The Northern Virginia Seminar Report

Wow!  This was a great one.  And, here's the blow-by-blow, which hopefully won't bore y'all.  I guess I'm so excited about the experience that I just need to debrief.

We flew to Baltimore Thursday evening.  We drove around a while in Baltimore figuring out the one-way streets and how to enter the hotel, which John had found and was only a block from the inner harbor area.  A friend told me to be sure and visit the waterfront and get some seafood.

On Friday morning, we wandered down to the visitors' center on the waterfront and asked what would be fun on our one-day check-out-Baltimore project.  They suggested a guided trolley tour and a speedboat ride in the bay.  On the tour, a nice, long route with lots of fascinating history and highlights of the town, we were lucky to have an excellent guide.  The speedboat, on the other hand, was all about making us laugh and getting us wet!

We drove to Diana's house (our hostess) pretty well drenched, bedraggled and happy, and John and I thoroughly enjoyed talking with them that evening.  The Guenthers have three terrific teenagers, Richard is our kind of guy (a Scoutmaster getting ready for camp), and their adorable but rather humongous dog Anna was a treat, too.  Diana fed us a wonderful meal and put us up in comfort. 

On Saturday, we made a good, early start, but when we arrived at the museum where the seminar was going to be held, we encountered a delay getting into the building.  We started just a little late, and I simply started teaching while my John and a couple club members finished setting up.  In typical knit seminar fashion, we had an incredible potluck lunch and then dove in again.  On Saturday, I did everything on a bulky machine with a camera and projector rig so folks could see.  I had a big handout book and was determined to finish all the demos I planned for Saturday so we could get through everything Sunday.  I taught some cast-ons, cast-offs, increases, decreases, gauge adjustments, garter bar flips and stitches, fancy garter bar work, edgings, floatless vertical fair isle, laid cables, and some cute projects.

In addition to having lots of demos to work through, we also had a dealer offering many of the essential machine knitting supplies on Saturday.  This was quite a blessing for folks who came a long way and needed sponge bars, hand tools, mylar sheets, and the like. 

Saturday night, we  consumed some amazing chicken that I believe Georgia prepared.  We had been  able to leave things in the museum room for Sunday morning. 

I felt nervous Sunday morning about whether I could work through all the more complicated stuff effectively in a single day.  We had a standard gauge with ribber set up, and started with scalloped lace edgings, mirror image lace, Enchanted Edgings, and then went on to ribber cast-ons and bind-offs, mitered ribbing, tucked ribbing, quilted ribbing, release stitch lace, bubble wrap stitch, ribber circular sock techniques, vertical buttonholes, set in sleeve technique, and other fun miscellany.  I actually got the sense that our group enjoyed the more difficult stuff on the second day and were rather energized.  Everyone was very appreciative of my stuffing gobs of information into the seminar.

I like putting the beginners right up front - behind me, if they want - and getting volunteers from the audience to try things.  This was a rather advanced group, as was San Diego, and I picked up some great ideas just listening to their discussion.

At seminars, you meet people who do many other interesting fiber arts like weaving and dyeing.  Knitters, generally, are "kindred spirits" and every group is a treat.  The Maryland/Virginia/DC area has some incredibly dynamic fiber lover groups. I got a tip to visit a local yarn shop on Monday before we caught our plane.

Diana G. took John and I out to an Irish pub Sunday evening, where we consumed Fred Flinstone-sized platters of food and then took packages of desserts home.  After we got back to her house, she gave me a spinning lesson and a drop spindle and fleece care package.  Fun!  I seem quite clumsy with spinning, but the colors, textures, and the fascination of what happens to give us yarn captivated me.

We were sad to leave Diana's house Monday morning.  We drove to the yarn shop I'd wanted to visit, though, where John actually encouraged me to fill the empty spaces in my luggage, so I purchased some gorgeous mink-colored mohair, which I plan to use for a certain gift item, some lively teal mohair for me, and some really fun, bright sock yarn. 

After that, we toured Fort McHenry, where US soldiers in the War of 1812 held off the British navy, who bombarded the fort for 25 hours.  The sight of the stars and stripes the next morning inspired Frances Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner."   Next, off to the waterfront for more yummy seafood, and finally, we used our remaining time we visited a lighthouse museum.

I'll say it again:  if you get the chance to attend a machine knitting seminar, you ought to try to go!  Ladies carpool to these things, stay with friends, find fun things to do, and leave inspired. 

All Pumped About Northern Virginia Seminar

Tonight, I'm packing to go to the seminar in Northern Virginia.  Diana Guenther, the organizer, has told me that we have about 32 signed up.  The handouts are written, the samples and tools are tucked in the bags, and I'm very excited about the trip.

This may be my best handout book ever, as I keep adding goodies and not taking much out.  I put in lots of patterns and techniques, more than I can possibly cover in the two days...but you never know!  I managed to get through all my material in San Diego, and shocked myself.  It just depends on how advanced the group is, how well they manage their time, and whether they have special requests.

I also packed up my new 2013 Demos disk as a freebie for the seminar customers.  This was great fun to make - I simply picked out a bunch of fairly recent videos and compiled it.  I make my videos in high-def, then put them on YouTube, which makes them into smaller, less detailed files and shows them in a little window.  I took those original high-definition ones to make the disk, which will play nicely on a TV or a computer.

I have such cool projects in the works!  I won't have the new book with 100 tips to improve your machine knitting in time, as I am still photographing samples and making diagrams for that book.  I am also working on the hand knitting book again - I think I'll call it "Snowflakes" because it's a book of lacy and geometric round dishcloths, seamlessly grafted. 

I have some more hat ideas.  I don't know, maybe we'll have a hat book, and maybe not.  Because Knit Natters is doing hats for charity this year, I've got hats on the brain.  Hats on the brain is some sort of knitter's disorder, I'm sure. 

Weekend Updates

Knit Natters met yesterday, a small group, but we certainly had fun.  When summer sets in, attendance drops, just like any club, but we just keep on going faithfully.  I demoed the sew-as-you-go tam, and my friend Norma had seen it on the blog and said she had problems with the video.  I believe I have those problems fixed.  YouTube was giving me huge heartburn the day I put that up - it actually took five tries.  If it's still sending you to a different video, or not finishing the whole video, let me know, and I'll reload the stinker.

Barbara demonstrated a really cute scalloped edging on the Passap, which I think can be done on the Japanese machines.  Next time I go doodling around on my machine, I'll attempt it.  Barbara's Passap demos are fantastic.  Last month she showed us drop stitch lace as well as U100E lace.  Gorgeous.

We are still producing and bringing hats for charity.  The pile grows!  We started talking about our next Knit-In, probably in October.

Mary A. made a cupcake hat, which she presented to Carl.  Here's the background on this:  several years ago, when Carl, Barbara, John and I went to do my first seminar in Houston, we were clowning around on the trip home, and teasing Carl about being a tough guy.  Carl is a big man, a truck driver and a woodworker, and certainly LOOKS like he could be a tough guy, but I told him he's a cupcake.  He's a sweetie and pushover for his wife, kids, grandkids, and friends.  Pretty soon Barbara was calling him Cupcake, and now the knitting club is calling him Cupcake, too (he's always helping the club with things, including barbequing hamburgers for us when we have a knit-in).  Mr. Carl the Cupcake loves his Cupcake hat.  :)

By the way, the cupcake hat pattern is over at the DFW Machine Knitting Guild's website.

Before the meeting, Barbara and Sylvia had gone to a a craft fair at Tech Shop.  Tech Shop is a business (several locations at a few cities in the US) where you subscribe as a member and then can use their fantastic tool collection. It's mostly guy-candy like pro woodworking and machining tools, but they also have long-arm quilting machines (drool, drool...), professional sewing machines, and so forth. The club was checking it out, considering getting a booth and demonstrating KMs at a future fair, but the ladies were disappointed on their scouting mission.  There were herds of children banging nails into woodworking projects, behaving, but making an amazing amount of noise and sitting on the floor so they couldn't walk around and see things.  Hopefully, that's just a glitch and the next event will be different.  One thing our club doesn't do much is demonstrate KMs at events.  Several of us are willing, if we can find events.

 

Joe's Entrelac Throw

The technique is from my book, EZ Entrelac, and the blanket is big.  Joe previously send photos of a really cute baby blanket and set, using Entrelac and Fair Isle.

This new one is such a striking color scheme!  The variations in the repeat sequences add a lot of interest, as well.

 

Now, couldn't we make great stuff using this technique with scraps of worsted weight yarn? I can picture a neutral background and all sorts of colorful patches on the in-between rows. I don't even think you'd have to do the square-off triangles along all the edges; you could have ziggy edges and crochet or I-cord edge around everything.

Knit Natters - Tomorrow

Some club members are meeting at the Tech Shop Maker's Fair tomorrow around 10, then some are going to lunch.  At 1 we'll meet at Crystal Lake Baptist Church in Leander, as usual.  Of course, everyone is welcome, and we have plenty of space at the church.

I'm unlikely to make the fair or lunch, as I have to get some things done in the morning.

I don't know what Barbara's teaching, but she has a demonstration for the Passap.  I'm going to teach the sew-as-you-go version of my tam.  I've taught the tam before, but that was before I began routinely putting them together as I knit the tops.

Our club continues on its hats for its current charity project, and I'll bring some hats I made along.

New Video for June - Tam Take Two

I redid my original tam video, adding more titles with needle numbers and so forth, but most importantly, showing how to do it with sew-as-you-go joining of the hat to the ribbed band.



UPDATE:  Try clicking on the video now.  I think a settings change over at YouTube may have fixed the problem.

Busy, busy, buzz, buzz...

Sometimes my husband says "busy, busy, buzz, buzz" when I'm running around doing all sorts of things.

And, that's what I'm doing this weekend.  We printed and bound the handouts for Northern Virginia, and I'm so happy with them!  I have my two days all planned, and stuffed plenty of nice little extras in the book. 

I've also been doing all sorts of little things related to the seminar and the knitting biz in general this weekend, including trying to put up a new video (YouTube is NOT cooperating; I think that needs to wait for another day), trying out a new pattern, and answering email.

Because of an email I got from a mom who is learning to knit with a young child underfoot, I got to thinking about an old favorite pattern of mine.  Anybody remember this one?  This is my English Rib Child's Sweater pattern.

I like easy kids' patterns, because you need to make 'em clothing fast before they're outgrown! This little pattern is just four rectangles.  My friend Barbara dressed this one up for her granddaughter by using a very pretty variegated for the yoke only (plus a little crochet along the neckline and a matching hair scrunchie).

If you're in the mood for a quick kid's sweater, look for the pattern here:

http://www.knitnatters.com/Child's_English_Rib_Sweater/Child's_English_Rib_Sweater.htm

Want to learn to make the hair scrunchie?  The cute little girl in the photo can show you how...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTd3DYFZRI0

Yanna's First Sweater

Yanna lives in Cyprus, and sent me pictures of her first sweater!  It's that beginner sweater again, in a child's size.  Great job!  I believe we have another sympatico knitter in our midst.

I really get excited when someone so new to machine knitting accomplishes so much with a few YouTube videos and my child's raglan pattern.  Check out the pix:

Resurrection of Diana's New Computer

We decided to put a solid-state drive into the new computer, since we had to go to the trouble of reimaging it. 

I had performed this trick at work, where I took a slow, barely booting 5-year-old computer and turned it into a smoking-fast Windows 7 machine by putting a fresh image on an SSD.  You use the SSD for your C drive, booting Windows and opening your often-used software from it.  It runs much faster than a spinning disk drive. 

At home, John installed the SSD and then installed Win 7 in my new computer, and I finished up when I got home from work today.  I installed several drivers that were missing, then installed my editing software and edited that Tam video, which is going to be my June YouTube video. 

I am thrilled! My new computer edits the huge hi-def files like they were small; opens the editor in a flash; and even boots in a flash.  No more lockups, no more problems!  What a relief!  Tomorrow, I'll put on the other software essentials.

Oh, and I've invented a new tam pattern.  Maybe I'll get a photo up tomorrow.

UPDATE:  I was asked for plain-English directions.  You'd be a lot better off following the directions on various computer-savvy websites rather than having me write directions.  I can give you an overview and a few warnings, though. 

Basically, there are two approaches to this - duplicate your hard drive onto a new, solid-state drive.  You can get software with detailed instructions for that, and it's a good way to go if you don't have a problem computer.  As I understand it, that's easy-peasy, and you end up with a lovely, familiar computer.

If you do have a problem computer, you have to wipe the computer clean and reinstall Windows, then all your software, which is what happened here.  (A customer support tech guy told  me today that my original operating system load was probably corrupted.  It isn't a universal Win 8 problem at all, just something that happens sometimes when they load new computers.)

Warning!  Before you start, go through the files on your computer and save what you need!  You are going to wipe the hard drive clean with a reformat, and if you don't save your data, it will be gone.  Every single time I do this, I miss a few files and wish I had them later.  On these solid-state installations, I can keep the old disk, put it in a hard drive enclosure (cheap at the electronics store), and it turns into an external USB disk drive.  Then I can get files off it that way, and later on, use it for extra storage.  (This, by the way, is a great tip when the computer is so sick it won't boot.  You could still recover many files this way, and I've had to do it a few times.)

For a redone machine, you get to choose and purchase an operating system, or else reload your original operating system, assuming your computer came with a disk.  I used to like to load XP Professional, but Microsoft doesn't support it anymore, so Windows 7 is a good choice.  You could load Windows 8 or Linux, it's up to you.  I've always wanted to play with Linux, just haven't done it yet.

Then you need to be able to find all the drivers, which have to match your devices and your chosen operating system.  Drivers are files of instructions that let your computer use its devices.  If you can't find a driver, you might have a network card, wireless card, USB slot, video card, audio, or other device that does not work, and it'll probably be a device you need badly!   If you go through your Device Manager ahead of time and write down exactly what each device is, maybe even copy your drivers, you'll have a better time of it.

I call myself an "accidental systems administrator" because I do this at work, but my main job is accounting. I am experienced, but reimaging computers still scares me. I've always found drivers, but it can take me hours.  At work, I buy Dell computers, and they have drivers on their website that you can find by putting in the tag number for the computer - usually.  Once in a while, I've still had trouble figuring out the drivers, for instance, if they put several different kinds of network cards in the same model, I won't know which one to use.  I always get them in the end, but as stubborn and nerdy as I am, I still get very frustrated.

My husband, a lifelong computer programmer, isn't at all intimidated by these processes, and he finds drivers much more quickly than I do.

These last two I worked on were easy, but warning, this isn't always easy.

Suzanne's Child's Sweater

Once in a while, I get an email like this one:
 
"Dear Diana 

Thank you so much for your wonderful machine knitting lessons for beginners! I have only had my machine a few weeks but am so delighted that I have been able to make the child's sweater following your instructions..."

 

Check out Suzanne's first project!  She did a great job, didn't she?

 

 

Giving Up on Windows 8

Today I was going to take advantage of the extra day off to edit my latest video, a redone Diana's Tam.  You're gonna love this video, I think, which will show how to do the sew-as-you-go assembly which works so much better than my original pattern.

My brand new computer for editing video is absolutely deluxe.  We did our research and purchased a very good brand, which has lots of memory and an exellent motherboard and video card. 

It is also "blessed" with Windows 8.  Windows 8 has a reputation for being more difficult to use, but I simply decided to learn to use it.

However, ease of use is not the problem.  We have only had the computer turned on over about three occasions, but all it does is crash. 

Copy a few files, lock up.  Start my video editing software, lock up.  Try to open Task Manager, lock up.  Open a "My Computer" window, lock up.  Try to shut down and restart, lock up.

Now, crashing isn't so bad if you have worked for hours and saved your work, but this beastie crashes in less than five minutes.  It is absolutely unusable. I was considering returning it to the store, since I haven't even cleared away the packaging, but John believes the problem is Windows 8.

John is patiently installing that older operating system.   Fingers crossed, toes crossed...hope it works! 

Inspiration at Rhythm of the Needles

Look at the adorable baby dress and then read the story.

http://www.rhythmoftheneedles.net/2013/05/full-circle.html

My (Brief) Life of Crime

About a month ago, I got a speeding ticket in a tiny Texas town.  I was driving home from a non-profit conference.  The regular road speed limit is 70 MPH, but when you enter a town, they typically go down to 55, then 45, and some towns, to 35.  I knew the pattern, since I'd done it several times in a row, but I didn't see the sign as I entered a town.  John tapped me on the shoulder, and I realized I'd missed seeing a sign and slowed down, but too late.

In the next couple of weeks, our family went into crisis.  John's brother was hospitalized, went downhill when we thought he could be treated and get better, then died.  About a week after losing Tim, I found the ticket papers to check the deadline to request a driving safety course, which keeps a minor violation off your driving record.  I had missed the deadline by a few days.  I hurried and turned in the paperwork, the fee, and a letter of apology.

The little town's court clerk phoned, saying I needed to go back to their town and talk to the judge in person, so I made an appointment.  Then, I called her back and asked what he might decide to do, since I failed to appear on that speeding ticket.  She ran through several possibilities, but said he didn't know what the new judge might choose.  I was grateful none of the possibilities involved incarceration!  (Did y'all know I am rather a high-strung, nervous soul?)

I spent the next week, until the appointment, mentally kicking myself about my own mistakes.  (A major problem with stupidity is it isn't highly curable!)

On meet-the-judge day, John drove me.  If it went badly, I didn't want to drive back (about 45 minutes) in an emotional state.  It turns out the city has one building, a small converted brick house next to a tiny but nice park.  The judge was very pleasant, the sort of older guy who's probably be a nice neighbor, and he simply accepted my request to do the safety course.  Whew.

I took a horribly boring online class.  Five hours plus breaks are required.   The class is cheap and convenient, and I could listen to the material rather than read a textbook.  I'd get home from work, start it up, and knock out an hour before John arrived home from work.  I hand knitted my way through the class and have a small pile of round dishcloths to show for it.

I'll be out of trouble as soon as the town receives my paperwork.  I certainly hope this is the end of my life of crime!

Virginia Seminar is Sold Out

Diana Guenther let me know that the Virginia seminar is completely filled.  She cannot accept any more registrations, and wants me to help get the word out so she won't have so many checks to return.

I am having more seminars this year, and will put an announcement up soon about the next one.

Seminar Prep - New Bonus Disk

I just created this DVD, which is two hours of demonstrations, as my bonus item to take to seminars.  We always like to give out a little something extra for our seminar customers, and I was feeling that my old demo disk was out of date.

I had a good time choosing items to put on this.  It certainly is nice that I have so many demonstrations ready to stick on YouTube in the coming months, in keeping with my resolution to load one a month.

What else is going on?  Well, the Knit Natters met Saturday, and Barbara did the most wonderful demonstration of lace using the U100E as well as drop lace.  I did a figure 8 cast-off demo.  We had a HUGE pile of hats for our current charity project, many of them Fun Fur (and similar yarns) fluffy things for chemo patients.  The show and tell was wonderful with all kinds of good stuff.

Finally Ready: The Knit Leader Course

We were waiting on packaging, and now we have the Knit Leader courses available for sale!   Want one?  You can purchase one from the blog, here, or from www.dianaknits.com. 

This course consists of two high-definition DVDs, about 4 hours of video time. 

The Knit Leader is a Brother accessory that has been around forever, is widely available used, doesn't cost too much, and works best on Brother machines, although you could use it for other machines and hand knitting if you wanted to advance it by hand.  I have been surprised at how many people have one and don't use it!  It's a wonderful shortcut to making garments that fit.  You draw your full-sized pattern on the mylar sheet, load the sheet in the Knit Leader, set the stitch and row gauge, and the Knit Leader guides you along the way, sort of a GPS for machine knitting.

This course would transfer well if you have a Toyota Knit Tracer, because that one's very similar to Brother's unit, but I don't recommend it for Silver Reed half-scale equipment, which is too different.

I broke everything into segments.  Since there's absolutely no plot, unless you think knitting swatches, a sweater and a hat makes for a story, and because I go rather slowly, you'll be glad to skip over to the technique you need to see.  These disks have menus so you can skip around.   Here's what I show on the course:

Disk One:

• Making a standard gauge swatch
• Making a measurable ribbing swatch
• Making swatches to solve problems, like the planning of the buttonholes, the transition from ribbing to garment, and the best color scheme
• The Knit Leader, its essential supplies, and other helpful things you can purchase easily
• Using the Knit Leader with sewing patterns
• How to choose the correct stitch scale
• How to set the row gauge
• Shaping an armhole with full-fashioned decreases
• Shaping a shoulder with short-rows
• Divide and shape a neck
• Inset pockets
• Join shoulder seam on machine
• Join armhole seam on the machine
• Making a sleeve
• Shaping in Fair Isle and matching up the pattern

Disk Two:

• Knit 1, purl 1 button band
• Good-looking, easy vertical buttonholes
• Short-rowing a curved hemline
• Short-rowed horizontal bust darts
• Making vertical darts, with and without the garter bar
• Knitting a tidy, folded waistband at the top of a skirt or pants
• How to use the Knit Leader with your bulky machine
• Crafty uses for the Knit Leader
• Knitting larger and plus sizes
• Monkey Hat project planning
• Intarsia with Knit Leader
• Monkey Hat knitting details

This video course, along with all my other products, is available at www.dianaknits.com.

Inspiration at Rett og Vrang

Look at this wonderful, fun knitted photo!

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2013/05/knit-from-picture-strikk-fra-et-bilde.html

Hand-Tooled Lace at Ozlorna's Blog

Great-looking lace, don't miss it!

http://ozlorna.blogspot.com/2013/05/little-bit-on-hand-tooling-lace.html

New Video Today - Figure 8 Cast-Off and Graft

The May technique video is a cast-off you probably haven't tried - I certainly hadn't.  A reader sent me directions and asked me to demonstrate it with a video.  It's always fun to learn something different.  :)

This cast-off is great for situations where you need lots of stretch, when so many other cast-offs have no give at all.  Try it!

Updates

The Knit Leader Course filled two DVDs.  First I filmed a cardigan sweater with fair isle, button bands (vertical rib), shoulder and armhole shaping, and inset pockets.  I wanted to get lots of techniques into the course, since I don't think there's all that much to using the Knit Leader.  (1)  Make an accurate gauge swatch, (2) Draw a good pattern, (3) Knit, following the line and realizing that one stitch or one row doesn't matter. 

However, it worked out that there was plenty of information to include in the course.  I put in a section on knitting bigger sizes, on making crafts, and doing bulky machine Knit Leader projects.  Since the cardigan was sedate in green, brown and beige, I added a wacky Knit Leader bulky intarsia project, my version of a sock monkey hat, inspired by the one the San Diego ladies taught me, but with double-lined earflaps and head, intarsia face, and shaping shortcuts.  Then I went back through everything to see what I missed, and decided the course needed to teach a curved hem, vertical dart, waistband, and bust darts, so I added those demos.

 

It was great fun until I started editing.  Now that I've suffered through the most difficult editing sessions ever, I broke down this weekend and bought a screaming fast, loaded computer.  I hope that helps!  The editing software really was too much for our old computer, which was quite powerful, but nothing gobbles up memory and processor like editing high-definition video.  I probably should have done this sooner. He set it up for me today, and now the question is whether I will adapt quickly to Windows 8.  John has promised to load Windows 7 instead if I hate Win 8. 

 

I put the general schedule up for Northern Virginia seminar last week, and am very excited.  The books are almost done, too.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the prayers for our family!  My husband and son returned from their very sad California visit (John's brother died a week ago).  I didn't go to California myself because it was too late - we didn't realize Tim was dying.  Steven, our son, was already there on vacation, and John flew there because he was worried about Tim's illness.  He didn't make it in time to say goodbye, but they both were able to help John's mom and sister for about a week. 

 

I had been very busy at work all week, and did CPA chapter things as well, including helping with a nonprofit seminar one evening that was the high point of my week.  Most of the people there were Austin Police Department Blue Santa volunteers.  They take Christmas to 3,500 needy families in our area.  I met Santa and Mrs. Claus and some inspiringly big-hearted officers.

 

I hope you had a very good Mother's Day, or your mom did!  The boys gave me cards, poetry, and flowers, and John installed my new computer, so it was a very nice day.  It was so good to talk to my incredible mother-in-law, Barbara, who is sounding good and holding up okay after her difficult, very sad week.  Thanks again for the prayers for the family.