Time Flies When You're Knitting

Happy St. Distaff's Day!

Can't believe a over a month has gone by without posting.  It certainly isn't because I haven't been having fibery fun.

There have been some excellent distractions.   Beautiful sunsets like this one...

that have left me standing on the porch with mouth agape just staring at the beautiful colors on several occasions.

And some irresistible cuteness...



This is my little Tallulah who is humiliated on a regular basis by being made to don costumes when we're making cards for all the major holidays (and a few minor ones).  And by having to wear a zebra-striped jacket on cold days.  Egregious use of dog picture, but but I can rationalize it by admitting that I'm saving her hair trimmings to spin. She's 2 1/2 years old and I already have at least half an ounce of her hair. (!)

And last, but not least, getting to spend quality time with extended family and friends over the holidays.  Who would not appreciate having their photos in my blog, so I will abstain.

I still found time to work on some projects.  In early December, I took my first machine knitting class at Newton's Yarn Country.  The Studio 360K I received from a friend was all cleaned with a new sponge bar, and worked like a charm.  The project for the first class was a small scarf -- techniques learned include e-wrap cast-on, fair isle knitting using the 24-stitch punch cards, back-stitch cast-off, and mattress stitch seams.  The scarf fabric came off the loom all rolled up a tube, then we steamed it (relatively) flat.  I'm in the process of stitching the two long edges together using mattress stitch, but the purple color is so dark it's a struggle to see what I'm doing.  So finishing the seam and adding the fringe is on hold until I get myself under a good lamp with a magnifying glass.

If you look closely, you can see a couple of flaws in the pattern knitting, but since this was more for the training than for the finished object, I didn't go back and correct them.  Somewhere I read that an artist should always include at least one small error in his art to prove his humility to God.  I've decided to be grateful that I probably won't ever be in a position to lack humility.

But right after the lesson I went home feeling a little too full of myself and ready to create a larger, more complex scarf.  Wrong!  I succeeded in setting up the machine properly and that's about it.  I could not do anything right.  Kept dropping stitches, forgetting to change a setting and not getting the pattern where I wanted it, getting yarns caught on the stand, carriage jams, you name it.  After about the third time I confidently "knitted" across a row and had the entire project come off the machine, I told myself to step away from the machine and put it away until after Christmas.

Next time I got out the machine, it was a different experience.  I got out the instruction book and  followed it in excruciating detail.  I think a lot of the problem I had earlier was because I was just a little too excited about what I had learned and I was forgetting to flip a lever here, check my tension there.  Things new knitters simply have to make routine.  I practiced the easy stuff first -  casting on, plain knitting, changing yarn colors... 

This is just a simple striped scarf in my school colors -- it knitted up easily and very fast -- a matter of under an hour even with all the color changes.  Will probably take me longer to stitch the back seam and do fringe than the knitting took.

Then I switched to Fair Isle.  By following the instructions one step at a time, I did get this scarf fabric finished.  I don't much like the pattern - something about the solid red parts are just visually disturbing to me.  But the knitting still had some major errors -- a few spots where the white yarn got picked up in the knitting where it didn't belong, and one big spot where I dropped stitches without realizing it and had to darn by hand later.  

You can see in this photo how obvious the error is, and a little bit of my clumsy darning.  By the time I was learning to knit and sew, darning was already a lost art, so I completely bluffed my way through this one.

And in the photo below, you can see how long some of the floats were  - on some patterns the floats can be nearly the width of the whole fabric, so learning to control these is important.

I tried a couple more Fair Isle patterns - thought this one would be really fun for my greatnieces -- but ran into the problem with misplaced stitches.  Frustrated, I set aside the Fair Isle until I could show the problems to my teachers at Newton's.  I learned in my second lesson that if I pull the first stitch on each row forward, it helps to keep the yarn that should be floating from getting into the pattern by accident.  I also learned that I need to pay more attention to keeping my weights closer to the top of the knitting.  

I needed to do something totally different.   I've been intrigued by the mesh yarn used to make ruffly scarves and wanted to play with some.  Since I couldn't visualize how to hand-knit this, I decided to try it on the knitting machine.  After a few false starts, I cast on 20 stitches, and ran a row of the mesh across every six rows. 

It took a bit of getting used to looping the mesh over the needles.  If you don't maintain tension on it, the loops just pop right off the needles.  I ended up pulling down on the mesh with one hand while moving the needles out and hooking the mesh over them with the other.  It helps to be ambidextrous when you have to switch directions every other row.

This is what the scarf looks like on the "front" between rows of the novelty yarn.  Since the mesh ranges from a very pale shade to a dark one, I figured a mid-range would be suitable.  You can't even see it through the mesh.  One thing I didn't count on, but should have, is that the scarf would have a solid back. 

Here's what the back looks like.  Although I like the extra weight the yarn gives the scarf, this is going to look junky if it flips over.  So I'm going to stitch the edges together to make a tube completely surrounded by the mesh.

I have another skein of the mesh, and think next time I will try a much loose tension.  Would like the scarf to be a little less weighty and would also like it to be a bit longer than the first one.  


  

Had my second lesson last Saturday, and it was SO much fun.  First, we talked about my "issues" and Helen gave me some really good pointers for dealing with them.  Since then, knock wood, the only problems I'm having happen when I get careless and don't check my settings.  In the second lesson, I learned a weaving cast-on technique, and learned to decrease rows by moving stitches from one needle to the next and taking the unused needles out of action.  Got a little more practice with the Fair Isle technique, and didn't have a single problem with it. Huzzah!  At the end of the lesson, I had a completely finished little infant's cap.  This technique would actually make wonderful caps for chemo patients -- because of the way it's folded and the seam is mattress-stitched, there is no edge inside to irritate tender skin.  I'd like to get some really soft yarns to make more of these.


































My Studio MK-70 was all repaired, cleaned, and ready to come home.  It is such a cool looking machine, I'm not sure I would care if it didn't knit worth a darn.  But it does.  Although I'm taking my lessons on the Studio 360K and plan on sticking with it until I'm comfortable with all its bells and whistles, I couldn't resist trying out the MK-70.  This one also is capable of Fair Isle, but the cards are 18-stitch, so cannot be interchanged with the 360K cards.  I have just the five cards that came with the machine, one of which is not intended for Fair Isle knitting.  Here are the four patterns I do have:

Three geometrics...  I like the top one, am so-so about the middle, and really dislike the bottom one.  And one that looks like heart-shaped flowers.  Sorry - my photo is a bit blurred -- but I really like this pattern. 

I 'd really like to find more18-stitch pattern cards or at least some  blank cards to someday make my own.  You'd think that the dozens of 24-stitch cards I have would keep me busy with the 360K, but the MK-70 can knit with a bulkier yarn and I would like to have the versatility.

But for now, MK-70 is back in her box, waiting patiently while I attempt to master the 360K.  This month I'm concentrating on switching from Fair Isle to plain stitching and trying to get a handle on visualizing how the pattern on a card will look knitted up.  I've already had a couple of surprises.  And this is becoming so much fun!  

An Embarrassment of Riches

When I told my friend Kathleen that I had bought a knitting machine a few weeks ago, she asked if I would like a machine she had recently inherited from her aunt.  Would I?  Of course!  Only thing I like more than a new piece of equipment is one that has been used and treasured by someone else.


In the intervening time, the one machine has grown to two machines of different gauges.  Do I want both?  Of course?  Two treasures are even better than one!

So last night, dear Kathleen brought the machines to class and we transferred them to my car.  But wait!  Not just two machines, but also a cardboard box of punch cards, a tub of tools, and a box containing a mystery wood tool (called a Needle Easel, which I later figure out has nothing to do with machine knitting).

(Side note:  I have the TV tuned to "How It's Made" and they have just finished sorting sardines by size and are stuffing them into cans.  Disgusting!  Please excuse me while I change the channel.)

Had to take a sick day for a minor but inconvenient complaint, so I have been getting to know the machines and all the goodies Kathleen gave me, and wondering what I did to deserve such a generous friend.  These knitters are way above and beyond my little LK-150 and have gadgets that naturally appeal to the geek in me.  And I feel so honored to be entrusted with something that belonged to her aunt.  I just hope I can learn the skills needed to really make good use of these machines.

My Dining Room Table Covered With Wonderful Things!

As of this morning, I now have two favorite knitting machines -- for different reasons.  The first is a Studio 360K.  This is a standard gauge machine (4.5 mm) and it takes 24 stitch punch cards.  It also has a built-in knit radar accessory that allows you to feed  a  pattern (looks like a scaled-down version of a sewing pattern) into the machine, and tells you when to increase or decrease stitches to match the shape of the pattern.

Studio 360K

My other new favorite (and probably most favorite) is a Studio MK-70.  It's a mid-gauge (6 mm) machine, slightly smaller in gauge than the LK-150, which is 6.5 mm.  So now I feel entirely justified in having three knitting machines.  It also takes 18 stitch punch cards.  And the form factor is the coolest -- at first glance you would assume it's a portable sewing machine.






Then you take the lid off the case and see that it has two "wings" that fold down to make the needle bed.  Here it is with the sides still up.  In the center, a plastic case for holding yarn sits on the carriage, with an accessory tray on top.

The tension arm folds in half --  that's the silver thingy with the white doohickey at the bottom -- just to the left of carriage.  Major cool factor - plus it will be so easy to take along anywhere.




Inventoried all the accessories...   If Kathleen hadn't told me how much her aunt had loved these machines, I would have known by what I found.  All of the original accessories, including the manuals (!)  were included.  Plus two dozen assorted weights, dozens of punch cards (many hand-punched), graph paper and unpunched cards, a tool to punch the cards, a set of knit radar patterns, and several extra transfer tools and tappets.

I don't like to use 'previously loved' items without cleaning and making sure there are no missing or broken parts -- it's so easy to cause damage.  So I've already contacted Newton's Yarn Country about servicing them.  And hopefully will be able to schedule some classes with them for next month.  I can't wait to start knitting on them!

Now I need to study up on punch cards and how they work.   I took a photo of this one because the designs on it are pretty obvious.  There are loads of geometric designs, some animals, some hearts and flowers, and I don't know what else.  I gather that what you see on the card is a bit elongated and will be squished down a bit in the actual knitting.

Tonight I will be studying information on the Rocking Horse Farms site.  Looks like they have quite a bit of information geared toward people who don't know a lot about machine knitting.  That would be me!.









In unrelated news, I finished the "Burning Bright" merino yarn.  Here it is as roving, being spun, and the finished yarn.  The roving came from Edgewood Garden Studio on etsy.  I found it very easy to spin and the photos don't really show how warm and beautiful the colors are. You see quite a few string ties in the finished yarn because there are actually four pieces.  I Navajo plied my singles and had several oops moments when I hit underspun big spots.  So there are actually four skeins totaling 140 yards in (mostly) worsted weight.   Now trying to find a knitting pattern to do it justice.