Hats and Blankets

Nearly a month since I last wrote and  time seems to be rushing past faster each day.  Guess I should consider myself lucky to never be lacking for something to do.


Still concentrating on the machine knitting.  Right after my last post, I made another hat using the techniques I learned in my Newton's class -- this time an adult-sized one.   My friend Corrinne was a good sport and modeled it for me.


Saturday Spinners met at my house a couple of weekends ago, and I could kick myself for not taking pictures.  Members shared their finished projects and works in progress.  At one point my dining room table was covered with wonderful fibery creations and I was so in awe of everyone's work that I didn't think to grab my phone and start snapping.

While moving the 360K knitting machine that weekend, I dropped the yarn mast and one of the tension knobs shattered.  And of course it was a holiday weekend.  I had planned to spend most of my free day practicing more on fair isle technique.  Didn't even occur to me to get out the MK-70 until just now.  Dagnabit!

Following weekend I had my third machine knitting class at Newton's Yarn Country.  Fortunately, they had the parts to repair my yarn mast and I was back in business.  Third lesson was a car-seat sized baby blanket.  Techniques included a weaving cast-on, using ravel cord, fair isle, hanging a hem, and tuck stitch. I learned to finish the sides with a scalloped looking trim that you make by hanging the three end stitches on needles, knitting six rows, then hanging the next three stitches and knitting six rows, until you have covered the length of the piece.

I was a complete disaster in class that day.  I kept leaving out important steps (such as switching the levers on the carriage when changing techniques or adding the contrast yarn when starting the fair isle rows).  Lost track of how many times I had to start over.  But by the end of class, I had completed everything but one side of the trim.  And I have to say that as frustrating as my mistakes were, I still enjoyed the class.  It's very liberating when you give yourself permission to make mistakes.

Finished the blanket the very next day and here it is:

Proceeded to start another blanket using the full width of the machine the very same day.  Found out the hard way that I didn't have a single ravel cord long enough.  Faked it (which in hindsight turned out not to work but I didn't know at the time).  Got all set up for the first fair isle row and forgot to add the contrast yarn.  Again.    The pattern I chose had only one contrast stitch in the first row, so I thought perhaps I could pick up the dropped stitches and proceed.  Wrong!  The more I tried, the more stitches I dropped, until I just had to give up.  But the good news is that if I had been able to proceed, I would have invested a lot more work and a lot more yarn in the project only to find out at the end that there was a gap between the two pieces of ravel cord I used and I would have had waste yarn stuck in one hem.  Found someone selling ravel cord on ebay and ordered myself a bunch of it. 

A friend asked me if she could pay me to make another car-seat sized blanket for her niece.  Absolutely made my day.   I will love making another this weekend but I'm not going to charge her for it.  Having her admire it enough to want one is payment enough.

Last night's TriCommunity class was a treat.  I'm still spinning the same  "Potluck Roving" from Ferndale Fiber in "Stormy Sea" that I started last April when Bunny Watson joined my spinning wheel family.  The same fiber I have been spinning at every class and every guild meeting with just a short break for the Tour de Fleece.


I'm down to just one or two yards of roving left.  At Saturday Spinners we announced our resolutions for the new year - mine is to finish spinning this and actually make something with it.   I may actually be able to keep this resolution.

A few weeks ago, some fellow Inland Empire Handweavers Guild members and I ordered 1-foot square pieces of carding cloth through the Spinsters on Ravelry.  They're a Puget-Sound based group that put together a large order from Howard Brush for a DIY blending board project.  They generously allowed others to participate.  The carding cloth arrived last week, and last night my friend and teacher Gail surprised me with my finished blending board!  She had some beautiful wood cabinet doors left over from a remodeling project, and cut them down to size.  The wood has been nicely refinished, and Gail added a handle, making the board easy to carry.  She even added a dowel for rolling the finished rolags off the board.  Now to get Michelle at Textile Sanity to make us some blending board covers.

Then dear Kathleen arrived and presented me with two of her late aunt's machine knitting books:




Hand Manipulated Stitches for Machine Knitters.

I mentioned this book a few months ago, when I borrowed a copy.  And have been lusting after it ever since.  This book has a really clear explanation about how knitting machines work, various tools you might need, and the basics of casting on and binding off before it gets into the more exotic and decorative stitches. After taking a few lessons, I'm getting more from the second reading of this lovely book.





The Harmony Guide to Machine Knitting Stitches.

Includes a very well-illustrated explanation of machine stitch basics, cast-on and cast-off, increasing, decreasing, and finishing techniques, then explains how to use the included patterns to make punch cards, graphs, or hand-manipulate individual needles.  Topics include Fairisle, Motifs, Tuck Stitch, Tuck Lace, Slip Stitch, Weaving, Cable Panels, Cable Patterns, Lace (using two different types of transfer carriage), and Fancy Lace.  So now I get to try punching my own cards (a moose on page 18 and a hedgehog on page 19 are calling to me), and I have a bunch of patterns to choose from now when my lessons get to the laces and cables.