more notes....

Needle set-up for A-line shaped side

 I like the A-line shape, similar to Pocket Change and Lipstick and Smoke, so have gone back to that – the side seams will be decreased evenly from hemline to underarm but did not add shortrowing at the centre bottom to even out the hemline, so the hemline/side seam will dip slightly.

3-prong tool decrease to rib stitch

Decreasing in rib with an uneven needle arrangement like this – what to do:

. . . l l l . l l l . l l l . ~  l l l . l l l . l l l . l l l . . .

   . . . .  l . . . l . . . l .~  . . l . . . l . . . l . . . .

transfer rib stitch up, 6 sts on MB

When setting up the needle arrangement, add an extra needle at the right side and select from the centre so that you have the same thing at each edge. For the Back and Fronts, which will be decreased at the side seams, I had my edges with three stitches on the main bed at the ends and these remained constant throughout, meaning that the three edge stitches were moved in one space, putting the decrease on the now third needle from the edge. If there was a rib stitch within that, then, transfer it up to the main bed (knit the tuck stitch through before transferring up) and put the empty needle out of work. After getting rid of the rib stitch, there will be five stitches on the main bed. Continue decreasing with the 3-prong tool on the main bed, moving the three edge stitches in one space and only transferring the rib stitch up as it occurs within the main bed decrease. Remember to put the empty needle out of work.

For the Centre Front edge (and the armhole, after the underarm shaping, straight part up to the shoulder, seaming will look better with a 2-stitch main bed edge from the tuck rib line – hope you know what I mean – I’ll reference this later in another blogpost when I’m putting together.
By the way, these increase and decrease methods apply for both knit side and purl side fabrics

pocket opening for later

marker row for pocket opening

Pocket in rib fabric (this will be an inside patch with ribbed pocket top, added after); on row before the pocket opening, transfer rib stitches to main bed and put rib needle out of work – mark the needle numbers so the next one will be same, and you know where it should be. Knit one row – this makes a plain stockinette row on the bottom side of the pocket opening (to be picked up later). Now, manually knit a plain row of ravel cord on the needles for the width of the pocket only, aiming for the same stitch size as you have with the main yarn. Pull the ends of the ravel cord down between the beds in front of the work, out of the way. Knit a row with the pattern yarn – this makes the stockinette row on the top side of the opening. Now, transfer the stitches back down to rib bed following set needle arrangement. Finish knitting Front. Pocket will be completed later, and I’ll tell you more then!
I forgot to mention, just in case you didn’t know, I am using the yarn double stranded and that means each strand  is threaded  up into each side of the tension mast separately and they are only joined together as they feed into the arm on the carriage – that way, you don’t get loops of one strand travelling up on the other and causing trouble. Just saying…

look at that seam....

Got a few notes for you here:
1. Increasing in rib with an uneven needle arrangement like this – what to do:

l l . l l l . l l l . l l l . l l

. . l . . . l . . . l . . . l . . .

1st step - 2 edge sts

First, when setting up your needle arrangement, add an extra needle at the right side and select from the centre so that you have the same thing at each edge. For the sleeve, which will be increased, I had my edges with two stitches on the main bed at the ends and these remained constant throughout. Meaning that the two edge stitches were moved out one space, bringing a new needle to work on the

2nd step - 3 sts on MB

MB and then the heel stitch of the second stitch from the edge was hung on the now empty third needle from edge to complete the increase – don’t worry about the rib needle until there are three needles past (which means six needles on main bed) and then transfer that main bed stitch down, leaving an empty needle, to continue the existing needle arrangement.  

3rd step - 6 sts on MB

4th - transfer st to RB

In other words, the rib stitch isn’t brought to work until there are six needles in work at the edge on the main bed.

 

2. Shortrowing for sleeve cap: on the row before it is to be ‘held’ or shortrowed, transfer the rib stitch to the empty main bed needle and then put it in hold on the next row as needed. This way you won’t be having held stitches on both beds and when it is time to cast them off, they are already up on the main bed. Oh yeah, that tuck rib stitch, turn it into a real stitch before transferring it, either by manually knitting it through the tuck, or by bring the needle up  (fully out, like D/E but no hold buttons on) on the rib bed on the row before which will cancel the tuck and make it knit.
3. Seaming a purl side fabric on the machine: this seam needs to be flat to open out and look neat. Hang first side, purl side facing you, hanging only half the outside edge stitch. Hang the second side, putting purl sides together – looking at the knit side now, still hanging only half of the edge stitch – this one is a little tougher but its worth the effort to take your time and of course, you’re matching the increases (or yarn marks, if you remembered them – I didn’t put them because I knew I would be able to see that new rib stitch and use it as the match point). After it is all hung and looking good, bring the needles out, leaving the work behind the latches and using one strand of the yarn ( I used the darker one to blend in better), by hand, manually knit a fairly loose row and chain it off. This allows each side to open out flat and make a really nice seam, looking good on both knit side and purl side so the turned back cuff is very neat too. Hope you agree!
More on decreasing and a new pocket technique later!

blame it on Mike...

As I was knitting the second sleeve, it occurred to me that I’ve made this stitch pattern before. Way back in the early Knitwords issues, when I got a Passap pattern that I knew could be done on the Japanese machine, I would copy it and ‘Japanese-ify’ the pattern – I don’t know how many knitters liked this, but I learned a ton about double bed knitting for my experiments. Anyway, for issue #3, Winter 1997, Mike Becker sent me a pattern and garment that he had done on the Passap and he told me it was stockinette rib, so I called it the Oxymoron Pullover.
This is a variation of that stitch pattern – he used a 4X1 needle arrangement and for my old version, it was 5X1 rib. I’m using 3X1 now because I’m lazy and I have a 3X1 needle selector!

You guessed it, this is going to be the Oxymoron Cardi!

did you miss me? …

We’ve actually been having summer here in Thunder Bay and I’ve been enjoying it. We had a fabulous time in Minneapolis – the Founder’s Fest was so much fun – thanks to the organizers and attendees, I felt I was with a bunch of close, good friends. Sorry I didn’t get a photo of Milky Way, but I promise when the heat and humidity and bad hair days are over, I will. I debated making it again as there were a few things that bothered me about it, mainly the pocket placement – I should have planned it so the pocket top lined up with the beginning or end of one of the lace stripes but when I mentioned that at the seminar they all thought I was being way too picky but I’m still thinking about it.
My new project is that same 3X1 tuck rib from the hems of Milky Way for another longline cardigan, all in that rib, with the purl side as the outside. I have a small stash of Forsell Naturell, a wool/alpaca blend that I’ve used extensively in the past, but unfortunately, it is long NLA (no longer available) but I have some partial cones that I thought would do, mainly 2 almost full (350g each) cones of lima (medium brown) in the same dyelot. My second choice is pullo (an olive shade), one full cone (400g) and a half cone of a different dyelot. To not waste my good stuff, I made the swatch with a grey and a pale blue that weren’t enough for anything other than swatching – using it double stranded to get the weight I want. The swatch turned out beautiful, so I threaded up the two browns and knit a sleeve.
Done, it weighs 50g which means pretty certain I won’t have enough to make this as long as I want - the fold-back cuff on the sleeve is taking up more than usual and maybe I want a hood…
I may regret this, but making an executive decision, I threaded up one strand of the olive with a brown and knocked out another sleeve. You might ask if I plated the yarn, but no – I didn’t do that with the swatch and it looks fine. Plating, there's a subject for another day!