Update: Goldilocks Challenge

Did you think about getting a Bond knitting machine (Ultimate Sweater Machine)?  If not, think about it again.  This week, Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon.  No affiliation, I just like Hobby Lobby, and they carry this machine and lots of nice yarn.

Now, some tips for when you bring it home:

• Did you know there's a great video in the box?  Pull that out and watch it!  You might even want to watch it twice, if you're not a machine knitter.
• You've got to find an appropriate table for it.  The video shows what kind of table you need.  If you're really going to be happy knitting with it, you need a good, flat surface where you can clamp the machine.
• Because I knit on other machines, I have a longstanding habit of cluttering the area behind the machine with my tools.  Don't do that with a USM!  Try to put your tools down at one end of the machine, because the best way to feed the yarn is to follow the video - lay the skein down on the table behind the machine and pull out some lengths of yarn before you knit each row.  Tools and odds and ends will catch on the yarn, and when the yarn gets caught, the machine stops.  
• If you're a handknitter, you probably don't even think about pulling a little yarn out at a time and then knitting.  But - the USM knits at a furious rate and you'll need to pull out about a yard of yarn for just one row of knitting a foot wide!  Get used to the idea that now that you have a knitting machine, you have to feed it!  Chomp, chomp.  In goes the yarn, and out comes the knitting.  If you forget to pull out some yarn before a row, the machine gets hungry and beastly and refuses to knit any more.
• Expect to be very uncomfortable at first, even if you're a machine knitter.  This machine is different.  You need to practice knitting with this one, which requires NO tension no the yarn (versus most other machines, which deliver yarn at a steady tension) and which requires more weight than we're used to on the other machines.  Also, you have to pull up the yarn at the beginning of each row.  Now, if you're a hand knitter, the whole thing is awkward, so give yourself a little time.  Suspect judgment until you have your first beautiful object knitted, okay?
• Also, if you're a hand knitter, you're going to go through the whole machine adjustment.  The differences between hand knitting and machine knitting are enormous, so don't try to convert your hand knit patterns right away.  Instead, check out some of my patterns that are written for knitting machines, or the patterns at Bond America, or the scarf pattern which is my first effort in this challenge.
• Hand knitters may balk at knitting so much plain stockinette at first.  However, this is the beauty of knitting machines:  if you want a big stockinette project, you can zoom it out; if you want complexity, you can do a little more work.  Either way, you will be knitting much faster.
• The scarf is an IDEAL first project because, (1) it's a very simple rectangle, and by the time you knit it, you've gotten lots of practice, (2) some hand-tooling at the end makes it look super special, and (3) I managed to make it up with some very interesting yarn that I would not attempt to knit on my Japanese bulky machine. 
• Need yarn for the scarf?  Okay, for your first one, PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy smooth yarn. Caron Simply Soft, or I Love This Yarn, or some other worsted 4-ply will make that first project easy.  We're saving the bumpy or hairy yarn for later.  Got a lot of leftovers around the house?  Well, start with worsted or thinner in a smooth yarn.  
• Trying out the USM after using a different flatbed machine?  Well, please understand that the USM is much slower.  You really must stop often to pull out yarn.  Pulling a whole bunch at once can give you tangles.  You need to push more slowly, too.  However, you can go steal some nice tools from your regular machine stash - for instance, some claw weights, weight hangers, and perhaps a cast-on comb.  
• Wanting to jump ahead of me on this?  Well, watch my Beginner Machine Knitting Lessons.  You can find them by scrolling down the left-hand side of this blog.  Almost all of those lessons apply to the USM, and watching them will get you thinking in machine knitting concepts and jargon.
• What can you make with this machine?  Well, check out my bulky patterns, such as the warm, lined slippers in lots of sizes, a marvelous pinwheel round baby blanket, and the short-rowed baby hat.  More ideas at Heidi's Knitting Room, Knitting Today, and many other sites.

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Calling All Hand Knitters to the Goldilocks Challenge

Diana's husband was relaxing, reading his Saturday morning paper, when he was suddenly surprised by the spouse, who is subject to fits (of enthuasiasm about knitting):

"I'm going to Hobby Lobby!  Want to come?"

"Sure.  When?" says the hubby, indulgently.  He already knows what she's cooking up, and in his typical supportive way, thinks it's great.  You know a man is a little love-addled when he's willing to graze Hobby Lobby for knitting supplies.

"Right now!  Want to come?"

"Right now?  I haven't had my shower yet!  Could I have a little more notice?  Can you at least wait for me to get showered and dressed?"

"Okay.  But I want to go as soon as I can."

"Alright.  I'm going to be back in a few minutes, handsome and debonair.  Are you ready for that?"

"Oh, yes, I'm always ready for that!  Hurry!"

Off he went for his slow, perfect shave, his long shower and otherwise meticulous grooming, dressing in a dapper dress shirt and slacks - even on Saturday, hubby always wears a dress shirt.  The man wondered why this was an emergency outing.  Diana was probably in an unnecessary hurry..

He turns up (eventually) and inspects the coupon, which expires today.  "Where did you get this?  It doesn't look like a newspaper coupon."

"You can print them off the Hobby Lobby website!  Are you ready to go yet?" (the coupon is  here).

He cruised luxuriously into the Hobby Lobby parking lot in his vintage white Fleetwood, and parked Daddy's Caddy in a space near the entrance.  He half follows his trotting wife into the enormous, beautiful store, which surely contains more crafting stuff than any tagging-along hubby could handle.  Fortunately, she marched purposefully into Needlecrafts and parked right by to Ultimate Sweater Machine display - almost as if she knew exactly where to go!  She snatched a machine and didn't even put it down while she shopped for essential yarn supplies (for some bewildering reason, the yarn she has is never quite enough).

The coupon is a big discount on the Ultimate Sweater Machine.   Diana's a big Hobby Lobby fan (no affiliation, but not only is it incredibly pleasant to browse, but they give their employees Sundays off to be with their families, which you have to respect), so hubby asked, "Don't you think you're taking advantage of Hobby Lobby?"

"Nope.  The Goldilocks challenge is going to make them money.  Think of all the yarn they could sell if I could get folks using a USM!"

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If you choose to accept it, here is your mission, hand knitters:  get yourself one of these Ultimate Sweater Machines.  It's affordable even at full price, and I just gave you a way to buy one on the cheap, just by watching the Hobby Lobby website, plus there's Craigslist and eBay and that other craft store, too. We are going to make beautiful gifts for Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear for Christmas.  Honest, I promise they'll be pretty, luxurious and easy.

What?  You ask, how can we do this for the holidays when it's already Thanksgiving?  Well, put that can of pumpkin pie filling down and think for a minute.  I'm going to show you how, step by step, and while everyone else is in a turkey stupor in front of the football game, you can follow my detailed, free instructions and videos and make these lovely projects.  After that, you'll have given machine knitting an honest try!

Machine knitters:  Your job is to find at least one hand knitter and tell 'em about the Goldilocks Challenge.  And, you can play along with us if you haven't used one of these machines yet.  Remember, the distinctive feature of the USM is that it will knit fancier hand knitting yarn than most other machines!

Texas knitters:  you are hereby exempted from interrupting your football-game viewing to knit, and please do not be offended by the mere suggestion that some folks would rather knit than watch the games.  Of course Texans need to watch their games!  But you've got a few days off, so you still have time to at least make a nice long scarf to wear to the next cold game!

Inspiration at Right and Wrong - Adorable Baby Set

rett og vrang: Genser og bukse med bamser på er på gang...

Very Cute Baby Hat at Art Machines

Art Machines: beanie baby

New Video - Singer System 9000

Even with all the busy-ness of this weekend, I just couldn't resist trying out knitting on the Singer System 9000.  I haven't even plugged in the computer, motor, or monitor, but I did do the basic stitches in the first manual, and I made a video to share my experience.

UPDATE: The machine was made by Superba, not Madag!

The Singer System 9000

Here she is, in my kitchen.

Last night, we started finding all her parts - in several boxes and pakages - just to see if she's complete.  Then John and I just couldn't resist assembling, cleaning, oiling, and really checking her out.  We were very pleasantly surprised to find a motor.  This machine was unbelievably easy to set up, and I have found almost everything. A few small items might be mixed among the other machine knitting things that Penny brought over.

I haven't knitted yet, but with vacuuming, silicone spray and wiping down the plastic parts and Lori Lin spray lube and wiping down the needle beds and carriages, we have all buttons working smoothly, the bed racking okay, and the carriages just glide across, even with all needles in work!  We have electrical problems to solve, but they're not insurmountable at all.

Before I turn on the computer or the motor, I believe I should just learn to do simple knitting.  That's next, but this weekend is not only Kid 'n Ewe, but I have a mailing to prepare for some of my customers... betcha a find a few minutes to do some ribbing, anyhow.

Now, let me tell you about some of the very cool distinctive with this rather rare machine:

• Built by Madag, I believe, the Passap people, and appears to be very high quality..
• Has a bed gap adjustment to accommodate many sizes of yarn - never seen anything like that, how clever.
• Beds are aluminum - you wouldn't believe how light it is, oh, good - it's not plastic. 
• Operation is very smooth
• Came with a garter stitch (transfer) carriage, and has a special 1/4 racking setting just for that operation (nope, haven't tried it yet.  I'm a stone cold beginner on this sweetie)
• Has a very fancy computer system with unbelievable selections of pattern stitches and shape files, plus you can design your own.
• That flat keypad affair is the computer, with floppy disks and a mouse (machine was purchased in 1991).  There's a floppy with shape files, one with stitch patterns, and a couple others.  These are the 3-1/2" floppies.
• Motor is also very compact and light, with a Passap-ish rail design.  Maybe 20 seconds to set the motor in place.
• The buttons markings seem very logical
• Uses a wheel for a "stripper" on double-bed fabrics (also very clever, but haven't actually tried it)
• Has a big TV screen which I understand gives you color design capabilities and lots of help and coaching displays (haven't tried; can't yet plug in)
• Manuals are thorough, detailed, fascinating
• Has a "jacquard button" (?) and a "jacquard claw."  It has lili buttons, too!
• Has a 4-color changer...not sure if entirely complete, at least not yet.

I'm an experienced enough machine knitter to really appreciate the many very interesting, innovative and elegant aspects of this machine.  Proof, of course, will be in the knitting operation.

New Crib-Sized Afghan

In honor of our political season, I guess I'll call this stitch "waffles and wriggles."

Done on the Brother in a 2/12 acrylic.

Calling All Studio Knitters

Do you have a Studio machine that makes lace?  Would you mind letting me know what model number you use?

By Studio, I mean any of the following brands:  Silver, Studio, Singer, Empisal, Knitmaster, Lanofix.  Hmm, are there any others, or did I get them all?

I've been shopping for a good, middle-of-the-field Studio that I would use for adapting my Enchanted Edgings to Studio techniques.  I'm trying to figure out what my readers are using to knit.

And now, for something completely different...world's smallest stop animation

And, there's even a knitting theme - at the end.

Seminar Photos

Some pictures from the DFW seminar.

Yup, that's a karaoke machine we used to for a PA system, and there's our setup with a TV and camera so no matter where you sat in the room, you could see.

We had about 37 knitters.  Carl and Barbara Deike came and helped me, and my husband John changed Passap batteries.

It was casual, fun, relaxed, and yet, we squeezed a lot of content into the two days.



 Folks milling doing their own things on a break - the DFW gals have door prizes and lots of food and fun for the breaks.

Huddling together, learn to do crab stitch (backwards single crochet) on edges.

Free Kindle Books

I'm a life-long habitual reader, and for a long time now, a Kindle user.  I had a Kindle 1, which I gave to dear husband, because I needed an excuse to buy a Kindle 2 - which holds more books and reads to me.  I listen to books while I do chores, sometimes while I knit, and very often, while I drive to work through heavy traffic.  No headset, of  course, and hands-free.

Kindle is also easy on my eyes.  The "e-ink screen," black and gray, isn't back-lit and I can change the font size. And, of course, I'm carrying around hundreds of books in my purse.  I get most of my books free.

Fellow Kindle users, check out this special Amazon search - it's a list of all the many, many, many free Kindle books:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?node=133141011&field-price=0-0&sort=pmrank

Greetings from DFW Seminar

We had a big day yesterday, starting to knit around 9:40 a.m. after setup and working through the cast-ons and bind-offs and several other basics.  Then breakfast - we'd already had dripping hot cinnamon rolls and breakfast at the hotel, but we hit it again with potluck breakfast at seminar.

We had a hi-def TV hooked up with a camcorder focused on my hands and we had a homemade PA system consisting of a big karaoke machine and a wired mic.  Worked great except that every thirty minutes, it would time out and turn off and one of the knitters would hop up and push the button.  Thank goodness we were able to acquire this gear right before seminar - I have a very small voice and there were a lot of people.

Yesterday morning, we went through the cast-ons, cast-offs, and other basics, then hit the garter bar.  I didn't get all the garter bar techniques in the course, but I showed the ones on their request list - move only selected stitches, garter, quaker, round yoke.  Then we started going through all the other single bed stuff in the seminar handout book, such as the circular swirl baby blanket, single bed sock, Norwegian baby bootie, and lace edgings.  I spent some time showing the Entrelac technique - at least the foundation row and the other two basic rows.  I ended the day just thrilled that we got through all the material and the knitters were so pleased.

We had a super-lucky potluck lunch - all sorts of homemade goodies.  I had to taste the potato salad, the meatballs, the lasagna, the homemade tamales, and the chocolate desserts.

I ended the day just thrilled that we got through all the material and the knitters were so pleased.

Supper was pizza, friendship and conversation at our hotel.  Turned the clocks back:  Fall back!  Got lots of sleep.  Here we go again!   I'll try to get some photos today.

Today's going to be ribber-focused.

Carl Boyd's Wonderful Aran Tuck Ribs

Okay, try these on for size mentally:

http://www.carlboyd.com/2009/01/27/creating-aran-style-tuck-stitch/

Carl's work is gorgeous and very inventive!  I've played with this technique some, having developed a love for tucked ribs on my Passap and then translating them to the Brother machines, but in addition, Kathleen Kinder has some wonderful ones in her ribber books.  However, for most of those, I had to draw/punch/input patterns.  Carl has pulled these off with Stitch World classic tuck stitches!

Check this out! I ELIS HUS: Fern Lace Scarf.

Eli's knitted a very nice fern lace scarf using that interesting little technique I demoed on YouTube a week or so ago:

I ELIS HUS: Fern Lace Scarf.

I have a cool idea for this technique - can't wait to try it out. Wanna guess what it is?

Meantime - I'm at the hotel next door to Stacy's Furniture in the DFW area, all ready for the seminar which begins in the morning! Our car is all jammed with equipment - knitting machine, ribber, camera, TV to monitor, sound stuff, knit samples, tools, etc. I'm all cranked up and rarin' to go! This is going to be great.

HELP!

Amazing development - while I am hurrying around this evening, getting ready to go teach a machine knitting seminar near Dallas-Ft. Worth airport (lucky me!), I have to take a few minutes to report that I just received a wonderful large assortment of knitting gear from a nice local lady who wants the items sold and proceeds given to charity.

Okay:  there's a Knitmaster here.  I don't know what model - looks like a nice 24-stitch punchcard machine.  Kewl.  This will require more investigation.

There's a Brother 230 here with ribber!  Wow, who doesn't love the 230?  It was a manual bulky but built like a champ.

Big, fascinating mystery item, at least for me:  a rare model, the Singer System 9000 electronic double-bed knitter.  Please folks, I don't know a whole lot about this Superba-type machine.  It appears to have a TV-like monitor, a separate electronic controller unit, a 4-color changer, and to be a true double-bed. I know it was sold only briefly.  Can you write and give advice?  Is this one I should buy for myself?  Too rare to be of any help to my viewers/customers/students?  Difficult to learn?  How can I learn more about it?  Should I join the Yahoo group?  It's obviously a VERY unusual machine.  After seminar, I'll shoot some photos to post. Y'all will be oohing and aahing at this fascinating machine.

Are you looking for a nice used machine?  I plan to set these babies up, clean and investigate before I sell them, but please contact me if you are interested at diana_knits "at" yahoo "dot" com.

Well  no time to set anything up and learn more about these.  More soon!  Can't wait to see your comments and advice. 

Beautiful Tam at Eli's House

Didn't this turn out lovely? I'd wonder if I can find yarn like that.

I bet the tam would be really pretty in Kool-Aid dyed yarn. I have a nice cone of sock yarn in natural that I could dye; I'll simply make a hank out of it with the swift.

Art Machines: tunic with flower

Art Machines: tunic with flower

Check out the way the embellishment was applied!

Art Machines

Art Machines

You know, I like tuck lace a lot. Here's a pretty one...

DFW Seminar

If I've been a bit quiet, it's that I am engrossed in next week's seminar preparation! I'm finished with the special video for the seminar (this time my seminar special is a free video of gift ideas with any purchase), almost finished with the samples for hands-on lessons, got my handout books and paperwork together, and later today, we're going to experiment with audio ideas (my voice is soft). Then next Friday I'm taking part of the day off, after I talk to our staff at my office about annual open enrollment, and we're driving to Dallas. Friday evening, we'll take our son and his girlfriend Kelly to dinner, which we are really looking forward to doing, since hubby John hasn't met Kelly except on the phone and our son is utterly smitten. I've met her in person and think she's wonderful, and hubby John has was charmed on the phone.

Saturday morning we'll set up - can't set up early, but it won't take long - and begin with some basics, some cast-ons and bind-offs they requested, then some garter bar stuff. We plan to do kitchener and piecrust stitch hands-on. As time permits, I included the circular baby blanket and the V-neck raglan, and I may do very brief demos and discussion on those.

Then the ribber has to be put on the machine so we can look at the e-wrap ribber cast-on, the broken toe cast-on, a couple of bind-offs, including smiles and frowns. Next, release stitch lace on the ribber, quilted ribbing, some jacquard and some sock stuff. That ought to fill the first day and I'll be amazed if I get through it all, but it's all in the handouts. My friend Barbara will stop me and make me take breaks - I go into some sort of weird overdrive. I also have several ribber trims, a Jaws demo, if time permits.

Sunday: Scalloped lace, automatic scalloped lace, and mirror image lace. Fitting tips and Knitleader discussion. Some baby bootie techniques (I don't think there's time to do the whole bootie but I do think I can hit highlights and explain how the auto shaping works). Brief demo (this is hard to keep brief) of my Entrelac method. Time permitting, a single bed sock.

I know we'll have fun. This is a wonderful group of knitters, not that it's unusual for groups of knitters to be really enjoyable! I think there may be a few spaces left, but I honestly don't know. Last week there was still room. There's the DFW Seminar Site if you need information.

New Video - Fern Lace Demo

I put a brief demo video up last weekend.  I thought this lacy braid was interesting.