Feeling like a real rookie machine knitter!

I did not have a good knitting day!  Dropped a stitch after casting on, knitting 10 rows then doing all the transfers for a picot hem. I knitted another 10 rows and was about to hook up the bottom to form the hem when I noticed the dropped stitch!  I couldn't pick it up with the latch tool.  It had to be done from the machine side of the knitting and I just couldn't co-ordinate it.

I took it all off, and started again.. This time one of the stitches didn't cast on properly. I did the ewrap cast on and when I knitted the first row it didn't knit one of the stitches properly.  It seemed to be around the same place as the dropped stitch so I checked the needle that didn't knit properly.  I found the latch on the needle was getting stuck when it was flicked back so I decided to change it.

Couldn't remember how to!  Then I remembered I had to take the sponge bar out to change it. The sponge bar seemed OK but I swapped it out for a new one just to be on the safe side.

Then I oiled the machine.

At this point I decided to quit and I will go back to it another day, probably Monday. Weekends are usually busy.  In the meantime I am going to read up on the manuals just as a refresher.

I guess it is one of the pitfalls of not being able to get on my machines on a more regular basis. One forgets! or at least this one does.

Yay! got some time on my SK700 knitting machine.

It has been a good week so far, I have managed to get upstairs to my knitting/sewing room several times.  First job was to put a patch in my husbands camo pants.  I did it on the Singer.  Found some old tan jeans of mine and cut a patch from them to repair his. I trimmed the rip then placed the patch underneath. Stitched the patch in place then satin stitched over the tear to the patch.  It looked pretty good.  I was happy with it. Far better than the gaping hole that was!

The hand knitted baby jacket is growing, the back and two fronts are knitted in one piece and I am nearly up to where it splits  for the arms. So far so good.

I also decided to machine knit a baby jacket too.  I checked out the knit radar patterns and found a baby jacket I liked.

Pattern C5 from the original knit radar pattern set that came with the machine and the pink yarn is what I am going to use.

I hadn't done anything on the machine since before Christmas which was a lot of stocking caps which just involved straight lengths of ribbing. I hadn't done a swatch in a while and thought I knew where to mark the stitches. Unfortunately with the first attempt, not only did I mark the stitches incorrectly, I somehow managed to take it off the machine in one foul swoop when I was changing colours.  The second one was OK after I consulted the manual! I felt like a rookie again. I would have had to do two swatches anyway though as I decided to change the tension after I looked at the first one.

Marked the wrong stitches on this one doing it from memory! It was 21 stitches each way from the centre not 21 stitches in from the ends as I did on this.

Second attempt, did it in tuck stitch and stocking stitch as the back and fronts are done in two pieces as the bottom is gathered. Will probably do the tops in stocking stitch and the bottoms in tuck stitch. Amazing how the different stitches effect how many rows and stitches to 10cms.

Anyway, now I have the measurements from the swatch and the pattern is in the knit radar and it is set ready to go.  Hopefully, I will get working on it tomorrow.  I am using the SK700 standard machine this time.  I think I am going to take the ribber off as all the hems are picot edges so no ribber required.  The ribber makes it difficult to move weights etc.so if I don't need it might as well take it off.

I also got a really neat little anvil for my leather work.  Our neighbour found it at a garage sale and bought it for me.  Our neighbours are so nice, we are blessed to have them.  It will be very helpful when putting snaps and eyelets in small places.

That's it for the week so far, hoping the rest will be as good.

I even got out on the riding mower today.  It is perfect weather for me, cloudy and not too hot.  What can I say? I am from England, that's our norm so to experience it here in the depths of Missouri is a real treat and definitely to be taken advantage of.

The gnome patch

This year I decided to make a gnome patch just in front of the front porch.  There is a small area out there which is just filled with small rocks so looks a bit bare.  I have thought about doing this for years but kept thinking of my days in England where I had a beautiful rockery filled with gnomes. Someone came into the back yard (garden) one night and stole them all so I vowed never to buy gnomes again.

I mentioned this to our neighbours recently and they went out bought two really cute gnomes for me.

And so that was the start of my gnome patch.

When we were in the bigger town (35 miles away) picking up supplies and shopping I bought another gnome.  He is really cute too and a bit bigger than the other two.  Well, the back of the van was already loaded up with big bags of cracked corn, deer supplements and grass seed.  We had the dog with us and my husbands walker so there really wasn't much room for the shopping.

And wouldn't you know it, when I was loading in the shopping the gnome fell out!  I was quite upset, it seemed like it wasn't meant to be for me to have a gnome patch.

I picked up the pieces and bought them home.

And later that evening I superglued them back on.  There were gaps!

I didn't want him filling up with rain water so I got some plumbing putty and filled up the gaps and cracks. I am happy how he looks now and I will pick up some red spray paint at some point and respray the tip of his hat but for now he will do just fine.

Yesterday, I had to pop into our nearest town which is 15 miles away and his little brother jumped right into my shopping trolley!

When it stops raining I will get them outside into the patch.

Back to the knitting front, the hand knitted baby jacket is progressing nicely.

Back to the knitting needles and a little soul searching.

We really need to simplify our lives, my husband and I, but we don't seem willing to do it. We live on 20 acres which takes a lot of tending to. Our house needs working on. My husband's computer has been playing up. His internet radio station takes a lot of work. His health isn't good so we spend a lot of time going back and forth to hospitals and doctors. He is also diabetic so he has to eat frequently. I am getting really stiff and achey. Putting it bluntly, we are getting old and really don't need to be here anymore. But neither of us wants to leave. So we keep going and doing what we can, when we can.

This means I don't get the time I would like to spend on my sewing and knitting machines. Does this sound whiney? Yes it does. Does it sound selfish? Yes it does. So I am trying to compromise.

We recently found out our new grandbaby who is due in a couple of weeks is going to be a girl. So I bought some really pretty pink baby yarn and dug deep into my patterns stash and found the knitting pattern I used to hand knit a baby jacket for their eldest daughter which they really liked and got a lot of wear out of. Hand knitting is much more flexible.  I can pick it up when I have any free time and put it down at anytime.

I really love the colour of this yarn, It is a huge hank. It says you can draw from the centre but I couldn't find the loose end. It was like cleaning out a turkey lol. I had my hand inside feeling around for a loose end but to no avail. So I am unwinding from the outside.

I got started on it yesterday. I am using circular needles as you knit the two fronts and back in one piece. Already I have made mistakes. The first one when I forgot to turn the knitting and knitted the whole row before I realised. When I got to the end it was joined to the beginning!!!!!!!  I plead starting the first row of the quite complicated pattern so that I didn't notice I was working on the wrong side. Sounds better than silly old lady getting it wrong.

The second mistake was on the third row of the pattern which involves doing cables and also a lot of knitting 4 tog and yarn over needles. I forgot some of the yon's. Of course I didn't realise this until I was doing the fourth row and didn't have the right amount of stitches. Arrgghh!!!!  I cheated and picked up loops from the previous row. Not sure if that will work, time will tell on that one. I may end up starting all over again yet.

A Sampler quilt it will be! and how something simple can motivate

Two things happened over the past two days.

Firstly, we discovered the air conditioning on the vehicle wasn't working.  Here, in Missouri, that's a pretty important thing!  I went to our local repair shop to make an appointment for next week.  They always have little promotion giveaways on the counter.  This time it was one of those magnetic clip thingies.

These are great for attaching to the hanging threads when knitting.  I have one I bought from a yarn store but if I need more than that one then I usually use plastic clothes pegs but they don't have the weight.  So this little beauty will be great.  Now I am motivated to machine knit again! Weird eh? The best thing is that I can get another next week, (hope they haven't all gone by then!)

Secondly, one of the blogs I follow had an article on sampler Quilts.  Now I realize why my MIL made all those different quilt squares.  I will look out for some nice fabric to make strips in between the squares and a border and then I can make a Sampler quilt. As I mentioned in my previous blogs about making the baby quilt, these are my first attempts at making quilts, in reality I am quite clueless about quilting.  I am so glad I picked up a couple of quilting blogs to follow.

I will never aspire to make some of the beautiful quilts I have seen, I simply do not have the time but I will now make this sampler quilt to use the squares made by my MIL.

So not much achieved this week but at least now have some projects in mind.