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Change
your mind after you've made tons of swatches and not swatch again! What was I
thinking? Why did I do that? Is this becoming my mantra? Will I ever learn? Arrr-g-g-h-h-h!
Here I
am, perking along on the Church Cardi, using this fabulous yarn (Cascade Ultra
Pima) and loving it! I'm making the front band - it's 145 stitches wide, all
hand-transferred, not really a big deal, but it's not exactly stockinette and
for some reason I get adventurous and decide randomly to offset the second
pattern...get it done, take it off on
waste yarn and it looks awful! a hodge-podge of stitches, fighting each other!
or is it?
Glad I
bought extra yarn! you know how I hate to unravel...I also believe in saving mistakes so you don't do them again!
Have you
ever had one of those days where you catch yourself and say, 'why did I do
that?' or 'why didn't I do that?'. I feel so silly and I apologize! I have had a
few people ask me, how do I subscribe to your blog? and I say, well, there is a
subscribe button at the bottom of the page and leave it at that. For some
reason, last week, after another email, asking how, I took two minutes to do a
bit of research and discovered this nice little 'add-a-gadget' feature that
promises to take your email address and whenever I post something, it will
automatically send you message to let you know there is something new! Go
figure! Use it if you like! They promise not to bug you in any way and you
won't miss out on the good stuff or get backlogged when I've been extra chatty!
While we
are on the subject of 'duh?', I have to admit something else...for the past two
weeks, I've been ripping my house apart, searching high and low for the
KnitStyle magazine with my 'Bold Shoulder' design in it, which would have been
#194...duh! I finally properly re-read my blogpost ( http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2014/07/bad-news.html
) from that fatal day and it dawned on me! It was never published! The reason
for my search - I had a great article
about options for finishing techniques when using the knit side or the purl
side as right side and I wanted to check what they finally said...nothing,
obviously!
Did I say 'one of those days?' how about weeks? ;-)
Can you
be addicted to a stitch pattern? I mentioned the other day about making myself
another Girlfriend Hoodie and how I had been meaning to do a knitted version of
that purchased hoodie...well, another part of that was, upon finishing up my
prototype of the Church Cardi, I was still totally in love with that Battenburg
stitch pattern and it dawned on me that there was no need for a lot of useless
experimenting, just use that pattern vertically up the sleeve of my new hoodie!
The
purchased hoodie has a vertical column of stitching and cut-outs on each sleeve
and up the front, half on either side of the zipper. This will be so easy, I
thought.
I banged out the sleeves in no time, just filling in bits of time here
and there, you know, without really planning to spend the whole day at the
machine. I sat back and admired the
sleeves, ignoring the little voice in the back of my mind that the 'floats', which
are over 3 empty needle spaces, were going to be too long and would catch on things
- I just didn't care, I was committed!
The next day, as I began knitting the pockets
and fronts, I kept thinking, this will be done in no time, because the back
will be totally plain and so will the hood. Well, when I cast on for the back,
all of a sudden on row 2, without really thinking, virtually unconsciously, I
began transferring for a single column of Battenburg to run up the back...what the?? oh well,
in for a penny, in for a pound as they say and next thing I know I have this
growing motif happening on the back like it has a life of its own! After I got
3 repeats wide, I tried to get it under control and cut back but I still
couldn't stop until I got to the top, reasoning that no one would really be able
to tell because the hood would hide some of it anyway.
As I started the hood,
still planning on making it plain, I again found myself addictively hanging
onto that 7-prong tool and not just making half of a repeat to run beside the
drawstring casing, but doing a full one!
I love it! After machine washing and
drying which I did to the first one (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2015/06/manfriend-hoodie-pattern.html ) and all the others I've
made since (this is number 7) the strings/floats tightened up very nicely and
it's all good!
I'm thinking, I could use one in pale blue (ha, ha! you caught me! I did add a pale blue and a red zipper when I ordered the ivory one - zipperstop.com)...but my yarn has
come in for the Church Cardi!
I was digging up bones and my knitting room is
littered with scraps of false starts! The red lace weight alpaca I was planning
to use was either breaking randomly - not sure whether certain balls of that
yarn were just like that - not very strong or what, but my first attempt got me to about row 40
and then everything dropped. The next
one, I got to about row 150 and it all fell because the yarn broke again. I then
tried adding in a very thin spandex/lycra thread as a binder. The first one was
ivory and it worked but the colour showed too much. I had a grey lycra that
worked nicely and blended well, so I started again with that and got to about
row 200 when the red alpaca broke halfway across, but I couldn't rehang from
just the lycra. I abandoned that idea and yarn and switched to the red cotton
from my last scarf (Quilted Northern). I was zipping along and about row 500 I
messed up and instead of just switching the ribber tension dial, I flipped up
the set lever (like for circular knitting -what was I thinking???) and on the second pass, it began
dropping off the ribber stitches! Fudge, honey and sugar! I quit for the day!
I
began again this morning with a fresh perspective and knocked the whole scarf off in an
hour. It's pretty easy once you learn to count to 25 and you're fresh! There
are built-in signals between times to change it up. There are always 5 rows of
the pintuck, beginning on the right. Then, with the carriage at left, switch
the rib dial back to main tension and set to tuck. The first row of each tuck section is a plain row
and even if you forget to switch back to tuck it knits both beds anyway
because of the plain row in the stitch pattern. The sound of the carriage should alert you to change. At the end of the 23 rows
of tuck patterning, there is another plain
row, to eliminate any tucks and make the pintuck clean and you should notice a change in the sound the carriage
makes between the tuck rows - the tick, tick tick of the tucks - and then solid, (no ticks) for the plain. So I'm calling the May ribber scarf:
Archaeology Scarf (Red Scarf
for Aids Awareness)
Machine: 4.5mm standard gauge with ribber. Knit on Silver Reed
580/SRP60N
Yarn: red 2 ply (3/14) cotton, 2900m/350g (would be T2-3 stockinette) or any
light weight yarn that knits a full needle rib comfortably.
Gauge: Not really critical but 50 sts and 60 rows of
tuck and pintuck as above, T4/4 = 15 cm X 13 cm.
Insert
close knit bar. See previous post for stitch chart.
Punchcard: punch in reverse to shown: make holes for all the
white squares and leave black squares unpunched. Add double row of holes top
and bottom to join card. SilverReed punchcard: Lock card on row 1. Read
card. CAR. Unlock card. *Set cam lever to slip, side levers to triangle. T4/8,
knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. SilverReed
electronic: make mylar as shown, lite #1 right is on, N1 cam at 0, point
cams at edge of ns in work. *set to S/J (slip). T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed
only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. Brother electronic:
enter as shown and use KHC light on, to select opposite needles for patterning.
*Both slip buttons in. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only - makes pintuck); set
both tuck buttons in to tuck, T4/4, K25R*.
Repeat this *-* 30 row sequence throughout for all
machines.
Bring 25-0-25 ns to work on main bed. Set to H5 and
bring ns on ribber to work so outside ns are on ribber - one more than knit
bed. Cast waste yarn in zigzag, hang comb and 1 large weight. Knit several
rows, ending CAR. Switch to circular for the ravel cord, K2R. Cancel circular. RC000. Main yarn, T1/1, K1R. Rack
to H4, T2/2, K1R. Rack back to H5. T3/3, K1R. T4/4, knit in FNR to RC010. CAR. Download pattern
(read punchcard or set up for pattern knitting as above). Knit 840 rows or desired
length (150 cm/5 ft) and end with last pintuck. FNR, T3/3, K7R. T2/2, K1R.
T1/1, K1R, ending CAL. Transfer all to main bed. Measure out 3X width of ns in
work, cut yarn and backstitch cast off (or do the one you like best from the previous scarves). Darn in ends.
If you have any questions or problems, please email me at knitwords@shaw.ca
Analysis: This is a very
cool fabric, quite stretchy width-wise, compared to last one! I love the mixed
textures and I'll be using it again for something, maybe a slouchy pullover in
a lightweight cotton or alpaca - it has a good width to it and the resulting
fabric is relatively thin and lightweight with good body...or I could break out the WCD again...
Red scarf for Aids Awareness count: 6
My next pattern for the red scarf challenge is an oldie! I had this design published in
'Machine Knit America' Vol 4 No 6, May/June 1995 - OMG, MAO! that's more than 20
years ago - I guess I'll soon have to stop lying about my age! ;-)
I still have the cardigan - it was my very first use
of woolray (now known as WCD/wool crepe deluxe) and I thought the design was
brilliant then and still do actually, although the shape of the garment could
use a revamp! The reason I've chosen it
now for this ribber scarf is for the teaching value of the stitch pattern - it
incorporates a neat little automatic pintuck, made by stitches knitting on the rib/front bed
only, ignoring the back bed for 5 rows. Note, the tension setting on the ribber
here for these 5 rows only is 4 numbers higher than on the main bed because you want these stitches
to be slightly larger than what the main bed stitches only would be (going
back to that circular/tubular thing from the first scarf). Then you set for tuck
and a plain row of FNR on both beds closes up the pintuck before going into the
tuck pattern which alternates between vertical lines and a chevron but is controlled by the stitch pattern.
Also the
pattern shows slightly on the back side/side away making it nice for the scarf
project! Hope you have fun with it and learn something about your machine!
Notes for programming pintuck and punch tuck rib pattern:
Punchcard: punch in reverse to shown: make holes for all the
white squares and leave black squares unpunched. Add double row of holes top
and bottom to join card.
SilverReed punchcard: Lock card on row 1. Read card. CAR. Unlock card. *Set
cam lever to slip, side levers to triangle. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib bed only -
makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. Repeat this *-* 30 row sequence
throughout.
SilverReed electronic: make mylar as shown, lite #1 right is on, N1 cam at
0, point cams at edge of ns in work. *set to S/J (slip). T4/8, knit 5 rows (
rib bed only - makes pintuck); set cam to tuck, T4/4, K25R*. Repeat this *-* 30
row sequence throughout.
Brother electronic: enter as shown and use KHC light on, to select
opposite needles for patterning. *Both slip buttons in. T4/8, knit 5 rows ( rib
bed only - makes pintuck); set both tuck buttons in to tuck, T4/4, K25R*.
Repeat this *-* 30 row sequence throughout.
My swatch (20-0-20 ns) light jade Tamm Perla MT - would be T4 stockinette
Insert
the close knit bar.
Bring 20-0-20 ns to work on main bed. Set to H5 and
bring ns on ribber to work so outside ns are on ribber - one more than knit
bed. Cast waste yarn in zigzag, hang comb and 1 large weight. Knit several
rows, ending CAR. Switch to circular for the ravel cord, K2R. Cancel circular. Rack
to H4. RC000. Main yarn, T1/1, K1R. Rack to H5, T2/2, K1R. T3/3, K1R. Continue
in T4/4 (except for pintucks - see above). Knit in FNR to RC010. CAR. Download
pattern (read punchcard or set up for pattern knitting) and I did one and a
half repeats, the final pintuck and then went into FNR again for the end. T4/4,
K7R. T3/3, K1R. T2/2, K1R. T8/8, K1R. Yes, the last row is zigzag. Change to
circular, ravel cord, K2R. Waste yarn, K20R, zigzag, 2 rows...
You should know the cast off by now...
OOOPS! I see I've made a mistake in entering my stitch pattern - I'll fix it on the real thing - the stitch pattern shown here is correct - on my swatch, the chevron is off - no big deal but I thought I'd point that out incase you're wondering why yours isn't exactly the same - I thought it was a 12 stitch repeat but it's an 8...
If you need the DAK file or any help with this, please
email me at knitwords@shaw.ca
I'll post the actual pattern and photo of my red scarf
tomorrow or the next day hopefully.
I know
it's not right, but my friend Deirdre sent me this photo - she made my
Manfriend Hoodie for her son - she started out with Bonita (which my pattern
called for) cotton in natural, knit it, finished it off and then dyed it
aquamarine! AND then used her embroidery machine to add the skull and
crossbones to personalize it for him. What a great job and what a great gift!
I'm so proud of her because she hasn't knit for a while and I was pleased to
help add to inspiring her to getting back to her machine and I love her
finished product.
Huh! My
GFH is getting kind of old, it's been a year! I have been wearing it
incessantly and I do have a cone of the natural and an abandoned sleeve that
would most likely get me a new hoodie...this brings back to mind a purchased
hoodie that I have that http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2011/06/snippets.html I
had planned to do a version of and never got around to...
But for
some reason, I never told you about this. In the last published issue of KnitStyle
magazine, #194, July 2014, my mid gauge design 'Bold Shoulder' appeared. I had
used a ribbon yarn knit quite loosely in
a manual-selected 1X1 tuck stitch. I felt I had a 'history' with the design
(blogpost http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2014/07/bad-news.html )and I was pleased with how it turned out.
They did eventually return it to me but as it was a 34" finished
size, it certainly didn't work for me so I gave it to my niece Lauren as a
birthday gift last year. She loved it.
Anyway,
in the meantime, I had decided to make it for myself but on the standard gauge
machine. Main reason, although I like using the LK150 mid gauge, I don't
particularly like the finished weight of the garments, especially for an
'indoor-wear' design - too thick and heavy for my short, curvy (read chubby ;-))
body! I had some of this marsh-print Wool Crepe Deluxe that I decided would do
for the experiment, meaning that I should have enough to complete the garment
without stressing out about running out, but not a big deal if I did as I had
plenty of old swatches that I could possibly salvage if necessary. Also I
wanted to use the loose-knit tuck stitch (same needle tucking every other row with a plain knit row between which I programmed in instead of hand selecting, of course!) that was my original design. On the KS/mid gauge
version, I had wanted the extra width that the tuck stitch would provide and
the stability that it would add to the loose gauge (eliminate any potential for
biasing of the fabric). The added bonus - either side could be used as the
right side. In the mid gauge version, I did use the knit side as the outside
but with this one, the variegated yarn looked nicer to me on the purl side so
mine has the purl side as the right side. In the accompanying article in
KnitStyle, I had given a few other similar manual patterns as options and also
advice on seaming and edges depending on which side was the outside of your
garment.
I used the shape from the mid gauge pattern (in my size, of course) but
instead of the elliptical hemline (curved lines, shorter in front, longer in
back using shortrowing) I simply made mine straight across, back and front the
same which created the dipped points at the side seams - I love that look and
it seems to work for me (in my mind anyway!). Also I had given the finished
pieces a really hard press to flatten and widen the fabric.
My friend Cathy
came by the other day with her camera and I got her to snap a few photos just
for you! I don't even mind the diamond pattern that appeared in the yarn
automatically - at least they are consistent! I think it's a really fun top, I've enjoyed wearing it and had lots of compliments! I do plan to reknit it in a solid colour WCD and use the knit side!
My
nine-year-old granddaughter Rhiana was here on the weekend and we planned out her panda
sweater. Turns out she's still enamoured with turquoise - she would like it to
be turquoise and white even though I tried to explain that I was just
experimenting and didn't mean to make them purple. We played with the overall
bear design to make them more panda-like and we're happy with the results. When I
gave her the choice of a zip-front hoodie or a pullover (I had to explain what
a pullover was) she wants a pullover/tunic (yes!), we both thought the sleeves
should be the overall print and she wants just one big panda face on the front.
So the plan is there!
I got
out my yarn changer (after searching high and low for the auto-tension - it was
in plain sight, hanging on the wall, where it's been since the last time I used
it - not sure how long ago that was!) because I had already decided, on my own,
that I was going to knit the pandas as 'semi-jacquard' to control the float issue
- Rhiana didn't like the little 'dots' in my original swatch anyway and we got
rid of them! I was sorely tempted to jump right into a sleeve and call it my
tension swatch, guessing at the gauge ahead of time but decided there were too
many things going on to waste the time, like what kind of band? how
to cast-on? how many needles out of work between the ribbed lines on the back
side? yada-yada...so I opted for a proper swatch! I did have to get the yarn changer manual to be sure of the proper threading and I checked every thing I ever wrote on using the yarn changer and semi-jacquard...
the
following excerpt from KW#44, Making a
Theme Sweater by MAO:
SEMI JACQUARD: Knit carriage set to slip/jacquard. Ribber carriage
set to slip one way & knit the other way:
Silver Reed: left set lever
to 0, Right set lever to 1
Brother: rib carriage
left cam lever to pr, Right cam lever to n
Semi
jacquard can be introduced anywhere in the garment without too much trouble.
Bring up the rib bed and use only every 5th or 6th needle on the rib bed, set
to knit on every other row only, providing a good method of tying up the
floats. The knit carriage is set to slip/jacquard and the rib bed is set to
knit only every other row, therefore a vertical line is not made on the front
of the fabric which an every row rib stitch would make.
Tension: experiment a bit - I found that having the rib tension set quite tight and the main bed set about what you would use to fairisle same yarn usually works good - I have 4ply acrylic (Yeoman cashmillon/Tamm Trenzi) at T8/3, got 29 sts and 68 rows to 10 cm/4 in - same stitch gauge as fairisle would be but the row gauge is about double because you are actually knitting 4 rows of slip to get the 2 rows of fairisle...
Change
your mind after you've made tons of swatches and not swatch again! What was I
thinking? Why did I do that? Is this becoming my mantra? Will I ever learn? Arrr-g-g-h-h-h!
