Diana natters on... about machine knitting

Friday, September 25, 2009

Ribber Lesson 20 - Racked Pattern

I have always found racked ribbing very cool. After all, if you were hand knitting, it would be very tedious to cable all those stitches to create the fancy zigzags. The machine zooms through it, though. Lots of impact from such a simple stitch!

I'm a Little Sick

I've got a painful tooth. My dentist put me on antibiotics, but despite that, it's been a hard, painful day. I think maybe I waited too long to contact the dentist - I wasn't sure whether it was a tooth or sinuses at first.

We finished figuring out the budget numbers today, and it's Friday night, so I can relax on the weekend, and then on Monday, I'll have been on penicillin a while, and I'll see the dentist in the afternoon.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Ribber Lesson 19 - Casting Off Part of a Row

An easy lesson, how to cast off a few stitches at the beginning of a row of ribbing:

Weight Watchers

Weighed-in tonight at 1.4 pounds less than last week, for a loss to date of 18.4 pounds in 13 weeks. I think I can reasonably say now that I've recovered from that week I ate all the restaurant food because we were travelling.

Knitting Weights

Weights are very important in machine knitting. Even with Passap machines, which were advertised as requiring no weights, weights can be very helpful at times.

If you watch my videos, you see me use clothespins and weights quite often. This weekend, my husband and I photographed all the knitting weights I could find around my house, thinking this might be helpful for someone who is wondering what how heavy they are and how they're used. We weighed them all, too. You certainly can improvise and add more weights to your collection.

Working from the left, let's start with the lightest items - clothespins. I use them for the loose end of the yarn as I begin to knit. With a clothespin holding the yarn, I can use my hand for something else. From the left - a small plastic clothespin, 5.2 grams, 2 ounces. A plastic covered red clip, 9.8 grams, .3 ounces. A bigger blue plastic clothespin, my favorite, 10.3 grams, .4 ounces.

Then, a "heel fork." It's a cheap fork from the dollar store, and my husband bent the tines so it can hook into knitting. It's good for holding down heel stitches as I short-row. He also drilled a hole in the handle so I can hang a weight. It weighs 22.4 grams, .8 ounces.

Next, a garter carraige weight, 24.1 grams, .9 ounces.

The next object is a triangle weight holder. If you don't have a set of these, you could sure use 'em! Mine are from Silver Reed company, and they're great for holding hefty weights on ribbing. For just the holder without a weight, it's 38 grams, 1.3 ounces.

Next photo, from left: a typical claw weight for machine knitting, 108 grams, 3.8 ounces. Next, a Passap heel weight, long, white, with prongs on one end and a hole on the other (it can be used as a weight hanger), 165.5 grams 5.8 ounces. Next item - a brass weight, wonderful for main bed work, because the weight is spread a little horizontally, 214.9 grams or 7.6 ounces.

Now, for some more serious weight. First, a Passap weight from the comb and weights set, 351.5 grams, 12.4 ounces, then a Japanese small ribber weight, 210.5 grams, 7.4 ounces, then a large ribber weight, 500 grams, 17.6 ounces (about a pound), then a fishing weight (you can buy them in all kinds of different weights, and they normally have a hole. The hook was homemade, from a coat hanger), 460 grams, 16.2 ounces, including the hook (about a pound).

Finally, on the right, two sock machine weights. These are industrial weights, and you can stack more of the hockey-puck type weights on the one with the stick and hook. The one with the hook is 545 grams, 19.2 ounces, and the stackable one is 484 grams, 17.1 ounces (about a pound each). Sock machines use a lot more weight than the other machines.

In fact, now that I've gotten three antique sock machines working well, I learned that a key issue is to have NO tension on the yarn as it comes in and LOTS of weight on the knitting as it comes out. As you can imagine, I cringed at putting a whole pound of weight on a little sock toe, but I actually use two pounds on a sock toe now and two more pounds on the rest of the sock.

Stained Glass Workshop Last Saturday

The Model A Club was having a "restoration clinic" for the guys, about compression and valves, such fascinating subjects, and since it was at Tom P.'s house, and his wife Kathy is a stained glass artist, she offered to have a workshop for the ladies.

They live on a hill in the Texas Hill Country, and it's a beautiful, unique place. Tom has built metal sheds for several of his antique cars, and with the false fronts he built, he has a "village." When John, my friend Laura, and I arrived, the guys were heading to those metal garages and we ladies went inside for Kathy's stained glass class.

Kathy had selected a pattern and created the outer frame. She had each of us do a piece or two of the design. The pattern was already cut up and taped on the back of the rough-cut pieces of glass. We scored them and snapped them into shapes, then ground them on a special grinder to get a close fit to each paper pattern piece. Next, we put copper foil around the edge and Kathy fit them into the overall design, grinding off a little more glass if necessary for a perfect fit. In the 2-hour session, all but two of the pieces were fitted for the picture, and those needed a little fine fitting before Kathy can foil them, then soldier the center seams of the picture. I had never seen this kind of work done before, and truly, it was beautiful and fascinating.

I couldn't resist putting up that last picture - it's me with their dog Zeus, who is quite the ladies' man. If you stop petting him, he taps you gently with his paw...

Kathy's work is stunning, and both Laura and I took lots of pictures. We also got some pictures of Tom and Kathy's amazing Hill Country view.

I could see th guys had a great time, too, but in my opinion, the girls came out ahead on this club meeting!

Examples of Kathy's work:

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ribber Lesson 18 - Increasing in Ribbing

Increasing in ribbing is tricky, and will be different for different needle arrangements. But please don't get the idea that you can't shape ribbing. You can shape it, and it's fairly easy!

On this video, I have several different increases in plain old knit 1, purl 1 ribbing:

ribb

Beginning Knitting Machine Lessons - Link List Fixed

If you were having problems with the list of links to the beginning lesson videos, I've just worked on it. It should be fixed now!

Thanks for letting me know.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Decreasing in Ribbing, Ribber Lesson 17

Here's the video explaining how to do side decreases in ribbing:

Friday, September 18, 2009

New Link Lists

Now that I have lots and lots of how-to videos over at YouTube, it can be a pain to try to find the one you want to see over at the YouTube channel.

I am trying to make that easier with my new link list on the left hand side of this blog. First, there's a link to the YouTube Channel, if you want to hunt through everything.

Below that, I have links to special blog posts that contain lists of available lessons in a course with the individual links to go straight to the right video.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ribber Lesson 16 - 2X2 Smile and Frown Cast-Off

You can use that same "smile and frown" cast-off for knit 2, purl 2 ribbing, and it turns out just fine:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

What Yarn to Use for Your Machine

I get the question about what yarn to buy for different machines.

Beginners get horribly frustrated by trying to knit with inappropriate yarn. If you're an old hand with a yarn stash, please treat the beginners you know to some hand-me-down yarns that are easy for knitting!

If you're learning to machine knit, here are some tips on choosing practice yarn:

Skeins of yarn are labeled with the gauge, usually how many stitches are in 10 centimeters, which is 4", so divide by 4 to get stitches per inch.
As a beginner, get yarn for a standard gauge (4.5mm) machine knits to a gauge of at least 7 stitches per inch. I kind of like 8 stitches per inch for beginners on standard machines. More stitches per inch means the yarn is thinner.
Got a 9 mm bulky? Get yarn that knits at least 5 stitches per inch.
Got a midgauge? Try for 6 stitches per inch or smaller.
Try to get some cone yarn. It's treated with wax to make it knit more easily, and besides, the people who sell cone yarn can steer you to the right stuff. Also, cones feed the yarn perfectly. Set the cone on the floor.
Use a wax cylinder. Pick it up off the holder, thread the yarn, and then set it on top. It will turn slowly as the yarn passes underneath. If you put the yarn on top of it, it'll cut a groove in the wax.
The yarn should be smooth and boring, not bumpy, kinky, laddery, eyelashy, furry or hairy.
Avoid yarn that breaks easily.
The yarn should have a little stretch and spring. Stay from limp cotton, linen and silk, for now. It should have more than one ply (strand) and some twist.
There's nothing wrong with cheap acrylic yarn for practice! I'd like you to enhance your learning experience by making lavish piles of swatches.
Get light colors.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Links: Beginner Machine Knitting Lessons

Here are the beginner machine knitting video lessons, linked in order. I recommend that you watch a lesson, then try the technique, in order. One a day is all I ask...

Getting Started: Threading Machine, Preparing Yarn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKrfqU8CMFg

Lesson 1: Open Cast On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS5cfOtxO6U

Lesson 2: E-Wrap Cast On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvPi16ZLc6o

Lesson 3: Diana's Cast On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uai2jQgA7RQ

Lesson 4: Latch Tool Cast On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH6XrWe4DLI

Lesson 5: Plain Hem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SClhKnjRjsI

Lesson 6: Mock Rib Hem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDEeX26EN5A

Lesson 7: Picot Hem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIP3XTaKGU4

Lesson 8: Shortcut Picot Hem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1i_5uxk2uU

Lesson 9: Latch Tool Bind Off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsNZIlT7zfw

Lesson 10: Tapestry Needle Bind Off #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBKnObPxXHY

Lesson 11: Tapestry Needle Bind Off #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jgebTI2NyM

Lesson 12: Loop Through Loop Bind Off

Ribber Lesson 15 - Smiles and Frowns Cast-Off

This cast-off for ribbing is called "Smiles and Frowns" because you take a U-shaped stitch and then an upside-down U-shaped stitch. It's an easy cast-off using a tapestry needle that makes a good elastic cast-off edge that looks almost identical to the circular cast-on.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Design Star

I watch Design Star, and just watched the last episode on my DVR.

On the show, the contestants do various interior design projects and compete for their own show on HGTV. You begin to cheer on certain people and wish others would be kicked off by the judges. The very last episode is a big project with the last two, incredibly talented people, competing for it.

The person I was rooting for didn't win, but I certainly enjoyed the homes they redid.

The guy I wanted to win, Dan, made such a beautiful difference in the house he redesigned that I wish he could work for me! I had my husband John look at the finished house pictures, and he liked it, too. In fact, we liked everything he did, which is unbelievably rare for us. Dan used a color palette anchored by a strong lilac color (John and I both like purple). I liked every piece of furniture he chose! He put travertine tiles in the kitchen and gorgeous dark wood cabinets. What really grabbed me were the following beautifully executed ideas:

http://my.hgtv.com/judge-the-designs-gallery/Episode-9/Dans-Design-The-Goldberg-Family/detail.esi?oid=8088810

1. He reinvented a very small teenage daughter's bedroom by putting in a small couch for her friends and putting the bed up on top of drawers and pull-out desk surfaces. I had no idea such a great teenager's bedroom could be put in that little space. Plus, the colors and patterns were lovely and the girl was crazy about it.

2. Got the utmost out of a small and awkward master bedroom by turning the head of the bed onto the narrowest wall and putting cabinet built-ins around it plus at the foot of the bed. He dressed that room up beautifully, too, elegant and cozy. Those bedrooms went from tiny and shabby to jewel boxes.

3. He hid a flat panel television by building a shallow cabinet over the fireplace covered with beveled mirrors. He used beveled mirrors at one end of the living room because the teen likes to practice dancing there, and he used custom-cut mirrors on the recessed closed door panels. The small house was brightened a great deal visually with those mirrors.

4. The house had lots of space problems, including a closed-in kitchen with an ugly laundry center. They ended up with lots of cabinet space, and best of all, he put a good-sized stacking washer and dryer out of sight inside one of the rich dark cabinets. He also opened the wall between the kitchen and the living room.

The guy who won did some funky, loud colors and pieces that I wouldn't want to actually have to live with. The judges like his personality and his edgier design ideas, and he might be wacky to watch on TV, but I doubt if I'll ever wish I had the rooms he did.

A Glimpse Into the Mind of a Knitting Lunatic

My brother Bill emailed today, and said he had watched some of my machine knitting lesson videos. Bill has his own interesting hobbies, in particular, woodworking. Our emails sparked my thinking about why I am so crazy for such an obscure hobby.

I've always loved textiles. In my case, clearly, I adore the colors, textures and fashion designs. I also hand knit, sew, crochet, needlepoint, make rugs, quilt - you name it. I do it all fairly well because of my great enjoyment of fiber arts and my love of solving each interesting puzzle. I owned a yarn shop for eight years from 1978-1986, which I sold when our older son was little. As a shop owner, I learned continuously. The customers taught me, and I learned by doing research to answer customer questions and solve problems.

I do more machine knitting than other needlework because I'm a busy mom. I mean BUSY, ridiculously willing to bite off more than I can chew. My time checkers never cover the whole board! I have always had all kinds of projects and volunteer passions, and as I've mentioned in the blog, I am a Certified Public Accountant (a designation I earned in my 40s) and work full-time as a non-profit controller.

Machine knitting is fascinating, and because it is so fast, you can experiment, rip and redo, design your own thing, aiming for exactly what you want.

It could be lonesome having a hobby that not many people have, but I found a group, and I hope you can, too, plus there are great communities on the internet. And isn't it just a little intriguing to do something not everybody knows how to do? We don't have a secret handshake; we ask people if we can turn their sweater edges inside out and see how they did it.

The things you can make are terrific! I make incredible soft, warm socks on an antique circular sock machine and John and I rehabbed, and people love to receive them as gifts. I like making baby blankets with the new baby's name knitted into the center on my garter carriage. I make lace shawls, tops for the office, sparkly things for evening, tote bags, pillows, afghans, whatever I please, and I manage it within the little bits of time I can find in the corners of my life. It might take me a month to do a project, but if I were handknitting, that might be several months.

Most clothes don't fit me correctly, and they never have, no matter what I weigh, even though I am an average height. A big epiphany occurred when I was watching What Not to Wear and discovered that most other women feel the same way! I thought it was just me, but I hear these other ladies saying that clothes don't fit them in some of the same ways they don't fit me.

With the knitting machine, I can fit myself. I will be doing some lessons on the KnitLeader. I have my body block drawn on the mylar sheet, and as long as I do the steps, I get one garment after another to fit. I get the length, width, shoulders and neck I want. If something isn't right, I can always rip, or just start over. I have my shape patterns in DAK, too.

It's great fun to knit gifts, but it's also very gratifying if you decide to knit for charity. You could never get the same volume of "good stuff" done if you were handknitting or even crocheting. Some of my friends knit because they know that all around us, there are people in need. Austin has a mild climate, but for us, coming from Southern California, we were surprised at the winter cold. When we first moved here, I recall driving on a blustery winter day and seeing a little boy who had no jacket, just a T-shirt and jeans. He had pulled his arms inside the T-shirt and was hugging himself to keep warm. Well, maybe he forgot his jacket, or maybe he didn't have one. The Junior League in Austin collects and gives away a massive number of children's jackets every year, and I've got a friend who actually knitted hundreds of stocking caps each year for several years, along with other knitters, so the kids could have a warm hat as well. I've got another friend, an older lady with a very modest lifestyle, who knits dozens of preemie hats. Premature babies have problems with body temperature, and the hospitals have discovered that hats help with that. I know another lady who knits garments for little preemies to be buried in; it's very sad, but those parents know that somebody cared about them and and made something lovely, new, and personal for their little one.

Machine knitting can also be very economical. At least, that's true if you are a normal person and not continually collecting equipment as I have. (Surely it's my husband John's fault, as he has always indulged me with knitting machines. When I got a yen for a Passap E6, he watched for one for me, and we drove all the way to Morgan City, Louisiana to pick it up.) Once you have your basic rig, yarn isn't very expensive compared to its entertainment value and its value made up.

Losing Weight

I haven't done an update on my Weight Watchers adventure in a few weeks.

Let's see, two weeks ago, I was in California. I didn't go to Weight Watchers that week.

Then I came back from vacation and went on Tuesday after Labor Day, because my regular class was closed on Labor Day. It was very discouraging to gain 1.2 pounds on vacation, but I determined to get right back to work. We had gotten together with friends and relatives on vacation by taking people to restaurants, and most days ate both lunch and dinner out. It was a fun, easy way to reconnect, but even though I tried to choose the low fat, healthy options and watch portions, I gained weight.

Tonight I checked in again after a week of behaving myself carefully, and I am down 2 pounds, losing the weight I gained on vacation and down just a bit more.

Altogether, I have lost 20 pounds in 12 weeks. I have to continue with this quite a while longer, but it feels quite do-able.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ribber Lesson 14 - Loop thru Loop Bind-Off Off Machine

Here's a terrific, easy bind-off that works with all kinds of ribber stitch layouts:

Susan Boyle Sings Wild Horses

I find Susan Boyle's voice thrilling:

Knit Club Photos - Saturday, Sept 12, 2009

We had a terrific Knit Natters meeting on Saturday, September 12, 2009, at Barbara Deike's home in Leander, Texas. Above are Barbara, holding her lifelike baby doll, and Tiffany, Barbara's granddaughter, holding one of Barbara's Afghan Lovely afghans.

Sara Tittizer did lesson, teaching us to spin. She gave each of us a drop spindle and wool roving in two colors. Using two colors as you learn is a way to see how much twist you are putting on the yarn.

It was no surprise to me what a patient teacher Sara is, since that's her profession, and she is such a patient person. She took her time with each of us and got us to the point where we were actually spinning usable yarn. Above, she is helping Sylvia Moore, showing her how to control the wool and keep the drop spindle rotating:

Barbara's granddaughter, Tiffany, was spinning, too!

Mildred showing Mary Page her knitting, and on the right, Mary Page showing us her incredible, soft roving from her own alpacas!

Mildred Beeson holding Barbara's lifelike baby doll, and on the right, some of Mildred's hats made on the Innovations circular knitting machine.

On the left, Balkan hats and a wrist warmer that Pat Tittizer knitted, and on the right (gee, I wish the picture did justice to the tiny, shiny beads), Pat's incredible hand beaded work. She and Sara had gone to the Campbell Folk School, and Sara learned to embellish gourds while Pat was taking a course in intricate beading. I wish I had some gourd photos!

More show-and-tell from Pat Tittizer! On the left, Norwegian mittens and wrist warmers, and on the right, a closeup of two of the gorgeous beaded projects.

Sylvia Moore was there, wearing one of her amazing embroidered T-shirts, and she remarked that she had expected our show-and-tell to be all knitting. Nope, we pretty much hold a free-for-all during show and tell. We want our members to bring whatever they're working on at the time, and sometimes it's a story or experience.

This is Sara's handwoven shawl made on a giant triangle loom. What doesn't show up in the photo is her combination of blue, green, and sparkly yarn and her meticulous crocheted edge.

Tiffany wearing a sweater made for her by her grandmother, Barbara, on the left, and on the right, another amazing tote bag that Mildred Beeson made. Mildred lines her totes, adds pockets inside and out, puts a clasp on top, and often embellishes them, as well. This one has filet crochet on the outside pocket and was made from drapery fabric.

My show-and-tell was my video knitting lessons that I have been putting up on the web.

Carl Deike showed pictures of their recent trip to Big Bend, Texas - on the television - aren't digital cameras great? I didn't even realize there were any mountains in Texas, let alone such as a beautiful, cool place to go in summer.

Barbara Deike also did a Passap lesson for us on "mock garter stitch," which we all decided ought to be described as a lace stitch. This was very pretty, but what I was excited about was learning a little more that can be done with the U100 transfer carriage.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

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