Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Knitting for elephants

So I've got a hk pattern (sirdar) for a ballet wrap, and couldn't face all those rows of stocking stitch. Charted the pattern up in CAD (my job has its uses!). Knitted a front up last night.
Well, the stitch count is fine, because it came out the right width. But the row count? It reached past my knees, people! The Cog was laughing his head off when I came down in a sulk! Apparently I am now knitting for elephants! :S
I checked my tension, and I had programmed 11.6cm instead of 11.1cm (because I realised about halfway up that the overhead tension mast was too loose). However, for a garment that's supposed to be waist length, I can't believe 0.5cm would make THAT much difference!? It was double the length I was expecting!
Am I supposed to set the tripper differently for the chunky machine? I've used it before on this machine with no problems. The manual isn't very detailed on this. I thought I remembered it tripping twice per row, but perhaps I was mistaken!
Oh, the joys of machine knitting. When we screw up, we just screw up faster!

1 comment:

Rachael said...

I love that last sentence!LOL

You are so clever on the knitting machines...I'm next to useless. I've tried several times over today to do the first lesson of a CC to teach me how to use my ribber bed. I could have done the whole lesson quicker and better on two needles, but hey ho : )