Men's Garter Carriage Scarf

I was taking a break from knitting this morning and browsing through the patterns I have done to date. I found this nice scarf that I could offer as a free download for you. Unfortunately, you need to have DesignaKnit and a garter carriage to knit it. I suppose a really determined person could knit this by hand, but it sounds really taxing. I made it as a gift for a friend last Christmas shortly after I purchased my garter carriage. I love that turtle! Don't use it all the time, because I figure it has a limited number of stitches in its lifetime. Makes great patterns. You'll need the .pat file for DesignaKnit. Email me and I'll send you the DAK file.

Women's Circular Sweater

I've been stewing over my adult-sized circular sweater to knit on the midgauge. I think I have my lace figured out, bought some yarn I like and have done some swatching. I'm thinking I'll make one wedge 1/2 the total diameter of the sweater, plus some ease, plus enough to overlap in the front. It's different thinking "circularly".
Can't get enough of my blooming hibiscus. Trying my macro setting on my camera and am getting slightly better results. I think I'm focusing on the stamen, but the absolute clear focus seems to lie a little behind. Click on the picture and I think you'll see what I mean. Tricky! I love the pictures anyway, even if they aren't going to win any contest.
Hope you have a nice weekend.

Perfect Pom Poms

I was paging through Ravelry this morning (is "paging" the right word?) and came upon a beautifully knit Norwegian hat with a crummy pom pom. It occurred to me that I could post directions on how to make a good one. I hope my directions are clear. It really does make a perfect one. If you click on the picture, you'll get an enlarged view that you can print out.

We are supposed to get storms today, but so far it's sunny and warm. The more sophisticated the weather forecasting technology, the less accurate....
Like so many places, they say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute."

Working on a felted purse. Will reserve judgment for a bit and if it turns out I'll share.

Heavenly Hibiscus

My hibiscus has just started blooming. It's really spectacular and there are lots of blooms waiting back stage. Each blossom is 8-9" in diameter. It is supposed to be hardy in zone 4 (my zone), but I planted it in a really protected place on the west side of the house to give it a little edge. Wouldn't Georgia O'Keefe have loved this blossom? Almost makes you want to crawl inside.

Elegant Scarf

When I first learned how to use my lace carriage, I knit a few scarves using patterns that came already loaded onto my machine. This is not so much a pattern, but a guide to how to put the manual's instructions to work to create something beautiful and useful. Once you determine how much weight your machine likes, you can whip these up quickly. I used some lace weight wool and my standard gauge, but a a fine gauge machine with lace capabilities would work just as well.
Look through Stitchworld's lace patterns. Download and center your pattern on your machine. Decide how many repeats you want for the width of the scarf. Do your favorite cast on, knit a few plain rows. Begin lace pattern. When you knit the lace, Push back a few needles each side every row so that they knit plain. Knit to desired length. Knit 2 rows plain and bind off loosely. My edges curled even after blocking, so I did 2 rows of single crochet around the perimeter.

We had our knit club at Cindy's in Princeton, Minnesota today. I'm always impressed with the beautiful things the members knit. Some of the gals are so expert at finishing! The lesson today was how to use the Kidoodles cable to upload brother files to the computer for saving and archiving (for use with or without DAK). A great time saver. I love being with people who share the same addiction to machine knitting. I bought some cotton yarn to make dishcloths and maybe socks. It's a robust, bright red, my favorite color. More on the personal knitting tomorrow, I hope.

Circular MK Baby Sweater Done!

I have a reputation to uphold among my mk friends. I'm the one who doesn't "do" UFO's. It's a compulsion with me that once I start something,I have to finish it. Don't know if that's good or bad, but that's the facts, madam. So here she is, laid out on the floor. Had to finish it even though I'm not 110% happy with it. Learned a lot, though.
Wish I had a toddler to try it on. Supposedly if worn one way, it fits a baby (the extra length forms a hood) and turned the other way fits a toddler. If the sleeves were placed exactly in the middle, it would only fit one size. Regardless, I do think it needs a button closure in front. You can't see the cuff very well, but I tried to mimic the scalloped border and add some lace holes. Was not happy with the hole in the middle so added an I cord flower to cover things up a bit. So now that I have the concept, I can contemplate making an adult version. Haven't found the perfect yarn yet, so it may not be soon. Isn't it amazing what you can do on a manual midgauge machine? I love mine.

Another Free Machine Knitting Pattern

The yarn I used is kind of dated, but you can use the same technique with different yarn and get a nice result. You can knit this scarf on any gauge machine.