Sunday, April 14, 2013

Difficult Yarn

We were knitting chemo hats at Knit Natters using Fun Fur yarn.  It really seems as though Fun Fur has changed, that the eyelashes are longer, and the texture is different.  We found it very, very difficult to knit, even though Joan had knitted quite a few in the past without these difficulties.

I couldn't get the two colors I tried to knit in my 270 at all.  I had not brought the ribber to the knit-in, but one of the things I plan to try is knitting with the ribber.  I'm thinking the wheels and brushes on the 270 may be catching the eyelashes.

Another thing I'd like to try is using the intarsia carriage with it.  I didn't bring any Fun Fur home to try, and I'll pick some up next time I'm in the shops.  I thought I'd also look through the other yarns to see if there's a shorter and hopefully easier-to-knit eyelash yarn.

We did get quite a few hats knitted, though.  Several of the ladies were doing fairly well with the Fun Fur, although it was slow going, pulling down after every row. 

John came and took apart a Passap console, changed the battery, cleaned the contacts and reseated the chips for one of our friends.  It was starting to act up, which John says is often a symptom of a very weak battery.

Another friend is experiencing some dimming with the Brother 970 control box.  I've heard of this problem before.  John is intrigued.  He and I did a web search to see if we could locate a service manual.  Any leads, friends?  Also, he'd love to get his hands on a dim, broken or dead control box and do a motherboard autopsy.

1 comment:

  1. I have a friend who had the same problem with her 970. She had to buy a new control box, which I understand are extremely rare and difficult to find. She's waiting until absolutely necessary to switch out her dying box with the new one to preserve the life of the new one. I'm sure she'd be happy to let John get at it...if he was willing to come to Minnesota. ;-)

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