Made a few more Christmas gifts

When the weather has been cool enough to work in the shop I have got out and made a few more things.

The above is a luggage identifier tag.  You know when you are waiting at the carousel in the airport for your luggage and a suitcase comes out that looks like yours and you intend to grab it when it gets to you but someone else does.  So you get all flustered and chase them down only to find it isn't yours. I don't want to put labels on that show my full name and/or address and I have tried marking my luggage by attaching pom poms etc but they always seem to get ripped off. So I came up with this idea.  Something that will stand a lot of handling and is personal to only you.  Attached to a handle they are virtually indestructible.

                This is a Porsche badge. Good for a little street cred!

Tried some different things on the Knitsmart

I wanted to know if I could cast on differently than using the ravel chord and plastic strip with weights on the Knitsmart.  I used  the e-wrap method and individual weights and it worked fine.  Now I only had 20 stitches in play so whether it would be so easy with a full bed of stitches I have yet to find out.

I also did some ribbing, I had never tried it before.  I found it a bit cumbersome to do but think that with practice I will get better.

Here is my little effort and guess what?  I will be sewing it up to make yet another Barbie dress lol.  Going to put a fancy edge to the bottom too.


With regard to the leatherwork, we made a wristband for my husband.  He had bought some leather which still had the hair on and wanted to try something so he came up with the idea to wrap it with some thin leather and leave a strip showing. It was a joint effort, his design and cutting out with me doing the trimming and stitching.

It has been too hot to work in the workshop lately plus the wasps have got in there.  We usually go out first thing in the morning when it is a little cooler and the darned wasps are less active.  Hoping for a cooling down soon.

I want to get on and make more Christmas gifts.

Have been following Alex's blog and he is so quick with the things he makes. Put's this old lady to shame he does!

I got out the Knitsmart!

After seeing Alex's blog and the sweater he made on his Ultimate sweater machine I dragged out my Knitsmart and set it up.

I had to re read the manual because it's the first time in two years that I have set it up and the first time was only to check it out and test it.

I decided to try the Cricketers cable that he did and I only boo booed once!  I did two left transfers instead of alternate ones.  I realised my mistake and did some more just to see how it looked and I was very happy.  My husband liked it too so maybe he will get something I make soon after all.  He liked the sweater Alex made so I will try and make him one similar.  Just need to google Bond patterns as the Knitsmart one didn't have raglan sleeves and I prefer the look of raglan.

I can set mu Knitsmart up easily on my kitchen island so can knit downstairs on it.  It has wheels too so I could even wheel it into the living room and knit while watching TV.  How cool is that?  The stool is a bit uncomfortable after a while, have to put a cushion on it lol.

Alex saw the Cricketer's cable on Suzy's blog so credit to her excellent instructional video.

More leather working but no knitting! Been thinking about it a lot though.

I have been working on leather stuff.  I am trying to make Christmas gifts in a timely manner.  The problem is my husband, bless him, keeps thinking of more and more things he would like to make for family.  I told him that too much becomes a chore and not a pleasure.  This is my hobby and making gifts is something I choose to do and I don't want to feel pressured and obligated.  Is that selfish? Maybe!

Rant over!  I'll get over it lol.

This is what I have been working on.  The squares are for coasters.  I make sets of four.  There is a lot of work involved with them.  Each of the holes have to be marked, matched up and then punched out so I can sew them together.  That's a lot of holes by the time you've done 8. Then I have to decide on the design, stamp them and then stain them.

Stamping isn't as easy as it sounds.  Getting things lined up and symmetrical is harder than you think.  Also, once a mark is made on leather it's pretty permanent.  If you can't disguise it in the patterning then you have to discard it and start all over again.  

This is another bracelet for a female.  At this stage I have just stamped out the pattern.

Now I have stained and dyed it.  I am waiting for actual wrist measurements before I put in the snaps.

Here is another I have made for a teenage boy.

As for the knitting, I am at a stuck phase.  I so desperately want a lace carriage for my 700 but they are not cheap, even on ebay.  I let one go that I could have got for $100 plus mailing but I couldn't justify even that.  We have so many other things we need that are more of a priority.  I also want a bulky punchcard machine with a ribber.

I have to make the sacrifice and put up the spare Singer 700 up for sale and the SRP 50 ribber.  Then I can use the proceeds towards a bulky machine and/or a lace carriage.

I have thought about buying a Brother which has a lace carriage come with it.  There was one on ebay last night that went for $152.50. It was a bargain, but again, I couldn't justify it to myself.  Not when I have two 700's and two ribbers lol.  I used to have a Brother with a lace carriage so I know they make nice lace.  I only need a machine as I could do the ribbing on my other set up and transfer it to the Brother machine to do the lacework.

That should give me the incentive to take some photos and put the spare machine and ribber up for sale. 

I also thought some more about setting up the hobby bulky machine but am procrastinating on that too for some unknown reason.

So for now I am keeping busy with the leather work and trying not to be a spoilt brat about not having a working lace carriage or bulky punchcard machine and ribber.................it's not easy lol.

I cleaned and oiled my machines yesterday and other news

It's been a weird year.  We have had a string of things go wrong.  Water and plumbing problems, computer problems, roof leaks, health issues. I could go on but what the heck, complaining doesn't fix things.

I have been working on Christmas projects with the leather work and have made some things.  Trying not to leave things to the last moment this year.  A tad reluctant to put them up incase my family see them but I don't think any of them actually look at my blog so I will put up some pictures.  I know a good friend looks on here sometimes so I won't put hers up.  The little penny purse was actually just a gift of the moment and has already been given ready for her starting full time school in first grade.

penny purse front

penny purse back

coffee coasters

female bracelet

keyring and my birthday present of a Barry King maul in the background

This is a men's wristband/bracelet.  This was taken before I put the snaps on.

This was a joint effort between my husband and me for a belt for him.  The antique look is deliberate.

more of the belt

and more.

We built another workbench in the workshop so that we could both work on the leather stuff.  We were trying to work off one bench before and were tripping over each other.

this is my new workbench which backs onto the original one

Also, I did some maintenance on my knitting machines yesterday.  I cleaned the one I had set up and then took it down.  It was the Singer 700 I bought last year.  It had been left standing for a long time by the previous owner and when I got it I had to change out most of the needles as they wouldn't flick properly.  Not even after soaking in mineral spirits for days on end. I also had to replace the plastic things at the ends of the rail.  I gave it a good cleaning and testing.  It works like a charm.  I made several items on it.  It just needs a new sponge bar as I had borrowed the one from my original machine to test it.  I won't buy one until I am ready to either sell it or use it again.

I cleaned my SRP 60 ribber which had been set up with the Singer 700.

I then got out my other 700, the Studio and set it up and cleaned it.  She was always my favourite and I call her Betsy.  The other one is Betsy's sister.  What can I say, I am an old lady and have some idiosyncrasies!

I paired the Studio with the SRP 60 and they work perfectly together.

The SRP50 ribber is boxed up, I cleaned it before I put it away last year.

So now I have the Studio 700 and SRP 60 ribber set up and working well together and a Singer 700 and and SRP 50 ribber to either sell or retain as backups.

The SRP 50 never really worked well with Betsy.  I now think I didn't have it connected properly.  I think the things I were using to attach them were not the correct ones as the beds were too close together.  One day I will try again with the SRP50.........but not today.  I have a good working set up so why spoil it?  My posts of a couple of years ago tell only too well of the struggles I was having with ribbing!

I have to assemble the Knitsmart 3 in 1 hobby bulky machine I bought a couple of years ago and test it out again.  It was cleaned and oiled before I put it away.  I only tried a couple of trial pieces on it.  I didn't have anywhere to set it up and leave it.  I did reorganise my knitting space last year so I could attach it to the back of the desk where I have the other one set up but have never got round to doing it. I have a lot of double knitting wool I could use on it.  My poor husband still hasn't got anything I have made yet. 

I still haven't used the garter bar yet.  The little sweater I was making for my youngest granddaughter  was going to be way too big so I unravelled it and haven't restarted it yet.  I was going to use it on that.

I did finish the little tank top for my youngest grandson.  So each of the two little ones got a tank top and if I can find it I will add a photo of them wearing them.

grandson's tanktops

Found the photo albeit the grandsons were not too eager to pose lol. 

So that is my update.  I haven't been blogging very much lately so it's a long post I'm afraid.  Will try and post more regularly in the future.

A new hobby

Well I haven't been around in a long time.  Many reasons, haven't been knitting, husband's health, my arthritis, been busy, etc. etc.  You know how it goes.

Trouble with me it is either a famine of a feast so this will be a looooong post.  So much to write about.

During the past few months we have come up with a hobby that we can do together.  My knitting involves me being off alone in my knitting room for hours at a time.  Added to that, my knitting room is upstairs and stairs are a problem for me.  So, sadly,  knitting has taken a back burner for now.  Usually my hips and knees get better during the hotter dryer weather so will likely get back to it when the rain stops here!  It has been a very wet year so far and isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

My husband is a very creative person but his illness has curbed his big project abilities so we decided to look for something we could do that would be small project like. That lead us to a wonderful store in Springfield, MO.  "The Springfield Leather Company"

Who knew there were so many things you could do with leather!

That lead us to many hours of internet research for ideas and tool requirements etc.

My husband's stepfather had a saddle shop so my husband was familiar with leather.  We found a few leather tools that my husband had kept from that era and we bought some more from ebay.  Many everyday tools can be utilised also so we now have a basic set of leather tools.

One of my ebay purchases had six wooden mallets.  Hey! what can I say,  they were really cheap and there were other tools included. What does one do with six mallets?  well, I can tell you they aren't going to waste.  I am down to only two spare right now.  Also they were 'buy it now'. So much less stress than bidding!

We have his and her mallets in the workshop, I have one I keep in my little toolbox that I carry back and forth to the shop and one we transformed into a tooling maul.

I saw someone doing leatherwork at a craft show using one of these mauls for stamping leather to decorate it.  I thought it would be a useful addition but when we researched it online they are $80!!!!!  That was way out of our budget!  I asked my husband if we should sacrifice one of our wooden mallets and see if we could make one.  Between us we came up with the way to do it.  My husband did the bulk of the work.

So we started off with one plain old wooden mallet.  We cut off the head.  We found a big old screw and washer in the shop and screwed the head back on lengthways.

 

Then I stitched up the piece of leather we cut to encase the head.  We cut another piece of leather to shape the handle.

 

My husband attached the shaping to the handle.

Then he covered the handle with leather.

We cut it down to size and found a little wooden wheel that I stained and varnished and he attached it to the end.

Also, to harden the leather we boiled it for about 15 seconds.  The hardening worked well but the leather shrank a little.  It is still fully functional though.  The coaster is one I made.  Not bad for a first attempt eh?

 

One thing  I can't get right yet (and believe me I've practiced) is getting the lettering straight.  Guess I need to keep on trying!

My husband is such a sweetheart.  I told him that the washer was yukky looking as it was a recycled one and spoiled the photos so he went and sanded it for me.

As you can see it has been well used already.

Merry Christmas

Just popped in to wish all my knitting friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

I am planning on getting back to the knitting  in the New Year.  It has been a very busy past few months and I just haven't been in the mindset to knit but I still have to make something for the youngest grand daughter.

So everyone, have fun, eat way too much and watch lots of old movies on the TV.

Ground to a halt

My knitting has ground to a halt.  These past couple of weeks have been hectic with my husband being in the hospital again and not being too well.  Thankfully, he is feeling a bit better now so hopefully I can get back to my machine.  I need to knit one more item in time for Thanksgiving so that I can give each of the grandchildren, who we will be seeing, something I have knitted.

If I don't make it in time I will just include them with their Christmas presents so not too much of a panic.  He has a lot of hospital appts scheduled over the next few weeks and as the hospital is 150 miles away it's always a day trip.

I have yet to try the new garter bar set I bought and plan to use it to make the third item.  Hopefully, I'll get to it soon.

The second tank top is finished

Here is the second tank top.  I made the neckline a little deeper on this one.  The contrast is a lighter colour as opposed to the first one which was a lighter body with a dark contrast.

The Garter bar set should arrive today. I am excited.

I have purchased a garter bar set on ebay

I was thinking about my next project for my 5 year old grand daughter.  I wanted to knit a band of  tuck stitch around it in the variegated yarn I bought but tuck stitch knits back to front.  So I was wondering how I could reverse my knitting so that the better side of the tuck stitch would come out on the front.

Reading one of my knitting books and saw the garter bar.  There was my answer!

So, off to the computer  I went.  I looked up some youtube videos on how to use a garter bar and what they consist of then proceeded to ebay with trepidation.  You know I have a love hate relationship with ebay  ☺.

I found one that was ending in two hours and it was a full set.  Two bars that join together to make it long enough to do all 200 needles.  The two adjustable needle stoppers to lock the needles, a shorter bar, something with some sponge on, the two weird plastic clothes peg looking things and the instructions in English.  Still had the original box too. The start off price was $35.  It seemed a lot but the postage was only $9.  No bidders at that timebut someone had asked a question so there had been interest.

I sweated for the nearly two hours, had intense conversation with my husband about my bidding strategy and the maximum price I would pay.  Only a few minutes to go so I put in my $35 bid and hoped no one else was sitting in front of their computer too.    I put in my maximum price, encouraged by my husband I put in $62.59.  I thought that was a bit rash but heck, it's his ebay account and he pays.

I walked away and sat down to watch TV, the tension is just too much for me lol.  Anyway, I went back after the time elapsed and I won it for $53. Phew!  So much for no one else sitting at their computer waiting to grab it at the last minute.  They gave up at $52.

I had looked at others too.  One was a buy it now price and was for sale in the UK at £80.  I thought that was a bit steep plus there would be postage on top of that.  Another was in Canada and it only had one bid of $25 but there were three more days to go and the postage was quite high too. (Just out of interest I added that to my watch list and it finally went for $120.....I was blown away by how much it went for)

So I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

I have just the armbands to do on the second tank top which I will finish probably today then I will wait for the garter bar set to arrive and start on the top for my grand daughter.

Here is the tank top pre-armbands.  I did the neck a little deeper than the last one and it came out quite well this time.

Yesterday's bug of the day!  I think it is a preying mantis

When I get the garter bar I may have to set up the original Studio 700 too as I read it was easier to use a garter bar on a flat bed as opposed to one set up with the ribber attached (which is how mine is set up now).  Oh darn!, I won't have to sell it after all.  The desk I use for my machine has a deep lip on the back  so I could attach it to that.

But, and there is a but, I would like to get a better chunky machine than the one I bought last year which is like a Bond and to afford that I will have to sell one of the 700's.  Decisions, decisions!

But for now I will set it up on the back of the desk so I can use the garter bar on the flat bed.

Also, as a side note, I discovered symbols using the alt key.  No more GBP for this old gal, I know how to make a pound sign now, and a smiley face and a bunch of other things.  Progress indeed!

Having a prolific month

I finished the first of the three tank tops I am making ready for our Thanksgiving family get together in New Jersey.

I made it on the recently purchased Singer Memomatic 700 using the SRP 60 ribber purchased at the same time.

I still need to replace many needles on it but they haven't arrived yet.  They are coming from Hong Kong.  The price is much better but the delivery time is somewhat longer.

The plastic side racks for the ends of the carriage I ordered on Sept. 6th have just arrived at our local PO today.  Hopefully they will be delivered today.  Have to sign for the package as it comes registered mail. Our mail here arrives around 2.30pm.  Sod's law will mean they won't bring them out till tomorrow when we'll be out all day at the hospital for my husband.

I love how the sleeve edges came out on the tank top but wasn't so happy about the neckline.  I have to read up again on necklines and the best way of finishing them.  I know a lot of my problem is casting off rather than casting off onto waste yarn.  The next one I am going to try using the waste yarn method.

Also the next one I will make with a deeper neckline.

 

Now which one to start next and what colours to use?

The little jacket is finished

Yesterday we traveled to Eldorado Springs to find the store I had heard about.  What a surprise, it is a lovely store.  It is a hardware/variety store with a large fabrics/knitting section that sells all sorts of sewing notions and yarns.  I got an open ended white zipper with plastic teeth which is the type that I originally tried to find.

I found some verigated yarn there too that would knit on the machine.  It is a merino wool/bamboo/nylon mix and is machine washable.  Not sure how bamboo gets into knitting yarn, but what do I know?  I will use it as a contrast colour on something for the youngest granddaughter.  Hopefully it will make the fairisle look especially nice.  Or, I may do a band of tuck stitch using it, who knows where the fancy will take me.

First job is to wind it onto a cone to make it easier to use. It is a yarn used to knit socks apparently but I haven't ventured into socks yet.

Have to finish the tank top first.  Have to do the ribbing round the neck and armholes.

I still have to wash it

I thought the colours were very pretty

The Singer Memomatic knit radar works perfectly

I have tested the knit radar on the Memomatic and it works great.  I decided the easiest and most practical way to test it was to knit something so I am knitting a tank top for our Californian grandson.  I will knit another for the New Jersey grandson too and something for our granddaughter too as we are all meeting up in New Jersey for Thanksgiving this year.

Some of the needles on the Memomatic still have stiff latches that don't open flat.  They do knit OK but I have ordered 100 new needles from the Hong Kong Knitting shop and will replace the worst.  I have already changed about 50.  They really were in a bad way.  I tried soaking them in alcohol to free them up but to no avail.

The stiffness is most noticeable when I cast off.  The machine must not have been used in a good while for them to become so stiff.

I attached the YC5 colour changer to test it on this machine

The pattern running through

The YC5 colour changer can only be used if the ribber is attached so changing colour when ribbing is very simple. (now that I have a ribber that works well lol). On just main bed knitting I use it to hold the yarn whilst using a contrast colour.  Much simpler than before when I was trying to put the unused yarn behind the machine and getting all tangled up.  Also I found a simple way to hold the pieces together for taking photos.  Safety pins.  So simple, it took me over a year to think of it!

Just threw this one in to show the beautiful fawn triplets who come visiting almost every day

Yesterday I located a store about 40 miles away that has a 12" white bottom opening zipper so I can finish the little jacket.  We will make the trip out today to get it and do some grocery shopping and go to one of our favourite restaurants for lunch.

I was going to order one online which probably would have worked out cheaper but this way we help to keep a local business going and get to have a delicious barbecue lunch.

Update on the new Singer memomatic 700, SRP 60 ribber and LC2 lace carriage

This is one of my boring journal posts that I do so I have a record of my return journey into machine knitting.  I do this so I have both a record and also, incase, when I get even older and forget things I can look back, (assuming, of course, that I remember I have a blog!)


As mentioned in a previous blog, the SRP 60 ribber works great.

Yesterday I got round to setting up the knitting machine to try it.  I had cleaned it a few days beforehand. Yesterday I oiled it before setting out.

At first there was a bit of a problem knitting on it,  the stitches weren't knitting properly and I had to manipulate some needles by hand to complete some of the stitches. I was told that it hadn't been used in many years and I am sure that is true.   I replaced some bent looking needles and some needles that had stiff little flicky things.

Then I ran the carriage back and forth many times to get the little flicky things loosened up and tried again.  Success this time!

I tried changing the tension, did some tuck stitch and some fairisle.  All went well.

I still have to try the knit radar and put the ribber on it.  This afternoon I will try the ribber then to test the knit radar I might knit another little baby cardigan as the one I just finished is really a little big for a baby, it is more like for a toddler.

On a sadder note, well sadder for me anyway, I don't think the LC2 lace carriage is salvageable.  The drums won't move on it, clearly something is wrong with it.  I had mentioned that some pieces of metal had fallen out of it but I thought they were part of the casing that the plastic top rested on and clipped to.  Seems like they were part of some internal workings that have now rendered the drums stuck.

As a last ditch hope I will take it to the knitting shop guy who sells new Studio machines.  I am not sure if he does repairs or not but if he doesn't he may be able to get me just a replacement carriage. I don't need the front plate or the weights or punchcards as they all came with it.

I am still tickled pink with the deal I got.  The only problem now is that I am wrestling with selling it on.  I want to keep it as a backup machine so I won't have to be without one.

I know they are still available to buy used but they are getting more scarce and more expensive.

Now just to convince my husband lol as I had told him we should start a little knitting machine selling sideline.

Who knew........there were so many different types of zippers?

Yesterday, we drove to our nearest Walmart Superstore (35 miles away) to get an open ended zipper for the little jacket.  Now this is a store we visit regularly to shop, like every five or so days.  So they must have been very busy in that time because the fabrics and sewing notions section had reduced in size by at least 50% and their inventory of zippers had reduced even more.  So no open ended zippers in the size I wanted.

I was very disappointed but it wasn't a wasted journey because we had to do grocery shopping.

But! I still don't have a zipper.  The next choices are even further away and I know gas isn't as expensive here in the US as it is in the UK but hey, 10 gallons of gas to go to Kansas City is $36 and that is way too much to pay for a zipper.

So I looked online last night and found this sight.

http://www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=235361

I spent a long time looking through this sight and was amazed at all the different types of zippers there are.  I love the ones with multi coloured teeth.

This jacket doesn't call for that though.

The other good thing about this site is that you can get a zip shortened to whatever length you need and as  12  1/2" would be the perfect size I can now get one in my colour of choice and the exact length I want.

The total cost would be about $12, including shipping, which is a lot for a zipper but it would be perfect so I am happy and no driving in the hot weather or wear and tear on the vehicle.

Sometimes things work out for the best.

And now I want to make myself  a jacket so I can get the multi-coloured teeth zipper.

To wash or not to wash......a knitted item as a gift that is!

I have a question.  If you make a gift for someone, say like a child's sweater or jacket or blanket, do you wash it before you give it to the recipient?

I usually do not because to me, (and I have weird preconceived ideas I know) It feels like it's not new if it's been washed.

I am itching to wash the new jacket I made, well after I sew the zipper in, I will be.  I think washing settles a knitted garment but I can't seem to get this silly preconceived notion out of my head.

Then there's the fear that if I wash it it will stretch or shrink or look terrible then I would have wasted my time.

I am such a nutcase sometimes!

Let me know what you do please.

Thanks.

Decided not to do pattern on sleeves so little fingers don't get caught

Not sure about these inset sleeves.  They were not so noticeable when I used this pattern using tuck stitch but with stockinette they show up.  I tried to make them a feature by exaggerating the join and letting the casting off show. I really don't like using waste yarn then picking up the stitches.  Think I might have to learn to like it! Many of my hand knitting habits sneak into my machine knitting I'm afraid.