Mar’s Spherical Dryer Helpers Revisited

    I have seen quite a few patterns for hand knitted dryer balls and didn’t find myself attracted to any of them---mostly because they are knit on double pointed needles. They start with just a few stitches and increase every other or every row to get to the middle of the ball. That’s one thing the knitting machine doesn’t do easily.  We can knit in the round with the ribber, but sharp, even increases to get a round ball would be difficult, if not impossible. Decreases yes, increases so fast, no.

When one of the gals in my guild did a program on felted knits, she showed some dryer balls she had made.  She wound a ball of wool yarn and then needle felted some roving on to it.  She felted them in the washing machine inside a nylon stocking.  I tried that and had to spend days pulling off little pieces of nylon and lost most of the roving.  I evidently missed a trick somewhere.  (Ball on the left.)  Then I tried just rolling a wool ball and hand sewing down in 7 million places so it wouldn’t unravel.  (Ball in the middle.)  It works but doesn’t look so elegant and you can see the individual threads.  Then I came up with the ball and jacket idea.  (Ball on the right.)  It fills the bill, as far as I’m concerned .

 So, why make these things anyway ????   Some reasons:   The balls bounce around in your dryer and pound the clothes taking out wrinkles and static.  (No more expensive dryer sheets.)  They also reduce the drying time significantly.  I usually use 4 at a time.  The only downside I can think of is that they are noisy. 

Here’s my recipe.  A ball and a jacket.  Done from middle to end, twice, because decreasing every couple of rows is easy.

Standard ( Midgauge, bulky)

100% Wool yarn that works with your machine.  No superwash.

1.     Wrap a ball of wool yarn to the size you want. Color shouldn’t matter.   Mine are about 4 inches in diameter.  Set aside.

2.    Cast on over 46 (40, 34) needles with waste yarn.  Knit 6 rows. Loosest possible tension throughout.

3.    Knit with main yarn 10 (8, 6) rows. (Don’t do a permanent cast on, just knit)

4.    Remove on waste yarn and rehang main yarn doubling up stitches across leaving no empty needles, knit 2 rows.  Repeat this step until you have 6-8 stitches left.  (or use your garter bar if you have one.)

5.    Take stitches off on a 10” yarn tail with your double eyed transfer tool.  Don’t cinch up yet.

6.    Turn around the knitting and pick up the main yarn stitches at the center of the ball, all the way across with purl side facing you.  Remove waste yarn now or later.  Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5.

7.    Slip your ball into your unfinished jacket to see if it’s the right size.  Add a little, remove a little until the ball sits snugly into its jacket.  Because the "jacket" will shrink, it's better to leave a tad of shrinking room.  Now you can cinch up the ends and use one of the yarn tails to seam the ball shut.  Hide the yarn tail from the other end into the ball after you cinch up that end.

8.     Throw into the wash a time or two until the stitches are obliterated and any dye that wants to run has run its course.  (Your yarn may not run at all.)  Then into the dryer for many happy tumbles.

I made mine on the LK 150 midgauge with Mary Lou’s Schuss Plus.  The white didn’t felt as nicely as the colored yarn.  The colored yarn did not run in the wash or the dryer. I admit I had to try a few different combinations of stitches and rows to get a nice round jacket for the ball. (Forget the math!  I wouldn’t know where to start.) So, if you’re using a standard or a bulky, you may have to do a little experimenting too.  

 I’m guessing at the correct number of stitches and rows to get a nice ball for the other two machines.  These go so fast once you get the right ratio---they would make nice little stocking stuffers for the people in your life who do the laundry. 

  OH, and by the way.  Don’t be tempted to use acrylic for the ball.  The gizmo just won’t work very well.

*********************************************************** Curious and curiouser----- once again, Blogger wouldn't save my post unless I omitted the word "balls" in the title.  

 

 

Machine Knitting Abbreviations

Two people recently asked what the machine knit abbreviations mean.  Typically they are listed in most machine knit patterns, but I usually forget to add them to mine.  Here is a list of the most common ones used for almost all machine brands.  (Passap has its own.)   Hope it helps.

Using DAK to print graph paper

Perhaps you seasoned DAK users realized this a long time ago, but it just dawned on me.  I wanted to create my own lace patterns to use with my new-ish LK150---hand manipulated lace, of course.  There are some really nice projects on Ravelry in the Mid-gauge Machine Knitters group.  I'm especially inspired by hookmeup's lace.  http://www.ravelry.com/people/HookMeUp   Check out his projects.

Anyway, you can use a free program on the internet for creating knitter's graph paper, or use an Excel spreadsheet too.  This is just another easy way.

I tried using a basic graph and typing in the symbols typically used in hand knitting lace patterns.  Probably due to my ignorance, I couldn't get the symbols to print dark enough.  So I decided plain graph paper would work fine and I would draw in my own symbols by hand.  

Here's how to get some nice graph paper;

1.  Open Stitch Designer.  

2.  Accept the 40 st x 40 row default or add/subtract stitches and rows to suit your purpose.

3.  Use the paint bucket to dump white into the work space.

4.  Under Options, change your tension to 4 stitches and 5 rows to the inch so that the grid is large.  You may be able to control the size of the grid by just adjusting in the print options (#6 below) regardless of the tension your file is set at.  Haven't tried it.

5.  File...print.  Save as graphpaper  in a place you can find it again.  I have a misc file for that purpose.

6.  You have some options--- before actually printing--- under Available Formats.  Choose stitch pattern picture,  under page setup choose portrait for vertical lace and landscape for horizontal repeats.  Choose 100% or larger.  You can choose which way the rows and stitches are numbered.  I asked for darker color demarcation, but it didn't seem to make a difference when I printed it out different ways.

7.  DAK may use several pages to print out what you have specified.  I chose the one that made the most sense for the design I planned to do and printed out only that page. (The one starting in the lower right corner for stitches and rows made the most sense to me.) Fianally, click Print.  If you don't get exactly what you want, fiddle around with the settings.

Hope this helps someone.  I'm going to a knit-in in Princeton on Saturday and wanted a chart for a project I want to try.  If it turns out, I'll report.

Machine Knit Pocket Doll

Still fooling around.....................

 

Pocket Doll Directions  Another fun machine knit toy to make.  Nice to accompany a baby gift or give to charity. 

Any machine, any yarn---Tension to match yarn

Directions

Body  Main yarn, cast on so that you have 6 inches in width.  Knit 5 inches.  Change to skin color of choice.  Knit 1 ½ inches.  Bind off.  No need to shape the top of the head.

Arms – Cast on 2 inches worth in width.  Leave a yarn tail.  Knit 2 inches.  Take off with a large-eyed needle and cinch in for the hand end. Seam up the arm and stuff it.  Wrap yarn around to make hand.  

Hat  -  Ewrap cast on with main or contrasting color the number of stitches in the head plus 4 stitches.  Knit  1 ½ inches.  Decrease by half across, rehang on every needle, knit 2 rows.  Continue decreasing until you have about 5- 6 stitches left.  K for 1” more, bind off.  Tie a knot in the top of the hat.  Seam hat.  Seam the head, stuff the head then hand sew hat to head just under the roll.  Neck- hand sew in and out of stitches where head meets body.  Cinch in for neck and knot.  Stuff the body and seam up back and bottom.  Seam around arms as you attach to the body.  Leave arms sticking out or secure to the belly.  Embroider two tiny eyes with dark yarn going sideways over just one stitch each eye..   Hide all yarn ends inside body.  Dip a q-tip in some blush and make cheeks.

Good beginner project ===  fast, easy, learn how to use your gauge, easy to modify.

Machine Knit Lutin

Sometimes I like to just fool around on my knitting machines with no big goal in mind.  I found this little guy on Ravelry and converted it to a machine knit toy.  I thought it was as cute as a bug's ear.  With no embroidery on the face and no stuffing except for the head, he looks vintage to me.  I tweaked the original pattern a little, especially the extremities because I found it really hard to tie the knots with the fabric doubled.  Otherwise all credit goes to Phildar.

I tried taking pictures of him without a flash and consequently, got weird folds and dark shadows.  He's  really a nice clean baby blue.  Honest!

I built the schematic in DesignaKnit and sometimes the program puts the even numbers on the left and the odd numbers on the right----opposite to where you want your carriage to be.  So, I suggest you ignore one side and just do the same on the other side since the sides are a mirror image. I knit him on a standard gauge machine but you could do your math and redo the pattern to fit a midgauge or bulky.  Lutin is knit in 3 pieces.  Two identical bodies and one hat. He measures about 10" tall and 8" wide.  Good for an extra baby gift, charity or yourself (no diaper changing involved.)

I hope you can read my directions----Blogger reduced the size a little.  If you click on the diagram you will get a slightly larger picture.  Then you can right click and save the image to your Paint program (or any other image processing program.)  It should enlarge a little and be easier to read.

April Fools

Methinks Mother Nature is playing jokes on us.  Supposed to be spring, right?  Tell that to the skies over Minnesota  A look out my front door:

It's times like this that I am so glad to have a hobby (machine knitting) where I can stay in, stay warm and stay occupied. 

Hope it's warmer where you live.  In contrast, here's my little guy at the ocean:

Love the little wet butt.

2002 Winter Olympics Salt Lake City Dale of Norway Sweater

I finally finished my nephew's Salt Lake City Dale of Norway cardigan.  I purchased the hand knitting pattern, scanned the graph into DAK and changed it into a stitch pattern.   I modified it to fit on my Brother 970 machine and changed the colors to just black and white, as requested.  I used Schuss Plus worsted wool, which was a real workout on the standard machine.  It made a wonderfully sturdy fabric, though, and will be like a jacket for him.  For the first time, I used a full needle rib for the buttonhole and button plackets and was really pleased with how much body they had compared to the 1x1 ribbing.  Don't know why I hadn't done that before.

Whew, am I glad to get that sweater done.  From request to completion was about 3 years.  Knitting time about 2 weeks.  He promised a picture of himself wearing it, but that is yet to be forthcoming.  I think it will be a while before I knit another one.  Too much concentration and too much work!  I think over the years I have knit 32 of these Norwegian sweaters for family members.    But anyway, with that promise fulfilled, I can move on to other things.