Automatic Lace Edgings on Brother Punch Card Machines

Jan King in Australia very generously wrote and explained her own method for converting the Enchanted Edgings (automatic lace edgings) for Brother punch card knitting machines.  I had done it another way, adding two blank rows, one before and one after the knit carriage punches.  However, Jan's method knocks the socks off my method, since she reduces the number of carriage passes.  You do more passes than an electronic knitting machine requires, but only two more for each lace group.  My method took 4 extra passes.  I'm sold, of course, since it's always nice to do less carriage pushes and get more lace knitted in less time. 

I figured out the patterns and punched cards yesterday, and look, in the last two days I knitted all these Enchanted Edgings laces on a Brother 890 punch card machine:

They're spread out on a towel, drying after steaming.

The next job is to take down the Brother 890 and set up the Silver Reed, just to see what can be done about these edgings with that different knitting setup.

But you know what?  For once, I'm tired of knitting.  Time to goof off.

Making Punchcards & Homemade Lightbox

I have just worked out a good solution so Enchanted Edgings can be knitted easily on the Brother punch card machines.  These are the self-shaping scalloped edgings that I published a couple of years ago for the Brother Electronic machines (one shown in photo, above). 

My next challenge will be to see if they can be done on the Silver Reed, which has a completely different issue to investigate.

For the Brother punch card machines, the individual patterns require a modification, which I've done to each of my DAK files.  I'm printing out templates and punching cards to test.  I did the first couple by taping the template and the blank plastic card to a window, but I got tired of reaching up to draw the dots.  After that, John made me a quick, free lightbox with items from around the house.

 

My fancy new light box consists of a cardboard box, a fluorescent shop light, which stays cool, inside the box, and a piece of glass.

 

Of course, not everybody has a piece of glass around the house, but if you look around, you might find a translucent cutting board, a piece of glass shelf, or some other piece of glass or acrylic you could use.  We taped the glass to the box on one end to prevent it slipping off an breaking.  You could also use a glass-topped table with a shop light underneath.  Make sure you don't create a fire hazard by using a light that gets hot near paper.  This little setup isn't that different from an Easy Bake oven, which uses an incandescent light for heat.

 

I taped the template to the glass, stuck the box in a chair to put it at about the right height for comfortable tracing, and I'm marking the blank punch cards with a washable marker.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and your loved ones

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

John and Diana Sullivan

 

 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  --Isaiah 9:6

 

 

Sewing on Christmas Eve

I had to hurry up and get this Entrelac yoked sweater sewn together so I can give it to my son tomorrow.  It's not a surprise at all.  Our Aggie likes tthe Texas A&M color scheme.  We haven't had any really cold weather yet, but it's coming.

 

If this project is familiar, it's because I worked it up for a sample in my "Wear Your Diamonds" book and photographed it as I worked on it.  When the book was finally finished and I had knitted piles of samples, this sweater was tossed into a knitting bag for sewing up later.  Much later, it turns out.

 

The back and front of the sweater are different - the neck is higher in the back, as it should be.  To make it easy for him to find the back of the neck and pull the sweater on correctly, I embroidered a little chain stitch inside the back neckline, in lieu of a label.

 

I hope you are having a beautiful, meaningful holiday, taking time to let your loved ones how much you treasure them, and especially, experiencing the love of our Savior.

 

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

Luke Chapter 24

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John and I are rehabbing sponge bars

All kinds of knitting machine problems are solved by replacing a worn-out sponge bar.  The bar holds the needles down against the needle bed, yet allows them to move and "play" a little bit.

I had reached the point where nearly every sponge bar I had was worn out.  This idea of recycling sponge bars makes both economic and environmental sense, and once in a while, you get a machine for which brand-new sponge bars can't be located. 

Wonderful information on redoing sponge bars is available here:

http://knittsings.com/category/machine-knitting/how-to-setup/

Over the years, we've acquired our own quirky ideas about redoing sponge bars.

First of all, Kathryn's advice to get rid of the awful petroleum-based gunk that was originally used to stick the foam to the bar is very good advice.  Attaching the new foam with white glue is SO much better!

Secondly, I really do like the interfacing idea on Kathryn's site for the covering for the foam.  I've tried some other things that worked, as well, in particular first aid tape, but the interfacing is very inexpensive and easily cut into strips using a rotary cutter. 

At first, I used the 1/2" craft foam from Jo Ann's that Kathryn recommends, and that worked okay but didn't last as long as weatherstripping that we had tried before we ready Kathryn's great instructions.  We now use 3/8" wide by 5/16" thick weatherstripping for our sponge bars.  We glue the non-sticky side down with the white glue and use the sticky side to attach the interfacing. 

We played around quite a lot with the different foams and thicknesses.  In the craft foam, 1/2" is the stuff to purchase, but in the weatherstripping, that would be too thick.  The weatherstripping is a more heavy-duty foam.

Luke Chapter 23

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Luke Chapter 22

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Luke Chapter 21

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Luke Chapter 20

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Inspiration at Tathy's

She always posts these amazing crochet fashions!

http://tathy-tricoecroche.blogspot.com/2012/12/achado-na-net.html

Luke Chapter 19

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Socks at Mary Anne Oger's Blog

Mary Anne is using up sock yarn she's collected on her travels.  I do the same thing - purchase a couple of balls of sock yarn when I visit a new LYS.  I can always use sock yarn, and some of it is delightful.

http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2012/12/sock-it-to-me.html

Honestly, socks make incredible gifts!  Everyone seems to love them and ask for more, especially when you use nice fibers.

Luke Chapter 18

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Luke Chapter 17

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Inspiration at Vanda's Blog

Here's an elegant suit, not all that complicated.

It's a little tight on the dress form, which is distorting the pattern.  Everyone seems to wearing clothes a little tighter than I prefer...nothing new there.

http://ilmiomondodilana.blogspot.com/2012/12/golfino-con-il-tuk.html

Luke Chapter 16

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Inspiration at Marnie's

Here's a hat and cowl to hand knit at Speak, Marnie! 

We certainly could do something like this.  My friend Greta was wearing a beautiful cowl that she sewed and he me thinking about making some more knitted Mobius scarves...

http://www.marniemaclean.com/words/2012/12/blustery_and_a_.html

Our Son Graduated from A&M Friday

Texas A&M University

December 14, 2012

 

Steven James Sullivan

Bachelor of Science

Genetics

Cum Laude

 

Here's our son, Steven, receiving his diploma Friday morning.  The "cum laude" was a marvelous surprise, since his science major was so difficult, especially these last couple of semesters.

 

In the photo, he said later that he took a few seconds to tell Dr. Loftin how wonderful the enhancements and improvements Dr. Loftin has begun in his tenure as President of A&M.  Steven isn't bashful, is he?  Later during our day at College Station, Steven told us about some of Dr. Loftin's initiatives and pointed out projects under construction.  Of course, our son was thrilled with this last Aggie football season, and he thinks A&M joining the South Eastern Conference was great.

 

We're not sure what's next for Steven, who is applying for grad school, researching career options and trying to figure out what will fit best for him, plus working at his little event business.  He claims a haircut is in his near future, but I've heard that one before!  We might have felt sad about him being "all grown up," but Steven has been so independent for so long, that we really weren't feeling that, just nostalgia for the fun we had raising him.  A&M held a beautiful ceremony (they are doing three ceremonies this weekend to graduate over 3,000 students), John got some good photos, we went out for a nice celebratory meal, and we visited with our son at the house he shares with two other guys.  Before we drove back to Austin, he gave us big hugs and told us how much he appreciated us.

Luke Chapter 15

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