Try Some Tuck Lace

Head over to Machine Knitting Fun and take a look at this tuck lace - an often neglected stitch technique, so fancy-looking but so easy to do on the knitting machine:

http://machineknittingfun.blogspot.com/2014/01/gossamer-tuck-lace-and-learning-curve.html

A Treat from Marzipan Knits

Adorable, beautifully finished, baby mitts from an expert MKer (I do admire your work, Mar) - and the pattern!

http://marzipanknits.blogspot.com/2014/01/machine-knit-baby-mittens.html

Inspiration - Do some color work!

Over at Rhythm of the Needles, she's planning a beautiful Rowan Yarns sweater with glorious color work.  Sure, it's hand knitted, but our machines do this so incredibly well and so easily, it makes me want to do some fair isle!

http://www.rhythmoftheneedles.net/2014/01/anatolia-beginning.html

Inspiration at Knotty Knits & Naughty Kids

Is Christmas over?  It's never over; knitters knit for Christmas all year long!

Check out the very clever Santa hat using fun fur for the cuff:

http://tracykm.blogspot.com/2014/01/santa-turban.html

And check out the baby Santa turban, too!

http://tracykm.blogspot.com/2014/01/santa-turban.html

Inspiration at the Panopticon

Of course I follow Franklin's blog!  He's funny and I'm nuts for hand knitting (and especially lace) myself.

Check out the very pretty hand knitted lace scarf he's just posted, and the jokes, too:

http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/2014/01/yo-mama.html

Does anybody know what a Brother 9000 is?

Over at Vanda's blog, she says she's looking for a Brother 9000 manual.  There's a picture there of a machine that looks about like a 940 to me and is labeled "Defendi 9000."  Since Vanda's in Italy, maybe it's the way an importer relabels a common Brother model.

I am just curious and can't help asking - Does anybody know which model is relabeled a Defendi 9000?

Thought-Provoking But Not Knitting Related

Here's an interesting little essay on marriage and economics from Megan McArdle.  I liked reading and thinking about it, because I have some background in economics and because I hate to see young folks giving up on the concept of marriage. 

I have a terrific husband, and we've been together 39 years as of last month.  I recognize how fortunate we are and I realize that marriage isn't for everyone.

On the other hand, I see Ms. McArdle's idea, and her commenters ideas about how marriage partners can benefit each other so very much in life.  Marriage has quite a few possible clear benefits, and I see them in my life and the lives of my friends and loved ones:

• If you're tired, discouraged, or just not feeling well, it's quite likely your partner isn't having a rotten day at the same time.  You can help each other through the difficulties of life, and share the high points. 
• You can specialize, like Megan describes, and receive significant economic benefit.  My husband enjoys fixing things, which saves us money on repairs.  I am quite happy to cook nutritious food every day, which saves us money on our food bills.  Without John, I'd have to spend time trying to fix things and trying to decide whether to pay for expensive repairs when it was too difficult; without me, he'd be eating out or forced to spend his time learning to cook and cooking. 
• You pool your money, your housing, your skills, your family support, your creativity, even your educational background.  John has taught me quite a bit about keeping my knitting machines maintained and working. We feed each other ideas all the time.
• In a great marriage, you can bring the best out of each other.  I can think of so many examples of my husband encouraging me to try something or do something!  For instance, John is the one who told me to put up YouTube videos to teach knitting to people who have no local lessons available.  John always thinks I can do things, and because of that, I try a lot of things that I wouldn't attempt otherwise.

January's New Video - Good Looking Tapestry Needle Bind-Off

Have you ever wanted to do a bind-off at the end of the work that is stretchy and looks JUST LIKE your e-wrap cast-on?  Here it is, and thanks very much to Jane in San Diego!

Something to think about...Inspiration from Lizzie Velasquez

It's a video, a inspirational Ted Talk, about making the most of the life you have!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/lizzie-velasquez_n_4550829.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Rhonda's Great Idea

With this cold weather (I never heard of an "arctic vortex" before, but even here in Central Texas, good grief, it's been cold!), we've had mainly orders for "Footnotes," my slipper book.  I guess this weather puts people in the mood to make warm slippers.

Rhonda's been making the No-Sew Slipper (from "Footnotes") and felting it.  Cool idea!  I haven't tried that - yet - but I will!  She is getting a very warm, super-cushioned slipper once it's felted.  She had a problem at first with it getting shorter but staying wide, but she figured out that she could put something in it to stretch it the long way and get a good fit.

Felting is a bit unpredictable.  Remember, when you felt in the washing machine, once the slippers shrink a little bit, check them every couple of minutes!  Wool shrinks faster than you might expect.  I made a pair using a different pattern for my nephew, and I made my poor husband keep trying them on sopping wet. 

Here's what Rhonda said about her husband's brown pair, the first ones she made:

"This is the pair I made by the size mens 10, made from Ragg Wool from Peter Patchis online store, he doesn't have colors listed but if you call he will tell you what he has....very nice people. I usually use Patons Classic wool which felts nice and have used Lambs pride wool with mohair which felted really nice. 

This pair came out 13 inches long and 51/2 inches wide before felting.  After felting they were 11 inches long and 5 inches wide...."

Rhonda also sent me a photo of the Ragg Wool she used - it comes on cones!  I plan to go check out that website for felting wool. 

Rhonda made herself a pair, too - a beautiful green and photographed on her very pretty homemade quilt:

 

Inspiration at Tom's!

If this post doesn't inspire you, nothing will.  Look at all the great stuff Tom is knitting (and how beautiful his workmanship is)!  Then he gives us these very, very wise words:

"...I encourage all machine knitters to "just knit" - live outside the box a bit and don't worry if you make a mistake.  It's only knitting.  You can rewind the yarn and start over.  Don't fret if you end up with a row or two more/less (no one will know), don't worry if the carriage is on the wrong side, so what if you have one less stitch than you should at the end; it's only knitting and it really does not matter.

If you haven't the courage or expertise to knit something intricate, just do it.  When you are finished you will have the skills and a whole new level of courage.  Think of your family recipes that are a handful of this and a dash of that, why not do that in your knitting?  Being self taught, I've made my mistakes but I truly learned from those and they have made me a good knitter. 

What matters is for you to enjoy your knitting and produce beautiful items that you and others will cherish." 

UPDATE:  I goofed on the link, above!  Fixed it now.  Tom's blog is here: 

 

http://tommachineknittingguy.blogspot.com/

Memories...and an interesting project

I was digging through old photos today, and I found this photo of a sweater I machine knitted around 1982.  I have to share this with you, because this sweater was very much a hand-manipulated and hand-counted project:

If I remember correctly, this was about a child's size 8.  Back then I had a yarn shop, and I had recently gotten a Bulky 8, my first bulky machine.   I had had a Brother 830 and a Toyota 901 before that.  The Bulky 8 had no patterning, but it did have a ribbing attachment.  This sweater was made following a hand knitting pattern.

I have a clear memory of making that sweater.  It worked out that I had an evening by myself with my husband out of town.  We didn't have children yet.  There were no classes that evening, and it was after closing.  I stayed at the store and knitted the sweater in the one evening.  I was fascinated by the idea of trying to make a circular seamless sweater, except for the ribbings, almost as if I was hand knitting the sweater.  I figured I couldn't knit it from the neck down because the stitches wouldn't stretch enough.

First, I made the ribbings, then rehung them on the ribber and main bed to knit circular. I knitted the front and back as one tube and the sleeves each as a tube and took them off on waste yarn.  I had to do sleeve increases, of course, working up the arms, but that turned out to be simple.  Once I got to the yoke area, I rehung all three pieces - the body tube and the sleeve tubes, and then worked the neck, hand-picking the needles for the pattern, going around once for one color and again with the next color.  That was really fairly easy.

There are a lot of decreases in a round yoke, and of course I didn't have a garter bar (Am I wrong when I say that a Bulky 8 is not 9mm, but 8 mm?  I didn't keep it, but moved on to something newer, which is what dealers do.)  I remember sitting and moving the stitches from needle to needle using a 3-prong transfer tool, even then realizing that if it weren't such a small sweater I'd lose patience with all that stitch-transferring.  I did it, though, in the one evening.  I don't remember using any waste yarn for the yoke part of the sweater.  Because I was moving stitches around I had to look at the purl side of the work and make sure I was still counting out the colors correctly.  I remember being hugely relieved when I pulled it off the machine that I had managed to follow the graph without making mistakes.

When it came off the machine, I only had to do a little finishing.  I sewed little short seams in the ribbing and under the arms.  I believe the ribbed neckband was doubled and backstitched on the inside. 

Oh, I was such an enthusiastic young knitter!  I didn't know what I was doing half the time, but I would try things anyway, sometimes with good results like this project, and sometimes not so good.

A while later I saw Joyce Schneider teach at the Newton's Spring Fling in Garden Grove and learned the smart way to do round yokes, using a garter bar. 

This was back when Gene and Bev Newton owned the Toyota machine distributorship for the western part of the country, and I was one of their dealers.  They were wonderful.

Twelve Free Videos from 2013

In past years, I picked out the best blog posts of the year and ran a list on New Year's Eve.  This year, I challenged myself to do a technique video every month, and the videos are by far the most popular posts.  Here are the twelve videos of 2013:

1. January:  Twisted Fringe Video.   I love this fringe, which hangs nicely and doesn't have yarn ends to fray.
2. February:  Video on set in sleeve, knitted upside-down using short-rowing.
3. March:  make a cute Machine Knitted Bunny!  Nope, not difficult; it's just a square of knitted fabric and a little sewing.
4. April:  Learn knit-side grafted seams with this video.  You can Kitchener from the purl side or the knit side, and sometimes you need to do it from the knit side.
5. May:  Figure-8 cast-on and graft video.  Here's a stretchy cast-on.
6. June:  New video, Tam Take Two, showing how you can use sew-as-you-go to make these cute pinwheel hats much more easily.
7. July:  Make vertical, ribbed buttonholes following this easy video lesson.  This is my favorite buttonhole because it looks so tidy and neat.
8. August:  The August video was floatless, vertical fair isle.  You can have several colors and textures in work at once!
9. September:  The September technique video, one of the most popular of the year, shows how to join afghan panels using a contrasting-colored cable. 
10. October:  Lattice Lace on the Silver Reed machine video teaches a pretty, lacy stitch that "ripples" and knits up very quickly!
11. November:  The Helix Cable looks quite fancy, but is fast and easy to knit. 
12. December:  Fingerless Mitt Video, using English Rib to make a thick, quick and practical gift item. 

As of today, I have 160 free MK videos over at my YouTube channel, some great, some primitive (I left my original, clunky beginner lessons up, even though we redid them all in high-definition, using what we learned, for the DVD products we sell).  This is a body of MK work unlike anything anyone else has done, unless they were running a paid subscription site.  I currently have over 2 million views and over 5,000 subscribers, but I get the most excited about the people I have taught to machine knit. 

My husband John says I really must keep on doing the monthly video, and I'm planning to try in 2014. 

Want to catch all the new free videos in 2014?   Click here and "subscribe," and you'll be able to grab 'em as they come out.

Inspiration at Angelica's

Check out this lovely chemo hat with a bow over at Angelica's Yarn Store.  Scroll down just a bit to see it:

http://angelikas-yarn-store.blogspot.com/2013/12/new-colors-in-cascade-yarn-httpwww.html

Current Project - Don't bother reading if computers aren't interesting to you

Originally, we wanted to travel on the days off we have right now, but that didn't work out, so I made a "wish list" of things I'd like to finish.  One of the things on my list was to redo my laptop - that is, install a solid state disk drive, a fresh copy of windows, and organize my files.

I have given a lot of computers at work a new lease on life (and greatly enhanced speed) by installling SSDs. A person with some computer background can do this fairly easily.

I did most of this one yesterday. Of course, since I was taking the hard drive out of the laptop and replacing it, I could have put it in a hard drive enclosure and gotten my files that way.  However, I thought it was a good idea to copy all my files to a standalone drive that we use for my knitting stuff, just for a good backup, so I did that.

I made one smart decision - I copied all the device drivers in the Windows driver directories onto my expansion drive, which saved me some time later.

Next step was to replace the hard drive with the SSD.  I had already purchased it, and it was sitting here for several weeks, waiting for me to not need the laptop at my office and to find time to do the entire job.  Since SSDs are the right size for laptops, the bracket that came with it wasn't necessary.  You need the bracket if you're putting an SSD into a desktop computer.

SSDs are kind of expensive.  I watch for sales - I like to get a 256GB one for under $200.  I prefer at least that much space, and I like Samsung, Crucial, and Corsair brands.

Next job - reinstall Windows 7, and make sure all the devices have good drivers.  Several of mine didn't (this is a 2-year-old Sony), so did the "Update Driver" process, having the system look in that copy I made of the driver directories.  After that, I reinstalled all the other necessary software, including Adobe, Office, a virus checker, QuickBooks.  Finally, I copied my files over and organized them a little better.  QB took a long time to install, and Windows did a bunch of updates.

Important note:  If you have Design-A-Knit, you should check with your DAK reseller and get instructions on how to uninstall and reinstall it when you redo your computer.  If you don't do it correctly, I understand you can lose a "life," which is what they call your rights to use the copy, part of their copy-protection system for DAK. 

So - how'd I do?  It isn't booting faster yet, because it keeps installing Microsoft updates, but that should stop soon.  I am thrilled, though, with the improvement in QuickBooks, which was taking a few seconds to record each transaction before I installed the SSD - now, the wait is gone.

Joy on Christmas Eve

For me, Christmas is a beautiful holiday filled with sweet memories and spiritual meaning, I hope that whatever you believe and whatever you celebrate, that this year you experience a wonderful, joyful holiday season.

This Christmas, I have so much to be grateful for!  God has done wonderful things for me, scooping me up as a teenager who was depressed and felt unloved (incorrectly) and changing my life forever in just about every way that matters by introducing me to Jesus Christ. 

45 years later, I'm still in good health, productive, and so happy with my wonderful husband John (we've been marred 39 years as of December 21).  Our two sons have both recently acquired new jobs, much better situations. I confess I let myself worry too much about them struggling in this poor economy this last year. 

I work for a nonprofit Boy Scout council that provides "mountaintop" experiences for youngsters while teaching them values and skills that equip them to be happy, successful adults.  I'm always seeing fantastic examples of this; just three weeks ago, I shook hands with a 14-year-old Eagle Scout who saved a young father's life.

Plenty of people don't agree with the values of Christianity or of the Boy Scouting tradition, but I live in a free country where I can worship in my own way and work for this nonprofit that has done so much for my own children.

I need to thank you readers, especially, that I get to share my machine knitting hobby with all of you and make such amazing friends!   This year, I put up 12 new demonstration videos, almost like my own virtual machine knitting club with a monthly exploration, taught five seminars, wrote two new knitting books, and filmed the videos to go with them.  Nearly every day, I answered emails from knitters who sent photos, asked intriguing questions, and provided dozens of great knitting ideas.

The last couple of years I posted a link to a chapter of Luke each day of December up through December 25th, but this year I failed to get that organized.  Today, I thought I'd share a couple of things that I enjoyed, just sitting back and considering the meaning of Christmas.  First of all, here's a message (from my pastor last Sunday) called "The Magic of Christmas," in which he draws lessons from the experience of Mary and Joseph that we can apply to our own lives:

http://mediaplayer.hcbc.com/sermon/the-magic-of-christmas-1360

And matching up to that, here's a YouTube that I found with nativity movie clips and Josh Groban singing "O Holy Night." 



The Sullivans wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Ssssssh....Another gift idea, this one sewn, not knitted

Many of my knitting friends have met my husband John, who does so many things to keep my machine knitting work going and to assist my customers.  So don't tell him what I made him for Christmas, okay?  I'll tell my readers just in case you can use this idea for someone in your life, but John doesn't normally read this blog, it's two days to Christmas, and I think I can get away with it.

In the evenings, we often sit on the couch in our den (near a large, drafty window) and watch TV for about an hour, wrapped in our fleece throws.  Afghans are wonderful, but these are bang-around, let the dog climb up, warm throws that get laundered fairly often.  After they're worn, they go in the trunk for an emergency or get folded for a washable doggie bed.

I've bought quite a few of them over the years, but many of them were thin and cheesy, and some were just too small.  The typical fleece throw is 50" x 60", which is skimpy for even an average-height female.  I'm 65" tall, so 60" is not enough to tuck around my feet and also pull up over my shoulders.  They're 'way too short for most guys; even my sons, who don't use a throw much, have grumbled that most throws are too small.

I went to JoAnn's and bought their best printed fleece.  It's expensive, but with a special and a Wednesday senior discount, I was very pleased with my bargain.  My friend likes to watch for fleece on sale at Hancock's too.  It comes in a 60" width.  I purchased 3 yards each of two prints, so I had two 9-foot by 5-foot pieces.  I made humongous fleece throws with a big pocket across the bottom to keep feet warm.

Here's the general procedure: 

I started by trimming away the selvedge edges and straightening the ends. 

With the fleece prints I used, it was difficult to tell the right from the wrong side.  They look nice on both sides!  I finally decided that one side had a darker, clearer print.  Keeping track of the right side, I folded over the short end about 3/4" for a hem (wrong sides together) and zigzagged that down, putting in a wide zigzag that fully covered the raw edge.  Then I pinned that same edge, right sides together, to form a 24" pocket and sewed down each side, using a straight stitch, about 3/4" from the edge.  I triple-stitched these seams, since they'll get some stress.  Then I flipped the pocket right-side out and poked the corners out so they'd be square.  Next, I pinned around that whole pocket edge and sewed about 3/4" from the edge in the wide zigzag, then continued on sewing a hem with the zigzag all around the blanket to finish it neatly.  The sewing part of the job took me about an hour for each throw.

Finished size is a little less than 5 feet wide by 7 feet long.  If that turns out to be too long, I can always trim off some and re-hem the plain end.

I made a mental list of things that made the thick, stretchy fleece easier to sew.  With such a big piece, you'll want to try not to stretch it or have its weight pulling the work one way or another.  I needed to keep moving the fabric around on my sewing surface.  Secondly, pinning is quite worthwhile to keep the edges matched up.  Pinning also helped when I topstitched over around that pocket edge at the bottom.  By pinning, I could keep the seam at the edge, not pulled toward the top or bottom, and I even pinned the folded edge to keep the fold from moving.  Another thing I noticed was that the fleece was easier to sew if I used at least a medium stitch length.  It's fuzzy, and the sewing machine doesn't pull it through quite as easily as a smooth fabric. 

If you don't sew:  my friend makes fleece throws by simply fringing the edges using a rotary cutter, mat, and quilter's slotted cutting guide.  I don't know why you couldn't tie the "fringe" to make a pocket; she does that to make matching pillows.

Wow! Two Million!

I feel like a million bucks because I have just recently reached 2 million YouTube views.  All my videos are about machine knitting, free demos and lessons, so I guess we're still a lively hobby, even if we are a smaller group than in the old days.

Seeking Fabulous Gift Ideas

Even with Christmas day so fast approaching, there may yet be a few folks who are just difficult gift targets.  Sometimes a handmade gift is the best for that person.

We knit for people so they can have cool things that can't be bought in the stores.  We also knit for people so they'll experience the joy that someone loved them enough to take time for them. 

Yesterday, I attended the annual Knit Natters holiday party, and I saw LOTS of great gift ideas from my girlfriends:

• Jars of homemade hot cocoa mix and homemade spiced tea.
• A beautiful dropped-stitch scarf
• Handknit ruffle scarves
• A glass Christmas-tree shaped jar filled with little balls of yarn
• A beautiful multi-colored afghan
• Fingerless gloves
• An embroidered sweatshirt (with a snowman and the words, "All my friends are flakes"

Also, through this blog and my MK correspondence, I get great gift ideas from friends on the internet!   Here's one:  Heidi sent me a photo of my bulky lined slipper pattern made up and then stitched to a Boye slipper bottom.   These slipper bottoms are sturdy and insulated, so you can make slippers that are warm (Heidi lives in Minnesota) plus hold up to daily wear.

I try to do a lot of gift ideas on the blog, and try to link to them in December.  Here are a few knitted gift instructions from previous blog posts:

I wrote out instructions for Knitting a Necklace.  Also, here are some project videos that I thought would make great, fast gifts in a pinch:  child's sweater, bulky lined slippers, very quick afghan, warm child's hat, socks, hand knit dishcloth, felted slipper, and mitten.

Got last-minute gift ideas to share?  Please put them in the comments, or email me information, and I'll post them.

Earflap Hats

I drew a name in a Secret Santa gift exchange, and the instructions said to keep the cost down, and that humorous gifts were appreciated.

After last year's gift exchange, I have a fairly good idea what kinds of gifts people gave.  My recipient is outdoors a great deal (and lately, it's been quite cold here  - we do get a bit of winter).  With that in mind, and seeing these hats everywhere I go, I decided to do an earflap hat.

Since I don't know my recipient well enough to know if he'd find a monkey hat, mouse hat, or some other goofy hat funny, I decided to just make a warm fair isle hat.  The darker one is for him - the colors are more muted and masculine than they look in the picture. 

These don't look like they'd fit well, but they do.  I should get a wig stand or something just for photographing hats!

I spent quite a bit of time making the pattern, made a dark-colored one, then tweaked the pattern a little more and made another from some interesting space-dyed yarn I had, using a space-dyed beige/gray as the secondary color and a space-dyed blue/green as the main color.

These are just Stitch World fair isle patterns, #75 and #80 from SW#3.  Oddly enough, I don't think I've ever made anything with these two charts before!  The yarn is a fingering weight, about a 2/12, and they're wool.  The pattern is good but not finished - I have a couple of things I want to change still.