More MK Premie hats done with skinny yarn

I think I am up to 40 now.  They really do go fast and it's a nice project to seam while watching a movie.

These are done with a built-in pattern in the Brother 970, #47.  Any pattern will do.  I just like the Nordic look of this one.  The white cuffed one is 8" in circumference and 4" in height with the cuff turned up. The blue cuffed one is 9.5" in circumference and 5" including cuff in height with the cuff not turned up,  Funny how switching the main and contrast yarns give such a different look.  I'm really not too interested in the sizes because the nurses will figure out who fits which one.  Feel free to add or subtract stitches and rows.

A few years ago I purchased several cones of really skinny yarn.  I think I thought I was going to use it for double bed jacquard.  Sadly learning that technique is still on my bucket list.  So the size of the yarn is why the gauge is what it is.  These are done on a standard gauge machine.

Directions- in case you have some really skinny yarn too. For the blue main yarn version.

 Gauge 8 stitches and 10 rows = 1 inch on the patterned portion, not including cuff.

1.  Cast on 72 stitches with waste yarn every other needle by knitting one row.  Hang the cast on comb and some claw weights.

2.  Pull the other needles to work and knit about 5 more rows of waste yarn. (I like to use a loose tension for the waste yarn and for the first row of main yarn so that the stitches are easy to see and pick up.)

 3. Change to main yarn, Knit one row at a loose tension then change to tension 3 , knit as many rows as you want for half the cuff.  I did 14.  Change to Tension 5 and knit 14 rows.

4.  Remove the comb and  weights.  Hang the hem.  Put some claw weights on again.

6.  Set up the fairisle pattern.  Knit 40 rows at Tension 7 and cut a 12" yarn tail.

7.  Take the stitches off on this yarn tail.  Cinch up the stitches.  If you think the hole is too large, sew across a few times north- south and east- west.  Then mattress stitch the seam.

  I didn't put any pom pom or bow on the top of these.  I thought they looked fine as is.

Remove the waste yarn and you're done.  Aren't they cute?  Somehow little tiny knit things make you smile.

Notes:  By drastically changing tension on the hem and also the main part of the hat you have a nice hem that lays flat,  I don't reduce the number of stitches on the last row to save time.  It looks ok to me.  If you want, you could decrease the stitches across.  Although I like wool yarn, acrylic seems a better choice for laundering and softness.

Here is the stitch pattern.It would work with a 24 st punch card as well,

Are you a machine embroiderer?

I always say, you could be embroidering for 100 years with free machine embroidery designs downloaded from the internet.  Some freebies are better than others, of course.  Can't stop collecting them.  And I confess I purchase more than I probably should.  It is an addictive hobby like collecting yarn. 😊

This is one of the cutest freebies.  You can download it here:

https://omlembroidery.com/product-category/ith-in-the-hoop-bookmarks/

This husband and wife team also do Youtube videos teaching digitizing and giving instructions on how to stitch their projects.

I did this bookmark for my grandson.  Putting together a bunch of little things for his Easter basket.  Not in the directions, but I stuck in some stiffener (left over stabilizer) on both front  and back between fabric layers  to give it some body.  This is the back side:

My only complaint is that sometimes the satin stitching isn't wide enough and you have to get dangerously close to the stitches when you trim the fabric.  But, should I complain about a free design?  Probably not.  If you have an embroidery machine, give this site a try.  Gotta think of things to keep oneself busy inside these days!

Twisted Headbands for Babies

With this self-imposed quarantine, I have been getting a lot of sewing and knitting done.  I do wonder what people who have no hobbies are doing to keep themselves occupied.  I confess I also have watched a ton of movies and Youtube tutorials.
Since I am doing baby things for charity this year, I wanted to do some twisted headbands.  Cute or what!

These are all 1 x 1 rib on the standard gauge machine.  I started small (30 st x 70 rows) and for the succeeding ones added a few stitches and rows each time.  This is really skinny yarn, so I had to use T 4/3.   The smallest is 9" in circumference and the largest is 12" in circumference.  Probably premie to newborn.  They are nice and stretchy.

(The scanner let in some light on the left side---no variation in color in real life.)

These go sooooooooo fast.  I made these 4 in about an hour and then sewed the ends together while watching MONK.  (Must have not been aware of the series when it first came out on tv.)  I get a kick out of that actor.  He does a great job.  Wonder how many people can relate on some level.  I think we all have our oddities.

Anyway, if you do some charity knitting, I recommend doing these twisted headbands.  Very cute on babies.

Twisted Headband

I don't think I look that great in headbands, but I just had to try this one.  Check out Itmakesyousmile on Ravelry.  She has good directions and some examples.  I used my Brother 970 standard with ribber, but you could design your own==stockinette, tuck, fairisle, slip, etc.  I just didn't want to bother with a seam up the back.
Here's the skinny on the one I made:
(I made the smaller one, but next will make the larger.)

It knits up really fast and a little longer to twist and seam.  But, not too bad.  (That's a scan.  Looks much nicer in person, of course.)  If you have trouble with the twist, there are videos on Youtube.

Dog Peace

I guess I couldn't bear to throw away my "swatch" (my 200+ row failure from when I knit a scarf for a friend).  I'm usually a thrower, but this was too large to toss.  Had to come up with something, so Ollie is getting another sweater.
View from the top:

I tried to unravel back to a row I could work with but it was too frustrating.  The dark color didn't help any.  So I took it to my sewing machine and sewed two rows across, trying to stay on the same knitted row.  I cut off some extra and almost got it perfect, but this is a dog garment, right???  I just picked up stitches below the sewing machine stitches and knit a fold over neckband.  Then I knit an underpanel.
This is a view from the side.

You can't really see it, but there are holes for his front legs.
The floats in this design are pretty long, so I used some iron-on interfacing.  I wouldn't say I did such a great job cutting it, but it will be hidden on the inside.  It's a dog garment, right???

At least now his claws won't catch on the floats.
I think I'm done making dog clothes for a good long while now.  Especially since spring and warmer temps are right around the corner.

A friend said his doggie friends are going to be jealous of all his new clothes.  Made me chuckle!

Peace from Dale of Norway

A few years ago I downloaded this gorgeous pattern, free from Dale of Norway.

 I haven't yet knit the sweater, but I used the stitch designs to make a warm scarf.  I wore it to a club meeting and one of the gals asked if I would make it for her dad.  He's Norwegian American and proud of his heritage.  So, since I already had the scarf pattern in DAK, it was pretty easy to knit.  I confess I had a mishap about 200 rows in and had to start over.  No problem, really.  I didn't unravel the piece, which I now call my "swatch".  I will try to turn it into a dog sweater for my daughter's little mutt.

Anyway, I am totally in love with this design.  You too can get it here:  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/334-01-peace-jubileumsgenser
You will have to convert it to DAK or I will be willing to email you what I have. (It's a DAK file so you need the program.)

By request, I knit it with acrylic.  Here are some pictures:
This is the back which was originally the design up the sleeves.

This is the front

Because on our knitting machines one can't knit fairisle in the round, the scarf is knit flat then seamed up the back.  Takes some time, but I don't mind watching a movie and hand stitching.  Isn't the pattern yummy?  Took me about 3 hrs to knit (mainly because I had to start over) and 2 hrs to sew up.  Imagine how long it would take to knit by hand!

Sweater Vest for Preemies

I am in search of a project for charity for 2020.  I like to do multiples of the same pattern to make life easy on myself.  Last year it was hats, and I’m over that for a while, even though they were super fast.  This little vest took me an hour to knit and about a half hour to sew all together.  I’m hoping I get faster at it.

Came upon this pattern on the Long Buckby Machine Knitters website a while ago and thought it was such a good idea.  I do want to give credit since this is such an innovative idea.  Seems useful.  The body warmer/vest is for low birth weight babies or those with lines in their arms in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital.  Having no sleeves, the vest wouldn’t interfere with the medical intervention.

Of course, like most machine (and maybe hand) knitters, I had to change the pattern a bit. Specifically, I decreased more stitches at the shoulders. Also I didn’t add anything decorative to the body since I wanted this to be speedy.  This is my first draft of the revised pattern, the one I used to knit the vest in the picture.  I am contemplating making the armholes shorter/smaller, but maybe is ok the way it is since the baby would have a sleeper under it.

Machine- standard gauge

Yarn- basically any that works with your machine.  Size isn’t so critical, it will turn out to be a mini size.  Although wool would be warm, acrylic is probably the best choice for easy laundering.  Only takes a few ounces.

Gauge- At tension 7, I got about 7 stitches and 9 rows to the inch on the stockinette, resulting in the vest being about 6 inches wide after the bottom rib and about 6 inches long.  Notice I’m a tad vague here.  J

You will also need 3 small buttons and sewing thread

DIRECTIONS

This is knit in one piece up to the armholes.

RC 000  1 x 1 Rib over 83 stitches, end stitches on the main bed.  After cast on change to T 2/2, knit 10 rows for the rib,  then transfer stitches to the main bed. Attach main carriage. Increase one stitch to 84 stitches.  If you don’t have a ribber, you could do mock rib or a hung hem. Just a word about hung hems on such a small garment, though.  Tried it, even drastically changing the underside of the hem to be tighter---it tends to flip up.  You are certainly welcome to try other hems, though.

Body knit to RC 36.

Armhole and Shoulder  (Be sure to pass the carriage far enough to register the rows. ) Put machine on hold.  Put all stitches in hold except for the 17 stitches on the right end of the machine.  Very furthest stitches on the right end up to be the center of the vest.  Use a full fashioned decrease.  On RC 37 decrease one stitch on left and one stitch on the right.  Knit 2 rows.  RC  39  decrease one stitch on left and one stitch on the right.  Knit 2 rows.  Decrease one stitch on the right only now every 2 rows until you have 10 stitches left.  Knit to RC 64.  Take these stitches off on several rows of waste yarn.

Other armhole and shoulder:  Since your stitches and machine are in hold you can scoot your carriage to the other side of the bed with no dropping of stitches. Repeat what you did on the first shoulder, reversing the shaping.  Take these 10 stitches also off on several rows of waste yarn.

Back Turn the row counter back to 36.  Take the machine off hold.  Knit one row.  Bind off 8 stitches at the beginning of  each of the next 2 rows. Now you have 34 stitches for the back.

Knit plain to RC 64. Put machine on hold, stitches to hold except for the far right 10 stitches.  Take these stitches off on several rows of waste yarn.

Carriage to the other side of the bed.  Put 10 stitches in work and take these stitches off on several rows of waste yarn.

Bind off around the gate pegs these back neck stitches with main yarn.

Join the shoulders  With the right (stockinette ) side facing you, fold back the waste yarn of the shoulder so you can see the purl bumps.  Hang the 10 shoulder stitches, needles all the way out and stitches pushed back.  Fold garment so wrong side is facing you, with the matching shoulder, hang the 10 shoulder stitches in the hooks of the needles.  Close the latches and with a straight edge push the stitches in the hooks through the back stitches.  Use the latch tool to bind off around the gate pegs.  Repeat for the other shoulder.

Button band Do a 1 x 1 rib over 9 needles (5 on main bed and 4 on the ribber).  After the cast on, change to T 2/2 RC 000 and knit 4 rows.  (Super easy buttonhole) *Make a buttonhole by transferring the middle stitch on the main bed to an adjacent stitch on the ribber.  Leave the main bed needle in work.  Knit 12 rows.* Repeat two more times for 3 buttonholes total.  (Row 4, 16, and 28)  Knit to RC 140. Do a loop through loop bind off so the end looks sorta like the beginning.  To do this, transfer the rib stitches to the main bed.  Knit the last row right to left at T 6.  Pull the second stitch through the first across the bed using the larch tool. Fasten off the last loop.

BTW,  I purchased a rib comb that accommodates 60 stitches and it’s ideal for small ribs like this of only 9 stitches. Much lighter weight than the regular ribber comb. Well worth it.  Otherwise you have to use a big clunky ribber comb that came with your ribber, or devise some other method of holding down the stitches.

If you are making this without a ribber you could hang the front stitches all the way around.  Remember to add 3 button holes.

Finishing Sorry there are so many ends to work in.  Will see if I can minimize this.  Remove waste yarn at the shoulders. Find the middle of the rib strip  and the middle of the back neck. Depending on which side you put the buttonholes, you can indicate boy or girl, but this seems unimportant to me.   Pin the mid points together so the band sits evenly.  Mattress stitch the rib to the vest.   Work in the yarn ends.  Sew on 3 small buttons with sewing thread.

I didn’t steam this, but you could. It is recommended to wash without perfume in the detergent or dryer sheets. Put in a sandwich bag to keep clean when donating. 

Thanks to the Long Buckby machine knitters for inspiring me!  Let me know if you give this a try and any modifications you did.