I have to say no to all my favorite things 'cause I'm almost 2

Cutest grandson, my humble opinion.  I think he was just tired....

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.

 

Machine knit scarf/shawl

I should be getting my tax info ready for the accountant....but I have to really be in the mood to do that stuff.  Maybe if I do a post, I'll get my head around it.  Bah.

I got this idea from Linda's blog:

http://myblueheavenknits.wordpress.com/free-patterns-page/projects-ruffled-swirl-scarf/

but I made some modifications to the pattern.  Used my late departed bulky machine, T10, and instead of the 22 stitches she used, I worked with 34 stitches to make more of a shawl.  It took two skeins of Joanne Fabrics' Sensations Boucle', the smaller skein which is 6 ounces, I think.  (or 9 ounces???)  Also, every 10 rows or so, I knit two extra plain rows.  It seemed to be going so slowly, I got impatient and I didn't really want it so ruffly.  I just kept on knitting until most of the yarn was gone and there was enough to bind off with.    Actually, instead of letting the ends just hang down as is pictured,  I usually tie it once and it stays on well.  It curls slightly and hugs the shoulders.

Sorry for the dumb, out of focus picture, but maybe you get the idea.   So easy!!!  Didn't steam it, let the edge roll slightly. I love the colors in this yarn and when it was so cold here, having this scarf/shawl around my shoulders really kept me toasty.

Certainly got enough of short rowing for the time being....

More Machine Knit Tiny Teds

You can check my previous blog post on how to make these cuties.  I seemed to get a little better at making them, i.e. better proportions,  as time went on.  Rather than knitting ears on the machine, I used the same technique to 'soft sculp' the ears by hand sewing the corners of the head.  If you know a charity that gives to little babies, this is a nice project.  After doing 12 of them, I had to move on, but maybe I'll make more later. (Check out the Feb. 8 blog post for directions.)

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 Charity Patterns

BABY CARDI--- Size 3-6 months
This is for a standard gauge machine, only one size (sorry), T 6 with 7st and 10 rows to the inch.  Before I started the pattern, did a hem for the body pieces.    I cast on with waste yarn the specified number of stitches, knit 12 rows T 5, one turning row of T 7, 12 rows T 6.  Hung a hem and knit one row at T 8.  Back to T 6 and RC 000.  Knit as instructed to the top and took the final st off on waste yarn.  For the sleeves, I did a hem with the same tensions but only 8 rows.  For the front bands I picked up one whole st with the back side facing me and did the same kind of hem with just 6 rows.  Same as the front plackets for neckline at the very end after pieces were seamed.  I did full fashioned decreases on all pieces to make seaming easier.   Still debating whether to have a button closure at the top.  The sleeves are long enough to fold over as a cuff and lower as the arms grow.  PS-- DAK (where I created the pattern) names things from the perspective of the wearer, but as you sew the pieces together you'll see how the tops of the sleeves slant to create a nice neckline.  By changing the tensions for the hems, I didn't have any problems with curling.  Don't like to steam acrylics too much.

    

                 

The yarn I used was Trenzado, I think.  It was a mystery yarn given out for free at a guild meeting.  If you'd like to try this pattern, you could use any yarn that knits close to the gauge.

The hats I did are super simple.  Ewrapped on 110 stitches T 4 knit 8 rows.  Increased one stitch both sides.  RC 000, T 6 knit 78 rows.  Tried something different for the tops which saved some time.  I tranferred two stitches over two needles.  (2 in work, 2 out of work) to decrease.  Then knit 2 rows still T6 and took off on a threaded double eyed needle to cinch in and sew up the seam.  Makes a nice top!  Then I knit a 4 needle I cord for 160 rows, T4, to make a bow for the top.  Hid the ends of the I cord up into the I cord.  Tied the I cord into a bow, tacked it down well and hid the sewing ends on the inside.

Our guild has a challenge to its members to knit as many charity items as is our age.  Have done this before and it IS quite a challenge.  (I'm 39, after all.)  I think I'm about half ways there.  Have about 8 months to go.