if you like it. 

 

PS----How to make a cast on rag-- any machine.  At the left side of the bed, ewrap cast on 2 inches worth of stitches.  Hang a claw weight.  Knit 2 rows.   *Decrease one stitch on the left by transferring the left most needle to the second needle, pull a needle out on the right to increase one, knit 2 rows.* Repeat.   Make as long as you like.  If you want one that accommodates the whole bed, you might have to remove the rag from the right side and place it on the left and keep going.  By just pulling out a needle to increase, you get a loop that you can hang when using it.  At the end, bind off.  Steam/ kill the strip so it lies flat and is floppy.

To Wrap, or not to wrap. That is the question

I have been doing some charity knitting lately, mostly ear flap hats.  When I make them on the standard gauge machine, I don't wrap the edges of the ear flap because it goes more quickly and the holes are small.  They look ok.  But when I tried this on the midgauge machine, I got a totally different look.  It's not objectionable, could be called a design feature, but wrapping the edges gives a smooth look.  Compare these below:

I used my free pattern---- check out the right side of the blog and scroll down.  Thought I'd give another option in case you are using that pattern.

Dryer Spheroids...er balls

First, let me say that this is certainly not my original idea.  Lots of my friends make, use and love them.  What are they, you ask?  They are balls made out of wool, felted and used in the clothes dryer.  They beat up your clothes a bit so you don't have to use chemical fabric softeners.  And, for people who don't do well with the perfume in fabric softeners, they are a great substitute.  Claims have been made that they reduce the drying time, thereby saving energy and money. They also take care of static.  They probably last for years.  Any color wool will do.

One of the machine knitting guilds in Minnesota makes them and sells two at a time in a nice mesh bag to earn money to buy yarn for charity projects.  Nifty idea.

How to make:  you will find slightly different versions on the internet.  Here's how I did mine.  I used 100%  wool throughout.  First I wound a ball by hand, about 3-4 inches in diameter.  They shrink quite a bit when felted.  I  tacked down the yarn around the ball so that it wouldn't come unraveled in the wash.  The bottom ball shows how I hand sewed/tacked down the yarn.  (Not a very good picture, but you get the idea.)   I then wrapped the ball with wool roving, poking it into the ball with a needle felting needle in a few places.  Lots of people put the ball in an old nylon stocking and tie the ends for felting.  I tried that, and the roving grabbed onto the nylon as tight as can be. The roving and the nylon became one! It took a week, a little at a time pulling, coaxing, ripping the nylon off, inch by inch.  Lots of the roving came along with the nylon.  No fun!

So for the next ones, I was trying to come up with a solution to this issue.  I had purchased a bag of apples and they came in a nylon-ish, slippery, holey, woven bag.  Voila!  I used that, one dryer ball to the bag with lots of room around it and tied the ends before throwing into the washing machine for felting.  Worked like a charm.  No sticking.  So, that little hint will save you hours of frustration.  

You might want to felt your balls a few times so that they are sort of heavy, tight and dense.  (In case you were wondering, I don't think acrylic centers would work at all, nor would super wash wool.)  The ball pictured at the top will go through a few more washings before I use it regularly in the dryer.  Use them, 2 or more at a time,  with each load and see if they don't work well for you.  Maybe do your laundry when you don't need peace and quiet in the house because there will be some banging around in the dryer.

Why did I call them "spheroids"?  I can hardly believe this, but Blogger wouldn't upload the picture of the  "dryer balls" but would upload the  same picture re-named "dryer spheroids".   Hmmmm.......

Tame those curling edges!

I got this idea from my friend, Sandy, who is a fantastic knitter and is very creative as well as practical.  You can see her web page at http://slisen.blogspot.com/

I'm on my second to the last charity item for the year and decided to knit one of Charlene Schafer's tuck baby blankets.  All turned out well except the edges curled more than I liked.  Enter Sandy's fix.  She folds and bastes the edges together with a contrasting color yarn.  Then she puts the blanket in the washing machine for a fairly gentle cycle and also in the dryer for a bit (not drying the blanket all the way.)  She lets the blanket air dry the rest of the way with the basting still in place.  Voila', the edges behave.  She says if you have some really stubborn edges, she refolds the opposite direction, bastes and repeats the wash/dry process.

Here are my before and after pics.  I guess I should have taken a pic of the curling edges, not just the edges basted.

 When dry:

  Worked like a charm.  Next time you have that problem with the curling edges, try Sandy's trick. It only takes about 10 minutes more to do the basting.

PS She said she usually does a running stitch as close to the edge as possible (rather than the kind of basting I did), but it appears that it doesn't matter when all is said and done.

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.

Ruffles on the Knitting Machine

Slisen's post today  has the pattern for her adorable baby blanket with tuck hearts and a ruffled edge:  http://slisen.blogspot.com/
It's especially sweet in that pale yellow color.  Sandy hand pulled her needles to make the ruffles, a really labor intensive prospect. Sandy's pattern was published years ago in Knitwords----can't remember which issue right now.  Whomever received that blanket should know what a labor of love that was!!!

Since the theme for the contest this year at Purls of Joy (April, Princeton, MN) is "ruffles", I thought I'd post a little about a more automatic method of making ruffles.  You can try this method for doing ruffles on the machine that takes about 1/4 the time as hand pulling needles. 

These directions are for Brother electronic machines and use the part buttons to have the machine not knit the short side of the ruffle.  You could adapt it for a punchcard machine and if you speak different machine languages, you could probably convert it to a different machine.

The pattern is 24 st x 26 rows.  Copy the ruffle pattern and use whatever means you use to get the pattern to your machine (DAK, PPD, inputting the pattern by hand, etc.) The horizontal stitches knit and the vertical ones don't. 

Position the pattern at L7 to R 7. Cast on with waste yarn and K a few R over N L7 to R7 at desired tension.

E wrap cast on over these N left to right with MC right over the waste yarn and K 3 R. 

CAL, turn on machine to row zero, KC II, knit to the right outside the turn mark. Push in both part buttons and K to desired length. This will be hundreds of rows for a baby blanket. This is one time you can measure the length of the ruffle while it's on the machine.  Do a few extra rows so that you don't come up short and if doing a baby blanket, add rows to turn the corners.  

 Weight the ruffle slightly with your left hand while running the carriage with the right hand. (Saves time not having to move up the weights.)

When desired length is reached, bind off with latch tool on one of the plain rows. Run in yarn ends. Purl side can be the right side. The ruffle will look a little wild and out of control if you don't do any of the suggestions below.

Before felting:

After felting:  

If you are felting this ruffle, there is no need to do anything to your edge. It forms its own edge when felted.

If you are not felting the ruffle, you can wrap extra yarn, one or two strands, around the outer edge every other row. Or, you can crochet around the long edge until it behaves itself. (Pretty tedious and time consuming.) 

Another option--- on the long edge, transfer the second stitch in to the stitch to the right of it and transfer the original 4^th stitch to the 3^rd every other row . It makes a lacy edge and helps to minimize the curl. 

The vertical holes are noticeable on this yellow example.  They are a result of not wrapping the yarn before turning around and knitting the other way.  If you don't like them, wrap the yarn on the end needle before knitting back to the right.

If the whole ruffle is way too ruffly, change the pattern to knit more plain rows before repeating the pattern.

Maybe you can think of other ways of taming the beast.  Ruffles are kind of fun...if you don't get too much of them.  And, they do add a lot to baby clothes.

 

Cheat Sheets for Silver Reed Knitting machines

I mentioned on Ravelry that I had had a tough time memorizing the Silver Reed settings.  I am a dyed in the wool Brother lover, and the Silver Reed seemed pretty foreign to me.   So I bought a 3" x 5" card stock spiral notebook to write down in simple terms what the steps were for the most used settings.  This way I didn't have to keep thumbing through the manual.  Feel free to use these however you wish.  Right click, copy and paste into an image processing program (like PAINT, for PC users).  Hope it helps you out.  (If hard to read, click on the image and it should enlarge.)

Machine Knit Tubes!

This may be the goofiest post to date, but thought I'd share anyway.  If you don't have the same laundry set-up that I do, the first part of the post may be of no use to you at all.

Here's the deal.  When I had my washing machine and dryer set up, the plumber advised me to buy these metal mesh tubes that attach to the hose that expells the water from the washing machine.  The purpose of these metal tubes is to catch all the lint so it doesn't go down the drain.  Our house is 80 feet to the main sewer and we are always afraid of tree roots, etc., and don't want to wake the sleeping giants.  So I dutifully bought these deals.  They are almost $3 for 2 at Home Depot.  I found I was going through lots of them, like every two weeks or so and throwing them out.  So I switched to panty hose and knee-high hose, of which I had a plentiful supply from my working days.  I cut off the foot plus about 6-8 inches and hooked them onto the rubber hose, attaching them with a tightly wound rubber band.  I felt pretty self-righteous to be using these up rather than tossing them.  (ISH!  Panty hose.)  Anyway, they are now all gone.

So, having also a humungous stash of cotton, I decided to knit these tubes using a circular setting.  On the Brother, push in the left part button on the main carriage and the right lever up.  I don't know what the settings are for other machines, but your manual would tell you. I used a loose tension even though the yarn was thin, just so I'd get a meshy look to them.  Start having the end closed with FNR, then switch to circular to make the tube.  They are about 8" in total length, leaving a little to slip over the tube and secure with the rubber band. And about 7" in circumference.   I suppose you could knit an I cord to run in and out of the tube top for a tie, but as soon as the idea hit my head, it left.  Too much work.

I got on a roll and knit several of them.  They actually last a bit longer than the metal ones because they are a little longer.

Now for another use for the tubes.  Our guild knits hats, mitts and scarves for the Salvation Army.  I like to use up yarn and make Gap-like, multicolored scarves.  It's nice to knit them tubular so that you don't have any seaming to do.  But those ends when you use different colors--whew, they are time consuming to work in.  As long as you have to work in the ends, how about making them decorative?  Make them wide enough for a warm scarf, of course.   When you change colors, leave about 6-8 inches of both colors and alternate where you start the next color.  When done knitting the scarf, bind off in your usual way.  Then take a crochet hook and from the right side make v's by pulling up chains.  Like this:

 I copied the stitches from DAK, but DAK doesn't do sideways stitches, so I attempted to draw them in in the Paint program.  Hopefully you get the idea from my terrible drawing.  You probably want to do this to just one layer/ side of the scarf, then when the chains are done, knot the last one.  With the needle, push the end into the center of the scarf.  Pull up a bit, then snip so the end slips back into the center.  It's just another idea if you need a change of pace.  I seem to not do well with repetitiveness in my knitting, so I like to come up with something different.

Happy knitting!