Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the USA so the turkey is in the oven along with sweet potatoes and stuffing.

I have been working on Christmas presents but will not be posting pictures until after Christmas just  in case any of the recipients read my blog.

Today though, the knitting machine will be left under wraps.  Tomorrow is housework day as many of my husband's family are in the vincinity for his Aunt and Uncle's 70th wedding anniversary.  Now that's not something you get to participate in very often, a 70th Anniversary party but that's where we are headed on Saturday so I guess there will not be any more knitting until Sunday at the earliest. We may get visitors back here after the party so better make the place all spic and span lol.

Have lots of things to do in the next three weeks before we depart for CA so it's gonna be a busy few weeks.

I made some cone stands

The advantage of having a husband who likes making things too, (in his case woodwork type things) is there are always lots of off cuts of wood in his workshop.

I love winding yarn on the woolwinder but I only have one cone so when I take the yarn off the cone the hole closes up and sometimes the cone will fall over when I'm knitting with it on the machine.

So I went off the the workshop, found some offcuts, sanded them down so the yarn wouldn't catch and found some thin dowling.

I got my husband to drill the holes and cut the dowling to the sizes I wanted and then I glued them in.

Here they are:-

being tested out

The large cone's cardboard cone is all squashed in so the cone wouldn't 

stay upright before and the cone I wound closed up when I took it off

the winder so it would tip over sometimes

 

And finally, the little jacket is done and in the mail!

After my last post I thought it was about time I just stopped whining and complaining and just got on with it, so I did lol.

Actually, everything went quite smoothly after the faux pas of trying to knit the hood in one piece.

I knitted the two pieces of the hood and then both sleeves.  Then I was left to decide on how to edge the front and said hood.  I tried the suggested method of crocheting the edges but my skills in crochet are not that good so I decided to do a doubled edge.  Then I had to calculate how many stitches I would have to pick up so that it didn't pull too tight or be loose and wavy.  I experimented on my swatches and found out how many stitches and what tension would be best.  I knitted the main body on tension 6 using tuck stitch but the edges needed to be tension 4 on the hood and 3.. on the front.

The front edge attached to to the front and being cast off.

Before I started on the edges I decided to move my knitting desk to a different location in the spare room. I needed more space around me and it was too crowded in where I had it up against a wall.

I had snaffled a bench from my husbands workshop to use at my machine because I could slide along it when knitting and could also place my pattern and instructions etc on it. With it being against the wall I now have a backrest.

I had read on a knitting blog that it is best to have the yarn on the floor behind the machine rather than just sitting on the table behind the machine so now my desk is not against the wall I can do this.  The other advantages are I can now set up the wool winder and whirly gig  on the desk and I could even have the Knitsmart fitted up on the back of the desk and I would just have to move my bench around.  Much better than having to take down the 700 to use the Knitsmart.  I am very happy with this arrangement.

Ice cream pots make great containers for the cones and of course, there's the ever present cup of tea!

And now for the piece de resistance!  The Jacket.  I have to say I am pretty proud of myself on this one.

All the time I was making it I was worrying about sewing in the zipper. Should I hand sew it in, should I use the sewing machine, was putting a zipper in a bad idea?  All these thoughts were rolling around in my head.  When it was all sewn up and ready for the zipper I was quite nervous.  I started off by pining it in, then I tacked it and took out the pins.  Next I took my trusty swatch and an old zipper and tried sewing it on the machine from the front but it pulled the knitting a bit.  Finally I took the bull by the horns and stitched it on the machine sewing on the zipper side and using the teeth as a guide.  

The result was perfect.  I was soooooo happy.

I wanted it to be perfect because my four year old grand daughter is excited about getting it and she was hoping it would be as 'beautiful' (her words) as one I had made for her when she was a baby, which incidentally, seemed to grow with her as she was still wearing it when she was three!

Have some things to get done in the house and some sewing to do before embarking on my next project on the Knitsmart. A bulky cardigan for my husband.

'Bout time they sent me to the knacker yard!

I decided to make the hood today on the little jacket.  Remember I am using the knit radar for the first time and sometimes I think I am cleverer than I really am..

I thought I was being really clever by remembering to adjust the pattern piece so the centre line was two stitches left of zero to keep the pattern central.  I did a great job of increasing to get to the required stitches and got half way up hood when something clicked in my head!   Clearly the shaping I was doing on the outside edges was for the back of the head so 'Um, where is the opening for the head'?????

I looked back at the pattern and it was marked left side and right side.  Duh!!! The hood has to be made in two pieces.  The centre line wasn't the centre line at all, it was the edge of the hood where the face goes lol.

Undid it and decided to watch the Nascar race instead.  Not such a good idea either!

Ah well, there's always tomorrow

A little progress

Things have been busy here so the knitting had been put on the back burner.  Today, I grabbed a couple of hours and knitted the second front.  It wasn't without 'user error' though lol!  I am using the knit radar and totally misread the stitch numbers on the needle bed and ended up with an extra ten stitches.  Fortunately, I wasn't too far into it when I notices so was not too much trouble to start again.

I had a little trouble right at the end with it missing loops.  Think the weight of the knitting on a few stitches was too much for the machine to cope with the tuck pattern.  I managed to knit them in by hand as fortunately it didn't drop any stitches.

So the back and both fronts are done.

I realized that I was not going to have enough of the cream yarn to knit two sleeves, even with the cuffs being knitted in the lilac.  I called the yarn store and they had one cone left with the same dye number.  Phew!!!! They are mailing it out to me. Much easier and cheaper than the two hour drive to pick it up.

Will do the hood next as I am doing that in lilac and by then the new yarn should be here to do the sleeves.

One of the things that happened this past weekend was we were involved in an accident.  Not a serious one thankfully.  We had spent a lovely day at the lake visiting with a friend at his new lake house.  On the way back we decided to pull into the gas station to get coffee.  My husband was driving and he accidently pushed the accelerator instead of the brake when we were pulling up in front of the store.  We mounted the sidewalk and hit the building.  The wall under the window caved in and our driver side was damaged.  It is still driveable thankfully.  We will replace the lamp unit but will not do the other work as the vehicle is nearly 12 years old. There was no tickets issued as the Policeman was sympathetic and knew it was accidental. The insurance will cover the damage to the property.

The good part of the day, on the lake in our friend's boat

The bad part!

My husband has decided to stop driving.  His legs are too weak he realises.  So I will have to do all the driving henceforth which is why I am grateful to be having the yarn mailed out.

Have also made a little progress on the sunroom renovations this past couple of weeks so it isn't all bad.

A big Thank you to Susan (suzyranner)

Susan posted a comment on one of my prior posts explaining that I had cut off the feed supply so people were not being notified of my posts. I wondered why no one was commenting but thought that my constant ramblings were getting boring.  I was a little sad at that thought but I use my blog as my journal too so that I can go back and look at how I am progressing with the knitting so I carried on rambling regardless!

I hope I have corrected the problem but maybe others might not be so happy when they get my stream of posts popping up lol.  Sorry guys, there's been quite a few!

This time it was user error! and does two a collection make?

Yesterday afternoon while the Nascar race was on I went up stairs to knit a front for the jacket.  I was doing great, I was up to the neckline shaping and started on it. I was feeling pretty good at this point until I noticed I had started to decrease on the smallest size on the pattern and it is the biggest size I am knitting!!!!!  Pure unadulterated, can't blame it on any one but myself, user error lol.  I wasn't mad because it was my own doing. The machine, my Betsy, was functioning perfectly. I have since marked in pencil on the pattern where I need to go to to avoid a repeat of this. I will erase it when I am done.

Now to my other news.  Friday I bought another knitting machine.  It was an impulse buy at a great price.  (I bartered and got it for half the asking price) .  The guy who was selling it is a local Policeman who bought it for his wife he said, about 15 years ago.  But she left him 5 years ago and didn't take it so he wanted rid of it. He didn't think she had used it much but it has been used.  He totally blew away any value in it being an antique collectible by throwing away the original box and storing it in a tool box but as I bought it to use and not resell, that's not a problem. Doing some research I think it is more like 20 years old but no matter.

It's a KnitSmart 3-in-1 system.  Actually, it's a hobby machine.  Everything is plastic except the needles.  It's more like a toy but it knits double knitting and bulky yarn.  It wouldn't do the super bulky 6 we bought to try though. Not surprised really, it's like flipping rope!!! I wouldn't even want to hand knit with it, it's so thick. I'm assuming this machine is like a Bond but never having seen one I don't know.  It does have an electronic row counter which I don't think the Bond's have.  I can't get over everything being plastic.  Even the plates that move the needles are plastic and you have to wax them lol.

It has 104 needles on the original machine, and it came with an extension of 26 needles making it a total of 130 usable needles.  It is an 8mm so bigger than a mid gauge but smaller than a regular chunky. Apparently, according to the manual, they were going to make modules to buy to be able to convert it to a 6.5mm or a 9.5mm machine.  The modules being the needle beds, the carriage would work on all three sizes of them.  Will keep a look out for them on the internet, might be able to pick one or both up cheaply somewhere one day.

Some extra thick double knit.  I think they call it worsted weight here in the US.

Some bulky #5 yarn. I love this yarn, it knits with subtle changes of colour.  The lilac is for comparison as it is what I am using on my Studio 700 to knit the little jacket.

I used plate #30 for the yellow and plate #35 for the purple. There are 8 different sizes, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45

The stitches are huge lol!

The carriages, end pieces and knitting plates all packed in the bottom of the toolbox.  The tray with the accessories sits on top 

There are a lot of great things to be said about this machine.

• Great portability, not too heavy to carry around and quick to set up
• Simplistic
• Fits on my kitchen island so don't have to be upstairs to knit. The island is on casters too so can move it anywhere downstairs easily
• Dropped stitches are easy to pick up
• Knits thicker yarn of which I have a lot. We inherited my Mum in law's stash of yarn
• My husband wants a chunky cardigan so I'll be able to knit him one on this machine
• It was very inexpensive

The down side is I don't have a ribber for it and doing any sort of fancy stitch-work takes manual manipulation.

But it's a completely different type of machine and will be used to knit plainer bulkier things and I get to use up the stash! I will try ribbing on the machine by dropping the stitches and redoing them with the latch tool and if I can't manage that I will hand knit the rib and put it on the needles.

My 700 with ribber is my real pride and joy though. I love that machine and my personal preference is for finer knit garments.

Didn't get any sort of knitting done today as my husband was feeling up to doing some work on our sun room conversion so that's what we did.  There's always tomorrow or the next day..............

Yeah for progress

Yesterday was a good knitting day.  It was late in the afternoon when I went up to give it another try. I had a little problem with the ribbing but I undid it and jiggled a little with the positioning of the ribber and started again.

Ribbing this time went great with another perfect cast on.  Transferred the needles to main bed, set up the punch card and proceeded cautiously.

I decided to use the punch card I really wanted to use which was the one that Alex had posted and I had punched out.

After every row I paused and checked the tension mast was OK and nothing was getting caught up anywhere. I glanced at the needles on the machine to see if everything looked OK.  I moved my  claw weights every 10 rows or so.  I only had the two small ribber weights on the ribber cast on comb.

So here is the first piece, the back, in all it's glory.

I was sooooo happy!

Needing some assurance and morale boosting please??

I know I was new to this model and make of machine and it was 20+ years since I used a knitting machine but I don't think it can be all user error I am experiencing.

Today I was positive and eager to knit and get this jacket underway. I had done the new swatches, picked a pattern and new colours.

I casted on and did the ribbing.  That went great.  Even the casting on was perfect.  Usually I have to use the hook tool to put a few stitches on the needles when it doesn't do a perfect ziz zag but today, I think, for the first time ever, it was perfect. I was glowing.  I transferred the needles onto the main bed and set it all up for the tuck stitch.  I got all the right settings, did my remembering row and set the carriage to tuck, remembered to change the punchcard to move.  I had the side levers back.  I was ready!

This time it started a few rows in to gather too many stitches on a couple of needles.  But not the same needles as it had done it before.  I knew this because I had made a note of the needles where it happened before.  The only saving grace, I guess, was that I didn't get all the way up to the shaping before it went awry.

So I took it all off and pondered on what the problem could be.

When I bought it in June the lady told me it had just been fitted with a new sponge bar and I had no reason to disbelieve her but in desperation to find an answer I decided to check it out.

That meant dismantling the ribber which was a shame as it was working great, but I did it and took out the sponge bar.  It was, as she had told me, like brand new.  So that wasn't the problem.

I looked at all my needles closely.  I can't see ant bent ones. So, I put back the sponge bar.  I decided to do a swatch in the tuck stitch before I put the ribber back on.

It did great, no dropped stitches or broken yarn which is what happens after too many stitches gather on the needle.

So, I started thinking that maybe, somehow, having the ribber attached caused a problem.  Couldn't for the life of me see why, but hey I am getting desperate for answers now!

Then I thought about my swatches.  Every time I have done a swatch it has been perfect.

What was the difference? The swatch didn't have any ribbing.

Maybe I am leaving on too many weights as I have been leaving on the big ribber weights.

So, I put the ribber back on.  It didn't line up right so the ribbing was dropping stitches.  I followed the instruction from the manual to the letter too.

I re-sited the ribber and tried again and this time the ribbing was good. I did 24 rows of rib then transferred the stitches onto the main bed.  I took the weights off of the cast on comb and just hung claw weights at the sides of the knitting.  I then proceeded to do some tuck stitch which worked perfectly.

Have I hit on the solution or will I go back to it next time will it do it's silliness again?????

I ran out of time today and tomorrow we have to go to Columbia for a hospital appointment for my husband so it will be Thursday before I get back to it.

I can't remember my machines of the past ever being this temperamental.  I only ever remember fitting my ribber on the machine once and it worked perfectly from the get go.

I made sweaters on my last machine using tuck stitch and big sizes too not just small sizes like I am making now.  I am wary of starting anything big on this machine.

So to summarize, to date I have had problems from the get go.  Some were definitely user error, like the casting on problems, but Phil put me right on that and it works like a charm now.

The ribbing problems are a case of getting sited perfectly and I am getting better at doing that now.

The fair-isle problems I had on my last sweater were due to the different punch card I was using which was shorter and stiffer than the usual ones and once I re-punched a card with the same pattern it worked perfectly.

So I have been able to come up with solutions so far but this one has me beat and totally disheartened.

I don't want to give up.  I am not a welcher.  I am a great perseverer but I am out of ideas on how to make it work. I don't want to just knit plain knitting and fair-isle garments.

My knitter blogging friends make tuck stitch garments so I know I should be able to do it. They don't seem to have the problems I do.. I am sure my knitting carriage is functioning properly and I put all new brushes and wheels on it when I got it.

Help, suggestions, ideas and moral support needed.....please.

I am off to rewind all the bits and pieces I did today, at least that gives me enjoyment lol.

Swatch sample

I did a swatch using three different punchcards for tuck stitch.  I tried to find ones that didn't look like they piled too many stitches on one needle in the hope it would avoid the problem I was having with the odd dropped stitch. I was surprised at the different sizes that the patterns make as each section has the same number of rows and the same number of stitches.  I am going to use the pattern at the top.

The centre sample is quite thick.  I am hoping I can use that punchcard and tuck stitch to use up my very thin yarn so I don't have to use two strands.  But that's a future project.  Have to get this one under my belt first.

I have decided to use different colours to what I originally planned.  I will do the rib, the hood and the band at the top of the sleeves in a pretty lilac colour and the body in off white.  I have a 9oz cone in both of these colours and they are the same yarn as the blue I used in this swatch.

Fingers crossed for a successful day today!

Feeling a little deflated and disappointed

I went up this morning to knit the back of the jacket.  After yesterday's debacle and the time before I was trying to be really positive.  I talked to Betsy (my machine), had a heart to heart with her and explained that we were a team and were going to create some lovely garments etc. etc. etc.  Yesterday, after the fourth attempt,  I took the machine all down and then put it all back again.  This seemed to correct the ribbing problem I was having again.  On the fifth attempt I managed to get the ribbing done but the tuck stitch went awry. I abandoned it at this point, I had run out of time to do any more.  Today,  I was so positive.  I did a sample of the tuck stitch pattern and that went well.  So I started on the back.  The ribbing went great and the tuck stitch was doing really well up until nearly the shaping for the armhole.  (Same place as the first time I tried it).

So I am a little disappointed to say the least. I have started this back nine times now and still not got it done.

I am going to give up on trying to do the chosen tuck stitch pattern and try another one.  I really don't want to do just plain knitting on this jacket.

The tuck stitch pattern was one I punched and did the nail varnish repair on.  It had held up until today when the hole popped out but that wasn't the problem.  It had dropped a stitch and broke the yarn but some how kept knitting but the pattern went wrong at the point the yarn broke.  It was like the stitches were just building up on the needle in just one place. Going to fix the punchcard using sellotape (scotch tape) as my knitting friends said that's how they do it.

When I start again I will use one of the original cards just incase it is the card I punched causing the problem.  That takes user error out of the equation.

Did I say I was disappointed? Just a couple of times eh?

Have to get my woolwinder and whirly gig out again to rewind the abandoned piece.  That's the only good thing to come out of this, I really like using it.  I'm just like a kid with a new toy!

Nuff said!

I've decided to give my machine a name.  Betsy, don't know why but it just sprung into my head. so Betsy she is.

Somewhere in a blog I read, and I've quoted it before, words to the effect that how much knitting the knitter got done was dependent on how her knitting machine was feeling that day.

Suffice to say Betsy was in one heck of a foul mood today!!!

"Nuff said!

It arrived yesterday!

Ordered Wednesday and arrived Friday.  That was good service.  I set it up on my kitchen island with the whirly gig but it wouldn't wind.  I was mumbling and grumbling and my husband came over to see what I was whining about.

"It doesn't work" I said

"Well, did you set it up right?" he said

"I think so" I said

He tried it too and it didn't work

"Let me look at the instructions" he said

"It doesn't say" I said

He looked at the instructions

"You've attached the yarn feeder thingy wrong" he said

"Oh" I said

"Wheres the wrench?" he said

I gave him the wrench

He re-fitted it and 'Voila' it worked and it's wonderful and I love it and him too.

Here it is in all it's glory and working like a charm.

Off to work on the jacket now!

I ordered a wool winder today

I have been researching wool winders for a while.  After I screwed up rewinding my cone two days ago I realised that sooner would be better than lately as I need to rewind that into a usable cone so I can use it on my current project. (more about that later)  There are some all metal ones on the market.  One of them has more gears than the other making it go faster.  That was the one I was going to order, it was $42.  The other one was $40.  After looking around ebay some more this morning I found someone else selling the one with lesser gears for less money, $36.95 and they had a make an offer option too.  Also, they had stated that they had tried the winders and found the two metal yarn feeders to be substandard as the finish on them was rough and they had replaced them with nicely chromed feeders.

I made an offer of $33 expecting it to be rejected but they accepted it and my wool winder is on it's way. I made the offer and then went out to mow.  While driving around on the mower I was thinking I should just have paid the full price and be done with it cos they have 48hrs to accept or decline your offer. I had only been out about half an hour when my husband came out and called me over to say they had accepted my offer so he was going to pay for it. (We use the same ebay and paypal account lol)

Wow, I just checked on ebay to find the listing number to post and he has upped the price to $39.95.  Didn't I do well?

Anway this is the item link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Metal-Yarn-Fiber-Wool-String-Ball-Winder-10-oz-/390351167670?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae2be20b6#ht_735wt_997

Can't wait for it to get here.

Now back to my project.  I have emailed my daughter in law to get up to date measurements for my granddaughter so I can make the correct size of jacket for her so will proceed with that when I get them later tonight.  (She is out on a photo shoot right now, she is a professional photographer).

Tomorrow will be out all day at the VA hospital with my husband so will be Friday when i get back to it.

I wish I was as prolific with my knitting as some of my knitter friends.

A disappointing afternoon

I was ready and eager to start on my next garment.  I have a knit radar pattern I like, I have the yarn, I had a spare few hours.  It was the perfect time.

I started off great.  The ribbing went well, the transfer to main bed went well, I set up the tuck patterning perfectly and the knit radar was working wonderfully. I glanced at the carriage and misinterpretated what I saw.  The lever was on tuck and to the left and opposite the 4 on the tension dial.  I misread it as the tension being on 4 and I wanted it to be 6.  I had only done a few rows in the tuck pattern so thought it wouldn't make too much difference to change the tension to 6.  So what did I do???? I moved the lever back to the centre so it was opposite the 6 and continued knitting.

Duh!  It was doing stockinette.  I was confused until I realised what I had done.

Oh well, no big deal, just unravel it and start again.  I wound it back onto the cone but did it too tightly and made it into a kingpin shape.

Oh well, no big deal until I tried knitting with it and it wouldn't unravel because of the bulge at the top.

Fortunately I had another cone so I set the new one up and started again.

This time the ribbing wasn't going well and when I dropped the main bed after transferring the stitches I could see that it had done it's weird thing that it does sometimes.

Oh well no big deal, just unravel it and start again.  I also resited the ribber.

I started again,  this time the rib went perfectly, the transfer to main bed went perfectly and it started knitting perfectly.

I was nearly up to the armhole shaping when I saw that something wasn't right with the pattern.  It had started about 5 rows down in the middle.  I thought that the knitting had caught on the gate pins but it wasn't that.  I guessed it was a dropped stitch so was not recoverable as it is tuck stitch. After i took it off i could see that was exactly what had happened.  It had dropped a stitch.  Thinking about it I think I should have hung weights all along and not just at the edges.  I still had the ribber cast on comb attached with weights on it but I think the knitting needed to be weighted too in the middle.  Will try that next time.

This time it was a big deal.  The afternoon had gone by and it was time for dinner.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow!  

I do think I am going to like using the knit radar.  Just have to up my inventory of patterns.

Finally have a plan for my next project

I wanted to knit a cardigan for my grand daughter who is 4.  I eagerly awaited the knit radar patterns arrival but was confused by them....for a while.  In the meantime I had decided to knit her one from a regular machine knit pattern but when I was checking it out it wasn't going to turn out any bigger than the sweater I knitted for my grandson who is 15 months old so that was a bust!  Also, I realized that my tuck stitch pattern didn't grow as quickly as stocking stitch does so knitting from the pattern I had it wouldn't be anywhere near long enough and whereas it isn't difficult to work out how many extra rows you need to lengthen the body part I wouldn't be quite sure how many extra rows would be needed for the sleeve shaping etc.  I realized that the knit radar would be perfect because it is based on your actual swatch and moves the paper accordingly.

I went back to the knit radar patterns.  I had eventually worked out about the sideways knitting but didn't want to try one of those for my first attempt, plus I am bound and determined to do it in tuck stitch and the patterns weren't suited for that.

There was a nice pattern however for a hoodie but it only went to a size 3 which wouldn't be big enough.
Then I had a brainwave.  Well I think it is, but my knitter friends probably know all this and wouldn't think it was clever at all.

Anyway, here is my plan.

I am going to use a different size ruler thingy (heaven only knows what they are called but they are the things that slip into the knit radar part of the machine that gives you the number of stitches) which will give me more stitches and I will adjust the number of rows on the knit radar so that it doesn't go through the machine so fast. This should give me a bigger garment using the pattern.

I may decide to do just a regular neckband but probably not as it calls for a zipper which makes it more of a jacket than a cardigan so the hood will be appropriate. The pattern calls for a band across the top of the sleeve in a different colour so I might do that and make the hood the same colour as the band.  I have blue yarn the same color as the sweater I knitted for my grandson and a lovely lilac colour yarn which will contrast with it very nicely and make it girly.

I am ready now to start.  I am happy with my pattern choice and I have finally finished punching all the missing cards from the original set that came with the machine so there's nothing to stop me now........

except the mowing and the dozen other things that I need to get done but I will find the time, I am eager to try the knit radar.

Help needed please

I received the knit radar patterns I bought off of ebay.  There isn't one that is exactly what I wanted so will probably proceed with the other pattern.

A couple of the patterns show either the front and backs or the arms knitted sideways.  Is this normal?  Why would you knit a front or a sleeve in two parts?  I am confused but that isn't hard to do these days lol!

Here is the girl's sweater pattern with the sideways sleeves :-

If you click on my photos they enlarge so you can see them better.

How do I do a sleeve?  Do I start with just the few stitches at the narrow edge?  What happens when AI get to the end of the first part of the pattern?  Do I take the pattern out and turn it upside down and proceed so the sleeve knits in one piece?  If so, why didn't they just show it as one piece?

All and any help will be appreciated.

Why do they make things so complicated?????

The other problem with this is that the tuck pattern I want to use won't work sideways. It is the one Alex posted and has vertical lines to mimic Arran knitting and I really want to use it.  Besides I have 4 different swatches I made using that pattern to ascertain how many rows and stitches I needed so I know exactly what tension and what ruler I have to use now.

Another question I have is does the paper have to be exactly this wide?  I have some blank graph paper sheets which came with the machine but it is narrower than the sheets that these patterns come on.  Could I trace the pattern from these ones onto the narrower paper so that it feeds the way I want it to?  I just want to knit a sleeve starting at the bottom. (Hope that makes sense).

Now wouldn't you just believe it? my camera battery went flat!

But! I was not to be beaten, I took this next one with my husband's phone so hopefully you can read it.

Can anyone translate into idiot proof instructions the part about the sleeves.

Picture not too clear but this is what it says:-

Knit back

Finish the knitting by waste knitting

Knit front

Finish the knitting by waste knitting

Knit four pieces of the sleeve for back and front sleeves.

With waste yarn, cast on and knit several rows.

Work partial knitting by increasing stitches to shape underarm

Finish the knitting by waste knitting

Knit two pieces of yolk in a symmetrical pattern

*Before knitting yoke join the front sleeve to the armhole

Pick up last row stitches of front and sleeve and place them onto needles.

Knit the neckband

Knit two pieces of the cuff.

Thanks in anticipation.

Always learning

After ironing the swatch I re washed it and tumble dried it.  It didn't go back to it's original state so ironing is a definite no no for a sweater.  However I now know that I can use the tuck patterns to knit a scarf.  Un-ironed it curls at the edges so would not be good for a scarf but after it has been ironed even if you re-wash and tumble dry it , it still stays flat.  So something else learned!

I now have a bunch of swatches in the washing machine to see how they react to the washing and drying process.  

Yes!, it is cool and damp outside today so the tumble dryer will be in use.

Such a nice change from the heat we have had all summer.

Also my knit radar patterns haven't arrived yet so in readiness I have found a pattern I can use.  I am trying to hold out until they get here.

Still punching away at the punch cards to bring my set up to the original 20.  I have four more to do so have done six. They are quite tedious lol but gives me something to do while my husband watches College football! (*see note below)

Went to a city wide garage sale yesterday to out nearest town.  For my English friends a garage sale is like a jumble sale except it is done from your house and usually in the garage, most of which are two car garages or more.  Yesterday it was a good job as it poured with rain most of the day.  I went with the hope of finding some yarn or knitting stuff and even the hopes that someone had a machine for sale that they had been storing under the bed for years.  No such luck!  But I did pick up an upright Dirt Devil cyclonic vacuum for $5, (the lady was selling everything half price because it was raining),  a thick fluffy rug for a dollar, (now I can burn the dog's bed which is decidedly smelly and I don't want to pollute my washing machine by washing it in it). I also got an unused Circulon griddle pan for $2 ( an absolute bargain and I haggled too cos it was marked at $3 and our old one is at the end of it's useful life) and a Swiffer Wetjet for $2. So a good $10's worth in my humble opinion.

Will do some more punching today. Currently watching the Man U v Chelsea game.  My husband is an avid soccer (football) fan even though he is a Yank lol.

*In the US and Canada, they refer to what we know as football as soccer so as not to confuse it with their version of football which is actually more like rugby.

I think that as the Yanks and Canadians use our language they could at least use the right words lol but I am a lonely British voice in the middle or Redneck land so I usually keep those thoughts to myself!

I remember now why I don't iron anymore!

That's not exactly true.  I do iron shirts when required, ie. weddings and funerals but knitwear never! I either dry it flat if it calls for that but mostly I machine wash and tumble dry.

Today I decided to do the swatch for the next sweater or cardigan (still undecided until my patterns arrive).  It looked great.  I didn't take a photo.  The book said to steam press the swatch before measuring.

Now where did I put the iron again?  Oh yes, I remember, up in the spare bedroom closet.  So I found it and set the ironing board up and plugged it in.  I added the water and pressed the swatch. It is now almost half as big as it was before I ironed it and the tuck stitch pattern is flattened!  Now as I am sure my daughters in law don't iron knitwear either I am going to have to wash and tumble dry the swatch and hope it goes back to it's original state before taking the measurements I will use.

Out of curiosity I will take the pressed swatch measurements too just to see the difference.  The book did say to wait a couple of hours before doing that so maybe it will shrink back a bit.

Off to hide the darned iron again!

well darn!!!!!

I was bidding on a very old machine.  A Knittax M2.  The good thing was that the  mailing was very reasonable and that makes a big difference here in the US.  I was high bidder at $5.55 but at the last minute someone came in.  I upped my highest bid a couple of times but I wasn't prepared to go above $18.  After all, I don't need it, I have a super machine and ribber.  I just wanted it but where do you draw the line?  For me it is about practicality.  We are seniors on a fixed income so I bid up to my maximum and it went for a few cents more.

Oh well, there will be another one one day.

I hate bidding on ebay, it raises my blood pressure!

Definition of time dragging.....

When you've got a bid in on ebay and you are the highest bidder and there's only five minutes to go and you don't know whether or not to up your highest bid cos do you want to miss it for a dollar or two!!!!!!

Will let you know in 5 minutes folks.........

Filling in time

As I am waiting for my knit radar patterns to arrive before starting on another sweater I decided to go on an internet  hunt for my missing punch cards.  When I bought my machine the only things missing were 10 of the original punch card set of 20 and the knit radar patterns.  I have purchased one set of kid's knit radar patterns from ebay UK and can purchase a man's set later from them, so am on my way to getting  those. Still need to locate a woman's set or the original set which I believe had men's women's and kid's patterns

I found one site that had two images of all the patterns in the original punch card set and miraculously I found a pdf file which had images of each punch card individually.  I printed the ones I was missing and have started on punching them.

As several of my missing cards were for tuck patterns there are a lot of holes to punch lol!

I have done three so far.  Two were perfect but on the busiest one I made a mistake. Had to get out the nail varnish again!  At least this is something I can do in the comfort of our living room.

I also found a site where I could purchase the original set of punch cards for $24.95 plus shipping and might at some later date purchase them but for now I will punch away!  I need other stuff first.

Any recommendations for a good wool winder?  Do I need to buy a jumbo one or will a standard one suffice?

KR7 patterns on ebay

This is the link to the patterns I bought on ebay.  They seem like a great deal so I am posting it on here in case anyone is looking for patterns.  The sale ends soon it says.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KR7-Patterns-Knitmaster-Empisal-Silver-Knitting-Machine-/190289077199?pt=UK_Crafts_Knitting_Crochet_EH&hash=item2c4e1ce3cf#ht_940wt_1293

Grrrrrr!

Is any one else getting their blog attacked by something that makes words into links?  I had to go back and change the past few blogs because some of the words were showing up in green and were links to sites giving away things.  Anyone know how to stop this please?????????

I got me a whirly gig!

I had forgotten to post about my successful eBay bid.  I wanted to pick up a wool winder and a skein holder at some point so I can obtain skeins of yarn if I see something I really like.  I didn't want to pay a lot as the likelihood of using them very often is quite remote.  Anyway, I saw the whirly gig on ebay so thought I would put in a bid.  I was prepared to pay up to $10.  I entered when it was around $5.  I got it for $8.52 brand new with $5.95 postage. Around $9.40 UKP all in. Another seller was selling them for $14.99 plus postage of $8.00 so I think I got a good deal.

Here it is....

Next is the wool winder and then some skein yarn.

Also I found a KR7 children's pattern set on sale on ebay-uk for 1.82 UKP and postage of 4 UKP buy it now so I bought those too.  Will perhaps wait for them to get here before I start on my next project so I can use the Knit radar.  Also I still have some of Susan's videos to watch on using knit radar.  I watched four last night.  Our internet is quite slow so watching videos takes up a lot of bandwidth so I do it at night after my husband has gone to bed so as not to interfere with his computer use.

I will do a swatch in the meantime and see if I can work out which ruler thingy to use.

The same company also has a website for online sales.  They have a man's set too for 5.82 UKP with 5 UKP postage.  I will buy them if I like using the knit radar. I am sure I can find something in there I can use as a base for making myself a sweater.  Gotta love pay pal for being able to purchase using different currency.

The finished product

Well here it is, finished finally.  A big learning experience on this one but thoroughly enjoyed every minute even if the air was a tad blue at times.  Only Boris the dog was in earshot so no harm done lol.  He likes to come and lie down in the room when I'm knitting.

Not going to start on the next one for a few days.  Now that the temperature has cooled down a bit it's time to get out and catch up with the seven acres of mowing that really needs doing.

Will be checking in though every day to see how my fellow bloggers are doing on their projects.

Finally got the neckband done and attached and a reminder to self to think twice about doing a mitred ribbed V neck sweater ever, ever again!

In my last post I had knitted one part of the neckband, finally realizing that I couldn't do increasing on the ribber with the cast on comb still between the two beds.  So I ventured on with the second half but this time casted it off tighter.  It attached to the garment OK and i could see that the tighter cast off was much better.

So I decided to re do the other part of the neckband.  I did try the obvious thing of just undoing the casting off and putting it back on the machine and casting off again but it was taking forever and I dropped a stitch that I couldn't pick up so decided to just re knit it.  That part doesn't take very long at all.  Then I casted it off tightly.......way too tightly as I discovered when I tried to put it back on the machine to join it to the garment.  So, I did a third one and this time was successful!  The only thing I am a little disappointed in is the thickness of the join.  Had I been able to leave the neckband,without having to cast it off, on the machine and bring the garment to it it would have been better. But doing the mitred neckline was the reason I couldn't do it that way.

So my neckband took almost as long as the rest of it lol.  I could never make a living out of this! I would be working for pennies per hour at the speed I go!

So here it is pre final sewing up.  Look at all the ends!  where do they all come from??????

This is all I have to show for nearly three hours knitting lol!

Alex and Susan have been very productive, not so me today!  I still can't do increasing in rib when I have just casted on and the cast on comb is still up between the gate pegs of the two beds. There just isn't room to hand the big hook thing on there to hold down the zig zag made by pulling out an extra needle.  So not to be beaten I decided to reverse what I wanted to do and make the mitre by increasing instead.  This means though, that I can't use the nice casted ON edge as the open edge and as I have to have the casted OFF edge as the open edge, I can't leave the neckband on the machine and bring the garment to it.

So, I did a sample run on waste yarn to see if I could get the neckband back on the needles and bring the garment to it and get that on too then join them to see how it would look.  It actually will work fine.

So then I decided to do the first half of the neckband (well, it's actually more than half as it goes across the back then across the top of one arm and down one side of the front) and goodness only knows what I did wrong but it was only knitting on every other stitch like I was doing mock rib but I was using the ribber!!!!! Go figure on that one lol.

Anyway, I tried again and this time was more successful.

So my nearly three hour knitted stint produced only this.....but there were a few more lessons learned too.

I am just hoping that the open edge isn't wrinkly when it's all joined up.  Hopefully it will stretch out enough for it not to be.

Tomorrow I will finish the other part of the neckband and attach it all together.

Looking forward to the next project with tuck stitch.        

Google saves the day!

After seeing Alex's tuck stitch swatch I decided to knit my next garment in tuck.  He kindly put up the link to the punch card pattern he used and I printed it out last night.

Today I decided to mark up a blank and punch it out.  As you can see it has a lot of holes to punch and I decided to make it the full length of the blank card rather than the shortened one.

I was doing great until my husband came into the room and started chatting.  At that point I should have laid it down....but no, I was feeling over confident and carried on punching away.  I punched a wrong hole.  aarrgghh!!!!!

It took a long time to mark and punch and I didn't want to start all over again.  I thought about using sellotape but it would cover up some of the holes I'd already punched and then it wouldn't have a little hole in it for me to use to re-punch them.

'Google it' my husband said.......so i did and found this very useful tip which I expect you all know but thought I would post about it in case anyone didn't. It was actually in part of the description of a puncher for sale.

Punch Card Punch - This punch card puncher is used for 24 stitch punch cards. Transfer your punch card design to the blank punch card. There is a little point on the cutter in the punch card puncher that you position in the tiny hole of the card. Squeeze the trigger and the hole is punched. If you make a mistake and punch out the wrong hole, take one of the round pieces that collect in the non-breakable reservoir on the puncher. Position it in the incorrect hole. You might want to take a toothpick to hold it there for the next step. Take some red colored nail polish and dab on a tiny bit to glue the center back into the hole. Use red nail polish (or something similar) so you can see where you made the repair. When you go to use the card, check the red spots incase the hole came away from the card. This doesn't usually happen, but it's a great way to make sure.

The amazing thing is that I had nail polish.  I don't usually wear it but I knew that at some time in the distant past I had bought some so I rummaged through my bathroom cabinet and found a bottle which was amazingly still usable.  It wasn't red though!

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.