Merry Christmas

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

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

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

Ground to a halt

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

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

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

The second tank top is finished

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

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

I have purchased a garter bar set on ebay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Having a prolific month

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

The little jacket is finished

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

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

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

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

I still have to wash it

I thought the colours were very pretty

The Singer Memomatic knit radar works perfectly

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

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

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

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

The pattern running through

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I looked online last night and found this sight.

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

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

This jacket doesn't call for that though.

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

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

Sometimes things work out for the best.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am such a nutcase sometimes!

Let me know what you do please.

Thanks.

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

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

I have the machine, ribber and LC2

I have the new machine, ribber and lace carriage.  There was a bit of a hiccup with ebay and paypal because the seller couldn't get the invoice adjusted to take out the shipping charges but we got it resolved, met with the lady and paid her cash and got a receipt.

AND......drumroll here.......the original pattern sets and punchcards were with it and the pattern sets have never been used.  I am ecstatic, I have been looking for those since I got my other machine over a year ago.

There may be a problem with the Lace carriage because several pieces of metal fell out of it.  They do not appear to be the moving parts, more like the casing.  I am hoping it will still operate.  It is complete with punch cards and weights.

The machine is in excellent condition, haven't tried it yet but everything looks OK and it came with all the accessories except the left latch guide.  I have both with my other machine.  I am not sure what they do, I have never had to use them yet on my original machine so they must be for something more advanced than I do.


It also has the original punch card set, all 20 of them.  It has all three original manuals too.  My original machine only came with two and I had to print up the Pattern manual which I found on the internet.

My other machine also only came with 10 of the original punchcards.  I had found what I thought were photos of the original set and punched up the ones that were missing but some of them were different to the original set.  I will punch up the different ones for my original machine then both machines will have a full set and I will have some different ones also.

Now to the ribber, it is a SRP60, not the SRP60N as I originally thought.

I spent quite a bit of time going through all the equipment and checking it all out.

I  decided that I would finish the baby jacket on my original equipment before trying the new machine, ribber and LC2.

I was still having problems ribbing though and after a couple of bad days using it, yesterday, I decided to set up the new ribber on my original machine.

I am in heaven.  It works perfectly.  First time it did a perfect zig zag and cast on and no dropped stitches and tightness. I did a lot of practice pieces on it and they were all perfect and the YC5 colour changer works perfectly with it and no loops!

Cosmetically, it isn't as nice as my original ribber, the metal on the back is tarnished a little and there was a little rust on the runner.  I cleaned it all up and oiled it.  It has a couple of gate pegs that had rusted too.  I cleaned them the best I could.  But it works beautifully and I am so, so happy with it.  Bonus, it come with ribber covers too and the original manual. My original ribber was missing the manual and I had to buy one for it in pdf form and print it up and it never did have the covers.

It sits much further away from the knitter than my original ribber so I think that is the problem.  When I have time, I will try and adjust the original one so it sits the same as the new one.  For now the new one is staying on my original machine and I am going to enjoy being able to rib without problems.

So to summise, Being able to rib properly and having the original punchcards, pattern sets, manuals and ribber covers is worth the $265 I paid.

The machine will work fine I am sure, it needs a new sponge bar before I can try it and hopefully the LC2 will work too.   If the LC2 doesn't work I will be disappointed but I won't feel cheated.

I think I got a heck of a bargain.

Pictures will follow.

In addition to the above there are several instruction manuals, an extra yarn feeder and mast, a puncher and a wide weight comb.

I bought another knitting machine! It is an investment, could this be the start of something big lol?

I had been looking on ebay recently and saw a machine the same as mine for sale, it is a Singer  model 700 complete with SRP60N ribber and LC2 lace carriage. ( I have been wanting the lace carriage forever but they are $380 new and the only used ones I have seen haven't had the accessories with them.)  It has all the manuals and accessories.  Not sure about the punchcards and pattern set though as I couldn't see them on the photographs.  I did ask but the seller didn't know much about it.

She  said she had never used the ribber and had only made a couple of dishcloths on the machine.

So I don't know if she bought it all used (second hand) and had never really got into it or had bought it all new and never got into it.  There is a puncher included so punchcards must have figured in it somewhere along the line in it's history.

IT looks in excellent condition with no discolouration

The starting price was $250 with $200 shipping.  The seller lives only 50 miles away so I had asked if we could just pick it up if we bid on it and won and she said that was OK.  So I had an advantage as the $200 shipping costs was a big put off I imagine.

I watched it all week and no one bid on it till Saturday.  (it ended Sunday at 3pm).  There was one bidder at $250 until Sunday noon when someone came in at $255.

I waited right until the last minute (literally, there was 60 seconds left) when I put in a bid for $260 but as one of the previous bidders had put in the same amount as her max bid, then she had priority, so I had been out bid.

It was panic time as time was ticking down.  I put in $265 with a max bid of $306.99 and pressed the bid button with just four seconds to go and I won it at $265. You can have no idea how stressful it is to me to bid on ebay.  My heart was a pounding away lol.  I wasn't even sure if I had won it or not at first but I had. Phew!!!!

I haven't paid for it yet as I am waiting for them to adjust the invoice and take off the shipping costs.

When I get it I will check it all out, test it etc.  I will try the new ribber with my original machine and the original ribber with the new machine and the new ribber with the new machine.  Whatever I feel is the best fit for me I will keep then sell whichever machine and ribber I don't want.

I have been looking on ebay a lot at machines for sale so have a good idea how to present them to their best advantage to get the best price.

I think I can recoup what I paid by selling a machine and a ribber so I will have gotten the lace carriage out of the deal.


I am excited!

Two steps forward and one step back

I decided to stop practicing with the machine, ribber and colour changer and go for making something.

I got some nice pastel coloured yarns and decided on what I was going to make for my nephew and his lady's baby due in November.

I decided to make a jacked using the pattern I used to make the hooded jacket last year but in the smallest size and no hood. It isn't for a newborn, more like a year to eighteen months but I figure all newborns get plenty of things so it will be something for when she is toddling.

I did my swatch and ascertained the settings for the knit radar and which ruler insert to use.  I am going to put a band of patterning like I used in the first little sweater I made but this time just on the body part, not on the sleeves so the baby wont get her fingers caught in the sleeve and just stocking stitch for the rest.  No tuck stitch this time.

I am also going to put a couple of stripes in the rib using the colour changer.  Nothing too complicated.

So now I had a plan and yesterday I sat down to knit the back.

It went perfectly without any user error or ribber or colour changer hiccups.

I was on cloud nine!

Bursting with confidence today, I went up today to knit a front.

First attempt, the ribbing and colour changing executed immaculately, I transferred the stitches to main bed and proceeded to do the patterning........one small mistake......I forgot to do six rows in just the main colour.  Oh well, not too much to undo and rewind.

Second attempt, I forgot to change the the tension on the carriages to 5 after casting on, did five rows before I realised. I changed it to the correct tension and proceeded but after I had transferred the stitches to the main carriage and dropped the ribber bed I could see it was very noticeable.  Oh well,  again, not too much to undo and rewind.

Third and fourth attempts more user errors, can't remember what but they were definitely me!

Fifth and six attempts were ribber related, so I have given up for the day lol.  Nascar race starting soon anyway.

Going to give some serious consideration to Phil's idea of doing the correspondence courses.

Advice needed

I have had problems with my ribber from the offset.  I have a Studio SK700 and a SRP50 ribber.  I know that the SRP60N will also work with my machine.

Is there a difference between the two and if so, what is it?

I know that the YC5 has to be used with the SRP50 and the YC6 has to be used with the SRP60N.  Why are they not interchangeable?

I have tried using the YC5  but I go large loops on the side that the color changes?  Any ideas anyone?

I am thinking of changing the ribber to an SRP60N, is it a better ribber?

I am getting pretty frustrated with the ribber problems I encounter.

Would I be wasting my money to change ribbers and color changers?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Yeah! I found a four colour yarn tension mast

Yeah! I have been looking for one of these for months to go with the YC5 colour changer I bought. 

I have been agonising all weekend because it is quite expensive.  The item was 29.99 pounds and the shipping costs 21.00 pounds.making a total of 51 pounds and that seems an awful lot considering sometimes you can pick up a whole knitting machine for not much more. It equates to about $79 total at today's exchange rate.

But, I thought it through and this Monday morning decided to go ahead and buy it.  My logic being that I really want it and need it for the YC5 to work properly and it is coming an awfully long way (from Scotland) so the shipping and handling really isn't that bad plus I might never stumble across one again. The other bonus was it was 'Buy it now'.  I get too jittery when I am bidding for an item.

The seller on ebay is either very clever or a little over greedy.  What she is doing is splitting up everything and selling them as individual items. She has a YC6 colour changer listed but now I have purchased the four colour tension mast will someone buy the YC6?

She also has an LC2 lace carriage listed at a reasonable price but it only includes the carriage and sinker plate.  She is selling the lace cards separately and I couldn't see the weights listed, so is it a good buy?

Aside from the fact that I have spent my knitting budget for the month I have to be more prolific with my knitting to justify spending any more money. So, no lace carriage today.

But, today I am going to knit.  I will start on a baby cardigan for my nephew and his girlfriend's baby girl who is expected in November.  They live in Canada where it is cold in the winter and they will need cardigans.

When the tension mast arrives I will make them a baby blanket using rib in multi colours.  I saw one Alex had done which I liked a lot.  His was all one colour but he used different rib patterns to make an overall pattern.

A few chores to do then off I jolly well go to the knitting room!

Hope the ribber is on good form today, it was going OK the last time I used it but hey, that's not a guarantee, it's a finickity beastie!!!

KR6 and KR7 patterns

Does anyone know if you can use KR6 patterns in a KR7 knit radar?

I have a Studio 700 with built in knit radar which takes the KR7 patterns.  I have the chance to purchase a full set of KR6 patterns but don't know if I can use them.

I have been a little absent of late, my husband was in the hospital for two weeks quite ill.  He is home now.  He has an auto immune neuro muscular disease and went into a crisis.  He is feeling a lot better than he was so I should get knitting again.

Plus it is so hot here in MO.  (105F as I write this at 5.36pm) so there's not much else to do so I should be knitting up a storm.

There is a new baby on the horizon so I have the incentive now to just give myself a kick up the butt and get going!

Forgot to mention the curtains are done

I managed to get the curtains finished and hung before the family came to visit.

I am very happy with them, they are for my husband's office.

I had purchased the material (fabric) in 2006 from Walmart on sale for $1 a yard and it had been sitting in a drawer ever since.  I used two widths of fabric per curtain and used queen sized poly/cotton navy flat sheets to line them.  The fabric is 46" wide so the queen sized sheets were perfect. The photo doesn't do them justice, they really do look nice.  They are full length.  The idea was to block out the sun completely as the saltwater fish tank is in his office and the other curtains let the light through which encouraged the algae to grow out of hand.

We still have some algae but nearly as much as before and the room looks so much nicer.

Back to knitting soon.....

The latest trials and errors

After the family departed I decided to get back to knitting and try the colour changer.  I had moved the desk with the machine on before they came so the kids couldn't get to it for fear they would hurt themselves.

What a disastrous time I have been having.  The moving around must have dislodged everything because it just wouldn't rib at all and the YC5 has to be used in conjunction with the ribber.

I ended up taking the whole set up down and setting it back up again.  I mustn't have it quite right because it still throws a wobbler now and again when it is ribbing although it is a heck of a lot better.

I then ventured on to try the colour changer and after many thwarted attempts I can now get it to change colour when doing 1 x 1 rib.

The seller of the YC5 didn't come through with another mast so right now I can only use two colours with it.  I am impressed with the mechanics of the YC5 and realise that there are a lot of mechanics and fine tuning involved with machine knitting.

I want to try doing two coloured tuck stitch next as the main reason for getting the colour changer is to be able to get a colured pattern without floats.

I have looked at doing double jaquard but as I said above my ribber doesn't seem to function well for big areas of knitting and if  Phil (a knitting blogger friend) can't master it what chance do I have???

My time for knitting is limited as it is and I am itching to make something so I will keep with simple for now.

I realise I am never going to aspire to doing really fancy work and that really wasn't my intent when I bought the machine, it's just that the machine is capable of doing so much that I feel that I should be utilising it's capabilities.

There is a new baby arriving in the family in November and they live in Canada so it will be cold and need cardies and sweaters.  Most of our little ones live in warmer climes so don't need too many winter woolies lol.

Not a very entertaining blog this time but there is a lighter side to it......Barbie got some new clothes!

Our little four year old grand daughter got to play with Barbie and her clothes on their recent visit and her eyes lit up when she saw all the clothes so now I don't feel so silly turning my practice pieces into Barbie dresses.  Might have to buy a sister for Barbie as she has so many clothes now!

Presenting the latest Barbie creations..........

Yeah! the ribber is working again

Woops! got a ridge, not sure how

Trying different spacing.  After this the ribbing went awry, not sure why it does that

Plea for help with YC5 colour changer

The YC5 arrived promptly but it is missing most of the accessories.  I spoke with the seller and she would happily refund me the money if I send it back but I really don't want to do that.

It is missing the 4 colour auto tension mast, rod and tension guide and the punchcards and check card.  Thankfully, the two end stitch holders were with it.

The seller has a spare mast and rod that she is going to send me and my machine has two slots so I can put in a second rod and mast. I think that adding the additional rod and mast will solve that problem as then I will be able to use four different yarns.

So this is my plea.  Does anyone have the punch cards that come with the YC5?  I would be very grateful if you do if you would post them on your blog  so I can print them up and be able to punch out my own set.

The check card looks like it is just a blank punch card with two row stripes in alternate colours to make it easy to read the pattern on a punch card or locate errors, so I am sure I can make one of those.

I am so excited to have this accessory for my machine.

I am half way through making some curtains right now but this new gadget is calling out to me!

Thanks for stopping by and reading this popst.

Well I went and bought a color changer

After my last blog post Phil suggested I get a colour changer to help do two colour patterns without floats.  I found out on that wonderful website I keep promoting which one I needed for my machine and ribber and then found one with a Buy it Now price on ebay.  Because my ribber is an SR50 I need an YC5 colour changer. Bidding for something always gets me frustrated so I prefer the Buy it Now scenario......Instant gratification syndrome or what?

I haven't paid for it yet because it was supposed to be free shipping if you paid the full price and when I went to pay it added the $15 shipping on but I am sure it will all get worked out OK in the end.

So I am excited about it.  Trouble is now I find I need a different mast if I want to do more than two colours.

Apparently there are punchcards for it too so I have messaged the seller to ask if it has any as none were mentioned.

Nothing ever seems simple these days!

But I am still excited.

Yeah! I managed to get the covers off the machine

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

aboutknittingmachines.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm still here!

I haven't posted in three months.....probably because I haven't knitted anything in that time.  Spring is a busy time for us here with 20 acres of land, of which we mow about 5, there is lots to keep me busy.

The really hot weather will be here soon so plenty of time for knitting when I am holed up inside with the air conditioning blasting.

I have just ordered some more KR7 patterns on ebay from the UK.  The Men's set this time.

Also, there was an LC2 lace carriage on ebay for auction.  It was due to end at 8am my time and I was ready to bid at the last minute.  Overnight it had doubled in price.  With a few minutes to go it was now at $102.50.  It looked immaculate but it was missing the weights, lace punchcards, the pins and a manual.

I had the manual as it is in the back of my SK700 manual.  I have wide weights, I located the patterns for the cards and I could get the pins from my Hong Kong Store so I was set to bid.

I was going to wait until the very last second and try to be the final bidder.  I had $112.75 typed in ready to press the bid button.

But I was gazumped.  Someone came in at $152.50 and I wasn't prepared to go higher.

Oh well, there's always another day!

I also found an absolute gem of a site where I found some amazing patterns and manuals.

The best thing was how to adjust my ribber and how it should be.  I think mine is set too low but now I know exactly how it should be so I can adjust it.  I also found my missing pattern manual for my SK700.

This is the site:

http://www.aboutknittingmachines.com/aboutknittingmachines.html

I will add it to my homepage too.

Now to get back to knitting.

Happy Mother's Day (in N.America) and Have a great Sunday to everyone else.

Done at last!

The last four scarves are done.  I am really happy how they turned out.

The three pastel coloured ones are for my daughter and two teenage granddaughters and the beige one for my now just become a teenager grandson.

I actually do have one more to make for my husband but as spring isn't too far away there is no real rush for that.    

Next project is to set up the Knitsmart and start on the long promised cardigan for him.

After that a tank top for my littlest grandson.  I made him the blue sweater with the fairisle band but he catches his fingers in the floats so it will either be a striped tank top or a tuck stitch one.

Time to get going again!

I've been catching up on everyone's blogs.  I just haven't got back into the knitting after Christmas.  I have just made one scarf, that's all.  I still have three to make for belated Christmas gifts.

I really want to start on the cardigan for my husband on the Knitsmart but I should do the scarves first as the recipients know I am making them.

It's kind of a blah time right now but I'll do my moaning and groaning on my blog where I keep a record of how things are going with my beloved husband.

This is my happy blog!

Christmas knitting now revealed!

For Christmas I decided to knit scarves as presents.  As I had quite a few to do I decided that would be the simplest given the time restrictions.  I managed to get 10 done before time and arthritis caught up with me.

I didn't make any two the same, there may have been some in the same colours but the length and pattern would be different so each one is an exclusive, never to be found again scarf.

I used the Millor yarn which is the equivalent of UK 4 ply and tuck stitch then ironed them all flat.  I was very happy with how they turned out.

Here are some pictures:-

 

Ladies scarves with a fringe

Men's  scarves with turned edges

Children's scarves

   And my stepson and his family all wearing their scarves

 with me in the middle

 

 

 

 

The last one was for my son's girlfriend and his is the blue one to it's left

Everyone liked them so I was very happy about that.

Also, here is a photo of the two grandkids wearing the sweaters I made for them.  I am going to do a different one for the little guy though as his little fingers get caught in the floats so not another  fairisle.  Probably will be striped or tuck stitch and maybe just a tank top as it will soon be really warm again in CA.

Christmas knitting

Well I have 10 out of 18 Christmas gifts knitted.  Have to stop for now as we are getting ready to go away.  The rest will be made after Christmas and mailed off.  For those folks it will be a double wammie as they will be getting the usual Christmas presents too.


I also have encountered a problem with arthritis in my hands, probably set off by the recent cold weather spell and doing a lot of knitting won't have helped either.


No pictures until after Christmas but I am very pleased with how they are all turning out.  Each one will be exclusive, not making any two the same so the recipients will be getting an item made especially for them.


If I don't get on here before,  have a lovely Christmas and New year everyone.

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..............