sleeves done and it's sewn up ready to do the neckline

I got both sleeves done and have it sewn up except for the left back seam.  I just have the neckline to do.  I am going to do it the same as I did the previous sweater in that I make the cast on edge the open edge and then bring the sweater to the machine with the ribbing on (after I have transferred all the stitches onto the main bed) and attach the sweater to the neckband by picking up the stitches along the back, top of sleeve and neck edge then knitting one row and casting off.  This way the nice cast on edge is what shows. Because I am doing a mitred neckband I will do it in two parts.

Should get that done today or tomorrow. Have been kind of putting it off because i can't make up my mind on whether to do it in the contrast colour, or do it in the main colour, or do stripes with two contrast and one main colour or two main colour and one contrast.  decisions, decisions, decisions.........

Looking forward to the next garment.  I think a cardigan for my grand daughter, the third youngest of my grandkids.  Then a sweater for my husband ready for the winter.  Doesn't feel like winter will ever get here, it's going to be 101F for the next three days!!!  Forecast is predicting a bit of a cool down next week though.    Fingers crossed on that!

Sleeve number one in the bag!

I got a sleeve done today.  I revised the pattern so it wasn't so long and I did everything right with the patterning.  The rib on tension 5.1:5.1 came out perfectly so I am a happy camper today.

Sweater non progress report and the burning question of the day!

I have to call it a non progress report because I have not progressed despite doing a sleeve yesterday!  Time to knit this week has been limited but I did grab some yesterday so I thought i would do a sleeve.

I write my patterns out longhand as my attention to detail is not so good these days so if I have a place to increase or decrease I write that section out and tick off rows as I go.  It takes longer but I make fewer mistakes that way.  When I was writing out the sleeve pattern I thought that the sleeve was going to be too long and I almost adjusted it but didn't have the confidence in myself to do so............I should have done so!  It was very long!!!!!

I also made a mistake with the patterning......completely my own fault.  When I had finished doing the pattern section I took out the punch card, reset the punch card lever,  reset the cam lever (I think that's what it is called, the big round one in the middle) and the side levers and proceeded to do a row.  What I had forgotten to do was take out the contrast colour.  I realised this after the first row but didn't think it was a problem because all the stitches on the needles were the main colour.  I took the contrast colour out and carried on.

Everything went smoothly and it only took an hour and a half to complete.  I was excited, but my excitement was short lived when I took it off and turned it over.

Aside from being way too long there was a straight row of the contrast colour at the top of the patterning. So leaving the contrast colour in the yarn feeder on the carriage, even though it didn't seem to knit is NOT the thing to do.  Another lesson learned lol. (No photo as I unraveled it straight away so the yarn wouldn't be too wrinkled to re-knit.  I decided to re-use it this time as I have been wasting a lot of yarn on this one!)

So I will adjust my pattern for the length and try again.

But my burning question of the day is............

Does anyone have a way to see the back (which is really the front) of the knitting while it is on the machine.  I thought of setting up a light and a mirror under the desk or taking my phone up with me and taking pictures but both seem a bit extreme. It would be nice to be able to see it though so I could stop and restart much sooner if I have made a mistake.

Ideas anyone????????

A totally unrelated to knitting and sewing post

Well other than it meant I didn't get any knitting done it is unrelated. But the outcome was well worth skipping the knitting for.

Our downstairs bathroom has had a leaky tap for about 18 months now.  It is one of those things that isn't critical and although annoying, it can be lived with.  Up until a couple of days ago that's what we did.  My husband has a degenerative neuro/muscular disease in which the axons in his nerves are dying off and as a result of that his muscles are wasting so doing any jobs such as changing taps is virtually impossible for him.  The leaky tap got worse two days ago to the point that we had to cut the water off to it which left us with just cold water running in the downstairs loo's sink.

He has been prepping himself for the past two days to get it done and this morning he decided was the day. We have had the new taps for about a year now. So with the aid of a kneely stool, a large sponge wedge and a huge pillow he got down on the floor and worked under the sink and got the old taps removed and plumbed in the new ones.

He was exhausted afterwards and will suffer a lot of pain for a few days but he got it done and here they are.

They are beautiful, not only because they are very nice taps but also because they are not dripping.

I love my husband dearly.

Best of three

I knitted another front yesterday.  When I dropped the ribber bed the rib looked fine so I proceeded on.  The pattern seemed to knit OK so I carried on some more.  The shaping went well for the left side so on I went again and the final side went good too.

I took it off the machine, turned it over and it was almost perfect.  The patterning was fine but the rib was still a bit tight in places.  I stretched it out both longways and sideways and that helped quite a bit so now it is only barely noticeable.

I think I had the tension too tight for the yarn.  I did it on 4:4. Also I don't think I've quite got the hang of the yarn mast tension either so I will loosen that a notch too.

I notice that it only looked tight on the front so maybe I should have used a looser tension on the main carriage.  I will change it for the sleeves, I will probably do them on a 5 for the ribber carriage and a 5.. for the main carriage.

I am happy that I now have a good front and can proceed with the sleeves.

Loving my machine adventures.

For my English friends who may want another machine or have friends who want a knitting machine

Was doing some searching around and found this.  It's a great buy.  100.00 UKP ono. (sorry no pound sign on my yankee computer)

Knitmaster 260L knitting machine, standard gauge with
Lace attachment 360/260L
Ribbing Attachment SRP/50 (still in original box)
Knitradar KR-7(boxed)
Automatic linker SC-3
Intarsia Carriage AG-20- knits argyle patterns without the floating yarn on the back
and lots of accessories inc hole punch, wool winder, punchcards and instruction books/knitting manuals.
http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-1034285981/c0fb5030.html

The puncher is a clever little rascal!

I punched my first card in more than twenty years this morning.  I was a little nervous at first but got back into the hang of it and finding the hole with the little pointy thing.  I was very careful not to squeeze the puncher until it was located safely in the hole.  The punched card came out great, I was very happy with it and myself for not making any errors.  Then I read the box and it said that even if you squeezed it, it wouldn't punch if it hadn't located the hole. Duh! I had forgotten that.  Like I said, it's a clever little rascal.

The new punch card is not quite so thick or stiff as the original and a lot longer.  I think it will be much easier to set up as the shorter one was a bit difficult to wrap round to put the clips on and the second time was more difficult and the third even more so. Also, I believe I have the pattern correct so that if it goes more than one complete turn the pattern will be consistent.

So I was thinking all is going to be honky dory now I have the new punch card and then I got Phil's comment on my previous post.  He has been absolutely correct on everything so far so now I have to go check the needles and the carriage.  Frightening thought is that the ravel chord debacle might have damaged the drums on the carriage.

The back knitted perfectly, going to check the first front though because I had got past the pattern part when I jammed the machine,   Fingers crossed................

Phew! (wipes sweat off brow) the first front is wonky too in the same place, but not as wonky as the second one. (strange I didn't notice that before, was probably too concerned about the mangled rib!) The good news is the ravel chord probably didn't damage the drums and hopefully  it was either the original punch card, which I have replaced, or I have some bent needles, of which I have some spare.

Off to check the needles and double check the carriage then try it out on some waste yarn.  Not up for doing the third attempt at the front today, probably be Saturday as we have plans to go out tomorrow. I am feeling a bit like I did after I failed two driving tests in the UK many years ago.  The theory being if I don't try again I won't fail.

I did get over that though and I will re do the front lol.

This is not a hobby for someone in a hurry lol!

I redid the sweater front after thinking about it and possible reasons for the ribbing problem.  I loosened the yarn feeder tension and kept a careful eye on the yarn going through it and it was much better. Phil was spot on with his analysis of the problem.

So, I finished the front with just a minor problem when I was decreasing for the arm and neck.  I forgot to do the three rows in between the decrease rows so was out on my row counter numbers.  I didn't realize this at first so did a few more rows.  But I was able to undo it to past where I went awry and put the needles back on and continued to finish it off correctly.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.....BUT!!!!! when I looked at it closely I could see that the patterning had gone wonky.

My first reaction was to say 'oh well, it doesn't show that bad so I'll go with it' .......but I won't. I'll redo it but if the third attempt has a problem it will be the best of the three, cos I ain't doing a fourth!!

I think the problem is the punch card.  It is one of my new ones but it is a very short one and made of clear plastic so when it is joined together it makes just a small cylinder and because of the stiffness of the plastic I think it is causing it not to knit properly.

But said Baldrick, 'I have a cunning plan'. (only the more senior English readers will understand that lol)

I have the new blank punch cards I bought so I will sit the clear one on top of the other one to mark where to punch the holes.  Yes! I have a puncher.  Of my previous machines the only thing that I kept hold of was the puncher.  That travelled with me from England to Canada and then to the US. The blank cards are longer and less rigid. Just have to make sure I get it so that it will do continuous pattern in case I ever want to use it to do a longer section of patterning.  Complicated stuff!! Hope I'm up to it!

So off I go to do that.

Ravel chord was my best friend and my worst enemy today! Well actually my stupidity was but the ravel chord played an integral part lol

I decided to make the front of the sweater today.  I started off with the ribbing which seemed to go well until the last 6 or seven rows when, for some unknown reason, the carriage started to drag. I couldn't see any dropped stitches so I carried on and transferred the stitches to the main carriage and proceeded to knit up to the armhole shaping.  I set half the stitches to the non working position using the ravel chord as per Suzy's YouTube video. It worked like a charm. (Thank's Suzy) I knitted the one side and all went well.

I put the set aside stitches back into play and wound up the ravel chord and put it in the tool box which is an integrated part of the machine.

I started on the second side, did three rows and the carriage jammed big time. I couldn't move it either way.  I took of the plate and pushed the needles out to the holding position (D) and released the carriage top but it still wouldn't budge.  Upon closer inspection I could see the ravel cord was caught up in it.  The whole chord still tied in a knot!  I snipped away at it with scissors so I could get ends to pull out, but that didn't work too well so I got my long nose pliers (which incidentally are great for straightening bent needles) and was able to pull the bulk of it out.  Then I got the other strands and was able to take off the carriage and get the rest out.  An end of the chord must have been sticking out of the tool box and got grabbed by the carriage.  The ravel chord now has a new home well away from the machine! My fault, wasn't careful enough but a lesson learned for sure.

The good knitting fairy was with me because the carriage was not damaged and I was able to complete the front.

I took it off the machine but the ribbing was not good.

So does any one have any advice for me as to why the ribber is doing this?

It was working perfectly then started acting like it was drunk last week.

I am going to play around with it some before I redo the front.  Had it have been the back I might have let it go but it shows up too much on the front.

I know I promised no more pictures until it was completed but need to show it in case anyone can help.

So a mixed day, good that I found out that I can hold stitches on the ravel chord and not have to take them off the machine, bad that the ravel chord got caught up in the machine, good that it didn't damage anything and good that I could complete the front despite jamming it.  Good that I did the split for the V neck without any problems. Not so good that the ribber isn't working correctly.  I know it is user error, either the yarn isn't feeding into it smoothly or I have the tension too tight for the yarn or the ribber isn't fitted quite right or it needs adjusting somewhere.  Hopefully I will sort it out soon and get going again.

The good thing is there were more 'goods than  'bad's.

More about the sweater and plumbing woes. (House plumbing that is, not mine lol)

I used one of the new punch cards on the new sweater.  They were such a good buy, I am still excited about them.

The blue yarn had a lot of knots when I did the back.  Hope they are not all through the cone.

Have plumbing problems today, the pipe broke last night on the water supply to the downstairs toilet. Have been to get the parts to fix it and waiting for them to set before trying it. My husband, is a wonder.  Despite his illness, he still got down and fixed it.

I got up in the night to go.  A candle I had sitting on the cistern fell off and hit the pipework where it comes out of the wall to the tap thingy to turn it on and off. (US fittings are a little different to the UK ones, I don't recall these taps back when I lived there). So the water starting spurting out in full force while I was on the loo!!!!!  I knew where to turn off the water so I did that pretty quickly then woke up my poor husband to give him the good news.

Hope it works, the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes!

Started the sweater and a buck and his doe come to graze

Just a quick post.  First of all I did the back yesterday of my second youngest grandson's sweater.

I promise not to post anymore pictures until it's done!

Secondly, just because I mentioned the deer roam freely around here in my previous post, here is a photo I just took of a young buck and his doe who came to graze.

If you click on the pictures they enlarge to see them much better.

That's it for today..........

Knitting heaven and the treasures I found

We went to the yarn shop yesterday.  I got yarn for my grandson's sweater and some contrast for my grand daughter's.  They have a brand of yarn which they are selling off because they can't get any more.  It is Millor yarns. 9oz cones and great yarn but now the quantities and colours are limited but I found what I needed. In total I bought 11 cones.  We couldn't get the royal blue we wanted for my grandson's sweater but got a nice mid blue colour instead.

The owner of the store delivered some of what we needed from the warehouse and he and my husband started chatting which meant I had time to browse the store.  I found a couple of hang on combs for $1.25 each.  They are only 2" wide but have the hole to hang the weights on so they will hook over my long combs when they come.  I also got a cleaning brush which was missing from my tool kit.

Then, and this is where the heaven bit come in, I found a huge stack of punched cards for 50c each so I waded through them and found about six.  They were still chatting so I looked some more and found another six.  I looked around the store some more but they were still chatting! So I looked some more and found another six.  I was sooooo happy. Each one had it's own instructions too!  One, I expect I will never use but just had to buy it.  It is a deer.  We live in the country and have 20 acres of land, which is a mix of hills, woodland and some reclaimed land that we keep mowed. The deer roam freely on our land so it is very apt...........but a tad gauche even for us rednecks lol

And then, they were still chatting so I waded through the box of pattern and knitting books they were selling for $3 each and found a great pattern book.

So for $66 I got all that yarn and all the other stuff.  I was grinning all day. (about 41.25 GBP). Of course we had the expense of gas but we combined the trip with going to the pet store to buy some fish and corals.

I woke up and am still grinning.

Now to find the time to go and play with my new treasures!!!!!

PS.

At the store they had a lot of garments on display that had been knitted on machines and my husband really liked the ones that had been made on the chunky machines so maybe, in time, with a bit of luck and all fingers crossed, I may get a chunky machine too.

Some progress

I got a couple of hours yesterday afternoon to try some things.  Firstly, a big thanks to Phil for his tips on casting on on the main bed.  Pulling the needles out to D position for the first six rows works perfectly.  No floats.  Also I ordered a set of long combs on ebay. The hook type to better weight the knitting when casting on using the main bed.

I decided to give the blue and green yarn another go. I know, I'm a glutton for punishment!  What can I say, I'm a stubborn old lady who doesn't like to waste anything. I tried just using one strand and while it knits very easily, the knitting comes out too thin even on the tightest tension.  So I tried using two strands using the punch card that knits every other stitch. I used one blue strand and one green strand with each fed through their own side of the yarn feeder.

Afterwards I thought that I could have used two strands of the same colour using the punch card to give a plain colour with a thicker texture.  So I do have a way to use up that yarn now.

I thought I would make our dog a doggy coat to start with and see how that comes out.

So that was my knitting experience yesterday.

Have to get some different yarn to make my second youngest grandson's sweater.  My husband wants him to have a royal blue one and I don't want to use the thin yarn.....so back to yarn shop we will go lol.  Also I need to get some contrast colour to go with it and some to go with the yarn I have for my grand daughter.

Housework day today so probably no knitting. Blah!

This is a great site

Ok, not wanting to bore the pants off of anyone, more a record for myself.  This site is great for looking up machines.

So this was my second machine around 1980:-

http://www.knittingmachinemuseum.com/Jones_588.php

and my third was one of these but with a ribber attachment.  I think it was the model 836 around 1990

http://www.knittingmachinemuseum.com/Brother_800_s.php

If only I had kept hold of them all.  Easy to be wise after the event eh?

OMG I found out what my first knitting machine was

Thanks to reading another blog I was compelled to google what a Knitmaster 4500 machine is.  I was amazed to see it was the same one as I had all those years ago.  Mine didn't have a ribmaster though.  But now at least I know what it was.  I loved that machine, it was my first and I was 21 when I got it. The good thing about that machine was the sinkers.  No weights required.  Sometimes the simplest things are the best!

http://www.knittingmachinemuseum.com/Knitmaster_4500.php

Knitting machine blues

I had a bad weekend with the machine.  After I did all those swatches on Friday I was ready to go but I had an idea that I wanted to swatch first before starting on the sweater.

Well, it was like the machine was drunk on Saturday.  The ribbing just wouldn't work.  I tried it over and over again with the same results.

I thought at first it might be because I was using the two strands of blue but as you can see, it did it to the other yarn too.

So I took of the ribber and refitted it, maybe it had slipped somehow.  The right hand bracket on the ribber is very stiff.  The bracket that raises and lowers the ribber carriage.  I have looked at it and examined it but can't see why it is so stiff  but has been so from the get go. Because of it raising and lowering the carriage is very hard.  I have to really tug on it on the right side to get it to move.  I oiled it a lot and it has helped a little but clearly there is a problem, but it isn't insurmountable.

After doing this on Saturday, I left it.  Yesterday when I went back to it was still having a problem.  This time I took down the whole thing, ribber and main carriage and set them both back up from scratch.  It seemed to work on the beige yarn OK yarn but still has problems using the two strands of the thinner yarn.  So for now I have put that yarn away.  I will try and find out if there is anything to make knitting with two or more strands easier.  I have enough other yarn to betting on with.  

I did a couple of swatches after I put it all back together again.  Just as a side note, I still had two strands of green in one side so I used it as a contrast in one of the swatches.  It seems once the knitting is started it doesn't seem to have a problem.  Just with getting going with it seems.  But I am still leaving it aside for now.

So that was my weekend of knitting horrors.

I am not complaining though, just documenting.  This is my happy blog.

I want to thank Phil for the advice on casting on.  I will try that when I get back on the machine, probably Wednesday.  Today we are working on the fishtank and tomorrow we have the 300 mile round trip to the hospital for my husband's cardio appointment.

Cup of tea time now.  There are some things that an English woman can't do without lol

And to prove I really do need to get a life, Here is the Barbie Collection by Maureen

Well what are you supposed to do with all those swatches? lol

Ok, that's enough blogging! Off to make an apple pie.  Trees weren't very fruitful this year but picked enough yesterday for a pie. And as for the blackberries, nary a one this year, they just didn't plump up. Not one peach on the peach tree either.  So a bad year for fruit all round.

Our radio station - Radio 66 plus

I am sitting at my computer listening to our radio station which is selecting absolutely great music this morning. This is my husband's project, I just lend a hand with the jingles sometimes.  We need to get back to it and do some more stuff for it, my husband hasn't been feeling too great lately.  It runs 24/7 and can be accessed from our website

Radio 66 plus

Give it a listen, it has all sorts of music.  Oldies, rock, blues, recent, country....something for everyone

Test swatches day!

Because we live in the middle of nowhere when we made the trip to the yarn shop I bought a LOT of yarn. It didn't help that I had forgotten an awful lot about machine knitting and  it doesn't help either that I live in a different country where the measurements are a tad wacky.  Like fractions! What's wrong with good old 3 ply, 4 ply, double knitting and chunky? So being totally clueless but overly excited and ambitious I bought a lot of yarn.

The brown and beige yarn I made the first sweater with is actually perfect for my machine.  The only problem is that in the store I didn't notice the glimmer.  It knits really nicely though and looks great.

I bought some mid blue yarn which is a little thinner than the brown, about a 4 ply and that knits great too.

So those two lots of yarn turned out to be just fine in hindsight.  The only problem is the difference in thickness so I can't use the mid blue yarn with the brown or beige so at some point I have to get something that I can do a contrast colour with it.

Here is where I went a bit silly and wasn't so wise.

Note the cup of tea that is never very far away lol.

I think it is about 1 and a half ply per strand so I have been using two strands together making it an approx 3 ply.  As I have sooooo much of it, I have to use it.  It's way to much just to be waste yarn lol.  I'd be knitting till I'm a hundred and fifty to use it all up!  Each cone weighs about thirty six ounces.

So to start I am going to make my second youngest grandson a sweater with it. I mentioned this in my previous post but I have changed my mind on doing it all stripes.  I may incorporate some into it but not all throughout.

So I did some swatches to see how it knitted and check the tension.  I do not like knitting with two strands, although it looks fine. I found that I casted off way too tightly with it and had difficulty doing ewrap cast on with it.  Mind you I have yet to master the art of casting on on just the main bed, sometimes it works great and other times not so good!

My first swatch was to test the size the garment would come out as well as test the pattern.  I like the pattern a lot but the floats were way too big for a young child.  He could easily catch his fingers in them.  On this one I also tried using one strand of blue and one of green together.  I liked how it looked on the rib but not so much on the stocking stitch.

I did another couple of swatches using different patterns and colour combinations and the floats on the back of both of these are not a concern.  I also tried different amount of rows for each rib and decided on 24 rows and 18 rows of pattern with 4 rows of plain before the pattern starts (well 5 with the pattern  remembering row).  

So, I've decided to go with the last pattern but using the blue as the main colour for the rib and the rest of the body and arms.  I will decide on what colour to do the neckband.  This one is going to be a V neck so maybe that's where I'll do some stripes.

Bedtime now, started this around 4 pm but then had evening meal and watched some TV. 

I am sure that as the novelty wears off my posts will get shorter and simpler but for now I am enjoying documenting what I'm doing.

It's done!

You wouldn't believe the problems the button caused lol.  First of all, as we live in the middle of nowhere, a seventy mile round trip was made to buy a button.  Then there was choosing said button which was a lengthy process.  I took the sweater with me, (a miracle in itself that I remembered!).  But, we had other shopping to do also so we did that and checked out and afterwards when I opened my purse (handbag for my English friends) to put the receipt away I spotted the sweater in it's ziplock baggy and realised I hadn't purchased the button. My wonderful husband who has some serious health problems was by this time exhausted so he sat  with the cart full of shopping and waited while I went back to get it.  We shop in a superstore that thankfully sells everything.

Now came the choosing process.  I was hoping to find a cutesy button of a teddy bear or something similar but they were all too big and jagged which I thought might scratch my grandson's neck.  So then I thought I would get one that matched either the brown or the beige but nothing jumped out at me and then I spotted the one(s) I bought.  They were wooden buttons that incorporated both colours of yarn.........perfect.

That was Monday.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was my birthday and I decided to have a chill day and not do a lot.  Something very rare for me. It was also the hottest day of the year so far, 109F about 42C. Later in the afternoon though I thought I had been lazy enough, plus being lazy is very boring I realise, so decided I would sew on the button.

Now as this is my first garment on the machine I have been ultra meticulous in sewing in the ends etc so I sewed on the button, sewing in the ends in the edge of the neckband where it joins the main body.  It was an amazing work of art.....but...the button wasn't in the right place, when it was done up the neck edges didn't fall in line. aarrgghh!!!!!.  So, I unpicked it all.  Then my brother called from Canada to wish me happy birthday so I was trying to talk to him and mess with the button at the same time and sewed it on again only to find it still wasn't right. double aarrgghh!!!!  Then it was time to eat so I abandoned it.

Sat down after dinner (tea for the English and supper for the Canadians) to watch some TV and decided to try again.  Carefully unpicked it again.  Then I got wise!  I kept trying it by just threading the yarn through two holes of the button and holding the yarn at the back to see if the button was placed correctly.  I finally found the perfect spot and sewed it on properly.

So messing with the button took as much time as knitting the front even with all the problems I encountered with that lol.

So here it is.......

I am ready to move onto the next garment now.  This one has been fun and a learning experience but I am ready to mail it off.

Soooooo, next one will be for another grandson who is 14 months old.  He will be one and a half when it will be cool enough for him to need a sweater, he lives in California.  Plus he is an altogether much bigger baby that my other grandson so I will knit for an age 2 at least.

I have some royal blue yarn and some green, both 2/24 weigh which is about 1.5 ply.  So two strands together shouldn't be too thick for him.

I thought I would do the rib in a mixture of both colours then do alternate stripes of blue and green.  Will do a swatch to see how it looks.  Another simple garment to get broken in with the machine.

My husband is already joking that he has been thrown over for the knitting machine lol so don't want to overdo it.  he is and always will be my first love.

Ideas wanted

I have two teenage grand-daughters (13 and 17) and one nearly teenage grandson (12).  Making things for little ones is easy but what to make for older kids?  Don't think any of them would like a button up cardigan lol.  Also to take into consideration is that they live in Florida where sweaters and cardigans are not really required.

So any ideas anyone?

I finished the sweater.....almost

I finished the sweater today, all the knitting and sewing up anyway.  Just have to get a cute button for the neckband tomorrow.  I remembered when my kids were little they didn't much like having tight necked sweaters  pulled over their heads so I decided to leave a little opening on the left front seam and made a loop for a button so it will make it easier to get on and off.

I was happy how the neckband came out.  One of the books I bought from Alibris was 'The Machine Knitters Guide to the Ribber' by Betty Bailey.  It was printed in 1988 but was in perfect condition for being second hand.  I bought four knitting books for $14 from them.  Postage was $14 too but still a great deal.  But I digress.  When reading through this book which is full of useful info and patterns I saw a pattern for a round neck sweater which had the cast on edge as the edge. When the neckband is knitted and all the stitches transferred onto the main bed you pick up the stitches from the three parts sewn up item onto the needles with the neckband on then knit one row then cast off.  I thought this was a good idea so that you get the nice cast on edge rather than a casted off edge.  And to be truthful, I haven't tried casting off rib yet so this seemed like the quickest and easiest way to go.

The longest part was picking up the stitches but it didn't take too long. I crocheted a loop ready for the button.  I left the neck open about two and a half inches so it should slip over my grandson's head easily.

I am sure I am going to be making lots of things on my machine now I have completed the first one after twenty plus years absence from using a knitting machine.

Now if I can only get used to all the levers and what they do so I don't have to have the manual right by my side every step of the way!

I really do like making things............

How did I forget this, it was hard work!

I made this robe for my husband for the winter of 2010.  My mother in law, who passed away last year, was a wonderful seamstress, knitter, crocheter, quilter etc, etc, etc.  You name it, she made it.  She had made him a robe years ago which he loved.  It was made from terry toweling and it just plain wore out.  I patched it a few times but if finally gave up the goat.

I didn't want to make one with terry toweling because it frays so much.  We looked at fabric and I wanted to use fleece as it sews so nicely and doesn't fray.  He didn't like any of the patterns on the fleece fabric. We thought we would try another store but as we were walking out there were some throws on sale for $5 each.  'That's what I want my robe made of"  he declared

Its like a fleece but had a pile and a big pattern to try and match.

We bought four of them and they sat at home for a while while I pondered on them.  I had found a pattern which was very similar to his old one so one day I decided to get at it.

Guess what though, it frayed.....and terribly!  It made a huge mess cutting it out in the spare room where I have my sewing machine and now my much loved knitting machine. Being a trooper though I soldiered on and got it cut out and managed to match the fronts and backs to each other and the sleeves to each other.  The only thing that didn't match was the band that went all around the edge which was impossible to match because of the angles of the neck edge.

I had to make french seams for everything as I don't have an over-locker but it all worked out well.  My machine struggled with the thickness sometimes but I just hand sewed anything that was too thick to go through the machine.

The fabric although thick is very soft so the thick seams aren't a problem.

So here it is. I hope this one lasts as long as his last one because I wouldn't relish making another one, not with that fabric anyway.  I think with just ordinary fleece it would be quite simple though.

A useful link

I have put up a link on the sidebar and also in this post for the Hong Kong knitting shop.  I have found them to be very reasonably priced and they ship for free. They ship the day of the order and I have received both my orders here in Missouri  within a week of ordering.

http://shop.sckmcl.com.hk

I was having difficulties finding a supplier of parts in the US and so far this place has had everything I need.

And no! I'm not on commission lol, just thought they were worth a mention.

I dug through my photos and found some of my previous projects

Here are some of my previous projects.  We had a spate of babies, grand kids and grand nieces and nephews and that was when I decided the knitting needles should come out again. The last sweater I hand knitted was an Arran one in a beautiful buttercup color and I forgot to take a photo before I mailed it off.

Oh dear, it sucks to be getting older and more forgetful!

(Since living in Northern America (Canada and the US) for fifteen years I have picked up some of their not so nice sayings, 'sucks to be....' being one of them. But I guess, when in Rome.....and all that lol).

I realized that my sewing these past years had been mainly limited to making curtains although I did make one summer dress for my grand daughter but that was a very easy garment.  The hardest part being the tie up straps on the top.

Wrong date on this, I had forgotten to reset date after charging battery on camera, made this in 2010

Now I have my machine I think I will be much more prolific with my projects.  That's the plan anyway!

Made for my granddaughter. She is four now and still wears it.  It kinda grew with her

Shoes for a friend's granddaughter

Another for my granddaughter

One for a grand nephew

Wrong date on this too, I made this June 2010 for my grandson.

Living room curtains, there are two windows this size so made two sets

Sunroom curtains.  there are two other windows in this room two that I made sets for

I searched for more but I must have deleted them.......thank goodness eh?

Off to sew up the sweater ready to do the neckband.  I dreamed about it and that I did the neckband in the contrast color so that's what I'm going to do.

Thanks Susan

I got a comment on one of my posts from Susan about how to set stitches back out of use whilst splitting the piece for the neck.  She has put up many videos on her blog which are great.  So now I know how to put the stitches out of use using the ravel chord and also have a heads up about using the knit radar.

Thanks Susan

wow me!

I knitted the second sleeve this afternoon and it only took one hour and twenty minutes. It came hot on the heels of the one I did Monday afternoon so I remembered where I had make mistakes on that one and so I managed to avoid them today.  No need for a picture, it looks just like the other one lol.

Yeah, found time to do a sleeve today!

I found the time this afternoon to do a sleeve.

It was not without mistakes lol but I managed to unravel the wrong bit and pick up the good bit onto ravel chord and then transfer it back onto the machine to complete.

Took some more pictures too.

The machine set up with the ribber attachment

The knitting on the machine for ribbing

After ribbing done and all stitches transferred to main bed. The ribber is dropped to give easier access to main bed

The left sleeve

Early night tonight as we have the trip to Columbia tomorrow.

Goodnight.....

Sweater progress report.

I have been on a bit of a spring cleaning session but decided yesterday to try again to knit the front of the sweater.

It was not without difficulties! It took three and a half hours and should have only took about two. I remembered this time to set the punchcard to move so I didn't get the dreaded stripes and I got up to where I had to shape the neck. This involved splitting the work. I thought that I would leave one side on the needles in the holding position. So to be sure this would work I went back to the trusty manual. Oh no! for that to work I would have to move the russell levers from the ll to l position. I had no idea how this would affect the knitting and didn't want to lose what I had done. So I had a brain wave. Use the ravel chord!

For those who don't know, a ravel chord is a nylon chord that pulls out very easily so you can knit with it to hold stitches. Great I thought, easy peezy! Except having used the chord to manually knit the required stitches onto it.....of which there was only 23, I realised that there was nothing to stop the ravel chord stitches unravelling when I took them of the needles. That's where I think the waste yarn knitting comes in I had read about. I thought it would be easiier to just thread the ravel chord back through the ravel chord stitches to stop them from unravelling. So that's what I did, but it wasn't quite so simple as it sounds. I had to do it while the stitches were still on the needle because of the texture of the chord had I taken them off they would have just unraveled. I got it done though.

This added about an hour to the process.

I casted off the center stitches and proceeded on the rest of the needles to shape the neck edge and the sleeve edge. That went well.

Back to the stitches on the ravel chord.

I managed to get the stitches back on the needles and the ravel chord out and continued on to do the neck and sleeve shaping. Ravel chord is my friend!!!

I was well pleased with myself!

I went downstairs clutching said completed front piece to impress my husband.

He was hungry lol so I stopped and did lunch.

I was gloating about my work and was spreading it out to show him when the glaring error hit me. I had shaped the second side backwards. ie. I had done the sleeve shaping on the neck edge and the neck shaping on the sleeve edge. Arrgghh!!!!

I was distraught but thought about it and realized that I could maybe save it by unravelling the offending side to where I started the neck shaping on the picked up stitches. It was easy to know where that was because I had broken the yarn to start on that section. Phew! I picked up the stitches by threading my new found friend the ravel chord through them first just to ensure they didn't run then transferred them to the machine and completed the shaping the correct way this time.

That took about 30 minutes but it was done. yeah, so now I have the back and the front done.

Next to start on the sleeves.

I spent last night writing out the sleeve pattern longhand on a row by row basis where shaping is involved.

When I started hand knitting again about 5 years ago I realized my ability to remember where I was in a pattern was gone so I write out my hand knitting patterns too and I can mark off the rows as I go.

It takes a little longer but it works for me.

Tuesday and Thursday we are at the VA hospital, today I have to shop so probably Wednesday before I get back to it.

It's still really hot here, still no rain. I got up at 4.30am to go to the bathroom and the a/c was still blasting away. Will have to take out a bank loan to pay this months electric bill!!! But it is nice to be cool indoors. We keep it set at 74F. We would like it a little cooler but are realistic about the cost.

Can't wait for when we can open up the windows again and let the cool fresh air in. Come on Fall!!

just one teensy weensy thing I forgot!!!!!

So, I had time this afternoon for knitting so upstairs I went to the spare room where I have my machine set up.

I casted on perfectly, I ribbed perfectly, I transferred all the stitches perfectly, I weighted it perfectly, I put in the punchcard perfectly, I did my row for it to remember the pattern and off I went on the pattern. The contrast color was knitting in OK so I was knitting up a storm.

Now on machine knitting you can only see the back of the knitting but a dozen rows into the pattern I could see something was wrong. It looked like it was doing just stripes instead of patterns.

I checked everything and I had forgotton just one step!!!!It was to take the punchcard lever off of stop to go. (round spot to triangle) arrgghh!!!!! This meant that the punchcard wasn't going through so it was just repeating the one row.

So I got stripes, which my husband and I both agree are pretty nifty but it doesn't match the back lol.

At least I know how to make vertical stripes now!

Going to see if I can get pictures and post but first I need a cup of tea.

Too late to start again this afternoon. Need a good couple of hours without interruptions and I won't get that now, plus that cup of tea is calling to me.

Too bad we already had pie and ice cream, I could have wallowed in self pity over a plateful of that. Maybe a cookie with my tea will help.

A knitting blog I read has the lady quoting that she makes a lot of things but most of all she makes mistakes. I can certainly relate to that! But, I'm still very much enjoying the challenges.

This is what it should have looked like

This is what I got.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow lol.

Yeah, I've started a garment

I decided to make a sweater for the smallest member of the family, baby Henry who is seven months old now and lives in NJ where they have cold winters.

Yesterday, I took the bull by the horns and started. The new parts had arrived from Hong Kong and I changed them for the worn ones and was ready to go.

I finally found a pattern I liked for a raglan sleeve round neck sweater so I had run out of excuses. Yesterday afternoon I did the back! It involved using the ribber and the punchcard and doing a lot of decreasing. Going cautiously, it took about two hours.

I am so happy, happy, happy.......

Knitting update

Oh no cries the reader, not again! Well, this is my blog so there.....so this is the latest.

I didn't do anything yesterday on the machine, just wasn't in a very good mood and also was busy. I went out and mowed a couple of hours before it got too hot but I stayed out too long and was very hot when I got back in. The heat makes me grumpy.

Added to that, my husband was all fired up about Google+ and wanted me to set mine up and was in here on my computer doing stuff to do that. I wasn't ready to do it, I don't like change plus I like my Facebook, so that made me grumpier.

Then we went to town to eat and shop and by this time it was really hot. Lunch was excellent. Fast food again! Am I becoming a fast food junkie?????

We went to shop but my husband was tired by this time. He got a haircut from the instore hairdresser but she didn't cut his hair as he wanted so he was grumpy too. We got the basics stuff we needed then headed off to get gas and coffee.

I dropped my full cup of coffee in the store when getting it from under the dispenser so I felt really bad for the sales clerk who had to clean it all up.

We left the gas station and went to DQ for ice cream. That was good!

Then we came home and I put away the shopping.

My husband had gone to lie down and I joined him. I slept till 5.30pm, I couldn't believe it. He had only napped briefly so had been up quite a while.

So that was my day yesterday....but!!!

The day before I had been on the machine and did two perfect test pieces, one with the ribber and one without. My home made round brush covers worked just fine so now I am going to embark on a garment........

Um, I recall saying that some time ago lol, but this time I think I am really ready.

This afternoon maybe...........

Oh as an afterthought. I bought a barbie doll yesterday. Can you believe it they are less than $6 for a basic doll. I missed the Barbie era, they were before my time.

Anyway, the dresses I made out of test pieces fit perfectly! Yeah! Maybe a picture will be added later.

My oh my, I need to get a life!!!!

What can I say??? I have been quite busy this morning. I cooked breakfast, I did washing and hung it out and bought in yesterday's. I've made a loaf of bread and stripped the bed so I deserve a little down time...right? lol.

Googled Barbies too and apparantly they came out in 1959 so I have no idea why I never had one, I would have been 11 years old then. Ah, maybe it was because I thought I was all grown up by then and into pop music.

Instant gratification...it ain't!

I spent a lot of time on the knitting machine over the weekend. Saturday afternoon I decided to set up the ribber attachment. I believed I followed the instructions but it didn't work. Tried several times to no avail. I came downstairs muttering that I had bought a hunk of junk.

We watched the NASCAR race and I finished reading a book and had my usual NASCAR nap. I was very, very tired and couldn't stay awake even though my guy was in the lead.

Sunday, I was giving some thought to the machine and decided to go back and try again. Again, no joy. I realized that I mustn't have it set up correctly so I went through the manual again and lo and behold I had missed a step completely. I redid it and had some success. I managed to knit in rib but I had lost stitches off the side and this time I couldn't blame it on the carriage arm because it wasn't attached. How's that for logic lol? I tried again and ribbed some more which was going really well until I dropped a stitch from the side again. I then tried to see if I could transfer the stitches from the ribber bed to the main carriage and proceed in plain knitting. Now this part I managed perfectly! So I did about 6 inches in plain and cast off. I could see where the stitch had dropped and I think it was because i didn't have it weighted equally.

Barbie now has another dress, this time a blue one. She is going to be one well dressed barbie by the time I've finished practising!

I made some makeshift round brush covers for the main carriage arm. That really awful clear plastic packaging that everything comes in these days that you have to cut off and is really sharp is actually perfect for making the little round covers. I made some yesterday and they work just fine on the main machine arm.

So progress was made over the weekend but still no real garments in the works yet. I will practice with the ribber some more before I embark on one.

The books I bought off the Alibris website are wonderful, full of very helpful and useful information and tips and lots of patterns. I even found a pattern for a doggy coat on the internet so Boris will be getting his coat......eventually.

I can't remember having this many problems before but I was a lot younger then and my attention to detail was much better but I am sure I will get there. Meantime I am having fun but as the title of this entry states

"Instant gratification...it ain't!"

Knitting machine update

I haven't had chance to do anything with the knitting machine since Monday other than order some new brushes from a supplier I found in Hong Kong.

They also had a ribber manual which you could purchase and download. On Monday I had tried to assemble the ribber and found out that the manual the kind lady had taken the time to copy and send me wasn't the exact same model so it had different parts to mine to attach the ribber to the machine and I couldn't work out how to do it.. So finding the actual manual at this Hong Kong online shop was a bonus and she emailed it to me and I printed it up. Now I understand what the problem was so when I next get chance to work on it I should be able to get it all set up. It didn't help that the ribber I purchased came with some additional fittings that didn't belong to it lol and I was trying to fit those!. I found this out when I printed up the ribber manual and it had a list of parts that came with it.

So all is going well, just need to find some time to work on it.

Tomorrow we are going to Kansas City to take care of some business and hopefully sell some of our corals which have multiplied like crazy in the fish tank.

So look likes Saturday before I get anymore knitting stuff done.

I have encountered a snag with the knitting

Yesterday afternoon I tried many times to start on a garment and I kept having problems with the every other stitch casting on again. I finally realized that it is not me. At first I put it down to user error but the same thing kept happening over and over again and always on the right side. When I took off the front plate I could see that one of the round brush covers was warped. I had managed to find a maintenance manual online so I knew the correct names to look up on the internet for availability. I have found a source for all spare parts for my machine, it is Hong Kong but the shipping is free. The parts are not outrageously priced either.

I was a little dubious about the supplier but it shows up all over the place and on ebay too and has good feedback so I will go ahead and order some, probably through ebay as they have buyer protection.

I also found a great website about machine knitting and problems and sure enough, the looping I am getting is caused by worn round brushes.

What on earth did we do before the internet eh?

Meantime I have two options. It seems to knit well on every stitch so I could do a turned edge or I could put on the ribber as to use the ribber you have to take off the plate that has the faulty brushes.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Meanwhile, I will order the parts then ponder some more.

Am I ready for the ribber???? That is the burning question of the day!

Time to embark on a garment on the knitting machine

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday experimenting on the knitting machine. Still haven't 100% conquered he casting on for mock rib which is using every other needle but two out of three times it works OK so I must be on the right track. I also did some punchcard knitting yesterday. The darned manual didn't tell me how to resume normal knitting so the first time I did it I lost my stitches. Had to think through the process and came up with a sequence of moving levers that worked so the second attempt was good. It's a case of understanding what the levers do as opposed to just following instructions because then the instructions make sense plus you can also logic through the processes.

My last test piece sewed up nicely into a Barbie dress (now I have to go and pick up a Barbie doll but that's OK because I have a 4 yr old grand daughter so by the time I've finished she will have a Barbie fully outfitted lol). Another test piece, the one where I lost the stitches, will make a cute doll's hat. I picked up the stitches with a darning needle and pulled it through so just have to sew it up the side.

Soooooo, now I am going to embark on a garment. A child's sweater using mock rib and having a bit of fairisle going round the bottom of the body and the sleeves. I will make it using a size 2 pattern which I assume is age 2 and see how it comes out. With two grandsons, one just over one year and one 6 months, it will fit one of them at some time. If it knits up small then it will be ready for the next new baby that comes along. How's that for improvising? Eventually I will be able to knit exactly what size I want but for now it's all experimental....but such good fun.

I need to make something to boost my confidence. It's not that I'm new to machine knitting, I've had three others along the way but over 20 years ago and this one is a different make. The mechanical ones all work on the same basic principles but the levers are different and take a lot of getting used to.

So that's my plan but first of all I have an apple pie to make......it is almost July 4th after all and what can be more American than hot apple pie and icecream.

Knitting machine update

I didn't do any practice yesterday as we worked on the fishtank all day as stated in my previous post. I did make progress on Sunday though. I mastered the e-loop casting on method which I was having so many problems with.....yeah me! I was getting over confidant though and thought maybe I should start on a garment lol. Well, I wanted to use the punchcard and try a pattern for the grand daughter and see how the two colours went together so I followed the instructions but it didn't work, so I tried again and it still didn't work. In hind site, I think I had the second yarn threaded wrong but it was time to quit at that point so I will try again, probably after the hospital stay is over and done with.

Who knows, maybe the treatment will work and my husband will be as he was and we will be so busy catching up with all the jobs that have not got done the past couple of years that I won't get chance to be on the knitting machine for months.........a small price to pay!

The new addition....the knitting machine

Just a couple of shots of the new machine and a piece of practice work.

Had the perfect spot for it in the spare bedroom complete with seat right by it so Edward can come up and observe lol

Note the instruction manual isn't far away!

a practice piece, casted on using the instructions in the book but haven't mastered casting on every other stitch yet. That's tomorrow's project. I did make it into a double hem to see how it looks.

Remembered how to make holes and I casted it all off afterwards.