FO: Passap KAL, pattern 5929

Passap KAL, pattern 5929
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Doing a not-very-good job of hiding it on Ravelry, I can now post a picture of the finished items - because they went to the recipient's mum-to-be last night!

It's only my second experience using a Passap Model book pattern, and the patterns are OK but sometimes over-complicated, and sometimes a bit vague on instructions. 200g of blue wool doesn't indicate what thckness that might be (my copy doesn't have the usual yarn sample with it) so I made a guess at 3ply and they came out OK, although I suspect 4ply would havw been better. The hat and the booties pattern were vague about tension, so the blue hat is probably a preemie size and the pink one more sensible. But I've not much experience of babies so I'm hoping they'll fit! :) Whatever she doesn't want can go to charity.

There's not a spare shirt button left in the house, now! :)

Learning stuff, but not making progress...

More work on the Passap KAL last night. I managed to make one monster baby trouser leg, and then two that were the right width but waay too long (I was reading the figures for the cardigan by accident, the schematics are side by side).

However, (a) I finally got my machine wired up correctly, thanks to John and Judy from the wonderful Passapknits group, and (b) I learnt how to cast on in the middle of two pieces of knitting (the crotch of the trousers).

So, although output was zero, I did learn some stuff!



For anyone else who has the Passap E6000 and the motor (mine's a 4600A):

1 Empty
2 Main Console
3 "Top" slot on side of Motor control box
4 "Bottom" slot on side of Motor Control box
5 Yarn feeder mast
6 Yarn feeder mast
7 Empty
8 Empty
9 Colour changer

This isn't in my manual, I guess it got mislaid by the previous owner.

Why is this important? Well, the motor worked before, it always has done. But the yarn feeder masts were connected incorrectly, so if the yarn snapped the machine would carry on and strip everything from the machine. Not pretty, and not advisable to leave the machine unattended. Which rather negates having a motor, really!

Laritza, I knitted the front last. I would have made it first, and even started it, until I hit the instruction "when front is 43 rows shorter than the back" - and had to stop. I hate that kind of instruction in a pattern - it's lazy pattern writing! I like to make the front first to see if I like the fit.

Confused!

OK, so I've checked over the bamboo top. Checked all the increases and decreases. Can't find a mistake. The sleeves match.

Then I realise that somehow, somehow, the front is 8cm longer at the bottom, but only on the right hand side. If I'd've sewn up the left hand side first, I wouldn't even have spotted a mistake. It'd be funny, if it weren't so tragic.

No idea how it could have happened, unless I've had some major variations in tension. My plan to sew a bust dart has been thrown out of the water, 'cause it'd only be on the one side. I think... I think it might be going in the bin later.

Work is v busy ATM so brain is mulch by the time I get home, and I can't find the mojo to bend my brain around anything very complicated. Managed to complete some eyes for a puppet last night, but am lost as to where I was on the main body. Crocheted a few stitches on the plarn bag. Heart not really in it at the moment!

FO: Waterfall waistcoat mk2

100_3202
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This has been finished a while, I just kept forgetting to photograph it. Rather weird camera angle, too, I look really short! The Cog always tries to get my face in, bless him. I have told him about the headless knitter but he forgets.

Almost FO: Grey top

100_3204
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is a top I bought grey bias binding for, and then completely forgot to use it. I've bought some black lace to trim the neck, because I messed up the bias binding and you can see it. Determined that I will wear it, at least once, after all my hard work.

Does bamboo burn?

Why would I ask such a question, do you think? Would it have anything to do with the fact I bought this Rowan Bamboo tape yarn, and started knitting with it in June 2009? There was the disastrous Kimi - a wrapped front cardigan that looks great on a skinny model, but at the biggest size - 850g of yarn - looked terrible on me. So, I frogged and started Amaya - a simple sleeveless top? Which, when I came to sew the side seams last night, having toiled over sewing the shoulders and sewing down the fake cable neckband, has a back that is 8cm longer than the front?

So, does bamboo burn? Because I'm very, VERY tempted to set light to the whole lot of it and dance around it. I've been working on trying to make a garment out of this yarn for nearly a year now, and I am PIG SICK of it right now!!! Not least because, I promised myself I'd finish it before I started on anything else! And the mental queue is building up. Argh!

In other news, I've made a start on some baby things for the Passap KAL, and I am loving this machine, I think this would be the last machine to go if I had to sell up. I never thought I'd say that, having started with Brothers. It's so clever, once you understand what it wants. Although, single bed work sucks mightily unless you use weights, which were sold seperately, and which I haven't figured out how to use as yet.

And, a revelation for me too, on how much I enjoy making baby things. Beginner hand-knitters are often told to make a scarf or a dishcloth - but a simple baby jumper steps you through more techniques and is really quick to run up (even quicker on a knitting machine, natch!).

Came to the conclusion last week that (a) I have far too many jumpers and cardigans, (b) although I've 128 items in the yarn stash, they're nearly all either already designated for a project, or they're yarn that has to be used with another (eg my prized collection of DB Magicolor), (c) there just isn't enough of it for a whole adult garment and (d) its's the wrong shade/ thickness. Oh, what an embarrassment of riches we knitters have!

So - in the space of a few hours yesterday I've made 1.5 jumpers and a hat. Makes me feel super-productive! :)

The current score? Passap 10, handknitting a miserable 0.

Backwards

Christina taught me to knit backwards, and to knit in the continental style (yarn held in left hand) on Wednesday night. Kudos to her! 80 rows of 10sts is very time-consuming the ordinary way. I also had a go at "knooking" - knitting with a crochet hook - which was kind of interesting. Not sure I'd use it much unless it was an emergency "haven't got knitting needles" situation - easy to swap to crochet/Tunisian/knitting with that method though, so it may have some applications I suppose!

Did my civic duty first thing yesterday. Avoiding the tv until at least Friday pm - it's all just waffle and conjecture until the last vote is counted.

To those of you who couldn't be bothered to vote - shame on you! And to those of you who were still queueing at 10pm? 4 weeks notice and 15 hours to do it in? You need better planning, methinks. Vote first thing, there's hardly anybody there, and in my case, you can even park! Having said that, if I could vote online, I would - that would be ideal!

Enough of the politics, this is a knitting blog...

Oh, and whoever keeps trying to add spam comments to my blog in Chinese - one, I do not speak Chinese and two, all comments are moderated and spam will be rejected. Haven't you got anything better to do with your time?!

Vote!

Fellow countrymen and women: If you do only one thing tomorrow, make sure you vote! You cannot complain about the state of the UK, if you do not exercise your right to vote.

In medieval times, only the lord of the manor had the right to vote. Women should remember that their foremothers died for the right to vote, and everyone should remember that people braved danger in Iraq (28+ dead?) in order to make themselves heard.

This video isn't the one I was looking for - there was a really good line-drawn cartoon, but it's on a website that requests membership. This is quite funny, though. I love the bit with the dog!

Pintucking

100_3200
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is a swatch from the Passap E6000, one of the pre-programmed patterns. The Ravelry Passap group is doing a KAL, and I need to pick something to do. Seeing as I've not enough of any one yarn for an adult garment, and seeing as I've got rather a lot of knitwear at the moment, I think a baby garment might be the answer. Especially as work's been pretty busy lately and my brain has been mush by the time I get home - a small project might just fit the bill.

It might be a cut and sew neckline. I have no experience of knitting a front neck in pattern on the Passap. We shall see.

Best laid plans...

Well, I had grand plans for the long May Day weekend, but they went astray. I had planned to finish up the knitting for the Cog's ribbed jumper, so that I could clear the decks and start something new.

Saturday saw a massive pile of laundry to be done (I already did two loads in the week, I swear it breeds!) and food shopping, which left me enough time to test the KH881. Glad I didn't spend too much on it, the carriage is partly seized and will only pattern in one direction. Luckily I had a working carriage, so have made a decent one out of the two. Now, if I could only figure out how to remove the handle, I could replace the (slightly cracked) handle on the Brother chunky with a decent one.

I also had a quick play with the fine gauge machine, which has been languishing on the landing for far too long. It was also a little seized, this kind has memory drums, but I got it working, I might need to give the reluctant drum a clean. Spent over an hour sorting out punchcards into groups, and discovered a few duplicate sets I'll probably Ebay.

Sunday my mother popped around and stayed all afternoon, so it seemed rude to disappear upstairs to my knitting machines (I worked on the Rowan bamboo top). I managed to get the knitting room fairly tidy first thing; there's just some filing to be done.

So, the nearest I've gotten to the Passap KAL our Rav group is proposing, is picking out about 10 patterns I like the look of. They're designed for slimmer ladies than I, so I might just use the pattern/texture as a starting point, or even just knit yardage. I seem to be fascinated with pintuck at the moment - double-faced fabric with more rows knitted on one side than the other, creating 3D texture. I don't think I've got much 3ply yarn, though, which may thwart my plans.

Monday a good friend is coming round, and she wants to sew. So, that's that, I guess. Next weekend, perhaps?

Work's been crazily busy lately and looks to continue that way - due to a resource shortage I'm wearing two hats and have been working late (unpaid) - so brain has been mush by 6pm and I can only cope with simple handknitting or crochet. Alas, it's been quite stressful because work is building up on the horizon like some coming storm, but actually getting started on it has been in fits and starts.

Well, it's nearly midnight, so I'm turfing the cat out and getting some shut-eye.