Some FOs and pictures from my travels

Cute crochet cactus, a birthday gift.

Single sock knitted flat, striped with two ends of sock yarn. A test knit for possible fair isle socks in the future. Yes, Second Sock Syndrome in action, it has no mate!

Belated picture - crochet and knitted hearts for Coventry hospital's palliative care unit

CSM socks made at the MKC retreat day and grafted the following weekend.

Proof that it's working, a repeating bird pattern centred on a "sleeve" sample - I'm instructing someone how to use her Passap E6000 with DesignAKnit at the weekend, and had to figure out how to use the integrated, interactive knitting feature with the Passap. Long story short, I'd downloaded a pattern to that machine with the old W10 laptop, but hadn't got it working with W11 (but it's been working with the Brother and Silver machines). It turns out that (a) my curly cord needs repairing AGAIN (repeated error 200) and (b) the Passap only wishes to communicate with the right hand USB port and not the left one. Nope, I've no idea why either! Ignore the wonky edges, I was being lazy and not fully fashioning them as I usually would. 

It appears that you first have to apply the pattern, position it, and "integrate" it into the garment piece. Then you download the stitch pattern using "integrated download" not "download" - somehow I missed that the first time. Then when you start knitting the piece, select "integrated" not "shape only". It makes perfect sense now, but my poor old brain was struggling with it last weekend. At some point in this process, the Passap will tell you if it's not happy with the design - for example, you've used a two colour double-bed technique, but selected a 3 colour single-bed technique. I've never had issues before BUT so far I've only knitted straight pieces where the pattern alignment wasn't a concern. So it was a nice learning experience for me, and as part of that I discovered there are tutorial videos on the Softbyte website that I'll be working through. 

I won't bore you with too many holiday snaps - in April, we had a short break in Hathersage, famously the last resting place of Little John (of Robin Hood's merry men), and diverted to Chesterfield on the way home. In May we did a week in Venlo, Cologne and a night in Amsterdam. As you can see, it's been a dull, damp, chilly spring! 

View from Stanage Edge. The five mile hike from Hathersage was hard work!

None of my workmates believe me when I tell them this place exists in the Peak district.

Famous twisted spire at Chesterfield, the photo doesn't do it justice. Apparently it's the weight of lead applied to a medieval wooden spire (but there are lots of legends involving the Devil as to why it's like this). 

Cologne cathedral is HUGE. Yes, the weather was as grim as it looks alas!

A visit to the Lindt chocolate museum. Worth it just for the shop (which sells other brands too! Love it!).

Current mood: impressed

Machine knitting retreat, June 2026

Post-dating this, because 6/6/26 is my blogiversary!

Well, the two day machine knitting "retreat" mentioned in the previous post went very well - hard to know whether to call it the May or the June retreat, seeing as it fell in both months. Anyway, we took over the Alexandra Arts in Rugby for two days and generated gentle, knitty chaos, fueled by lots of lovely coffee/tea and snacks. There were a few LK150s (manual machines) going through their paces, a few electronic and mechanical flatbeds being kept very busy, and at one point, four CSMs also being worked on. I managed to demonstrate DBJ after two separate attempts - day 1 producing the dreaded stripes, day 2 being much more successful. I also managed to complete a pair of tubular socks, which is 100% more than I've ever managed on previous days. 

A group shot, taken for the one lady who injured herself before the event and couldn't come. Hope to see you next year!

Beautiful hand-manipulated lace done on the LK150 - this is just a swatch!

So many ends! Intarsia on the LK150. This lady is so brave!

A hive of industry in the garden room - my CSM is in the foreground

More pictures here.

It was lovely to see old and new friends again, bond over our shared obsession for all things machine knitting, and enjoy a meal at a local restaurant on the Sunday night. I'll be running a one day event in October this year, and probably running the two day event next year with some minor tweaks. I'll drop the competition, seeing as there weren't many entries, and maybe we'll do a "show and tell" instead, because I think we'd all benefit more from that. 

Current mood:  inspired

Some FOs

I've been in the doldrums a bit lately, not entirely sure why. Hence, not a lot of crafting to report. The circular cardigan has been tinked back a number of times; apparently, increasing every other row isn't something I can do in company. I picked up a crochet pattern at the Summer Wool show in Ampthill and at least that is growing quite quickly, as long as I take care to keep the pattern aligned. 

To try and get my "mojo" back, I made a Norfolk blanket and a simple scarf this weekend. I also added a pie crust edging to the Clair Crowston cardigan, which still needs pressing - I'm hoping it'll look less like a rag. I have a massive cone of this boucle yarn left, not sure what I shall do with it. It shreds at the smallest touch so I will be glad to see the back of it. Of course, the machine I originally swatched it on is now in the garage. This weekend, I did some swatching for some burgundy bamboo that I really need to get out of my stash, and hope to start work on something with that this week. 

We had a short break in Swanage last week, and managed to get really good weather. It was absolutely packed though, so we didn't get to try out a fish restaurant on the seafront. Since the closure of Loch Fyne, I've really missed having something like that within driving distance. We visited Studland beach (nice, but rammed) and then went onto Durlston "castle" for lunch, which was much more relaxed. 

After the hottest / dryest summer on record, the temperatures seem to be on the turn this week. I actually had the heating on in the car this morning! Yikes!

Current mood: relaxed

Bits and bobs

I had another lovely weekend at Kegworth, where I demonstrated and made 2.5 pairs of tube socks, despite my machine going "sproing!" at one point and trying to ditch the lot in my lap. The missing sock has been knitted but is still on the machine.

This keyboard case was actually made towards the end of last year and never got photographed. Not sure why! Pattern was made up on the fly.

Hat made from trophy yarn, a true one-off. Yes, it really is that neon in person!

And finally, the unfortunate Passap cardigan. It came out too short and there's way too much material in the sleeve head for me. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with it, but I went off it before I even finished sewing on the buttons. Pity, because it's a very cheerful colour.

Current mood: awake

FO: Peacock blue hat and Passap play...

Apologies for the marks on the hat, the mirror needs a clean. Still using up this yarn, I've half a pair of fingerless gloves on the go too. Does this hat need a pompom, do you think?

I've been working on a v-neck cardigan on the Passap, from an unknown salmon pink 3ply. To give it some body I thought I'd use K/K (aka full needle rib) instead of plain stocking stitch, but didn't realise how much extra work it is to do increases in this fabric. I also (at one point) made a monster sleeve, that got frogged back. The cardigan is now finished but I forgot to add borders to the DAK pattern so it's a bit on the cropped side, and I'm not keen on how much extra fabric DAK seems to make in the armscye (but that could be operator error). A picture of that, next post. As I discovered, fully fashioned increasing as per the manual looks pretty neat. Being lazy and leaving the empty needle to pick up a loop is surprisingly holey! I guess it could become a feature elsewhere, but maybe not on the sleeves. Next DAK pattern I intend to measure myself and probably do raglan sleeves instead, I think they will work better though they are more work. 

Fully fashioned increasing in K/K, step 1 - needles moved out

Fully fashioned increasing in K/K, step 2 - empty needles filled with heels of previous stitches

Result when it's done as above

Result when empty needles are returned to work with no heel

The cardigan came out a bit "meh" if truth be told, another one for the charity pile. The yarn didn't cost me very much so it was a useful exercise on the Passap more than anything else. I am working my way through the Bill King videos on the MKC and that was inspiring, so I am already planning other things this year and may rethink what I was going to do with some burgundy bamboo yarn. 

This weekend I also had a play with the U100E transfer carriage, it didn't go so well but it turns out one of my brushes isn't in place (I thought it was a spare). Trying to work garter stitch out of the box was probably a bad idea too. I did play with long stitch, interlock and overknit which were interesting. 

Next weekend I'm teaching at the annual Kegworth CSM event, so do say hi if you're there! Family issues have kept me quite busy and quietly anxious even though a lot of it is things I can only sit and watch. 

Current mood: lethargic

Free pattern: machine knit roses

We're doing an Alice in Wonderland themed yarn bomb in town this year, and I was sent a link to this video for making roses. Alas I have no intention of acquiring this machine, which takes DK yarn, but I've worked out how to make this pattern on a standard gauge knitting machine as follows:

Yarn: 4ply

Cast on 6 stitches over needles 6-1 left, K10 rows at the tension most suitable for this yarn (I used T7)
*Increase one stitch on the same side as the yarn tail, K10 rows. Rep from * until you have 18 stitches in work. Knit 9 rows, knit a 10th row at a loose tension and latch tool cast off. Leave a long tail for sewing up and break the yarn. Use the long tail to roughly gather up the increased edge, pull up and stitch the work into a spiral rose.

Tips: 

• If you increase by moving the end stitch out one, and pull the empty needle into work, it makes  holes useful for sewing up. 
• I also tried making extra holes every 5th row (when there's no increase), this makes the centre a bit neater because there are more holes to sew up.
• I also tried knitting this in 1ply in full needle rib on the Passap (so 6 stitches in work on both beds). It makes a more "tulip" shaped rose (see left, first picture) because the fabric doesn't curl. 

FO: Passap "Bitty" scarf

Still more of this yarn to go, it's a simple double-bed tuck stitch pattern on the E6000, from the Metbury "Bitty" book. It's pattern 1004 and tech 140 if anyone's interested. Apologies for the not-great pictures, there's a bottle of white spirits just out of shot that was on its way to the shed! No, don't ask, suffice to say I've been unsticking knitting machine buttons and so far haven't had to resort to using it; surgical spirit, careful brute force, persistance and sewing machine oil seem to work. Having said that, there's a new sponge bar on order for the KH260 and I will double-check the split buttons are still behaving!

Startitis again...

This "use what you have" thing really seems to have sparked my mojo. I finished the tunisian cable scarf (pictures to follow), made a tuck scarf on the Passap from the Metbury Bitty book (still needs blocking) in that troublesome terracotta yarn (and STILL more yarn to go! Pah!). Poor Miss Swiss complained with error 200 a few times; I confess I defluffed both locks but completely ignored the beds, so that is my next job I think (it involves the hoover and some playing around with needle retainer bars, surgical spirit and oil). I've also cast on the Drops Blue Helix cardigan, a crocheted cardigan with a large star shape set into the back, except mine's stone, not blue, as it's leftover bamboo yarn from another project. Hoping it'll work up into a nice beach / summer cover up.

Meanwhile my s-i-l B taught me how to crochet two rows of UK trebles at once, yesterday, not a technique I'd heard of - though if she's using them in a garment, she prefers the look of them worked in vertical, not horizontal, stripes, as the WS and RS are more noticeably different. I had a bit of a destash and put some crochet hooks and my Denise needles up for sale on Ravelry, only because I'm no longer using them. I prefer inline hooks unless they're 3mm and under, and the Denise set is US sizes - since I upgraded to the KnitPro symfonie set (metric) I've not really needed them. 

The lace yoked sweater is drying in the bathroom and needs a light blocking. Pictures of the various things when the finished items are ready. Startitis, gotta love it! 

Current mood: energetic

Return of the MK mojo and knitting through stash

Sad to say, it took a week's holiday off work (and then not until Thursday) for me to destress enough and do some actual machine knitting. We did manage to catch up with relatives and see Shakespeare's birthplace, something that's been on my bucket list for ages. It's tiny and a bit disappointing when compared with the other properties, ie Mary Arden's and Anne Hathaway's cottages. Luckily we have a ticket which allows us entrance to all three until the end of September this year. It was further complicated by a coach load of French students who were determined to take ridiculous selfies in front of displays of text in the small museum that precedes the historic property. Ugh, I do wish mobile phones could be banned in certain areas - take selfies in the garden, by all means, when you're not under people's noses, but not when other paying customers are trying to squint past you and look at things! 

First up was the Christine shawl. This is my second attempt - my first was frogged when I ran out of yarn. My copy of the pattern has no indication of yardage or yarn weight. Anyway, I spied some terracotta coloured yarn, picked up some months ago for a donation. It had been doubled and made into yarn cakes, and came with the single yarn on a cone, which declared that it was Atkinson Sienna. It is a "wiggly" yarn, like a boucle but with no slubs, and seemed to be about a 3ply so I thought it would be perfect for this project. All went well until I was about 150 rows from the end. The shawl is loosely based on one of Bill King's designs, where you knit a "mock rib" of 3 needles in work, 1 out, and use short row shaping three times to make a turn that sits around the neck. It starts and ends with 240 rows of straight knitting. Yes, the last yarn cake had clearly had a visit from moths, or at least one end had, because it snapped repeatedly. Even though I wound off the first layer, the damage continued. In the end I was tying on the snapped yarn and letting the knots fall where they may. I would usually tie on at the ends but this went on for quite some time! Anyway, I managed to cast off (the remainder of the yarn is now in the bin!) and after weaving in the ends I deliberately washed the shawl at 60 degrees C. The yarn develops a slight haze but it was partly to felt it and hopefully give it some strength. By some stroke of luck, it worked - no holes appeared in the wash! The shawl is waiting on a press before it gets a photo shoot.

Second up was a simple baby blanket on the Passap, another "let's just knit something, ANYTHING, to get rid of some stash" project. The loose instructions are here. I cast on across the whole bed of the E6000 using cast on 6 (slip cast on in 4 rows) and knitted 8 rows at ss5 in stocking stitch. The yarn is two ends of acrylic that makes roughly a 3 ply. I used a simple diamond tuck stitch pattern (1008 tech 130) which is in the pattern book. All went well for about 450 rows, and then I got repeated error 200, which indicates a dirty sensor. Oh, my word. I knew the machine needed some cleaning - I was genuinely surprised just HOW MUCH black fluff Miss Swiss can pack away before she gets grumpy. It took two attempts to clean - the front lock consists of plates that move up and down, depending on what you are doing, and there's no easy way to clean them out other than painstakingly going at them with either a toothbrush OR carefully with a dental pick. I managed to restart the pattern, albeit in the wrong place, and completed roughly 600 rows, followed by a further 9 rows stocking stitch and a very loose row. Took it off on waste yarn and latch tooled it away from the machine. The blanket turned out really well - I need to either apply an edge, or just kill it and be done with it (so another reason to get the iron out, but never on Sundays as there are other things to be ironed too, and that equates to housework for me!). Edit to add: in the end, I added a simple 3x3 cable braid to the cast on edge, to hide some loopiness. I couldn't face adding it all the way around and indeed it wasn't necessary anyway!

I must say that the E6000 manual is very badly written - even though I vaguely remember how to reset the pattern, it's not at all easy to find that in the manual and both the contents and index page could have done with serious expansion. I almost feel as if someone should have written a book to explain the manual. Resetting the patterning is something one will need to know when knitting a round neck or v neck front, so not exactly a small matter!

So I finally got my mojo back and am wondering what I can make next. I also swatched two cones of kingfisher blue yarn and established that one of them is definitely too dense for the SK840 and for this sweater that is on my bucket list. What a pity I'm nose to the grind again tomorrow, next day off is May Day. Boo hiss! If I could only turn my creative interests into a profitable side hustle... :)

Current mood: inspired

February witterings and a thought about Passap training videos...

Crikey, February already? Being flat out at work does at least make time fly. The socks I posted about last time have been adjusted - the too-long one has been partially tinked and handknit to match length-wise, and I've knit the first of another pair of tubular socks on the Dean & Bean CSM to prove to myself that I CAN knit a matching pair - wish me luck!

TLDR: car issues, health issues, work issues

The car issues seem to be gradually coming to a close - I have come to the conclusion that the immobiliser company don't know how to use email or landlines and don't even have a customer service department. Apparently my problems will get resolved, they just can't be bothered to keep me in the loop (they seem to be forgetting whose money it is). There's still finger-pointing going on. I have resolved to call them every Friday like clockwork until they get this sorted, the squeaky wheel getting the oil. Having friendly receptionists that get you down off the ceiling is all well and good, but if nothing ever actually happens then she's just decorative alas. On the plus side, I did get my car returned this week after a stupid accident where I forgot to apply the handbrake (well, it's electronic, so not visually obvious!) and the car decided to use a Tesla as a doorstop, which got me a cracked bumper (the Tesla got the worst of it). Whoops. Car is back, nice and shiny, AND the garage updated the software. Bit of an expensive way to get it valleted though, do not recommend! Very impressed with Privilege (insurance company), the repair was done quickly and the various companies involved have kept me well-informed throughout. The whole thing has been sorted within 10 days, I'm just waiting on the hire car company to pick up their vehicle. The immobiliser company could learn a thing or two from them! 

The Cog very kindly bought a nasty cold back from Austria, and is still coughing very loudly ten days later. I am debating hiding his passport so he can't go away next month  - first COVID, now this, whatever next, leprosy?! So far I seem to be fine, but I suspect the adrenalin caused by the stress of the previous paragraph is keeping my immune system and blood pressure on high alert. So sleep has been very, very scarce lately - woken up by constant coughing, and then seized with fury over the car issues. If I do dream at all, it's brief snatches of a nightmarish kind (the horror (!) of wearing muddy jeans I thought were clean, a nasty double-murder, that sort of thing). Not a combination I'd recommend. 

Work has been flat out. Nov-Mar is probably our busiest time of the year, not helped by the loss of my good friend and colleague LB and the maternity leave of another colleague. We have a new member of staff in place finally but they are fully booked with "meetings" next week, so resource-wise we are still understaffed. Patience is a virtue I don't possess, and there are only 40 hours in a week, so... they get what I have time to do, and no more. It doesn't help that one particular engineer always seems to leave it 'til lunchtime Friday to ask for more work; he doesn't use the correct channels, and the planning is done early Friday so he's always too late. My braincells can't cope with much more than 40 hours, and anyway it's unpaid. 

Now, onto actual crafting content!

The tunisian crochet sheep cushion got press-studs during a Zoom meeting, it's just awaiting its final photo shoot. I'm part-way through adding press-studs to a hot pink knit-weave cardigan I gained in an estate sale and didn't have the heart / will to frog. It's not even very well finished, but I will continue! I guess I should have just chucked it, but being acrylic I couldn't bear the thought of it going into the bin and outlasting all of humanity as pieces. Yeah, I don't have enough with my own unfinished projects, I get landed with others!

We had a fairly successful Zoom meeting this week where I gave everyone that attended a quick tour of the Passap E6000. I am thinking of creating some videos to share on Youtube, because there's not much info out there for the E6000 and the manual seems to be written for upgraders, not beginners. I wonder if there would be any interest? I've recently lost the video editing software on my works laptop - I suspect ICT thought it was dodgy (in a legal sense) and removed it without notice. As we are imminently upgrading to W11 in a few weeks (where one can no longer install software without permission) and I will be switching to Adobe Premiere, I will need a period of learning the new software methinks. I've learnt one needs to watermark videos, lest some unscrupulous soul claims it as their own work and charges for it. 

The return of the longer days / increased daylight is helping me to get out of my crafting funk, albeit slowly. I have a few more "not quite finished, don't need much to complete" projects to get done and then I can let startitis kick in again. 

Well, that turned into quite the epistle! Onwards and upwards, as they say!

Current mood: annoyed but determined

Update from yesterday's post

After some consultation on Ravelry, apparently I should have been increasing on both beds for the sleeve. Also I need to add or subtract a stitch to keep the end stitch on the knitting bed (in this case, the front bed). Well, I'm not sorry I frogged the back, as there were a few missed tucks, but that front was pretty good! Oh well! Just goes to show, even us so-called experts can mess things up!

Current mood: determined

Lest we forget and an unplanned finished object

This month's local WI postbox toppers - I really love the remembrance one. I cannot take any credit for any of these this time as September was just too busy for me! We always watch the 11am service on Rememberance Sunday, though this year we had to switch off early. Weird not to see the Queen there.

Some delicious looking handspun I picked up at the Big Textiles show. Not shown, the block printing kit I picked up that is alas devoid of written instructions, I'll need to get onto Youtube / the vendor's website. Also (for the eagle eyed amongst you) I finally caved and treated myself to a new keyboard for my WFH office - I really wanted a Logi and I much prefer the split keyboard layout, typing around "the girls", and work wouldn't pay for what I wanted. As my trackball is also Logi I gained a USB port, hurrah for that! The old MS keyboard has a tendency to cut out (of course you cannot buy a new USB  receiver without buying the whole flipping thing again!) but it will go back to the office in case anyone else wants it as a spare (as it is not mine). The wrist rest has seen better days alas...  

A quick handknit for my sweetie - he was complaining of cold hands WFH, and the blue pair I machine knitted for him a few years ago have always been too big. So quick these haven't even made it onto Ravelry yet, they are from a vintage Mariner pattern that I have had so long I have a TYPED copy as the original copy was almost illegible. I made the ladies size as this yarn is a wool 5ply that the SK840 did NOT like... 

Also not shown, the back of a cardigan knitted on the E6000 in half fisherman's rib. I definitely still have at least one dodgy front bed pusher, so I must reprogram the fronts so that the tucking happens on the back bed. Of course it's right in the middle too! Of COURSE! Bah... It's a very simple pattern from one of the model books with sideways pockets knitted tubular in the front, which I wanted to have a go at. 

Current mood: okay

FO: Sheepy square and two scarves

Another DBJ scarf, with the flared edge I'm not so keen on. Oops!

The finished basketweave crochet scarf. It's cosy!

The finished sheepy square. Feels as if it could do with either a smaller hook or a bit of decreasing around the edges, but this is unblocked acrylic at the moment...

Another new PM - that was fast! I shall say naught more - the news is an omnishambles that depresses, so I avoid it as much as possible. I'm more gutted that we have a partial solar eclipse but too much cloud to get a good enough view.

Current mood: happy