Passap Sock Samples

Made a pair today, just to double-check my pattern, which I am demonstrating at the Knit Natters seminar this weekend.

This is the low-rise version.

Gosh, doncha love self-striping yarn?  It really is an attractive blue mix.

Seminar Preparations

I'm doing my pieces of the Austin seminar prep.  For starters, the compilation of the instructions for the handout booklet is coming along.  I have a 17-page booklet so far, and it'll be longer when Barbara gives me her last handout and Pat sends hers along.

We're having a swap meet, as well.  I've cleaned, lubricated, replaced sponge bars, and printed and bound all the manuals for two used machines (with ribbers) that I am selling for a lady.  The proceeds go to charity.  There's a Brother 230 with ribber and a Knitmaster (Silver Reed) 323 with ribber. 

I am also cleaning some things of my own out, a Jiffy steamer and some other items.  They need to go cheap and get our of my crowded house and into the hands of someone who will use them. 

We're having door prizes, so I have a big pile, including one of each of my books and DVDs, that I'm donating to the cause.  I may bring some yarn, too, and some other gadgets and duplicate books, if I can find time to go through those shelves.

I have worked on my Passap sock demo and plan to knit a couple more socks this afternoon to make sure the instructions are as close to perfect as I can get them.

We have quite a few people coming, more than we usually have for our club.  I think we still have space, but Barbara is the registrar and she has the names and headcount.   

Thoughts on Seminars

A certain percentage of my readers attend knitting seminars, and I put up a poll last week asking whether they would attend a seminar that exclusively promoted a certain brand of very expensive machine.  15 people said yes.  I was thinking about an upcoming seminar that, to me, sounds absolutely grand - a dealer is putting one on with a number of teachers and a plethora of merchandise available to buy, and she's managing it economically by focusing on this one, currently imported machine.

Good for her.  I'm watching and waiting to see how it does.  I'd love to see MK take off again in America, with a whole new generation of creative young knitters!  I'd love to see prospering dealers and lots of great goodies easily available to buy.  I wish I lived in this enterprising lady's area so I could drop in her shop and treat myself! 

After all, my mission is to teach as many people as possible to machine knit!

Most of the seminar goers who answered my poll, though, (23) said they'd rather attend a seminar that is focused on teaching that will apply to lots of machines.  Well, that's why I try to do with my books.  The one exception among my books - the incredibly Brother-centric Enchanted Edgings - was an itch I had to scratch because I was fascinated with the scalloped lace technique.  As it stands, the book is fantastic for a certain type of machine and no use at all to non-Brother knitters. 

My most popular items are helpful with almost any machine you have, from the vintage non-patterning rattly steel thing built in the 1950s to the latest, shiny electronic double-bed with a half-dozen fancy accessories.  So I really wasn't surprised by the nope, give me a general seminar answers.

And then there's the biggest group - last but not least at all, these are most of the knitters (63 responses), who say that they find it very difficult to attend seminars and they need to learn some other way.  Well, I'm here to help you learn some other way, but let's talk about seminars a little.

Don't knock it until you try it.   Imagine spending a day with a couple dozen knitters, eating potluck goodies (ah, you know, battle of the best chocolate desserts), pawing through dozens of incredible knitted samples, looking at what everybody else is working on (and wearing), watching a teacher demonstrate hands-on and even  to trying it yourself with a terrific teacher standing behind you, coaching you.  Imagine eating lunch while a group of down-to-earth ladies share their latest favorite jokes; imagine winning door prizes like designer hand-dyed yarn or triangle weight hangers; imagine swapping phone numbers with knitters in your area that you didn't even know were around.

That's all fun, but the best part of a seminar is the learning experience and the stretching of your imagination.  You will learn by watching and listening, and you will be stimulated with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

One of the things I've noticed is that new knitters, especially, feel nervous about attending their first seminar.  They are worried that the group will be cliquish and they won't feel welcome; they worry that they'll be the only beginner; they worry that they'll be left out of the group; and they worry that everyone will be a know-it-all expert.  However, every time I go to a seminar I find a lovely mixture of ages, new members and beginners finding themselves very welcome, and friendly, good-natured, sharing people.  If you're trying a seminar for the first time, be ready for a very pleasant social surprise!

Inspiration at Alex's Machine Knitting

I've been following Alex's Machine Knitting blog lately.  Look at the progress he's making on a cool man's pullover:

http://alexsmachineknitting.blogspot.com/2011/09/front-and-sleeve-completed.html

Reminder: Knit Natters Seminar in Central Texas

Knit Natters' MK seminar is October 7th and 8th at Crystal Falls Baptist Church in Leander, Texas. Registration is $60 for the two days, and we're limited to 35 people. Barbara Deike, Pat Tittizer Sara Tittizer and I are teaching.

We're serving breakfast and lunch.  We have fantastic door prizes ready to go, and we'll have items for sale, too, including some machines. 

Planned classes:

Passap Lock Settings - Clear explanations of the E6000 settings (Barbara).

Garter Bar Workshop - Inc, dec, flip, turn cables, make lace with garter bar on Japanese machine. (Diana)

Form Computer Workshop - Learn the Passap E6000's charting system for a child's sweater (Barbara).

Thread Lace - Lots of samples & innovative uses, Japanese machines. (Pat)

Weaving - A world of possibilities, many samples and instructions for using Japanese machine weaving (Pat).

Passap Sock - A fast, simple, sock on the E6. (Diana)

Hands-On Seaming Session - Kitchener stitch, mattress stitch, and even Smiles and Frowns. (Group of teachers)

Measuring Session - Accurate measurements and great worksheets to do individually. (Pat)

Plarn - Plastic yarn is free, fun, recycled, colorful, and it has its own unique properties and uses. (Sara and Pat)

Introduction to Spinning - Hands-on drop spindle class! Everyone gets a taste of spinning. (Sara)

Sara's Fairies - One of our club's favorite Knit Natters classes of all time.  (Sara)

To Register, send a check for $60 to Barbara Deike, 615 Deer Creek Lane,Leander, Texas 78641, and enclose a note indicating that you're registering for the seminar. Include name, contact info, how long kniting, and what machines you have/use. 

Questions?  Ask here in the comments, or email me at diana_knits "at" sbcglobal "dot" com.

Romance and Gun Oil

What does Prince Charming give his princess?  Hoppe's Elite Gun Oil, if she's a machine knitter.

Mary in Burr Ridge (Chicago suburb) recommended this to me for my knitting machines.

Dear John, my Prince,wrote it down and stopped on his way home from work and bought me some.  He went to a sporting goods store.  I understand that it isn't hard on the plastic bed machines - like my precious Passap E6000. 

I wonder what he's up to, for Pete's sake.  This weekend he fixed 3 sponge bars and cleaned two steamers.  He's really working into my good graces!

I don't write about the Passap much, because lately I've been doing so many things on the Japanese machines, but I promised to demo my Passap sock at our upcoming Austin seminar.  I needed to practice the sock and make sure I've got it sized just right for ordinary hand knitting sock yarn, and last night was my chance. 

I put some of that Hoppe's Elite Gun Oil (Mary says buy only Elite, so as not to damage the plastic).  It worked just great last night; my poor Passap has been neglected and was rather dry, but it's sliding quite nicely.  Passap will always be a little harder push because of the strippers (gizmos that squash down the knitting as you go across, ensuring stitches knit through), but the gun oil is awesome.

My little project is cool, too.  I haven't made Passap socks in years because I got into circular sock machines, but I used to, and Passap makes such an easy sock!  The pushers (patterning pegs below the needles) make the short-rowing of the heel and toe quick, and the strippers shoving the knitting down eliminate almost all weight worries.  Circular knitting is also breezy on the Passap, again, because of the strippers.  Oh, and the Decker Comb (a super stitch holder) makes short work of holding and replacing stitches instead of using waste yarn.

Passap knitting requires a different mind set, since you have a ribber in the way all the time.  You must have faith that nice knitting, which you can't see, if forming between the beds.

I'm excited about showing this to one friend in particular, who is a new Passap knitter.  And, for the sock, the console is not needed, so she may enjoy doing some knitting sans computer.

Great Mid-Gauge Yarns

I have an under-used midgauge machine, and I'm wondering, what are some favorite mid-gauge yarns?  Mine is an MK-70, so it has 6 mm spacing.  Apparently mid-gauge machines range from 6-7 mm.

In particular, I want to do some medium-weight pullovers.  I'm cooking up a new pattern, really quite an interesting one.  What looks great and washes well?  I'm very fond of washable wool blends.  Anybody have a nice recommendation, say in Tamm cone yarns?  Other ideas?

Honey, Do! Clean My Jiffy Steamers

This weekend, John helped me with redoing three sponge bars on old machines, and also, with fixing up my two  Jiffy Steamers.

The Jiffy Steamer is the gadget of choice for blocking knits.  It's a standing garment steamer with a pole for holding a hanger.  Not only do I use it for knits, I use it for just about any fabric else that's wrinkled.  You throw a dress shirt on a hanger and hang it on the pole, steam it a bit, and all the wrinkles vanish. 

My iron and ironing board are usually lonesome and unneeded in the closet.  

My Jiffy Steamer has a plastic head on the end of the hose - I've heard that there is also a metal head available, but it gets extremely hot.

I managed to acquire a second steamer with the purchase of a machine a while back.  I'm going to sell one of them at the Austin seminar swap meet, if I can.  I don't need the duplicate.

John pointed out that there are cleaning and maintenance instructions at the Jiffy Steamer website.  My steamer would have been much steamier if I'd followed the simple instructions, to empty and change the water about every ten days.  I didn't do that, but John cleaned the steamer thoroughly.  With a little vinegar and patience, you will see a huge increase in the amount of steam it's putting out. 

Now that John has done his magic, the steamer is shooting out so much steam that I'll have to be careful not to oversteam my knits! 

I have also promised to behave and always use distilled water in the steamer.  And of course, never, never let it steam until it's dry.

Would the lady interested in the Singer 9000 please contact me?

I had an inquiry from someone who might like to purchase my Singer 9000 (Superba machine).  I cannot find her email - please contact me at diana_knits "at" sbcglobal "dot" net.

Thanks!

Awesome Article About Dyeing With Kool-Aid and Food Colors

Check this out!

http://www.spindleandwheel.com/content/view/145/190/

Super Lazy Microwave Brownies

John asked me for brownies this evening, after our healthy meal of blackened tilapia and veggies.  He looked like he really needed brownies.  He doesn't like mix brownies, either; he likes my scratch brownies.

Here's my super-lazy scratch microwave brownie:

In a microwave-safe cooking dish, melt two squares of Baker's chocolate (1 ounce each) with 1/3 cup of butter.   Takes about 2 minutes in my microwave, which is wimpy.  If your microwave is powerful, better watch it.

While that's going on, beat 2 eggs and find the sugar, baking powder, vanilla, flour, and salt.

When the melted chocolate mixture comes out of microwave, the chocolate looks like it isn't melted but is soft.   With a spoon, beat the chocolate and butter together and make sure the chocolate is completely melted.  Then beat in a cup of sugar.  Beat in the eggs thoroughly.  Next, beat in 1/2 t vanilla, 1/4 t of baking powder, and 1/4 t of salt.  Mix thoroughly - it's good exercise, which will use up about 1/100 of the calories in a brownie.  Finally, beat in 1 cup of flour.  Add chopped nuts if you like, or if you want to be ridiculous like the Sullivans, you can add chocolate chips.

I cook it in the same dish.  Before I put it in the microwave, though, I like to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula to make it look a little better.  Give the gooey spatula to hungry hubby and he'll wait better.  Nice moment to tell him about the yarn I bought today.

It takes about five minutes to microwave it in my microwave at about 70% power, but as I said, my microwave is slow, and yours is probably faster.  I keep turning and watching the stuff.  It's done when it gets a little puffy and springs back up when poked gently.

Especially good served warm with a little ice cream.

Things The Ribber Manual Didn't Tell Ya...

I've been thinking about all the valuable bits of information that aren't necessarily in the manuals.  The manual guides you step-by-step through making ribbings, but it doesn't necessarily say WHY you must do this or that.  Here are some examples:

1.  The ribbing can easily be too loose for the garment. It might seem logical, that if my garment is on a 7 tension, my ribbing could be, say set on 5 - that is, if you are thinking of hand knitting needle sizes.  However, you really need a swatch of your ribbing before you begin, and you need to make it tighter than you'd probably expect.   Why?  The gap between the ribber and the main bed adds some distance that the yarn must travel between each knitted and purled stitch, and that distance adds to the size of the stitches.

2.  Weighting work on the ribber is quite different from weighting work on the main bed.  I might use two claw weights on a good-sized width of fabric on the main bed and all is well, because the fabric presser does a lot of the job of pulling the work down so stitches knit through.  On the ribber, though, the ribber arm doesn't have wheels and brushes, so you depend on gravity.  Get used to the idea of using more weight.

3.  It's very important to balance the comb, but isn't it a contortion getting the comb in there correctly?  Mark the center of your ribber comb with bright nail polish (why should the sock machine folks get all the nail polish uses?) and put that at zero, the center.  Put your comb in between the beds with the wire in it, bring up one side and slide the wire almost out, then slide it back in with the teeth in place between the stitches.  Whew.  Much easier!

4.  In my experience, circular knitting takes the most weight.  Keep an eye on circular knitting and make sure the stitches are knitting through. 

5.  When you added a ribber to your 200 needle machine, suddenly you had 400 needles!  That means that you can do a technique called "full needle rib" which uses every needle in a knit one, purl one configuration.  Please bear in mind that for this technique and for other techniques which have the needles closer together than the usual 4.5 millimeters that you must use much thinner yarn.

6.  Did you know that the medium comb with the brass bar can be used as a "buckle" for weighting the work when it gets too long and hits the floor?  You remove the ribber wire, insert the knitting between the brass bar and the comb so that weight will make it stick (sort of backwards - I guess I better do a video), and then hang the weights.  You can slide the comb up as you work, gathering the width of the fabric into the comb. 

7.  I talk about this in my videos, but there are certain items you'll use constantly if you add them to your ribber equipment.  Get some spare weights and some triangle weight hangers, either from a dealer or second-hand from a knitter.  Sometimes you can find a short ribber comb, and if you can't, you can usually purchase a long ribber comb and cut it into a short and a longer-than-medium comb.  I like to have spare double-eyed needles, too.

8.  Experiment with your fine knit bar!  This is a long white plastic strip (lurking in the white styrofoam packaging - I've heard of folks discarding it because they didn't even see it).  It goes between the main bed gate pegs and the bottom of the needles and is wonderful for getting the stitches to knit through.  You won't always use it, but it will often be a real help.

9.  If you carry your ribber around or have to store it, a plastic shotgun case is a fantastic, cheap solution. 

10.  Ribbers can get out of adjustment.  First of all, make sure the brackets are inserted correctly in the back of the ribber bed and also attached correctly to the main bed.  Make sure the needles match up between the beds, that is, full pitch matches and half-pitch has the needles halfway in-between each other. 

11.  Ribbers often have sponge bars, which wear out and need replaced. 

Okay, commenters, what else just isn't in the manuals and ought to be?

Thank You, Chicago Machine Knitters

Thanks, Chicago knitters!  Thanks especially to Kanella, who gave up her Saturday to pick up Barbara and I at the airport and show us around Chicago, to Shirley, who hostessed the seminar in her lovely home, to Pam, who helped with many things, plus the video, to Mary, who did so much organizing and took us to the airport on Monday, and to Barbara, who shared yarn shop war stories at dinner.  Thanks to my friend Barbara, who played faithful sidekick and made this much more possible for me to do.

Even the weather smiled on us, with gorgeous sunshine on sight-seeing day and lovely drizzle for knitting weather on knitting day.  Ah, you wonder why we were so grateful to see drizzle?  We've nearly forgotten what rain looks like in Central Texas!

Also, thanks to everyone who attended the seminar, asked wonderful questions, volunteered to try some of the techniques on the machine, brought show-and-tell, made purchases, brought food, set up, cleaned up, and took us for wonderful meals.  Special kudos to the maker of the pumpkin cheesecake squares, the chocolate chip cookie baker, and the brownie bringer!

While I'm at it, thank you to the people who are dues-paying members to this wonderful organization and make live seminars with guest teachers possible.  Just imagine, a city with three machine knitting groups (not counting their circular sock knitters) and even active dealers!  Gosh, if you have organizations in your city, you need to join up and soak up all the wonderful resources.

Inspiration - Ribbed Pullover at Marnie's Blog

Nice pattern, huh? 

http://www.marniemaclean.com/words/2011/09/math_science_hi.html

Chicago Seminar

Pictures from our wonderful day today! 

Interesting Cap at Machine Knitting Fun

http://machineknittingfun.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-new-cap.html

Yes! A wonderful fix at Adventures With Hand and Machine Knitting

Look how Phil used grafting to add length to a project.  I have done this, added or taken out length.  It's not ideal, but the project is saved, and properly grafted seams won't show at all.

Great photos, too -

http://phil1987.blogspot.com/2011/09/modifications.html

Chicago!


We're in Chicago today - some sightseeing pictures from our lovely day looking around Chicago (in perfect, gorgeous weather!)


Amusement area near Navy Pier

Add caption

View from Ferris Wheel



Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier



Barbara Deike, Diana Sullivan in Ferris Wheel

 







Residential building near Navy Pier (where Oprah used to live)



A midgauge sock at Mary Anne Oger's Blog

Isn't this nice!

http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/09/freebie-for-mid-gaugers.html

Inspiration at Trico a Maquina

Oh, Irma!  Are you posting your recipe for this baby set?  Please?

http://irmatricomaquina.blogspot.com/2011/09/macacao-de-losangos.html