Snowy times

Due to flu/bronchitis/colds at our house, I've been awol from the blog and most other things too! We had a fairly substantial snow storm, guaranteeing a white Christmas. Here's the view out our front door:

What we see out the back:

And the back deck:




The pictures don't make it look as fierce as it is. When we knew the storm was coming, we stocked up on provisions. Basically we stayed inside for 5 days and had some good times together as a family.

Now that I'm pretty much back to health, I'll be knitting again. Here is wishing a Happy New Year to you. Hope there is lots of knitting for you in 2010!

Free Pattern for child's earflap hat on the midgauge

As you can see, I'm using up a cone of wool for my charity knitting. Here's another really easy midgauge pattern for you. Once again, I hope you donate to the cause of your choice.
Machine: LK 150, KX 350, or SR 860
Yarn: Lt worsted abt 3.5 ounces
Tension: 5 st x 7 rows at T 7
Sizes: child’s sm (med, lg)
Note: when making the ear flaps, don’t wrap the end needles. Unwrap those that wrap ---the yarn will be on top. You will make little holes that aid in folding the doubled flap so that it lies flat.



Directions:
Cast on over 71 (81,91) needles with waste yarn and knit a few rows. With main yarn T7 knit to RC 12 (14,16).
Make earflaps- Put 7(9,9) needles on right in holding position, next 17 (19,22) in working position and the rest in holding position. Cut yarn, set carriage for hold. Knit 2 rows. *put one stitch in holding position both sides, K2 rows*. As the flap starts to make a pouch, wt down with your hand or use claw wts and move them up every 2 rows. Continue from * to * until 3 st are left, K2rows. ^Put one stitch both sides back into work, K 2 rows.^ Continue from ^ to ^ until all ear flap st are back in work. Cut yarn, put carriage on other side and knit the other ear flap the same way.
Take machine off hold. Knit 12(14,16) rows on all Needles. Hang hem. T 10 knit one row to seal hem. RC 000. T 7 knit to RC 36 (40, 44). Decrease for top- transfer every other stitch to neighbor and put emptied N out of work. T 3 knit two rows. Take stitches off machine one by one, cinch up tight and sew side seam. Hide yarn tails.

I cord ties: with inside of flap facing you, hang 3 stitches from end of ear flap. Set machine to knit one way, slip the other. At T4, knit 64 rows. Bind off by putting outer stitches on center N, cut yarn leaving a 6” yarn tail to sew the tassel onto the tie, pull through. Make a tassel for the end and use the 6” yarn tail to attach it to the tie. Repeat for other tie.
Optional---pom pom or I cords for the top. If you pull the yarn tight, the hole closes enough that you don’t need anything. This is a very cute, fast and warm hat for charitable or gift giving. You can add a fairisle pattern or stripes if you wish
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Clothing for children in Nepal

Diana Sullivan, of the wonderful videos on you tube on machine knitting, http://diananatters.blogspot.com/ came upon this call for warm clothing for children of Nepal. It broke my heart seeing the two little boys huddled together trying to sleep in the cold. Our guild already does hats and mittens for the Salvation Army in Minnesota, so I'll continue to contribute to that, but I'd also like to give to this one. In the states there are lots of charitable organizations, but I'm not sure about resources in some of the poorer countries of the world. Here's the link to learn about it:
http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/11/please-help-knit-for-cold-children-in.html
The request is for all wool items. Would be a great way to use up bits of sock yarn.
Here's my first one that I knit last night:

I'm still getting accustomed to the Silver Reed 860 midgauge, so the hat is made on that machine. Simple pattern---cute and knits up in a jiffy:
Sport yarn, midgauge, T 6. Cast on with waste yarn over 74 N, knit a few rows. Begin with main yarn and knit 15 rows, one row T 8, 16 rows T 6. Hang hem and knit one row T 9 to seal. Return to T 6 and knit 45 rows. Decrease every other st across, knit 3 rows T3. Remove on tapestry needle, gather and sew side seam. Put a pom pom or I cord ties on top. Looks cute with the hem folded up or down. Would also be nice in stripes or a fairisle pattern.
Note that gauge is not so important because it should fit some child. I hope you consider contributing some too.

Marzipanknits!

Found this video on You Tube this morning. Since I use Marzipan as my moniker, I thought it appropriate to share this creative gal's crafty use of marzipan with you.

Free Machine Knitting Pattern

I recently purchased a Silver Reed 860 knitting machine with ribber and the Silver Link 4 to work with DAK. I've been knitting simple things just so I can get used to the machine and we can make friends. I've gone through the manual and tried almost all of the stitches. So far, my assessment is that it's more fiddly than the Brother machines, knits nice ribbing, the gauge has a nice hand knit look, the link to DAK is touchy, and good or bad I'm glad I bought it.

Thought I'd share a simple fingerless mitt pattern that I came up with. It knits up in short order. Might make a good gift for someone for Christmas. If you don't have a ribber and have to latch up the ribbing by hand it won't go quite as fast. One size fits most adult women. If you need a smaller size, you could tighten the tension. Left and right mitts are identical. I keep typing "mtits" instead of "mitts". Wonder what that is all about! Anyway, here's the pattern:


Machine: 6.5 or 7 mm midgauge. Ribber for bands or latch by hand
Yarn: Lion Brand worsted wt wool, Ocean Prints, 1 skein (2 1/4 ounce) 143 yards
Tension: 3.5 st x 5 r =1”
Directions:
Cuff--Cast on as per your manual over 34 needles. RC 000. Rib for 20 rows at T 7/7.
Hand--Change to main carriage if using a ribber. T 8 (knit 5 rows, increase one stitch both sides). Repeat from parenthesis one more time. Knit plain to RC 35.
Shape thumb opening: Carriage side bind off 5 st, K1 row 2 X.
Ewrap cast on 5 stitches at beginning of next 2 rows. Hang a claw wt on the ewrapped stitches. Knit to RC 44.
Change to ribber carriage, T 7/7 knit 6 rows. Knit one loose row at T 10/10 (or knit a loose row by hand). Transfer stitches from ribber to main bed. Chain cast off from right to left. Leave a 12” yarn tail for sewing up side seam.

Finishing: Make the purl side be the public side. Sew side seam leaving the opening for the thumb. Fold the cuffs down at the tops. If you start the yarn in the same spot for the second mitt, they should look the same. If you don't care, start anywhere!

Machine knit Minnesota StateFair entries

I just realized that I never posted my entries to the Minnesota State Fair in the machine knitting category. Not to brag or anything, but I entered 6 items, got 3 blue ribbons, 2 red and one white (3rd). Only spent about $200 on the yarn and won about $40 for the prizes. Um... I guess one doesn't enter for financial gain. Was some tough competition this year.

Here's my little gnome entered in the toy category. (Blue ribbon, yea!) I bought Alan Dart's Tomten pattern and converted it to machine knit and added my own Norwegian sweater to it. I've made two so far and thought I'd like to make more for Christmas to have sitting around. I kind of fell in love with him.
Reminds me of that children's story of the trolls under the bridge...clip clop...who's that walking over MY bridge? Is it a Scandinavian tale? I used to love hearing it over and over. Strange...
If I get ambitious, I'll post pictures of my other entries.

Machine Knit Lace

September is almost over and I've not posted to my blog once this month. Hopefully I'll reform here sooner or later. I have been knitting, but mostly trying out new things and doing swatches.

I decided that the lace patterns in the Stitchworld manual look a little different than when knitted in person. So, I'm making a notebook. Have just 4 done so far:


I'm working on a lace edged "shawlette" that will have about 4 inches of lace at the bottom. It needs a scalloped edge so I was looking for the most exaggerated scallop I could find. I won't be able to block it very much since the fiber content will be cotton, so I'm thinking the more scallopy the better. I guess I'm leaning toward the last swatch. It's a combination of normal lace and fine lace. In fine lace the stitches are transferred but there is no yarn-over type of hole left behind. That would be the straight stitch up the middle of the motif. Haven't done that before. I am not advanced enough in programming lace into the machine so I'm going with the patterns in Stitchworld II and III. I've learned that the lace holes pull up on the knitting and the stockinette stitches push downward. Some of the lace patterns make a straight edge, some have this natural wave. They're all pretty, though. It's hard to decide!!

The multi-colored swatch is the yarn I'll actually be using. It's pale green, but I plan to paint it with Dylon dye, as I did the swatch. Not sure of the colors I'll use, but something like this.

Some things I've learned about lace: 1) you can't program lace into the Brother 970 machine. You have to enter it as a fairisle pattern and then know when to run the knit carriage 2) If you enter a pattern into DAK and then from DAK to your machine, DAK can screw up things. Since DAK has been told it's a fairisle pattern, it flips it sideways. You have to flip it back to make it work. Your machine might be very unhappy knitting the pattern backwards. Found that out the hard way. 3) Even weight on the knitting is a must.

Mary Anne Oger figured out a way to use the ribber comb to weight her lace knitting evenly across. You cast on with waste yarn, every other needle, push the teeth of the ribber comb up between the stitches, push through the wire and let it drop. Hang the necessary weights, push the other stitches back into working position. Knit a few inches of waste yarn and then do a permanent cast on with the main yarn. It works like a charm. I haven't had dropped stitches since using her method. If you haven't already seen her blog, it's a great resource. Needles to say....

Once I decide on the lace pattern, it won't take long to knit my "shawlette". I've already charted out the shaping. More on my progress later...