Yeah! I managed to get the covers off the machine

I managed to get a couple of spare hours on my machine last week and got my ribber adjusted as per the instructions I printed out from the website I talked about in my last post.

aboutknittingmachines.com

It works like a charm now. So easy when you know how. I can't say enough about that site, it is wonderful.

Also, I decided to use the thinner yarn which you have to use two strands of and it knitted up with no problems so my next project will be using that yarn. Just as well really as I have 4 huge cones of it! I used both feeders on the yarn tension unit bringing the yarn together only at the yarn feeder on the sinker plate attached to the carriage. I used one strand of each colour so I could identify if there was a problem. The rib mixed the colours so it looked sort of tweedy but the stocking stitch tended to come out in patches of either blue or green. Both look nice. I am not sure why I was having problems with using two strands before, probably inexperience plus the ribber not working didn't help.

I am eager to explore different ribbing patterns now. As I was having trouble before with the ribber I just stuck to 1 x 1 rib. I also have the rib punchcard set so the options are many.

I am trying to come up with a way of making something look like fairisle without the floats as the sweater I knitted for my little grandson looked great but he gets his little fingers caught on the floats.

I tried doing tuck stitch using two colours but I didn't much like having to change the yarn colour every two rows but I persevered. But then I got one of the strands caught in the back of the carriage and jammed it all up. I am thinking of trying a yarn that is multi coloured and doing a tuck stitch pattern to see how that looks. I do like a band of fairisle on the children's garments.

If I ever do do fairisle again I will use a pattern that only makes short floats. The other thing I am not too keen on with fairisle is that it makes the garment thick and I don't like thick sweaters. That's why I prefer the standard machine over a chunky because it produces a finer knit. I do like the look of fairisle though so it's a bit of a dilemma for me.

At the time of writing this we have no internet so I am doing it in a word document ready to transfer to my blog when I am able. The problem is I keep on thinking about different things so the post just gets longer and longer! I discovered also another victim of the electrical storm that took out so many of our electronic devices. My printer no longer works. Argh!!!!! The paper feed keeps jamming up the paper and it keeps telling me I have the wrong size paper in it.........and I don't, honestly!

I have a request. Does anyone have a simple childs tank top, (sweater vest, sleeveless pullover) pattern? (I think I covered all the names of the item I am looking for). I want to knit one for my soon to be two year old grandson.

Yeah, internet back on finally........