Very Beginner Level Machine Knit Baby Ballet Sweater

I have two friends who are just starting out knitting on midgauge machines so I thought I'd post a baby sweater pattern that is an excellent learning pattern when just starting out.  It's not complicated and can be completed in short order, but the result is really cute. There are 4 sizes to the pattern. Since it goes so quickly, you can knit a bunch for charity and improve your skills as you go.

Baby Ballet Sweater on the Midgauge Machine by Mar Heck  Revised May, 2014

This is the perfect first baby sweater for a new machine knitter.  You don’t have to worry about ribbing on the bottom or cuffs.  You don’t have to learn how to short-row yet, which is usually how the neck is done.  You do learn a few basic tricks, like decreasing, hanging shoulders, picking up stitches and making I cords.  Hint---use waste yarn that is a totally different color than your main yarn so you can see what to pick up.

YARN:  Any yarn that knits to gauge below.  Size doesn’t matter too much if you are making this for charity.  If knitting for a present, you could knit one and determine if that’s the size you want and going from there, knit another since they go fast.  Use whatever yarn knits nice and easy on your machine.

Notes: 

·       You will do the bottom edges of the fronts, back and sleeves at a tighter tension on the tension dial for 4 rows than you do the body of the sweater so the roll hem is tighter.

·       Four I cord ties are attached to both sides to keep the sweater in place. 

·       Notice on the yellow sweater pictured at the end of the pattern, I did the front ties a couple of inches in for a chubbier baby, or just a different look. 

·       The sweater consists of 5 pieces plus four I cords.

·        You can skip the waste yarn and ravel cord to start each piece to save some time.  Ewrap on the required needles and every row for a few rows, pull all the needles to E position before you knit the row.  Remember to follow the pattern, though.  When you have enough knitting, you can hang some claw weights.  If you are not comfortable doing this, start with waste yarn and ravel cord.

FINISHED SIZES

  6 (12, 18, 24) months  Circle the number you need throughout the pattern.

GAUGE  5 st and 6 r = 1”  (20 st and 24 r = 4”) It’s a good idea to do a gauge swatch first to get the same gauge as the pattern.  If you have fewer stitches and rows to the inch, tighten your tension for the main pieces.  If you have too many stitches and rows to the inch, loosen your tension for the main pieces.

BACK
T3 Over 50(52, 56, 58) st cast on with waste yarn, knit a few rows, one row ravel cord.  E wrap with main yarn right on top of the ravel cord stitches.  RC 000, T 3, Knit 4 rows.  Change to T 6 (main tension).  RC000.  Knit to RC 60 (64,66,72).  Take off stitches in 3 parts.

First size:  17 shoulder st on WY, 16 neck bind off, 17 shoulder on WY

Second size:  18 shoulder on WY, 16 neck Bind off, 18 shoulder on WY

Third size: 19 shoulder on WY, 18 neck bind off, 19 shoulder on WY

Fourth size:  20 shoulder on WY, 18 neck bind off, 20 shoulder on WY

To take off in sections, put all but specified shoulder stitches/ needles on the right in hold, meaning all the way out towards you.  Set the carriage levers both sides to H (or consult your manual).  When you knit, only the first  stitches will knit and the carriage will slide over the others.  As you knit to the left, pull up on the yarn so that it doesn’t get caught under the carriage.  Knit 10 rows of waste yarn and remove these stitches by running the carriage with no yarn in it.  When done with the first shoulder, bind off the specified number of neck stitches with a back stitch bind off by hand (OR ANY BIND OFF YOU CHOOSE).   Remove these st from machine.  You’ll have hanging down the first shoulder on its waste yarn and the bound off neck stitches hanging down.  Now take your machine off hold so that the final section of stitches knit.  Knit 10 rows of waste yarn and one row with no yarn to remove from machine.

LEFT AND RIGHT FRONT AND NECK SHAPING—Do the decreases on one side for one front and on the other side for the other front.
T3 over 50 (52,56,58) st cast on with waste yarn, knit a few rows, one row ravel cord.  Ewrap with main yarn.  T 3 Knit 4 rows.  Change to T6 (main tension).RC 000.  Decrease for Neck shaping on one side of your knitting as follows: 

First size:

Example – On RC 3, decrease one stitch every two rows two times, meaning do the decrease on RC 3 and RC 5.  You can write in the in between row numbers if it helps keep track.

Second Size:

Third size:

Fourth size;

Do a full fashioned decrease this way:  Move 4^th stitch to 3^rd stitch so there are 2 st on that needle, then move the 3 stitches in toward the center with your 3 prong tool.  Put the empty N out of work.  This makes a dandy edge that doesn’t curl much.

                               

Take shoulder st off on waste yarn the same way you did the back shoulders. Knit the other front, decreasing on the opposite side.

SLEEVES
T 3, over 30 (32,36,40) sts Cast on with waste yarn, knit a few rows, one row ravel cord.  E wrap with main yarn. Knit 4 rows.  Change to T 6.  RC 000.

First size:  Increase one stitch both sides every 3 rows 8x (46st).  Knit to RC 30.

Second size:  Increase one stitch both sides every 3 rows 8x (48 st).  Knit to RC36.

Third size:  Increase one stitch both sides every 4 rows 7X (50 st).Knit to RC 40.

Fourth size:  Increase one stitch both sides every 5 rows 7x (54 st). Knit to RC 42.

To do full fashioned increase, move 3 st out one and pick up the purl bump at n to the center and hang on empty needle.

 When you reach the required number of rows, Take the sleeve off on a few rows of waste yarn without binding off.  (No need for ravel cord at the top.)

                                          

FINISHING
Seam shoulders-   With the right side of the sweater facing you, fold waste yarn so the purl bumps are easy to see.  Hang one back shoulder with right side facing you. Push to back of the bed. Hang matching front shoulder, wrong side facing you, into the hooks of the needles. Close the latches with your straight edge.  With a straight edge push front through back stitches in one fell swoop.  Check to make sure all stitches got pushed thru.   Carefully push all the N all the way out with a straight edge in one hand and push knitting to the back of the bed with the other hand.  With main yarn, main tension, knit one row from left to right.  Bind off.   Repeat for other shoulder.  Remove waste yarn at shoulders.

Sew Sleeves to body-  Hang side of body with right side facing you.  When you use a 3 prong tool, the stitches are spaced about right.  Shoulder seam at zero and 23 (24, 25, 27) stitches both sides of zero.  Hang one stitch in---in the same ditch all along so it looks perfect on the right side. Measure to make sure you have hung the same amount both sides.  Adjust if you need to.   Push to back of the bed, open the latches.  With the wrong side of the sleeve facing you, hang the 46(48, 50, 54) sleeve stitches in the hooks of the needles.  Close the latches.  Take a ruler or your long weight bar or your cast on comb and push these front stitches through the back stitches. (It needs to be at least as wide as your knitting.) Knit one row and bind off.  Remove the rest of the waste yarn

Seam sides and sleeves with a mattress stitch by hand.  Weave in yarn ends

TIES (4 of them) Pick up 3 stitches at the corners and side seams, one at a time.  Row counter to zero.  Do a 3 stitch I cord at T 3 for 100 rows or about 5-6 inches.   Bind off by putting the left  and right stitch on the center needle.  Cut the yarn at 3” and pull through the last stitch 2 X.  Hide yarn end into the I cord. Do the same on the other corner and each seam. 

I cord is short for “idiot cord”.  Some people call it a slip cord because the carriage slips over the stitches when going one direction.  To make, push 3 needles all the way out.  ewrap on those 3 needles.  All the others are out of work.  Put the lever on one side of the carriage to “Part”.  (Consult your manual.)  This means that when the carriage goes one way it knits and when it comes back the other way, it skips over the needles.   After a few rows, it starts to make a tube.  The needles go back to B position (working position) as you knit the first row.  Rather than weighting the I cord, you can hang on to the end with your left hand and run the carriage with your right hand.

Optional Embroidery – With yarn doubled, make a bunch of lazy daisy daisies down the fronts and on the sleeves.  Use a contrast color or same as main yarn.

Steam the sweater if you want. Careful so you don’t melt the acrylic.   The acrylic yarn should wash and dry nicely.

ABBREVIATIONS

WY  waste yarn

BO bind off

N  needle(s)

ST stitch(es)

CO cast on

RC row counter

T with number is the number to set the tension dial at.  EX: T6 is tension 6 on the dial

Dec  decrease

Incr  increase

H  holding position

This is a learning pattern for classes at the MKGM.  You can donate, gift or sell items made from this pattern, but please don’t claim the pattern as your own.  Thanks!

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.)