Partial knitting - automatic wrapping principle

Principle

Say you are shortrowing, and you want to short row N stitches repeatedly (N being 2 or more)

When putting work into hold (reducing working needles), put N-1 needles into hold FURTHEST from the carriage, knit 1 row, put 1 needle into hold NEAREST the carriage, knit 1 row. Total after two passes = N, ie (N-1) + 1. Splitting N into N-1 and 1 means that the single HELD needle gets a wrap over it, which fills in the hole.

Shortrowing back out? Put N+1 needles furthest from the carriage into UWP, knit a row, put 1 needle nearest the carriage back into HOLD, knit a row. Total after two passes = N, ie (N+1) - 1

So, to shortrow 5 sts you'd put 4 sts into HOLD furthest from the carriage and knit 1 row, and then put 1 st into HOLD nearest to the carriage and knit 1 row (or however many rows are required).

When everything is in HOLD, you can either cancel it and continue, which will knit everything back into work, or you can short-row back out as follows:

Put 6 sts into UWP furthest from the carriage and knit a row, then put 1 st nearest the carriage back into HOLD and knit 1 row (or however many are required).

Clear as mud? It's the best I can do, and I still forget the principle sometimes.

Note: UWP = Upper Working Position, ie knit back from HOLD

Lace oops

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Since frogged, but this is what my Brother KH950i thinks about doing lace.... not much, apparently.... :/

FO: pink socks

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

No way I could get them to match, but they are very cosy and I don't care about matchiness! :)

Double drat

Trying to knit the front of a v neck jumper for the Cog (on the Passap) and I keep mucking up the second half of the neck - forgot to cast off 8 in the middle of the vee, and then forgot to cast off 9 for the armhole - got loads to unpick/rehang now. Might actually be quicker to start again, in fact.

I have insomnia too, the one night of the year we get an extra hour in bed. Oh, the irony.

Bum, I say! :(

Drat

Thought my latest cardigan was going great guns - a long tuck stitch cardigan. But alas, it was not to be - I've run out of yarn, only half way up the second sleeve. No way there's enough for neck and front bands.

Still haven't posted the broken wool winder for repair, so I can't even frog it quickly.

Botheration!

The murk descends...

...yes, Europe is having a heatwave, and guess what? We get fog. It's like living under a thick blanket, feels somewhat suffocating.

Slow progress lately. Managed to twist my knee at the weekend, so have been lazing about in front of the tv instead of machine knitting. Whenever I think I've a free weekend coming up, something always comes up. It was the annual Long Buckby Knit and Natter day on Saturday, so I demonstrated tunisian crochet, managed to pick up a few spares for the Passap. Sunday himself wanted to go into Birmingham to buy a dress shirt. Clothes shopping with the Cog is always a nightmare - he has a thick neck or small chest for the "standard" size shirts, so it usually means lots of trying on and scowling and nothing purchased. Of course, the menswear departments are nearly always upstairs. Cue much inner cursing as I lurched up and down them with the sore knee. As luck would have it, Next had the best fit, but not his size, so we ended up nipping to the Fort shopping centre branch and picked one straight off the shelf. Ironically we do have an out-of-town branch in Rugby, but asides from the Burtons and the tiny M&S there aren't any menswear shops in town.

Made some charity hats to use up some (non-stash, part of last year's estate sale) yarn. Had thought I might give them to a local event, but as it is, there won't be enough hats for a decent donation, so I will probably hang onto them until there are a few more and send them to BISS instead. Have knitted the fronts and one sleeve for a tuck stitch cardigan, and then realised that I should have double-lengthened the tuck stitch pattern. Oh well, never mind. Just hoping there's enough yarn for the final sleeve and the bands, otherwise it'll be a disaster.

Finished up the rose/pink DK socks, haven't tried them on yet. Last night I cast on for an unusual project - a parrot-head for an umbrella. A work colleague is going to a fancy dress party as Mary Poppins. I hope my parrot comes out ok (he needs a beak) and doesn't end up looking like a vulture...

Electrically it wasn't a good weekend. Finally got around to testing the passap foot pedal, and it causes the machine to have some sort of fit, so I need to return it. I managed to blow up my Hague yarn winder and fuse the sockets. It needs to go into a box and be returned for a repair, but as I'm brassic until the end of the month (big HP payment on the car this month, plus a short holiday) it will have to wait until November. As my first eye op is on the 2nd, it might have to wait until I can see again! :/

FO: All-in-one waterfall cardigan

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Originally uploaded by steel breeze

This is the latest "Bill King" special from MKM Nov 2012. My camera is being charged, hence the mobile 'phone shot - not bad actually, considering my 'phone has no flash.

Uppingham's baby 4ply acrylic, killed. There are a line of fuzzies on the inside from carriage friction during holding the "not sleeve" stitches - might pop them onto waste yarn next time. But otherwise I'm very happy with it (and the fuzzies don't show on the right side).

This was dashed off quickly before we went away - I've had a short break in Bournemouth, where almost no knitting was completed.

Of gremlins and other things...

I run a very small get-together for machine knitters in Coventry, on an ad-hoc basis at a friend's house (the next meeting is Sunday 9th of December if you care to join us!), and because I've finally caved and put the ribber back onto my Brother machine (because it still wasn't making me use the Passap!), I decided to take along my pristine midgauge machine plus ribber, as one of the attendees wanted to see ribbing cast ons.

Imagine my surprise to discover the S clamps, the connector arm and the carriage were missing. I've hardly used it, and I'm usually pretty good at putting everything back where it should be. It flummoxed me all afternoon, but as it was, we were all somewhat distracted by C's hubby who has lovingly restored a machine foot, using a nice piece of wood, that goes with R's vintage Record machine, which is a mechanized version of a peg knitting loom - the machine feet control the tension so are quite vital and one got shattered in transit.

When I got home, I determined I'd get to the bottom of the missing ribber mystery. Nothing lying around in the knitting room. Then I happened to look at the ribber bed. Even from the back, it's clearly a fine gauge, not a midgauge. Good job I didn't attempt to connect them up! The fine gauge was bought in an estate sale, and for some unknown reason the owner threw away the ribber box with the polystyrene inserts. As it's a Knitmaster, the brackets on the back of the ribber do not come off, and I guess I felt I had to store it somewhere safely whilst it was out of use, which turned out to be the box that the midgauge lives in. The missing ribber parts were carefully stashed in the box that goes with my chunky ribber, which was secreted behind the Passap.

I was certain it was gremlins, though, and not I! :) Everything's been put back where it ought to be, so it won't happen again. Ironically, Gremlins 2 was on the television whilst we were having our tea (a spicy bean hot-pot courtesy of Delia and himself).

Sunday was the "MKM at Home" event at Metropolitan - billed as a "play day" to look at various devices and things one might not have. I half-wondered if it was inspired by my MKKI day in May, although of course my event was far less professional, more focused on vintage machines and there certainly wasn't any catering. If so I'll take it as a compliment I think! It was packed - luckily I managed to get a quick overview of DesignaKnit 8 first thing, before someone with a faulty cable somewhat derailed our little presentation. There was one of those wonderful embroidery machines there too - oh, if only I had the room! I think I want to save up for DAK, it looks very useful. There were people demonstrating lace, knitleaders and other devices in the front lecture room, although alas I didn't get in there fast enough to see them. I got Bill King to demonstrate his deflected ribs in the museum/classroom. After lunch, it turned out there was a talk from a chap representing the "Colour Me Beautiful" books (I think I'm a Spring/Summer!) - but as he'd talked at Dream Week in 2010 I wasn't inclined to attend, apart from the fact that there weren't quite enough chairs anyway. I'm glad I got DAK out of the way first thing, because obviously nothing else could take place in the afternoon in the large room, and pretty much everyone attended. So H and I hung around with Beryl Jarvis (I got to see a "figure of 8 cast off" which I'm hoping I'll remember - a stretchy cast off but not a pretty one) and then sat chatting in the tea room.

I left my misbehaving colour changer (KHC) there, for Mark to take a look at, and as he and Carol were discussing foot pedals for Passap E6000s I managed to buy one (and Carol nearly rang it up for 70p not £70, which would have been some bargain!). The electra4600 is a fine motor but quite scary, and I think I'd prefer a foot control to the "go-stop" button. So - I think the next project is to crack on with a simple jumper for himself, on the Passap, and I can put the new pedal to the test.

One thing that tickled me? There's another wonderful Bill King design in this month's MKM, which I only got in the post Saturday morning - and there were at least three people wearing theirs on the Sunday. What can I say? If I'd not been tied up with shopping and the MK group I would have made myself one also - I'm hoping I might find time tonight, but it's unlikely, as Mondays is housework and gym night.

All in all, a very interesting and useful day. I think I'd have preferred a little more structure to the DAK demo, because I'm pretty sure there's more to the Stitch Designer part of the program, but it gave me enough of a taster to make me think I need to start saving up for it. If I am to get the cables, the Passap'll be the last, as I could use Wincrea for it. It'll be a case of choosing between the SK840 and the Brother KH950i I suppose. When you knit interactively, it actually talks to you. I wonder whether it's programmed to scream "Stop, you daft woman, you were supposed to start decreasing 10 rows ago!" And if not, why not?! :D

Stashdown update #9

The stash is currently sitting at 105 separate items on Ravelry - that's 4 down from last month, which is good - but as I've focused on using up the "bits and bobs" I'm now looking at larger cones, which aren't as easy to use up. I *did* pick up a ball of Patons Smoothie last night (in a fetching spring green) but I'm not counting that as stash as it's to be used for making crochet samples for a book I'm writing. Don't hold your breath, this book has been in progress on and off in my head for more than two years!

I'm just not finding much time to sit at the machines, and when I have had time, I've just been too tired. Last weekend I was a bit under the weather with a sore throat. So I cast on a crochet shawl with some coned yarn I got from Colinette.

How I am going to use up a box full of Denys Brunton Magicolor, and another box full of space-dyed acrylics, I'll never know...

In other news, the SportKa is alas no more, it's been traded in for a second-hand red Vauxhall Corsa. Not as much fun to drive, and surprisingly less storage space, but the petrol needle has hardly moved all week and it's certainly a more comfortable drive. I miss the Ka - we had three years of fun together, and it was such a lovely colour (a metallic blue which tended to look purple in certain lights) - but it had a bit of rust around the filler cap, and waiting another year would have meant that the trade-in value would be practically nil. Silly being sentimental about a car, but it was very reliable.