Amour

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

... as did this. Isn't it purty?

Mohair

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This may have fallen into my bag at the weekend....

NEC

Bought some nice material for two dresses, a blouse, a knitted skirt, a felted jacket, a bag of some lovely mohair yarn and a ball of something fancy called "Amour". Avoided the temptation of the Black Sheep Wool pile (I did hear they were selling yarn at £1.50 a bag too!)

Could do without the exorbitant prices at the NEC though - £5.40 for a slice of cake and a cup of Diet Coke. Ahem.

Oh, made 5 top-knot hats for premature babies, plus two blankets. Not a bad day's work.

Knitter's black hole

I've rediscovered that strangest of all knitting phenomenon - the knitter's black hole. I have to knit a sleeve until it's 47 cm long before I can start the raglan shaping. Seems that I can knit as many rows as I like, but it will not get any longer. I suspect it'll do this for a few hours, and then suddenly be too long and need to be ripped.

I've made the first sleeve for the Cog's ribbed jumper. It was hard work. After a while the weights were doing nothing for the central stitches, so I resorted to a firm pull downwards and some edge weights. It mostly went without a hitch. Not sure I fancy making another ribbed garment, though - it's hard work increasing.

I keep getting somebody trying to post spam links in Chinese. I ran today's through a translator. Thanks, but no thanks. The fact that the comments are moderated and involve captchas should give it away, really. This isn't a platform for your marketing, so please go elsewhere!

It's like Christmas again!

Owing to a few Ebay purchases and what-not, I've had a delivery of something every day this week! Today it was a set of Passap combs and Woolley weights, and some proper coned cotton in black and white for the overlocker from Empress Mills. I bought some black Gutermann cottons in Coventry, but they are badly spun and so kinky that I spend more time rethreading the machine than I do using it. They'll work as sewing machine cotton, I suppose.

Yesterday it was a manual for the E6000, some perfume and some mini ipod speakers. Tuesday it was some Passap books and some more knitting machine books.

The Cog's out tonight having a curry, and I'm debating whether to make the back of his jumper, or have a fiddle with the newly-acquired PPD110. I'm also tempted to try a single-bed Passap cast on, now that I have some cast on combs. Ah, decisions, decisions!

I'm working on a crash course for the ribber and a crash course in the E6000, soon to be on sale here. Watch this space!

Trial and error...

Took me three attempts to get cast on for the Cog's ribbed jumper. The resultant front came out quite long and thin (but it's designed to stretch). I used a waste yarn cast on - I'm hoping the final cast on won't be too wavy.

Later on the neck fell off when I tried to put it onto waste yarn. Ack. Still, got there eventually.

I always like to knit the front first, now. If I'm not happy with the fit, there's no point in carrying on with the rest of it.

Sale madness

Yes, Andeeknits had a two-day crazy sale this weekend. I hadn't planned on going, as the Cog was taking me to Birmingham for the weekend (it's my birthday tomorrow when I am ahem-ty hem years old).

But the morning dawned wet n' 'orrible - and I sat up in bed, and suddenly realized I had hoped to get Andrea to adjust my lace carriage so that it would stop dropping stitches, and that if I waited until she'd moved down to Dorset that would be rather more than a one hour drive!

So I nipped down there and left the Cog to deal with the laundry basket. The weather brightened up gradually. I bought a cone of burgundy acrylic, some Japanese pattern books, a PPD110 for the 950i machine, an intarsia brake and some ribber covers. I nearly turned around and drove back to ask her if she had any powerknit motors, but decided I'd spent enough this month already. And I can't let technology take ALL the fun out of knitting, can I?

Apparently she had a lady called who asked for a long list of stuff to be set aside (and who needs FIVE colour changers?), but she was firmly told in-person customers had priority, and all of a sudden she could find time to come down. Sheesh. The cheek of some people! It is suspected that this was somebody working for an Ebay trader who sells machines at as-new prices. Caveat emptor! You wouldn't expect to buy a 20 year old car at the original selling price, so why should machines be any different?

The Cog has been measured up for a jumper, I just need time (and inclination) to work the pattern out on Knitware. Didn't sleep great on Saturday - since the hotel hygiene scandal a few months back, seems Ibis have replaced all their beds with a flat platform and a thin (4") mattress. Probably fine if you're there a few nights and can acclimatize. Not great for a one night stay. So I got cracking on some hand-knitting this weekend - finished both fronts and the back of Armelle, just need to dig out more yarn and make some (non-intarsia) sleeves. Then just some bands to knit.

Also been making some crochet squares for a secret project. All to be revealed, later.

The Birmingham birthday trip went ok - the Cog bought me a new sports bra, a floaty top and a blue cardigan, all M&S. We had a lovely meal in the Chung Ying, and then went onto Eddie's Rock club. "The Bar" apparently played classic rock - apart from one track by Reef, I can honestly say I didn't recognize any of them. We hung on 'til gone 11 and then gave up. What a pity.

FO: Easy Passap socks

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

King Cole Zigzag, Passap E6000. Bit of wrestling with decker combs before doing the ribbing, but I got there eventually.

Just wanted to say...

...that the top "ravthlete" in last month's Ravelympics was Machine knitting's own Grammylove, with a total of 33 completed projects. Second place went to Coffeeandcream, 32 hand-knitted projects.

Rise of the Machines, indeed.

Well done to all who took part, including the mods that kept everything running behind the scenes.

Finished the second mini-mochi sock this morning, will take them for a test run this weekend I expect. Swatched some 2x2 rib for the Cog's new jumper. This time around it's going to be set-in sleeves and a round neck. Raglans + ribbing is just too time-consuming.

Current mood: happy

Swatching required

Feeling a little more confident after producing two garments that came out the right size. I am still working on using up my stash. I have plans for a circular yoked sweater, white acrylic with celtic fairisle patterns on the yoke - more for the experience than the garment - and a ribbed jumper in a brown tweed for the Cog. I need to start swatching, but I haven't much time at home this week.

I should have started it on Saturday, really, but I was a bit unfocused and added some more scans to the MK101 blog instead. I spent most of last week brushing up on my Passap skills because I went to the local uni and gave the teacher some pointers. Alas, the machine was almost seized and needs some serious TLC before I can teach anybody anything more than the basic principles of operation. Gobs of fluff were coming out of it. Luckily no rust - it'll be fine once it's had a wash n' brush up!

Plodding along with the second mini-mochi sock. The yarn's an unplyed single and very fluffy - I'm not sure if I dare knit the other ball on the knitting machine, I'm not sure the yarn could take the strain of a machine. These are going to be house socks, methinks - too much wear and they feel as if they might just melt away on the breeze! They are 20% nylon, perhaps it's just the merino making me think they're not tough enough?

Susan Guagliumi (website: http://www.guagliumi.com/) wrote a famous machine-knitting book, called "Hand- Manipulated Stitches", which has recently been reprinted. She has a new one out, "More hand-manipulated stitches" and I have snapped up a copy from Metropolitan. Has to be one of the first major MK releases in quite some time. Can't wait to see what it's like!

In progress: Mini mochi sock

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Currently awaiting a mate.

FO: Garter carriage sweater

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Took a bit of time but it was a lot of fun. Keyboard having fits, for some reason.

Garter carriage

I've been beavering away with a garter carriage jumper this week, my first ever garment with it. I think I've got the hang of it now - there's only one small mistake, when I had a problem and reset the pattern a row behind. I even used it to cast off one sleeve - it snapped the yarn on the second one, at about 10pm last night, so I cast that one off by hand.

It's a V neck with short sleeves in some kind of wool/acrylic mix (cone not labelled). All the parts are done, it just needs sewing up. It's not exactly the fastest way to make a jumper, even at its top speed, but it's been an interesting learning experience.

Tips:

• If doing increases or decreases every other row, set the garter carriage to do the knitting continuously, and work the shaping whilst it's down the other end of the knitting - presuming your knitting is wide enough to do that!
• If stitches start dropping randomly, try changing your gc needle. It might be "tired".
• Pick a drop-sleeve style if you can to minimise shaping. Nothing wrong with a cut and sew neck, either, if you have enough yarn.
• If the carriage has to be stopped/reset, check your pattern and check which line it is on! It's quicker than trying to unpick a row.

Will post pics when it's done.

Productive

Had a productive few evenings this week. Monday night I made a start on my first ever garter carriage sweater. Yes, despite the fact I bought a gc ages ago and never really used it, and then replaced it with a newer one.

The garment in question is a short-sleeved V neck top in grey acrylic. I decided to make the front first, because if l'm not happy with the shape/ neck it means I haven't spent time on making the back first. I think I've only made one mistake so far. When knitting the neck, one half of the garment has to knitted back to A (non-working) position. After a while, the weight of the knitting dragged some of these held needles forward and confused the carriage somewhat. When I reset it, I put in the pattern row it stopped on, and didn't add 1. Whoops! Getting the hang of it now, though. The back is straight, so will be easier.

Also I'm brushing up on my passap skills. I need to get past the beeping and swearing bit, because I'm teaching some students next week on it. Double- bed fabrics are a breeze, but single-bed impossible to cast on. Ended up doing some knit/knit (full needle rib) until I had enough to hang a comb weight on, and three claw weights. Then I dropped the back bed stitches, took a deep breath and knitted some plain stocking stitch. Result! Whoever said the passap needs no weights, never tried single bed work on it. Messy, but got it going.

I also made some machine covers from an old duvet cover - three slits along the back and one on the right for the passap, and one slit at the back for the japanese machines. The covers I had have been binned, they have seen better days. By the fifth slit Iid even got the hang of doing them with the overlocker. I had to do some judicious blanket stitch on a few, turning 360 with an overlocker is not easy!

TraceyKM, I found the MK glove pattern on the Knitting Fiend's website. The dietdiary.com or something? Can't remember the exact URL right now, and am composing this post on my phone in a car park near Lichfield :) Will post it when I get back online.

Showing off my medals!

I'm a Ravthlete! :D

My collection of medals - most were entered for TeamMk (Rise of the Machines), and one item, the hand-knitted waistcoat I added a machine-knitted back to, for TeamGB. Despite some visits from the machine gremlins, it was a very productive two weeks and motivated me to really make inroads into my stash.

Many thanks to Ozlorna for all her hard work in keeping us organised as team captain.