Inspiration at Regg Og Vrang - Baby Set

Check out this super cute turquoise and orange baby set:

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/03/turkis-og-oransje-kule-farger.html

Inspiration at Marg's

Check out Marg's cute Easter Bunny sweater:

http://margsknittingplace.blogspot.com/

Inspiration at Carissa Knits

Fascinating socks!

http://www.carissaknits.com/2016/03/cotton-candy-zickzacks.html

Inspiration at Rett Og Vrang

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/03/babyluer-minimini.html

Here's an adorable baby hat!  Synnove does quite a few baby garments, all cute, as well as beautiful sewn items.  You might want to follow her blog!

Meet Kris Basta, Devoted Machine Knitter and Garter Bar Manufacturer

I think everyone who follows me knows that I'm a garter bar advocate.  The GB is a great way to overcome some of the basic issues with machine knitting, that every stitch on a flatbed machine is a purl stitch on its own needle.  With the garter bar, you can make garter stitch, Quaker stitch, make rapid cable turns, decrease quickly all across a row, and increase quickly all across the row.  There are other nifty and useful things you can do, too, which you can learn about in my garter bar course.

There's a problem, though.  Garter bars are VERY difficult to obtain for bulky machines, and until Kris started manufacturing her own design, we couldn't get them for our mid-gauge machines.  Kris manufactures a really cool garter bar, which I reviewed in this video:


I have been so impressed at Kris for coming up with a clever design, doing all the work, and taking a risk to manufacture these needed tools for us.  These are made in the US.  I love the quality - beautifully smooth with no nasty sharp edges.  My one concern when I did the video review was that she didn't have a "stopper" at that time.  There are a lot of terrific things you can do with a stopper that are not practical without one.  However, she makes the stoppers now, too!  I am lucky enough to have one of her mid-gauge garter bars and her stopper, and it is a wonderful thing.  Need one?  Look here:  http://www.kriskrafter.com/garterbars.html

I interviewed Kris, and I think her interview is quite interesting.  Here it is:

Q:  Kris, I’ve so admired your work, especially with the garter bars we all need.  Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your passions? 

A:  I am 53 years old and have been "retired" from a regular job since I was 40.  We owned a family business that we sold.  I have 2 grown kids, son 33, and daughter 21.  Both live within hours of us.  My passion truly is knitting, hand knitting and machine knitting.  I tell people that I knit every day and truly I pretty much do!   I don't even mind ripping things out because I get to knit them again - my mom thinks this is nuts, she is not a ripper outer.  

I also love the outdoors and foraging.  On our Illinois farm I am often seen in coveralls in the ditches or out in the woods looking for berries, asparagus, mushrooms, etc.  (did you know  you can eat cattail pollen as well).  I get poison ivy pretty much every year.  When we are at our farm in Montana I like to take walks, look at the pretty Agates on the ground and interesting geological formations there.  We have a 60 lake on that farm and it is awesome to sit and watch all the geese, cranes, ducks, pelicans, and other birds that land there.  Last time we were there we saw a giant buck deer swim across the water and while we sat on the ground on top of a tall cliff overlooking the lake and we watched a whole bunch of otters doing their crazy thing.  

Q:  Where do you live, and what kind of machine knitting community do you have there?  

A:  I currently live in Illinois.  I was actually born and raised in Illinois up until my senior year of High School, my parents at that time started a business out in Montana and we all moved there in 1981, so I've actually lived most of my life in Montana.  I knew one gal in Bozeman Montana that was a machine knitter, she sold machines, yarn, accessories, etc and was a wonderful mentor.  Aside from that I learned all I knew from my knitting machine manuals, Diana Sullivan videos, Yahoo groups, Ravelry groups, etc.  Just this last year we sold our gigantic home in Montana (kids are grown and gone) and built a smaller house on a lake in western Illinois.  We still own a farm in Eastern Montana where my husband is from and a farm in southern Illinois - so we travel a bit between these.  

Q:  What first sparked your interest in machine knitting?  How did you get started?  What the journey has been like for you?

A: I started machine knitting in 1990 - my husband surprised me with a Passap Duomatic.  At the time I had never machine knitted or had even considered doing it.  I don't know what possessed my husband to buy it for me.  I was a little sparked by it and played with it a bit, but unfortunately at the time it was a bit overwhelming to me, my children were young, we had a business we were running and I was just distracted with other things.  I ended up trading the Passap machine for a large 4-harness weaving loom.  In about 1999 I purchased a Bond Ultimate Sweater machine.  I ended using the heck out of that machine and thus was born my love for machine knitting.  I made a ton of ponchos, scarves, mittens, slippers, and afghans. From that Bond I graduated to Brother, Studio, & Singer machines.  I've owned just about every machine out there.  I've traded, repaired and resold all kinds of them.  Now I have downsized and only use my KH-965i and my KH-270.  It's funny, for all the years that I have now machine knit, and for the fact that I manufacture and sell parts for knitting machines, I am still a very basic machine knitter.  I still make a lot of scarves, hats, afghans, and slippers.  I seldom make sweaters, except for children.  I am also a hand knitter, and as we travel quite a bit I get a lot done while in the car. - but I find great satisfaction in the quick results of using a knitting machine.  

Q:  Do you see yourself as a businesswoman, an inventor, or a hobbyist – or are you all of these?  Do you do other kinds of needlework and crafts? 

 

A: I guess I am all three.  Prior to my machine knitting adventures I was a product developer for our family business.  I traveled all over the world working with different factories to have product produced and worked with artists from all over the U.S. 

As far as being an inventor, I truly have always dreamed of "inventing" something, even as a child I was always sketching ideas out.  

As mentioned above I do love to hand knit.  Sometimes I use my knitting machine for the bulk of a project then I will take it off the machine and hand knit the rest.   I have crocheted my whole life.  I think I learned as a small child but don't remember who exactly taught me, either my mom or my aunt Joan or a combo of both.  I still crochet periodically but don't love it as much as knitting.  (in the 80's I got on a crochet doily making jag - anyone need doilies?)  

I learned to sew at a very young age as my mom was quite a seamstress.  I used to make all of my son's clothes when he was a little boy and made many, many outfits for my nieces when they were toddlers.  I once made a suit coat jacket for my brother.  He was attending a large hunting convention and in attendance was Peter Coors (Coors beer).  The suit coat jacket was made with a camouflage material and it was lined.  My brother was one of the speakers at this convention and the highlight for me was when Peter Coors said he wanted to know where my brother got his jacket!  The jacket was about 40 or so pattern pieces and I guess it kind of burned me out on sewing.  I only sew occasionally now and there are small projects.  

Q:  Do you have a storefront operation, a home business, or is it primarily a web-based business?  How can knitters reach you and obtain your products?

Q:  I don't have a storefront, it is a home business and yes, it's primarily web-based.  I ship my garter bars, yarn twisters and accessories out of our "shop" (garage building).  We have a large pole building on our farm in southern Illinois where I keep my inventory.  

My Website is: kriskrafter.com

My email info: kris@kriskrafter.com

Phone is: 406-579-3310.

Blog: auntekristy.blogspot.com  I have freebie patterns here (hand knit, Machine knit, crochet). 

Q:  How do you feel about the machine knitting process?  What are your favorite yarns, machines, and projects?  Do you like to create patterns, or use written patterns?  Do you like to do color work, or textures? Do you like to do garments the best, or crafts, or charity knitting, or gifts…or what?

A:  I seldom use patterns since I am such a basic knitter.  I do make my own patterns quite often. I am definitely more of a texture knitter than a multi color work knitter.  I love space dyed yarns and how they knit up though.  I have also played around with a little bit of dyeing using Kool-aid and food colorants, pretty fun!  

I am also VERY addicted to felting.  I love when someone's slippers finally wear out because then I can make them another pair!  I use a little table top washer called a "Wonder Washer" to do all my felting - works great.  

I used to do a lot of Farmers Markets where I would sell quite a few slippers and socks.  I use a circular sock knitting machine for my sock making. 

I also have done a lot of charity knitting.  My kids went to a small Christian School that had an annual fund raising event.  I knit a lot of items for that over the years.  My mother volunteers at the cancer center at the Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, in the cancer center they have a hat tree.  I have knit a lot of hats, mittens and slippers for this.  Cancer patients are often quite cold and when they come in for treatments they can pick something off the tree to wear and keep.  

A few years back I played around with weaving using a garter bar (thanks Diana for the great video on this!!) and plan on playing with that a bit more.  I have a purse idea I'd like to try with it. 

Q:  How did you come to realize that there was a need for the special-sized garter bars?  How did the clever flat design discovery happen and develop?

A:  I had purchased a few large lots of knitting machines through estate sales, I was still relatively new at machine knitting and I didn't even know what a garter bar was.  After coming across some in the estate purchases I tried using garter bars and really struggled.  I tried both the old metal ones and also the plastic ones that the bond company made at some point.  The metal ones were made really well and sturdy and had great instructions, I just found for myself that I had a hard time re-hooking them back on the needles once I turned the work over.  They were also CRAZY expensive at that time and the only way you could get them was used on Ebay because they hadn't been made in many years.  I had also read some pretty bad reviews on how awful the old plastic Bond garter bars were to use and that people were actually trying to make their own using rulers and paper clips. 

I was lying in bed one night thinking about it and wondered who/how could make them.  (Remember I was a product developer in my other life).  It just occurred to me that if the garter bars were flat and if the hole became a open track that you could see through while re-hooking perhaps it would be easier.  I started out by contacting a company that I had read about in our local paper - a group of young guys that were starting a business wherein they could engineer/draft and develop new product.  They had the type of equipment it took to prototype what I wanted made so I started working with them.  They also helped me with all the technical drawings that the U.S. requires to file for a Patent.  I was granted a Patent for the garter bars.

Q:  What were some of the challenges, getting this unusual product manufactured and marketed?

A:  The company that helped me develop the garter bars (needlestoppers, minis, and tools) were great for developing but they did  not have the manufacturing capabilities at all.  With their help we found someone that could manufacture them in quantity.  Lo and behold, the manufacturer was two miles from my house!  The difficulty came when, after the garter bars are cut, they are quite rough.  My manufacturer did not have the equipment for the specialty polishing that the bars would require.  We searched high and low and finally found someone in the state (Montana) that did this type of polishing.  They polished a few batches for me and they were only "ok" not great and not consistent.  After going through 3 different polishers I finally have found one that is great, and it is right here in Illinois where I now live.  I still have my product manufactured in Montana and just have to time my trips back and forth to pick up my inventory.  The other challenge is trying to keep the price from getting too high.  This type of product is darned expensive to have produced due to the rising cost of steel, and I have to produce in quantity to keep the price down as low as I can.  My marketing is quite simple, my website, word of mouth and an occasional mention on others' websites.   It is a small business as you can imagine, but I enjoy it and I especially love getting to meet and visit (via email and groups) other machine and hand knitters.  

Central Texas Knitting News

I'm going to teach a seminar the second weekend in August.  This will be a terrific seminar, as far as I can tell - a small group, a well-organized club (I'm just teaching, not one of the amazing leaders), a terrific place to meet, good food, and a reasonable cost.  If you are interested, please email me and I'll hook you up with the organizers.

My email is accessible by clicking on the envelope picture on the left-hand side of this blog.

We are having a seminar with Tom Panciarello next spring over April Fool's weekend!  I know, Tom, the Machine Knitting Guy, will do a wonderful job.   If you're interested in that one, let me know.

Knit Natters members are currently working through the knitted Raggedy Andy doll patterns.  I have my legs and arms done...more to come.  Next month, we're going to work on the faces.  We are not only doing these on Brother machines, Barbara, bless her, is figuring it all out for the Passap machines.  The ladies in the club picked this project because, well, the dolls are absolutely adorable and cuddly, but also because the project covers just about every basic MK technique.  We are a very welcoming, happy club, and I hope you'll consider joining us. 

New Video - Crochet Look Edging for a V-Neck

March's video over on YouTube is an edging you can use with any flat bed machine - no ribber required!  It makes a beautiful, tidy V-neckline, and it's really very easy.  You can use this edging for other things, as well.

Add this to your bag of tricks when you're using your non-patterning LK150 or other non-patterning machine.  I want you to be able to get the most out of the machines you have, even if they don't have all possible accessories and features.

You can use this edging on round necks, as well, and you don't need to go in two directions.  What makes this look so good is it's started in the center, worked to one edge, started in the center again and worked in the opposite direction, and then sewed in the middle for a beautiful mitered V.

Did you know you can subscribe to my YouTube "channel" and know about new videos right away?  Simply click on the "Click to Subscribe" note.

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Marzipan Posts about Gimp

She's done some super photo pillows:

http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2016/01/bitten-by-gimp-bug.html

Ooh...Ah

Very pretty tam from the Yarn Harlot (it's a kit, and she tells you where to find it):

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/2016/01/one-down/

Tom's Teaching an MK Group in Las Vegas

This post from Tom Machine Knitting Guy has a list of his upcoming seminars, but there's also some very good news here.  With his friends, they've got a weekly group in Las Vegas now!  If you live there you ought to jump aboard.

Tom's going to be teaching in Austin at our very own club April Fool's weekend of 2017.  I'm really looking forward to it.

http://tommachineknittingguy.blogspot.com/2016/01/updates.html

I'll be teaching a seminar in Denver in April, one in Austin in August, and in Milwaukee in September.  There's a good chance that I'll teach sometime this year in Anaheim, but I don't have dates yet.  Interested?  Email me.

I've been writing a do-it-yourself seminar booklet.  Lots of demos, and I plan to film videos of each this will be included.  Could someone please send me some clever names for a book and video of this nature?  The idea is that these are demos that can be done on almost any flat bed machine, and they're from my repertoire of seminar demonstrations that are most popular.  Meanwhile, I am working on a mid-gauge progressive project book - same idea as The Goldilocks Challenge but mainly new and different projects.

There's an email icon down a ways on the left-hand side of this blog.  I can be slow and get behind, but I answer nearly every email.

Cute Slouch Hats at MK Is My Life

Check these out:

http://machineknittingismylife.blogspot.com/2016/01/hats-fiished.html

Cute Color Block Poncho at Mar's Site

There's another fun pattern at Marzipan Knits:

http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2016/01/machine-knit-stripilicious-patchwork_31.html

Look at the heart pillow pattern - made into an ornament by Eli!

Eli commented that she was making ornaments out of the little Valentine's pillows for which I recently put up a video and pattern.  Aren't these cute?  She's hand knitting them as well as machine knitting them.

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/02/strikk-et-hjerte-knitting-hearts.html

Darling Baby Set at Yarn Harlot

Yep, I do watch the Yarn Harlot blog.  I watch logs of HK blogs; don't often link to them, as they contain so much non-knitting material. 

This is a clever use of beads:

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/02/babystrikk-pa-pinnene.html

Beads are easy to add on our knitting machines!  And easy to sew on later, too.

Darling Baby Pants at Eli's

Check out these cute cabled baby pants

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2016/02/babystrikk-pa-pinnene.html

Inspiration at Rhythm of the Needles

More great looking Fair Isle!

http://www.rhythmoftheneedles.net/2016/02/fair-isle-friday-winter-snows-mittens.html

Note how good her tension is!  I often see hand knitted fair isle where the stitches are just TOO uneven for my liking.  Seems like it's great to have it look hand knitted, but not sloppy.

Inspiration at Rhythm of the Needles

Great lookin' Fair Isle (hand knit):

http://www.rhythmoftheneedles.net/2016/02/conquering-machu-picchu.html

New Video for February - Stuffed Valentine Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

So...I'm a week early.  Well, it's a week for you to knit one of these little pincushions, or pillows, or sachets, or whatever-you-can-think-of little stuffed hearts.  It only takes a dab of yarn, can be done on almost any machine, and is great short-rowing and Kitchener practice.

Here's one that I made with tightly-knit wool yarn on the standard gauge machine (the 100 stitch size), then filled loosely with rice for a heating pad.  I hope the picture of me putting my hand under it shows how it has a little weight and molds to your body.

 
And, here are some little ones that I made for pin cushions (filled with bits of waste yarn).  Now. I find that I've gotten quite happily used to having a pin cushion next to my machine with tapestry needles.  They're very handy.

Below is a brief chart (not really a written-out pattern with complete instructions - you'll need to watch the video - with some different sizes you can make.  I'm not going to give gauges and measurements, because you could do this with a bulky gauge, mid-gauge, or standard gauge and use various yarns.

Stuffed Heart Chart
Cast on with waste yarn
over ____ stitches	16	20	30	40	60	100
Chain to main yarn
Knit ___ rows plain	4	5	6	8	12	25
Short row decrease
to ____ stitches	2	2	2	2	2	2
Short row increase until
all stitches are back in work
Rows to knit plain	4	5	6	8	12	25
Put half of needles in hold
Short row down to
___ stitches	4	6	8	10	14	24
Increase until all
stitches are back in work
Do other side
Take off on waste yarn
Kitchener stitch

 

 

 

 

 

Would anyone like to guest blog?

I was reading another blog, and the person said they didn't need any guest bloggers.

Well - if you'll write about machine knitting and it's a pretty good post (especially with pictures), send it to me!  I love to link to other people's MK work, and I'd love to have some guest bloggers to keep this space interesting.  My primary goal here is to promote machine knitting, not to promote any so bring it on.

I'm not going to run something that's just an ad for somebody's business.  But if it's a story about your experiences in MK, cool.  Fixing a machine.  Doing an unusual project.  Building a club.  Bring it on!

No, you don't need to be an expert.  I'd love to see some articles about being a beginner and getting started, and tips for that stage in the craft.  Or articles about little breakthroughs in your development.  Or notes about how you just do things differently.

Check Out Tom's Seminar Schedule

I think you all know that I'm a big fan of Tom Panciarello (Tom Knitting Machine Guy), and I am very happy to report that he's planning to teach at our central Texas seminar on April Fool's weekend of 2017!  We are going to have a wonderful seminar.

He does other seminars, too - check this out:

http://tommachineknittingguy.blogspot.com/2016/01/updates.html