FO: red cardigan and Lucy coatighan

Finished this on Thursday night, would've worn it earlier but it wasn't dry. The yarn (Patons wool blend aran) was rather rough when knitted, but softened up a treat. My new favourite cardigan. Literally had just enough to finish the fringe, and luckily I accidentally bought an extra ball of the wine coloured yarn because I needed it.



Finished this on Saturday - the crepe yarn reflected the flash, it's actually a lovely deep red.

And when I wasn't doing that, I was threading up this, most of the weekend (it's going to be a table runner):


I'm going to stop using the, count the wraps and divide by 2 method for working out epi and use the various reference tables I've since found online. I warped it as 8 epi and then realised that was too loose so resleyed it as 10 epi, which is still on the loose side. I really don't like warping back to front, it's such a PITA. Would much rather use the reed as the raddle. Got some weaving books on order so that should help.

Himself is on his way back from the third snowboarding trip this year - house has been very quiet without him but I kept myself busy.

Current mood: okay

FO: Brown raglan cardigan

Apologies for the dreadful photo - it's actually a rather nice, simple, dark chocolate raglan cardigan, that came out a little long. A local yarn, Mercia Merino DK, knitted up just fine at T8 on the KH950i.



I've also figured out how to knit the collar on the Rowan moss-stitch jacket the customer gave me; alas, the pins and needles mean I can't do more than about 10 rows before I get numbness in my left fingers. So I think, now I've figured out the pattern, that I might take it back to the customer and let her finish it off. It only needs about 20 rows over 21 stitches. So disgusted with myself that I can't finish it.

Current mood: annoyed

FO: red reversible hat and other knitting

So I thought I'd try and make some progress on the lizard ridge jumper, which I started in 2014:



But I didn't make any notes on Rav, other than it was T6 and it was supposed to be a cardigan.



So anyway it's now going to be a slash neck jumper with plain arms. The back is done, the front is just awaiting a bottom band (knitting garter st bands by hand) and then I need to find the original tension swatch (ha!) and calculate some sleeves on Knitware. I unpicked something that was either meant to be a sleeve, or a front. Oops. Oh well!

Some not great pictures of a quick reversible hat I whipped up yesterday:





If I could just figure out a way to make the Every Other Needle to Every Needle bit lie flat (the red crown), it'd be perfect. Looks a lot better on a human than it does on the bed, too.

Oh, and a gratuitous kitty shot, just because he looks like such a cutie - and not at all like Eddie noneck stripeytail devil rocketboy...



Current mood: Off to work, but wishing I could stay at home knitting! :)

Free pattern: Sideways MK fingerless gloves

Machine: std 4.5mm gauge machine
Yarn: Any oddments of sock yarn 3-4ply
Tension: 5

Make 2 alike

1. Cast on with waste yarn over 52 sts, knit a few rows and end with carriage on right. 
2. K 1 row ravel cord RC000
3. With main yarn and T5, K 38 rows. Set carriage to HOLD - carriage should be on left
4. Put needles 5R to 26R into Hold
5. K1 row (COR)
6. Put 5 Ns opposite carr into hold, K1 row
7. Put 1 N nearest carr into hold, K1 row
8. Rep rows 6 and 7 until only 6 sts left in work in the middle of the bed (RC47)
9. Put all needles from 26L to 4R into UWP and K 6 rows (RC53)
10. Put all thumb needles back into hold except middle 7, K 1 row
11. Put 1N nearest carr into hold, K1 row
12. Put 7 Ns to UWP, K 1 row
13. Rep rows 11 and 12 until all thumb stitches (26L - 4R) back in work. Break yarn.
14. Put all Ns into HOLD, and pass the carriage to the right (free pass) COR (RC63)
15. Put all needles from 5R to 26R into UWP and knit 8 rows (RC71)
16. Cancel HOLD, K38 rows on all needles (RC109)

Break yarn, leaving a tail 4 x the width of the knitting, and scrap off on waste yarn. Graft the cast on and cast off edges together and weave in ends.

Notes:

• You might subtract multiples of 2 rows at (15) if you find the finger part too loose. I tried leaving them out altogether and felt it made the thumb hole a bit too tight - only advantage being you don't have to break the yarn
• I added a row of dc, a row of tr and some 5tr, 1dc shells to mine; you could add rib before grafting instead to counteract the natural curl of stocking stitch. 
• If you don't fancy grafting, cast on with e-wrap instead, knit the last row @ T10 and latch off instead. You'll have a seam down the outside of the hand. 

FO: socks and hat

The socks came out fine but the hat is a bit on the small side. Not one of my finest moments.

More hats

Not more hats, I'm sure you're thinking. Well, you'd be half-right. I used the figures from the reversible hat pattern to make a more simple ribbed band hat. Because although I love me the reversible, the sewing up afterwards is really tedious.



The more interesting thing about these hats is that I used partial programming of the KH950i - these patterns are actually excerpts of pre-programmed patterns. I think the baby one is part of a rabbit pattern, and the child size is a pattern that looks like sweeties, only I left off the rabbit and the sweeties. Having to sit and read the manual so I could teach a new student a few weeks back also helped me to explore the capabilities of the KH950i. To that end, there's another cheat sheet in the works, but I do need to test it because there's an error on one page.

And, slighty blurred, a drip-candle sock in progress. I really rather like this stitch pattern, but would have to modify it if I wanted to use it for straight knitting. Trying very hard not to do the fairisle with two similar colours. It's like Kauni, but in triplicate.

FO: Reversible hat

Another reversible hat. Knitted from sock yarn oddments at T5, it's a little on the tight side for my bonce, so I guess it's adult small.

Have started knitting a pair of Drip Candle socks with leftovers from the big xmas sock knitting of 2013. My first ever toe-up sock by hand! Was a bit like juggling with a hedgehog when I started, but it gets easier. Of course, it's 2.25mm needles, and I only have 2mm and 2.5mm circulars.

Still a bit snotty, but over the worst of it.

FO: Socks and bricks...

Now, that's not a post title you see very often...

Finally finished the Hopscotch socks (from Think Outside the Sox):



This time they match in length. Hoorah!

Now, I'm not normally one for knitting covers for things, but I've got these edging slabs, that are used as counterweights for my CSM. They are beige and they cause dust and last year at the CSM event? I put them to one side and left them at the venue. Luckily I had the keys and could pop back the next day. So I figured, a nice loud jacket for them would make them look nicer and make it less likely that I'd lose them again. When I told the Cog I was knitting covers for housebricks, I got "the look"! :)



I thought I'd calculated enough knitting to cover the red one, but had to knit two more rectangles for the ends. The black one I recalculated and made all of a piece. If you're going to knit something like this, it's worth marking stitches for making up afterwards. I kind of guessed. They won't win any beauty competitions, but they look a lot nicer than they did!

Manor House machine knitters did a workshop on knitted lace last week, so after the housebricks, I made a little lace swatch, and the machine behaved beautifully. Time I made that lacy cardigan I've been planning for ages...

I met a local lady on Saturday who had never used her KH950i for patterning, so I've been refreshing my knowledge of programming it. I discovered that my electronic eye isn't reading the mylars - it might need a clean, or it might have failed. It's not the end of the world, because I can use the PPD. I do wonder whether it ever worked - there's only one drawn pattern that came with it, and lots of blank mylars. I will ask around to see if it's fixable.

We had our first machine knitting meeting in the afternoon. It was well attended, and we had a good natter about all things machine knit. Next meeting is February 15th.

FO: more hats

Made some stash-busting hats for charity over the weekend. A mid-gauge one:



These two are reversible, made on the standard gauge, and very cosy:

Another commission

This is a Bill King "Gold Star", from MKM Dec 2011. The yarn is Texere New Fancy Acrylic, which is acrylic "roving" with a binder yarn. Only just had enough yarn!

Now, I'm making myself something red and glittery for the party season. There's been a lot of knitting for others so far this month - now it's my turn! :)

A commission for a friend...

Yes, I have cut my head off the first shot because I was talking and look really mean. Anyway, preserves an air of mystery, ya know?! This beautiful creation is a Bill King All-in-One knitted for Babylonglegs, dyer of lots of scrummy yarns - just looking at her shop makes me want to lick the monitor. Shouldn't have worn the navy and white top with the floofy sleeves today, doesn't really work, oh well, never mind! The bottom picture doesn't really do the colours justice, the perils of indoor/wintertime photography. The pattern is in MKM Nov 2012. 

The yarn is Denys Brunton Magicolor (alas, no longer available!) and it's been steam pressed for drape. I snagged a batch of this a few years back at Metropolitan and this happened to be a complete cone. I don't often do commissions - I don't mind for friends, but non-knitters seem surprised and annoyed when you ask for minimum wage x hrs x 2 + the cost of the yarn... funny that! I once made a pair of socks for an ex- work colleague who wasn't happy when I showed her the price of the yarn online (probably about £6-7 a ball). She got socks made from leftovers in the end, and I got a fiver for my trouble (machine-knitted foot, hand-knitted ribs). Non-knitting folks never want to pay much for stuff, they'd much rather compare it to slave labour garments made in China. So I usually knit stuff I like (or to learn a process/try out a yarn) and it goes into a bag for charity. Because it's not as if I really need more knitwear these days! Anyway, dismounting the soap box...

Been getting on with lots of Christmas knitting but cannot divulge it, of course, until after the 26th Dec. I'm almost done with the heel on the first Hopscotch sock. The sari silk bag is sulking on the stairs, I need to finish sewing it up and I keep forgetting. It might need lining, not decided yet. 

A baby blankie and a mini challenge

Well, I managed to get a baby blanket I'm reasonably happy with out of the E6000 yesterday. I used pattern 1005 and tech 149, cast on 110 stitches in 1x1 rib at ss4 throughout and knitted 450 rows, then three rows N/N at ss4 and last past ss7 then took it off on waste yarn and latch tooled the cast off. It measures 36.5cm by 59cm which looks proportionally a little narrow. Apart from one dropped edge stitch, no mistakes. I weighted the edges a bit because I noticed the leftmost needle (both edge needles were on the back bed) didn't always knit off successfully. I might make this into a more official pattern when I've checked out what width a standard baby blanket is. No, I didn't swatch - the row and stitch counts were from a Metbury pattern I failed to be able to knit because the yarn was too thick. It's a lovely fluffy pattern and requires no finishing - a perfect quick knit.

The mini challenge? I forgot to take a picture of it (and it wasn't very exciting). Well, I bought a PPD at the Croydon MK show - must've been at least 18 months ago, because that show didn't run last year. The PPD connects to my tv to design stitch patterns, and connects to the KH950i. I've had the 950i quite a while too but have only really used the built-in patterns so far. I tried using the mylar sheet reader - my machine must be really sniffy because it refused to read the hand-drawn snowflake pattern the previous owner had drawn, but it was fine reading the Silver pre-printed mylar sheets. I couldn't get my head around it mentally, either - the Knitmaster system has the mylar sheet being read line-by-line as you knit (with the EC1) OR you can pre-load the sheet and save it onto the PE1 - this has the advantage of showing you which row, or a picture of the stitches, being knit. The Brother system seems to want you to read the whole sheet beforehand and then read the sheet again line-by-line as you knit? Which seemed like doing it twice to me? Maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, all it would knit were two vertical stripes, nary a snowflake to be seen. Apparently it was an unreliable device, and I've failed to find preprinted Brother mylars online. So the PPD is a real boon for producing customised patterns.

I don't have the matching FB100 floppy disk drive though - these were an early Tandy disk drive that were superseded for use by PCs, so pretty elderly, and they can fail if the belt perishes. So I just used the "draw" and "erase" buttons to create a little pattern - it's pretty quick actually, although a 200st wide masterpiece might be a different matter. I got the pattern transferred to the machine - took a while, one pattern was 2x2 and one pattern was 6x6 stitches - and I was just about to pull the plug, thinking that something had gone wrong, when, hey presto, it beeped! One must remember that the PPD is up to 25 years old according to the date on the manual, perhaps it's just I'm used to modern computer speeds. Mine was brand new in box. Anyroad, apart from one place where the knitting machine burped, I got my little squares design to knit with no trouble at all. The pattern was:

000---
0-0-0-
000---
---000
-0-0-0
---000

To the old hands, getting a pattern out of the PPD and onto your knitting probably doesn't sound like much of a challenge. It was a mini challenge for me - I can get quite impatient with kit sometimes and it involved reading parts of two manuals so it was a little confusing to start with. And to think, I hand-pulled that Dalek pattern twice - talk about making it complicated for yourself! Also, it's another piece of kit I've now understood and can use with confidence. Last year's challenge was to reduce the stash (still working on that one, ha!), this year's is to try and tackle a new thing every month. I failed in February for various reasons, so perhaps I need to think up another challenge for before the end of this month to make up for that.

I'm debating whether to put the KH260 away as I've used up all the chunky yarns I had hanging around, and also debating which machine (if any) should go into its place. Possibly the fine gauge - since the eye ops last year I can see so much better, and I do have a large amount of blue 2ply to get through and a twinset in mind. It will have to wait though - we Ravellers are planning a live demo of the Lizard Ridge technique on my KH260 and that will probably not happen until the end of April so I've some time to plan my next move. I'm also pondering the decorating I want to do in that room. It needs a few coats of paint and the plan is to get proper shelving in there. It would be so nice to get all my craft books in one place and divided by craft so I might actually be able to find the one I want! Currently some of them are in the bedroom and some in the office.

Oh well, time to sign off. The 'flu has left finally, but has left a cough and nasal congestion in its place. It's trying to snow again outside! Rather late in the year methinks! Roll on spring!

Result

Just to prove you can knit with chenille, I finally managed to sew this up last night. It's for a child, there is probably enough for at least one more on the cone.

Current mood: ill - yes, got a nasty headcold/fluey thing.

Ravellenic FOs

Kate/Wildhoney shawl, 2ply lambswool from Uppinghams, weighs 348g. Knitted at T3 on the Brother KH950i, pattern mod - left needle three on edge of ruffle out of work, to tame the curl.


Charity hats made from leftover marble chunky


Charity tee from Colinette Lasso.

When the going gets tough...

… I start thinking I should’ve just knitted a blooming hat. Yes, it’s the Ravellenic games, folks, and I stupidly decided I’d knit a Kate/Wildhoney shawl – named Kate after Kate Middleton, Prince William’s missus, and Wildhoney after the Ravelry lady who brought the pattern to us (I think she’s Russian?). It’s a simple enough design – a shawl made from shortrowing across the entire bed, to make a pie-wedge shape, and then a short-rowed ruffle knitted onto it, all the way around.

The shawl itself was easy enough once I’d decided what yarn to use – I bought a cone of beautiful hyacinth blue 2ply lambswool ages ago from Uppinghams (it was after the first jumper-shrinking debacle, when I made the perpetrator take me there to buy replacement yarn for a new one, in fact). I never had anything in mind at the time, the colour was just so lovely it kind of fell into my arms. You know the sort.

Anyroad, I’ve been at this shawl since Sunday. Let us not speak of Saturday, when I spent over an hour repairing damaged needles and trying to get cast on (and then giving up and having a sulk in the garden with a nice can of pear cider). The shawl itself was a fairly quick knit once I realized that casting on with waste yarn and just going straight into it would work a lot better. But the ruffle? Oh kerfuffle!

It’s 40sts, 20 rows straight, then shortrowing every 4 sts in and out again. No big deal. But it seems to be taking forever. It’s rapidly making me think of some kind of knitting black hole, there just seems to be no end to it. I knitted nearly a thousand straight rows on Monday night – this doesn’t include the short rows, which add another 40 rows every 20 rows – and quite a bit more on Wednesday (I skipped knitting club partly because I needed to work on this, and partly because I’ve been a bit ill lately). I had to stop on Wednesday as I was getting shoulder pain in my left (think my chair was a tad too low). Managed a bit more last night before the gym – the last (radial) side is in sight! Finally!

It hasn’t helped that I had Passap night on Tuesday, which I did not wish to cancel (it was moved forward a week as it was, because of my schedule) – but at least I got a chance to test-knit that pintuck swatch in the 2/30s which is a LOT nicer than the black ones I did. I can’t knit tonight – I managed to get tickets for the women’s footie, and I daren’t even take my handknitting in, in case they wrestle it off me. Knitting’s not on the security no-no list, but sharp pointy objects are. As I’ve slowed down to a crawl on the second sock (and had to reknit parts of the heel because I messed the decreases up) I’m not about to surrender the sock to anyone, regardless of how much magenta, purple or khaki they’re wearing.

Everyone’s posting such wonderful things to our Ravellenic FO thread and I feel as if as a mod I’m letting the side down somewhat. I have to keep telling myself, I work full-time, this is challenging to me (in terms of getting it finished in time) and although I could have gone for quantity, it wouldn’t have been a big effort on my part.

So – it’s down to the wire this weekend, I guess. Got to ferry himself and his bro to various garages tomorrow, MOTs and repairs due, but hopefully after that I’m free! Free! FREE I tell you – to get down the last side, graft it, weave in the ends, wash and steam. Hmm….

It might still be a photo finish….

MKKI day, May 5th, 2012

I promised to do a review of the MKKI day last weekend, so here it is. Apologies if I ramble somewhat, as mentioned before, work's been really busy, and the office move has meant extra chaos and stress - printers beeping all day because they keep jamming (because we couldn't locate the A4 paper to refill them), drilling, etc. I'm sure it'll all come together, but it's going to take a few weeks yet I think. Couple that with lots of quotes going on (which is GOOD news, of course!) and it makes for one frazzled steelbreeze with airhead brain. It will take me a week or two to top my sleep back up I think.

The original idea was formed as a result of two things - a meet up last year with various Ravellers, and also the idea of the workshop days that Manor House mk group organise. Bearing in mind that most knitting machine manufacturers are no longer in production, it's rather hard to see a live knitting machine in use (especially the Passap as it is not very portable). My favourite room at Metropolitan is the "museum" room, with all the vintage machines, and lots of the Ravellers have these machines. So, a vague idea formed that we would all meet up with our various machines and have a bit of a play on them. Of course, I would take all of my machines (which is almost in double figures - how did that happen?).

Getting a bit nearer to the event, I checked out the insurance aspects, and discovered that contents insurance  only covers personal possessions outside the home if you damage them yourself. If someone else damages them, forget about it - you are not insured. Then of course there was the electrical aspect of some of the machines - PAT testing would be required. With all the red tape to wade through, I can see why people don't organise more events. If the Guild hadn't kindly offered to let us use their public liability insurance, the event would not have gone ahead at all, as it would have made a loss - I would have been happy to break even, of course. I had to draft up a disclaimer to cover the machine aspects, and I visually PAT tested the electrical items before they were plugged in (which is all you can do for 1980s electronics apparently).

It doesn't take much to disrupt my sleep at the best of times, but worrying about the legal aspects, combined with work pressures and other events meant I pretty much gave up on sleep for the fortnight proceeding the event, only sleeping every other night or only getting a few hours. Still, it meant I lost 8 pounds in weight, and I got plenty of typing done. I rang Covknit in a blind panic, and she kindly offered to help out with the programme and the typing up. Couldn't have done it without her - lack of sleep meant my mind was driven to distraction, so clear thinking went out of the window. Turns out she used to organise events for a rotary club, so she was perfect, and logically thought of lots of things we should pack that I'd not even thought of. The venue wasn't as large as I remembered (thank goodness for measuring it up, and taking photos), and there was a large stack of easels in one corner that we needed to work around. This actually helped me decide which machines I must bring, and which would have to stay behind - and meant I could cancel the transit van I'd booked, because that would have come out of my own pocket, and being a bank holiday weekend would cost me more for the extra day.

So I took Friday off to load the cars and print up programmes and posters. As it turned out, had I gone into work I'd've only got an hour's work done anyway, as I had a dental appointment first thing (two fillings needed! Boo!) and the servers were going down at noon. I spent the day packing the cars and rationalising what I was taking, then making a trip to Sainsers for nibbles and supplies.

By 6am the next morning I was raring to go, and I unearthed the Cog with breakfast (works every time!). We were outside the venue and unlocking just after 8am - and HilaryGermany surprised us both by being there before us (she and hubby drove from Suffolk). I spent two hours unpacking and arranging things as everyone arrived. We had a sales table in the kitchen area with lots of magazines and other goodies.

rmbroo started off with a description of her vintage record machine, which is a glorified knitting loom that does garter stitch. Alas it doesn't work at the moment because one of the feet is damaged - they look like wedge-shaped door stops and control the tension of the machine. HilaryGermany demonstrated her Passap Duomatic, which I think could probably take a whole day in itself, they are such interesting machines. I demoed the circular sock machine, the Hague linker, and the Weavemaster. The latter didn't go to plan as I pulled the wrong lever and the warp came out. Yes, I had forgotten how ruddy fiddly it is - and it's not possible to set it up beforehand, because the machine isn't clamped down and would get damaged in transit, so it's not very portable. Kathy demonstrated her KISS knitting frames, which are very cleverly made modular knitting frames. Martync demonstrated seaming on the knitting machine and navajo plying using an electric spinning wheel. I got my garter carriage working and then tested three others - we couldn't get them working properly because we didn't have the right rails, but they appeared to function correctly so I see no reason why they shouldn't work on the correct machine. Cynthia gave us a short talk on tips and tricks she's picked up during her many years as a machine knitter. Bookishbee brought an MK70 which has a fascinating pulley device for tensioning yarn - no taking your eyeballs out with tension wires.

Of course, it was all over far too quickly. We were packed and ready to go by 5pm, and nipped around the corner for pizza. It was lots of fun, and I think most people enjoyed themselves. Not sure if I want to do it again just yet - I need to let the dust settle, and my brain/sleep to recover - but there's definitely some interest in another event like this. I think next time I would simplify it by having folks only bring one machine, and maybe bring a pot luck lunch.

Trying to set up a Weavemaster - this was before it went pear-shaped.

Demoing the Hague linker

Brother's toy machine - sooo pink, sooo cute!

Lots of knitting machines to play with.

HilaryGermany demonstrating the deco

The CSM in action

More photos here

Current mood: exhausted

February eye candy

First olympic cushion! Shown "stuffed" with another cushion


Quick handknit case for the other half's video camera. No, I'm not sure why I bought one ball of Rowan Spray either, except that it was on sale (which is never a good enough reason).


Popping into Hobbycraft is always dangerous to my wallet, even if I DON'T buy yarn. Hmmm...

Garter carriage in action

gc_in_action
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

I also videoed this but it's not a very exciting video. This is what is currently beavering away on my Brother 950i.

Still no further forward with the Passap E6000 (well, I managed to change the program, but not to get past error 200). I'm taking the hoover to it tonight, and then also checking the cable to see if it is damaged.

The saga continues...

Got my repaired SK860 carriage back on Tuesday. Was very excited to try it out. Guess what? Same problem still - put a cam between approx. 28L and 73L and it disappears. Then himself spotted something - the back rail (on which the cams slide) is 2mm further back into the machine at the left hand end, meaning the cam is also 2mm further away from the back of the carriage. Could this be why it can't "see" it?

It's gone back down south for inspection and testing. And possibly a few incantations whilst waving a rubber chicken. Sigh.

Put away my SK840 combo last night and got the Brother 950i and the garter carriage out and deliberately did NOT get the ribber out - this will force me to use the Passap for ribbing. Started a cowl a la Kriskrafter. Can't get past error 200 on the Passap. Grrr.