My
friend Patsy from Minnesota (see 'power of the press... Dec 7/15) wrote:
"Can we challenge you to come up with another scarf pattern
by October???
It was great for me to learn a new technique, and for
some of our hand knitters to be able to adapt it. And even Dee figured
out how to do it on the circular sock machine."
Well,
I'm challenging her and you to follow me for 10 months of red scarves! I'm
going to start this as a ribber/double bed project and take you through
experiments to learn something about double bed work. I chose double bed
because every machine knitter always says 'I need to use my ribber more...' and
double bed stuff makes fabric that is finished on both sides, suitable for a
scarf without a lot of finishing. I'm starting with circular knitting and then will
go on to help you explore using different stitch patterns, needle arrangements
and stitch techniques suitable for
fabrics for the 'Red Scarf project to AIDS Awareness campaign for 2016' -
deadline Nov 15, 2016.
I will
do a couple of scarf patterns on the LK150 also, so you'll have to stay tuned
for that too!
Get
ready to swatch some circular knitting...
If you
are joining in, please send me an email to introduce yourself and let me know what machine you are working on and if you have
questions now or later, please email me at knitwords@shaw.ca
warning: the remainder of this blogpost contains
technical information. If you are just reading for pure entertainment, quit
now or you may be in danger of learning something useful!
Circular
or Tubular knitting Mary Weaver's 'The Ribbing Attachment' states: 'Circular knitting is stocking stitch knitted on both beds at once: the machine is set so when the carriages are moved in one direction only one of the beds will knit and when it is moved in the opposite direction the other bed will knit.'
On knitting machine with ribber attachment, knits main/back bed to left, knits
rib/front bed to right. Circular knitting is worked in a tube with no seam.
Size of tube is adjusted in width by the number of needles used. Good for
seamless socks, the inside of a bag pocket, bands, strings (4-6 sts) or for
waste knitting for ribbing.
The
carriages can be set in reverse to the above, but for this pattern for the
circular portion we want the carriages at the right, the first pass to the left
will knit the back bed and the second pass will knit the rib bed - 2 passes
make one row on each bed.
Check
your manual for the settings for your machine. In general, Silver Reed manuals
state that the ribber carriage should be set 2 full numbers looser/higher than
the main bed. Brother manuals are not that explicit but it does say to make a
sample circular piece and check that both beds knit to the same tension/stitch size. If
they do not, adjust the tension dial on the KR carriage.
Machine: 4.5mm standard gauge with ribber. Mine is knit on Silver
Reed 580/SRP60N.
Yarn: red 2 ply Misti Alpaca lace weight, 50g/437 yds (would
be T2-3 stockinette) or any light weight yarn
that knits as a 2-3 or fine 4 ply could be used.
My swatches (15-0-15 ns) are royal Bramwell Sable
Crepe MT - would be T5 stockinette;
light jade Tamm Perla (a very old cone, acrylic, no longer available but perfect weight for this project) MT - would be T4
stockinette.
Gauge: Not really critical but 30 sts and 60 rows of
circular, T3/5 = 8 cm X 7 cm.
MAO notes on circular knitting - usually requires less weight than full needle rib.
Watch that sts are knitting near ends - if there is a bent or damaged needle,
it will continually not knit one or two sts in the same place - add more weight
in that spot or change out needle - usually only happens on main bed. Knit
slowly and watch edge stitches. Move claw weights up on edges every 40-50 rows.
For a starting point for stitch size, have main bed set at the stockinette tension for the yarn you are using and adjust from there. I added the 2 zigzag rows every so often to break up the monotony or circular knitting and to stabilize the scarf so it wouldn't bias.
SCARF: 30-0-30 ns, arrange for Full Needle Rib/ZigZag (all
needles working, same number, both beds, end needle on rib/front bed on left
and knit/back bed on right). Swing H5 (centre, half pitch). Cast on waste yarn, hang comb and weights, knit
several rows, ending CAR. Set to circular, ravel cord, K2R. Cancel circular
(set back to ZZ).
Place carriages on left side. (This will be the
racking cast-on that gives a stretchy, firm finished edge in FNR.)
ZZ (set to zigzag/FullNeedleRib), MC, T1/1, K1R.
Rack to H4. Bring ns out (makes sure everything knits).
T2/2, K1R.
Rack to H5. Bring ns out. T3/3, K1R. *CAR. Set to
circular. RC000.
T3/5, K18R. Cancel circular. ZZ, K2R*. Repeat * to *
for desired length.
(My red scarf is 1280 rows and measures 6 in X 60 in. - I
will add photo later!)
Finish as follows: This is a method that I have found
to leave cast-off edge with good elasticity as well as looking similar (not exact
but close enough) to cast-on edge. Increase tension to T7/9, knit 2 circular
rows. (you want to be 4-5 numbers higher/looser than circular tension. If not,
pull yarn down from overhead tension mast and hand feed across to get loose
enough stitches on these two rows.) With
WY, and circular setting, T5/5, K20R. FNR, K2R. Remove from machine. Steam WY to
set stitches. Remove last two rows to
open the end. Fold waste yarn out. Use
latch tool, start opposite yarn end. Pick up one knit/back bed stitch, put
behind latch. Then pick up a rib/front
bed stitch and pull through (having tool at inside and pulling st to
centre, turn tool and grab opposite stitch and draw to centre, etc). Continue
going back and forth until across row, pull yarn end through. Sew in ends.
Actually, the hardest part of this red scarf was winding the yarn - the lace weight alpaca is so fine and though I do have an electric yarn winder it is difficult to get it coming out of the centre of the ball evenly without tangling. I'm working with this because I have it - if you do not have fine/lightweight red yarn on hand, I would recommend you purchase a cone of Tamm Kitty, Yeomans Fifty Fifty or something similar in a smooth acrylic yarn - you don't want it so fine that you can't see it - something that is about 3000 yds/lb is good - make your swatches in something that you can see well.
Happy going round and round! I'm not really upset that no one wanted the recipe for the turkey pot pies! ;-)
I finished up my circular scarf - I used two and a half balls for a total of 1280 rows and it measures 60 inches in length - it turned out quite
nice. I washed it to let the alpaca loft and fill out a bit so that it doesn't
look quite so thin-ish. I'll tell you the truth now - I started out to do 20
rows circular, 2 rows FNR and quickly realized that was a bad choice because
you were adding 22 for the repeat and it made more sense to knit 18 rows
circular, 2 rows zigzag so that every 20 rows was a full repeat and then I
got carried away and all of a sudden had 26 rows circular...I'm not a
rip-er-out-er, I admit it - yes, I altered the pattern rather than have to
de-knit...AND, I knew it would happen again so I then 'planned' to do random
amounts between zigzags, varying from 18 to 28 to yes, some 38 rows between -
it's all good! I evened out as I was coming to the end portion so that both
ends hanging down together would look the same - in fact, it turned out so nice
that if I were a scarf person, I'd keep this one and have to knit another!
