Bling, socks and more yarn!

Well, it's been an interesting time lately. Mojo has been lacking - partly because the weather has been ick and also because of other issues which I won't go into here. I've tried to make myself available to support my partner, and when that hasn't been required, I've been distracting myself with various social events, so there's not been much crafting time. The tumble dryer started shrieking and had to be replaced - the original manufacturer conned me into practically paying for a new one over twelve months (it and the washing machine are 8). When G returned from his snowboarding trip, we cancelled it and decided to go in for a new "heat pump" one. The old one actually destroyed several shirts when we first got it, and the sensor never sensed anything, so was costing a fortune to run and doubling as heating on laundry days. Some evil git scratched and dented my car and drove off, on a week when it could have happened in quite a few places (it still being dark fairly early), so that's another bill I could have done without. The less said about trying to get rid of our old sofa before the new one arrives, the better. It's been a trying year! 

Anyway, this weekend was the annual Kegworth "Going round in circles" event. Owing to a complete oversight on my part, I'd already bought tickets for myself, Mum and sil to attend the "Sewing for Pleasure" show at the NEC on the Sunday, and they don't do refunds alas, so I could only attend Kegworth on the Saturday. It was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends and make new ones. As I was teaching a class, I didn't get time to knit anything myself, and then I packed away quite early and wished I hadn't. Anne ran a cool class on how to make mini socks, and I'm hoping I made decent enough notes to be able to make some more of these. 

Aren't they cute?! Because of the dinky size, they are knitted as flat web and then grafted and sewn up one side. She even has a method for knitting the loop for adding to a keyring. I stayed for the evening meal, which was very nice, and then hot-footed it back home to bed. Yes, I did pick up some sock yarn, and no, I'll not bore you with the pictures. 

The NEC show was also fun - this one mostly focuses on sewers (sewists?) but there are a few yarn stalls dotted about, alongside beads, printmaking, marbling, card-making / scrapbooking, and the usual oddities - a cheese stall, olives, rum, moonshine, garden furniture and clothes/handbags. Ironically I only picked up a few findings and beads, and two pairs of "harem pants" which are great for lounging around the house in. They'll also be great for holidays, should I ever be lucky enough to go on another beach holiday. 

Some bling I picked up from the Southampton Bead Shop. It was all I could do not to buy more! So much lovely stuff! 

Current mood: awake

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

Fun flowers and more finished objects

First, some fun swap items I received today. I love the FLOL group on Ravelry, this was the May flowers swap. I sent some floral-themed items to someone too!

Next up, an almost-finished (blue) beige helix. Turns out it involves the self-timer trying to take pictures of the reverse, apologies for catching my partner's "floordrobe" in shot. This was finished late last night, I just need to weave in all the ends, which will be interesting as this is a bamboo-cotton mix yarn made of many thin strands. The collar's so big (it's a big circle) that it almost doubles as a Jedi-style hood!

Finally, I present one argyle sock worked manually on the CSM (overchecks worked by hand, it involves a dental pick on my CSM and is not for the faint-hearted). Very pleased with it, even though I made it much harder for myself in terms of ends by reversing my colours for the overchecks. Matthew Hamilton's original video on youtube uses a third colour for the overchecks, which means a lot less ends to sew in later. The second sock will happen sometime mid June.

In other news, I've managed to catalogue all of the craft books I have stored in the craft room, whilst having a bit of a cull. Now just two big cases of non-craft books and a bunch of self-published ones (Mary Weaver, Kathleen Kinder) to add. The self-published ones take time because they don't have ISBN numbers of course. More car shenanigans - I got reversed into by a lorry whilst I was legally parked waiting to get into a training venue (turned out they'd moved the training, and the lorry driver didn't normally go to that depot). Minutes after I'd moved my car, someone else was parked in that spot. You just couldn't make it up. Anyway, fingers crossed I get the car back ASAP, the courtesy vehicle is a very budget affair. I dread to think what next year's car insurance looks like.

We've also been making some effort with the garden with the addition of a bug hotel, and some weeding (and extra mowing, in between the rain). The roses are blooming, despite the current weird "summer" of sunny yet chilly with sudden downpours. Today it's 16 degrees, grey and wet so the tumble dryer is the only way to get the laundry done. I think I've managed to sit outside in the garden maybe twice, and with warm clothing both times! Oh well, same old same old!

Current mood: happy

Going round in circles (Kegworth) 2024

It's always a highlight over December / January to get the invite for the annual CSM event in Kegworth - even more so this year, with our somewhat challenging Christmas. After not teaching last year, I realised that for me, I knit socks better alone, without the delicious distractions of pretty yarn, lovely people, interesting gadgets and plentiful workshops taking my attention elsewhere. But there's a place for just knitting socks if that's what you want to do, and plenty of people do just that! 

Anyway, because the Cog had managed to "book" our car before me to go on a snowboarding trip that weekend, I had arranged a hire car. After discussion with P who was travelling with me, we decided to take her car and cancel the hire because I was still able to get a refund. Unfortunately, her car developed a minor fault the following day - one of those faults that go away if you wait ten minutes - but she thought we would be ok. So we duly set off from mine at 2pm, pleased at how we'd managed to fit everything in. Alas, her car went into "limp" mode before we'd even got to the M1, so she sensibly pulled over into a layby. We tried waiting and starting, locking ourselves in and starting, and even an on-off ignition thing that was supposed to reset the computer - then THREE lights were on, not just the engine light, and it wouldn't start at all. Hubby and relations were called; the cavalry duly arrived and of course the car started perfectly (though the engine light was still on). Hubby drove us back to theirs and a hire vehicle was booked. They couldn't get to us before 6pm, so P kindly rustled up a tea of pizza, salad and very nice ice-cream (salted caramel, ooh!). The "van" turned out to be a Ford Fiesta van, so basically my old diesel Fiesta with no back seats, slightly longer doors and whited-out windows. Tiny, but we managed to fit everything bar the trolley. It was dark by now, and as it's a car I'm very familiar with, I took the wheel and we were at our destination without further incident. I think P has been asking hubby to replace the car for some time, but as he's a classic car restorer I think he's rather reluctant! The delay meant we just had time for a drink and catch up with friends, and we missed both the rush hour and the noisy cabin-crew-in-training that use this hotel for aircraft dry runs, so win-win! My other friend C wasn't so lucky; they didn't leave until half 8, and a lorry tipped over on the M1, so they didn't get to the hotel until 11pm (we went to bed at half 10). It's only a 45 minute drive when things are good!

On Saturday I attended the "how to dismantle your machine" talk by Hilary first thing, which was fascinating - my machine is overdue a good clean. At 11am I demonstrated the circular/slip ribber cast on  - lesson learned, use my smartphone in future for taking down email addresses, because I email my hand-outs as PDFs to save on printing, and there's always at least one person whose handwriting I can't read, so I got a few bounces later. After lunch, there was a short talk on the history of machine knitting by Matthew, and how to knit flip-top mittens with a gored thumb from Jo. Someone offered to buy the Dean and Bean, part way through that - I asked if she could give me a shout at the end of the talk before she left (only thirty minutes), but when I went to look for her, she was nowhere to be found! I thought it was a bit rude (especially as she'd knocked £150 off my asking price which was already £50 off from the $ price bought new, not to mention import duties), but clearly it wasn't meant to be!

On Sunday, I helped out in the "newbies" room for a bit, before reprising the circular/slip ribber cast on again. After lunch, Jo demonstrated simple fingerless mittens (with vertical or horizontal slits), and a lovely Swedish lady Lina demonstrated how she does colourwork. I managed to sell the D&B machine to a lovely lady who offered me more than the disappearing woman, so all's well that ends well. 

The hotel isn't great - the beds are hard, the pillows flat, the walls so thin that at one point I could hear the ladies on one side talking whilst also listening to someone's tv on the other side. My kettle had a hairline crack, so I ended up with some damp tea bags in a bit of a puddle on Saturday night! But I don't go for the accomodation, I go for the event; the staff are lovely and I remember quite a few of them from previous years - one even patched me up when I caught my finger on something sharp. Yes, a bit of sock yarn was purchased, plus a few random gadgets. All in all, a great weekend and I learnt quite a lot, including that the heel I work is called the "suicide heel" by some! I guess I've just been lucky with it, in that case!

Very pretty 3d printed CSM

Bill King popped up and brought a fascinating Harrison V bed

It could only be a Bill King sock - knitted for a pantomime dame, no less!

A very shiny Erlbacher!

I didn't get the make of this 3d printed machine but it looks really cool!

Current mood: exhausted but inspired

Someone can't count...

Ugh!

Current mood: annoyed

More car troubles / fun with CSMs

Happy New Year!

TDLR - ongoing car issues, skip to the next paragraph!

Well, the car saga continues. Further to my post on the 27th, it appears that the immobiliser we had installed on the car in the first week in December was a bit too good - it was like having a table lamp connected to the car all the time. No wonder the battery went flat - literally immobilising the car for everyone except the recovery company. I've seen the mess the "wiring" was in - badly done AND unsafe - so I'm only surprised our vehicle didn't set itself alight in a gust of wind! Now of course the immobiliser company are accusing the garage of staging the photos... It cost a smidge under £200 to test the car overnight, identify the fault, get the car made electrically safe. I've got more expense next week getting the immobiliser company to fix their bodge job (oh yes, there's also a tracker with a monthly subscription fee that no longer tracks) because I am insisting that it's done at my garage and then the garage does another battery drain test (not free!), because I can't trust the immobiliser company as far as I can throw them. Judging by the photo, even I could have wired it better, and that's after 2 week's apprentice training that I took in 1988. We have been using the garage since before 2009 and they've been going since 1907 (and I'd never even heard of the immobiliser company until November) so I think I know where the truth lies... Sorry for ranting on, but it's been very unsettling - the last thing I needed on top of the SAD - and it thoroughly spoilt our Christmas break, as it was hanging over us from the 23rd onwards. I'd post this in my personal blog, but I haven't posted to that in so long I (a) can't remember the email address I used with it and (b) cannot access it anymore. Ugh. Fingers crossed the car issues will all be resolved by this time next week (no idea if I can get my extra money back alas). 

Anyway, onto more fun things! You may recall I bought this CSM on a whim last summer. Being a bit of an idiot, I went charging in, trying to use the smallest cylinder without even really getting to know the machine first. After a frantic few weekends of it taking up half of the dining table, I did manage to knit myself a pair of bed socks in just plain stocking stitch on the 60 cylinder. Yes, I did knit a pair in the end, though the second sock ended up being finished in another completely different yarn just to get the thing off the machine. I had no joy with the ribber at the time and have destroyed more than ten ribber needles trying to get the circular or slip cast on (as is done in flat bed machine knitting) to work on the CSM. 

Fast forward to this weekend, and I convinced the Cog to have a bit of a clear out. That's one good thing about January - the weather's rubbish and the bank accounts all look a little empty, so one finds things to do around the house. He managed to clear out one box of paperwork junk and I managed to get his "not working from home" desk cleared - it's at the other end of the tiny box room I use as my WFH office. So the Dean and Bean machine is now back up  - the only downside is, if I get quiet at work I might be tempted to knit a sneaky sock in one of the more boring meetings.

I've learned quite a lot this week after just two sessions. 

1. Don't assume because you can use a metal CSM that the same techniques will work on a 3d printed one - they may or may not! That probably goes for any knitting machine, not just a CSM.
2. The slip/circular cast on does NOT work on my CSM - as soon as the ribber needles are disengaged, the ribber dial starts to climb and ribber needles start to rotate 90 degrees in their slots, which is how they get munched (and I'm not even using much force). There is a small line printed on the ribber dial as to when the switch should be moved, but I've given up on it, it does not appear to be functional on my version of this machine. The design may have improved since this one, I don't know. 
3. The ribber dial slots are a little loosey-goosey when compared to my Imperia - this might be down to the possible tolerances available in 3d printing, I do not know.
4. All that being said, the Juana selvedge works very well for ribbing - I knit three quarters of one round of ribbing over EON (Every Other Needle), and then loaded the ribber needles up and picked up the bar. Both rounds were done with the heel weight engaged
5. Trying to use a ravel cord between the cast on bonnet and the waste yarn / main yarn didn't go so well.
6. I pegged the yarns together and the peg is now toast. Whoops! I need to source some smaller weights methinks
7. I used the cast on bonnet and soft weight to get started, but as soon as it's long enough I release the soft weight and use my buckle and weight hanger from my Imperia - it's a lot easier to adjust the weight upwards.
8. Always check your ribber needle position before you start removing main cylinder needles, and expect to do a test run first. My first attempt ended in a needle chomping because the ribber and main needles clashed, even though they initially looked ok. Also, alignment with no knitting in place is one thing, but you do have to allow for the thickness of the knitting. I've tweaked my ribber stop out by one, hopefully that is better. 
9. For heels and toes, the 1 up / 1 up (automatic wrap) decrease is just fine. For decreasing, I found 1 up / 2 down was the most successful. 
10. Because both cylinder and ribber slots are a little looser than on my metal CSM, cranking with no yarn loaded must be done cautiously. If cylinder needles are empty and in hold, cranking should be done with extreme caution - when these needles are fully up, they rotate in their slots and can get jammed in the yarn carrier area.
11. Above all, crank the first bit of the sock slowly and check each stitch meticulously. The machine cannot be cranked as fast as a metal one anyway, being plastic. 

All that being said, so far it's the most successful of all the 3D printed machines I've seen. The reason I'm testing it now is because I'm due to take it to the annual event at Kegworth, and if it doesn't earn its place in my "stable" of equipment, I'm afraid it will be sold. 

Pictures to follow in the next post - himself is moving around upstairs and will be demanding breakfast imminently!

Current mood: bitchy

Machine knitter interrupted

First, way past due - this was birthday sock yarn, and these are the socks it made!

I really need to finish this - the knitting was done by a local lady who has since passed away, so far I've managed to add all the cuffs (in a slightly different colour pink) and sew it up, it just needs the front bands finishing. Because she did facings, it's slowing me up as to how to complete them.

This looks much better on - the Green Grove tee. Though on closer inspection, it looks like I left some of the patterning out. Oh well, never mind! Now, what to do with the leftover yarn?

I made two pairs of these mittens on Sunday, but only managed to photograph this pair. Made from the Gerda Stitt pattern that she kindly let me host in perpetuity before she died.

Last, but by no means least, I have been distracted by the beading bug lately, when a friend gifted me her extensive bead stash. The bottom two are kits picked up at a recent craft fair - they will be either Spellbound Beads or Southampton Beads - and the top are beaded tassels I am making, after being inspired to make my own by some very expensive ones seen online. Mine are interchangeable, too! There might be some xmas present making going on too, but I can't post about that just yet!

Not shown, the kitty cross stitch kit I really ought to finish! In other news, we traded our cars in for a newer car and already some little sh!t has tried to hack the electronics. I guess getting stranded at a garden centre wasn't the worst place to end up, but still, ugh! It cost me £99 to get the car reset, and if it happens again I think I will trade it in for something less attractive...

Current mood: enthralled

Lumpy toe

Well, in my defence, a good friend turned up in the middle to pick up some books and MK equipment I'm getting rid of, and I kind of lost track with the toe of this sock. But it came out very well and I am quite pleased with it, my first sock on the Dean and Bean machine! I still need to loosen off the directional cam I think, I don't want to have to poke it on every pass because that's a bit irritating! There are two Russian joins in this sock because the yarn had already been used and cut, and alas I don't have more of this colour to make it a mate yet. The tension is a bit iffy because I was too lazy to rewind the yarn into a proper ball. Perhaps I could start a trend for odd socks though?

I've sold a few MK books on Facebook this week which is good. The garage is awash with coned yarn so himself is not best pleased! Nobody seems to want the Toyota needles which is a pity. I hate to take things down the tip but that is where they will go! 

Current mood: working

Playing with the new toy

Well, after a disastrous first attempt, I managed to get two serviceable heels out of the new CSM. The first I followed the instructions, which were:

1. Short-rowing in, pull leading needle in hold (automatically wraps on next pass)
2. Short-rowing out, move trailing needle to WP, wrap leading held needle manually

This resulted in the leading working needle occasionally dropping the stitch, though moving the yarn carrier a bit closer seemed to help. If you can get the first needle to knit then the yarn is in the right place for subsequent needles to pick it up. Wrapping the yarn manually tends to mean it rides up in the yarn carrier so I had to learn to "floss" each time. 

My second attempt went much better:

1. Short-rowing in, pull leading needle in hold
2. Short-rowing out, place leading needle back into WP and hold the latch open

This is my preferred method with the Imperia and it looks neater on the inside - the manual wrap creates a bit of a loop. I've established that the central "switch" cam tends to stick, thus causing jams when short-rowing. I will try and loosen it half a turn; having to poke it on every row is a bit annoying! Alas I have to get the cylinder out to access that part. 

I had to smile after watching someone unboxing their version of this machine on Youtube. The expectation was the whole thing would arrive pre-assembled and working, I cannot imagine it surviving the postal service fully assembled. Having said that, I don't know what the website was like when the reviewer bought their machine - there are tons of videos on the website now, including a whole video course, so there's really no reason not to get it up and running fairly quickly. However, anyone expecting machine knitting to be "easy" is in for a short, sharp shock - it takes persistance and sheer bloody-mindedness to get anywhere with a machine. Just when you think you are in control, the machine throws you for a loop, too - no chance to get complacent! Something that swatches perfectly can still go wrong - I swear these machines KNOW when it's important, and decide not to co-operate!

Cross-stitch is my current addiction, though the machines haven't been forgotten. I'm part way through a child's alphabet at the moment. 

I took delivery of a big destash of yarn and mk books last week, more are due to come this week. I will attempt to donate them to the KCG first and then try selling them online. Alas I suspect much may end up in recycling, there's very little interest in the publications these days. I seem to have gained an LC2 lace carriage (the machines have already been donated I understand) and a bunch of Toyota needles. 

Current mood: amused

New toys and gradual progress

Well, when this came up for sale on Ravelry I managed to resist for a whole 24 hours:

It's a Dean and Bean 3d printed CSM with four cylinders and matching ribbers...

The less said about the mess I made when I tried to use the ribber, the better... Is it just me, or does the ribber arm look like the USS Enterprise?

My other current addiction is finishing this. The two buildings at the bottom are delayed because I ran out of beige. I'm not sure which is more annoying, that it was my fault for not reading the graph properly, or that I'm paying £3 postage for a 99p skein of cotton. Still, at least I resisted buying more yarn! The universe must have realised I'm doing cross stitch because an old friend had a clear out and sent me three part finished ones. Though I do now have two sleeves and a back from the Passap. Slowly but surely the cardigan continues...

Current mood: amused

More objects of desire, and machine knitting frustrations

Well, I bought two new lenses and already the 18-400mm has proved its worth - so much lighter to take hiking. However, I am now lusting over a 100mm macro lens. My 35mm lens (discontinued) is fine but you do have to get pretty close to things to get a decent shot. I've yet to figure out what to do with the 50mm. Perhaps that's the curse of photography - never got the right lens, always something to lust after! 

It's probably down to my terrible note-keeping, but I finally decided to restart work on the half-fisherman's rib cardigan (supposedly an easy Passap Model Book pattern - ha!) only to discover the tension I'd written down was really struggling. Stitches were hopping off all over the place. First attempt at a sleeve had so many missed tucks it looked like the moths had been at it - even a homeless person wouldn't want it! A restart at a lower tension went better BUT the left hand end stitch refused to form on the tucking back bed - I don't know that there's an easy fix for that! I do wish the Passap E6000 manual went into more detail as to how these things are achieved! The manual has very little information on this! I wrote on the pattern I'd used ss6/6 but on Ravelry I've written down ss5/5 which, apart from that left needle, worked much better. In disgust I'm afraid I frogged the lot, apart from the pocket, which I cannot figure out how it was knit (I *think* it was started circular - it refused to reveal its secrets and I didn't feel like looking them up by that point). Reader, I cast on a hand knit shawl in disgust. It does make me think the Passap is more suited to straight pieces and yardage, but I will have a rummage through my Passap books and see if I can find a better method for knitting sleeves in a tucked rib. I'm sure it's going to come up again! Increasing shouldn't be so hard! 

I recently offered to host Susan Guagliumi's free patterns, as she has recently taken her website down amid rising expenses. I can confirm that the garment patterns are now available online as PDFs with her kind permission. I didn't give her a specific page, but until the next round of updates they'll be the ones marked *NEW* in most cases. 

In other news, I finally finished the Pauline cardigan, with yarn to spare. I've yet to wear it of course, it is too hot to be wearing acrylic!

Mother Nature finally leaned on the "Summer" button here, we have had almost constant sunshine for the last few weeks, with the odd thunderstorm. Alas the ground is so dry it's almost as if the water is bouncing. I have been pretty lazy this year garden-wise and just pulled some weeds so far. We do seem to have a few bald spots that need occupying to keep the weeds in check if nothing else. 

The socks made with yarn I bought in Ghent. They were finished a few weeks ago, I think I put them away before I got around to taking their picture.

Current mood: annoyed

FO: 2.5 pairs of socks and a Sunday walk

Tube socks in Drops Delight

Tube socks in Spin Sisters yarn

Heeled sock with the fairisle polk dots worked using holding position, after a demo last weekend. Quite a few dropped stitches and a few mistakes, and 20 rounds rib / 40 ankle isn't quite enough in wear, I will make the next pair longer. Not seen, the hot mess of ends inside and the slight mess I've made of grafting the toe whilst also splitting the yarn. This will be fixed later, not sure when its mate will appear. I love that the dots (just 2x2 stitches) look a bit like love hearts from a distance. This yarn is neon pink in real life, it's Opal solids.

There's been some discussion on my Needles of Steel MKC Whatsapp group about how many machines we all have. My out of use ones are stored like this, for want of a better option. The machine under the sheet is the SK840/SRP60N, and just seen by the blue yarn/white leg is the CSM. The workshop machine lives in the garage, along with another ribber. Out of shot to the right is the Passap E6000. 

On Sunday sweetie planned a short walk around the canals just at the back of Elliott's Field retail park in Rugby. The Oxford Canal, Rivers Avon and Swift all snake around this area - it took us a while to figure out how to get down onto the canal as it's in a steep cutting here. The canal was originally a contour canal that was later straightened, so there's lots of "lost" bits in the area. As luck would have it, we even got a bit of sunshine, the weather turned nasty later on. After the walk we browsed in Dunelm and had a look at bathroom ideas, as our ensuite is in need of replacement. Very middle-aged but somewhat productive, I just wish they'd show more space-saving solutions. We can't all have bathrooms the size of main bedroooms, surely?!

Complete with ghost sign from Rugby Wharf advertising calor gas (I think the wharf still exists, but much smaller and not in this shot). The white bridge had smooth gouges in the railing nearest the sign, almost as if worn down by ropes constantly running across it. 

The mural is under a bridge near the Harvester, I wonder how many commuters even know it's there as they drive over it?

Current mood: curious

Going Round in Circles 2023

I was delighted to be invited to this annual event again, and this year I decided I wanted to be a student and not a teacher. Nothing against teaching of course, just that I've done it quite a few times now and as I've not really gone much out of my own comfort zone, I'm not sure what I could teach that most haven't already seen! 

I picked up my friend P and we got there without incident. We're only 50 minutes away from the venue, so were somewhat early. We couldn't get into the conference rooms to unload because the hotel was hosting cabin crew examinations (which we were warned about). So we spent what felt like ages in the bar chatting, surrounded by some very noisy twenty-somethings doing the same! I seemed to be in the same room as last year, but luckily the lock had been replaced so that it actually locked and unlocked consistantly. I only seemed to have the one bedside lamp with a bulb, so I swiftly swapped it to my preferred side of the bed!

In the end I ate an instant noodle I'd brought with me, because time was getting on and I need to take medication at certain times of the day. Whilst P had her dinner I unloaded our gear from the car and parked up again, and she came and we got set up and somewhat organised for the morrow.  The hotel wifi was down all weekend (and I was a long way from reception) so I used up my free credit. Glad I didn't bother taking my laptop now! 

On Saturday morning, I spent the morning chatting with P and E and catching up with other familiar friends, whilst attempting to make what I thought would be one of my fairly straightforward tube socks. Oh dear! The yarn kept not knitting (I knit my socks pretty tight on the 72 cylinder). It's not a yarn I've used before (I don't think those sellers turned up this year) - it looked thinner but was perhaps more tightly spun. The Wool Wagon arrived and I accidentally bought more yarn from both them and H (aka The Sock Doc). I learned an ingenious way to park the ribber needles whilst working a heel on a ribbed sock, which will enable me to see where I'm hanging the heel fork. It's soo clever and obvious, I wish I'd thought of it myself. Meanwhile, P had lots of help knitting a ribbed sock from another friend. I also attended an interesting talk on calf shaping, where the ribber is set to 1/3 or 2/3 pitch so that extra needles are added at the start - ie, 4x1 for the front half of the cylinder - and how to do that without getting holes, and then to return them to 3x1 to make different calf shapings. Fascinating and not something I'd ever come across before. It is mostly fully fashioned shaping, as done on flat bed domestic knitting machines - but not something I've ever considered attempting on my CSM for some reason! By the end of the day I'd managed a pair of the tube socks in the misbehaving yarn, and most of one sock in Drops Delight, which I understand is discontinued?! Ugh, another lovely yarn I won't be able to get soon. Rats.

I had a quick walk before dinner just because I needed some fresh air, then came back and glammed up for the evening meal. The food was great but the conversation turned to deaths of pets so I made my excuses and got a drink, because the following day was annniversary of the day we had Thomas euthanised and I needed to not think about that too much! I got a very nice white wine spritzer, with hibiscus blossom and star anise in the top, and caught up with the lady who runs the ex-Metropolitan correspondance courses and Eric of the amazing 3D printed CSM items. 

I awoke too early on Sunday, after a nightmare where everyone was persecuting me. No idea what that was about, just that my sweetie wasn't on my side either, which was the only thing that really upset me! On and off I supervised P in making a 2nd sock to match her first one. We got into a few pickles, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. I watched the jacquard patterning Reader CSM, which uses a flying saucer shaped patterning attachment containing little metal jacks, set at an angle, to automatically knit two coloured socks. It took the convention organisers quite some time to figure out how to program it - the disc has a different number of pins to the CSM itself, enabling you to knit 12 row repeated patterns. Initially a colour is "tucked" ie it floats in front, but then it gets flipped over to the inside as for fairisle so becomes a slip. Ingenious! I also attended a talk on russian joins and scrappy socks (probably more fun to knit socks from scraps than use them for granny squares as is my current wont), and another on manual tuck techniques and using holding position to knit in different colours. 

A lady was trying to auction off some CSMs - I thought the asking price was a little high compared to last year, but then I have a machine so my interest is always academic (and I stay well off ebay normally). I think she sold three in the end. There were some lovely competition entries. Nope, the socks in the last post didn't win - I didn't realise, but one sock being longer is dead obvious when it includes zigzag lace transfers, whoops! The winners were all worthy and I've already enjoyed wearing my lacey socks anyway. 

All in all a good weekend - if I had any complaints, it's that two days is never long enough! Five would be less rushed, we could all alternate between learning and putting it into practice. As the event is all in aid of Ruddington Museum it's all in a good cause, and we're lucky we have anything to attend of course. COVID and financial considerations killed off the remaining MK shows, and there weren't many left before the pandemic as it was! 

I will add some pictures when I get them off my mobile phone - there were some amazing 3D printed CSMs there, but I don't think the technology is quite there yet as regards ribbing!

The reader CSM

Pretty printed cylinders - one of them is a rainbow if you look closely!

A winning sock entry - tuck, why didn't I think of that?

Current mood: enthralled